Wednesday, February 04, 2015

Faith, confidence and criticism

What does it mean to be confident in your faith?  Confidence in faith sounds like an oxymoron.

Faith is a trust.  It means you are at an information disadvantage and someone has claimed an idea that you cannot personally verify.  And you give them your credence.

I have faith in God.  God is an untestable hypothesis.

What gives me confidence in a concept such as God then?  See Hebrews 11.

1. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.
2. For by it the people of old received God’s commendation.
3. By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God’s command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible.

I don't like the idea of being convinced of something that I have no evidence for.  But, I still follow Jesus.  What it comes down to, is that I accept the Bible and the God that is written about in it.

The Bible is a weird book, and I kind of like that about it--full of disaster, calamity, betrayal and love, it doesn't hide much.  My trust is that the God presented in the Bible is real, invisible yes, and honest in his interactions with humanity.

I trust that the story in it about God and her/his followers is true.  I believe that God called a group of Israelites to follow him and that he calls us too.  I like reading about the way the people of old explained who and what God is, and I think that we still try to do that, with our own paltry metaphors.

Faith shouldn't stop us from struggling though.  There is space to be critical of the Bible and of God.  In fact Jacob wrestled with God and then received the name Israel, becoming in essence the first ruler as the father of the twelve tribes.  Kind of an odd turn of events after a struggle with God.


Struggling and questioning only makes having faith harder--depending on your questions, nigh on impossible.  But to me that gives it added dimension and so much more meaning.  So, have confidence, have faith, have questions and have doubts.  You're still welcome at the table.

No comments:

Post a Comment