By Jason Charles on 2/19/2020 (4 years 60 days ago) Theology & Religion
Faith as a concept is often ridiculed by the secular world, and has many asking how or why would anyone believe in something unseen and intangible?
Answering this, I would say they have their definition of faith wrong, and that the evidence of the Christian faith hardly goes unseen. Christianity has shaped our world like nothing else in history. This is an undisputable fact, and while many want to simply remain in their skepticism; it would be wise to peer across the last two thousand years and recognize that the body of knowledge pertaining to the Christian faith has been the most scrutinized body of work on earth, and rightfully so, simply because the magnitude of the claims made by Jesus Christ compel analysis.
The Substance of Faith
The Bible defines faith as the “substance of things hoped for.”
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” - Hebrews 11:1,6
So, with this in mind, we realize that the substance of the Christian faith revolves around the life of Jesus Christ, Jesus Himself must hold up to the weight of intense inquiry. Our “hope” resides in whether or not truly, Jesus is God made flesh, died, rose again, and will do the same for anyone that puts their trust in Him.
This is the amazing thing about how God has configured the laws of the universe, and set up the demands concerning his plan of salvation; it seems intentional that God made it so we can’t simply test faith like a Petri dish under a laboratory microscope. Faith becomes a prerequisite of God, a method of sorting humanity into two camps, the faithless and the faithful. He wants people that implicitly hold to His promises whether presently seen or unseen,
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” - Hebrews 11:6
To please God, we must have faith and diligently seek him, when we do these two things he rewards us. So, what is that reward? I believe he rewards us with knowledge, wisdom and insight into who Jesus Christ truly is. We trust God in faith, and he reveals to us His Son. The Son is the foundation of our faith, and upon that foundation he builds pillars of knowledge.
This knowledge can be broken up into five major pillars, or records that attest to who Jesus is, giving us a surety to our faith that transcends understanding.
The Natural Record
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse”: - Romans 1:20
The Bible says that the order, laws and complexity of creation speak to a grand designer. Organization denotes intelligence. There is unquestionable intelligence in all created systems, and to deny this fact is to deny overt evidence of God Himself.
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, says that these things were understood by all in his time, and how much more do we understand them in our time. The instruments of science have allowed us to peer into the micro and macro, and no matter what we turn our telescopes or microscopes on we are confronted with ever compounding layers of complexity.
The natural record attests to God and His eternal power, and in the first chapter of John’s Gospel we read that it is Christ Himself that brings order to creation, He is the creative principle behind everything, and as God He came into this world to conquer death and our sins. These things are so overtly obvious that this pillar alone is enough to condemn the skeptic for their unbelief and unwillingness to see creation in this light, and is why Paul says in the above quoted verse, they that do so are “without excuse.”
The Spiritual Record
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” - 1 John 4:7-9
People have attested to the radical change and impact the Gospel message has had on their lives for thousands of years now. If the Gospel were truly lies, and that there was no active element behind the Word of God then this message would have faded long ago. Instead, anyone that humbles themselves and seeks after Christ, His Holy Spirit will act and convict, and bring you to the realization of God’s love. The spiritual realization that God loves us, changes lives. As such, this spiritual record becomes another pillar in the believer’s life. As God’s spirit works on an individual, reveals their sin, and brings them into a knowledge of who we are and who God is, this work becomes an undeniably piece of evidence in the believers life.
While many secularists, or atheists would deny this as self-delusion, the fact is, this is a powerful force at work in people’s lives and the radical transformation believers go through as God reorganizes their inner being, and becomes evident to anyone looking on as well. It is more than just anecdotal evidence, the Love of God changes lives, and as a result those changes are manifest to the people around them as evidence of God Himself.
The Historical Record
“And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” – Luke 19: 37-44
This passage and scripture is absolutely fascinating for many reasons, but I want to point out two things. The first being Jesus points out the stones of earth would attest to His Kingship, and then later gives us a prophecy concerning Jerusalem and its destruction in 70AD. He says that the destruction will be so great that there won’t be one stone left upon another. The “stones” crying out is the archeological and historical record we have concerning Christ’s physical and historical presence on earth.
The evidence that we have for the historical Jesus is growing by the day. There are as many as 5,800 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts along with over 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages in existence. These all attest to the historicity of Jesus as eye witness accounts concerning his life, death and resurrection.
In addition to this, the archeological record grows by the day as more and more relics of ancient Israel are dug out of the dirt confirming the details behind the historical times, people and places mentioned in these texts. It amazes me how secularists are so quick to discount this pillar and record seeing that archeology is a scientific discipline itself. There are so many resources available to us online to follow this scientific body of knowledge; and their findings that you really must avoid it all together in an effort to dissuade people from God in favor of an atheistic perspective.
No serious scholar would deny the existence of the Historical Jesus. To deny the body of work surrounding the historical evidence of Jesus Christ would mean almost all historical figures would quickly fade into mythology as well, seeing the evidence presented for these individuals pales in comparison to the volumes of evidence we have for Jesus Christ as a historical person.
The Philosophical Record
“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” - Isaiah 1:16-18
The amazing thing about God’s word is it isn’t just a book of commandments and stories, but a book of principles that can be plainly derived throughout the entire body of work. Though the stories in the Bible have both good and bad actors, there is a consistent standard as to what is considered good and true and what is blatantly evil. It is amazing to think that there are traditionally 35-40 authors all writing at different times, to different cultures, to different cities, and for different reasons throughout the entire Bible and that despite the radical spans of times and cultures we still get a coherent body of law and principles that are evergreen toward the success and growth of humanity.
These principles include:
- A demand toward Human Justice, and Divine Justice
- Establishment of Divine institutions such as the family, church, and government
- The concept of limited jurisdictions within all human institutions
- The undeniable right of self-defense
- The doctrine of Just War
- Provisions on food, health and well-being
- Prescriptions relevant to caring for the poor and disenfranchised
- Clear definitions of evil and good in the Law
- Appeals towards nobility of character and virtue
These are all things that become instrumental towards basic human dignity, and co-existence.
In fact, it is these principles that built Western Society, and as such becomes a potent piece of evidence towards the Christian faith. Unlike Monarchism, Fascism, Socialism and Communism that seeks to collectivize and erase jurisdiction and lawfulness and centralizing power in the whims of dictators; it is these principles that reveal the greater system to be that of limited, distributed authority and federalism.
Western society itself, when not undermined by atheistic and Zionist power structures is without question the most successful, the most agreeable, and the most affording of human dignity than any other system that has been attempted in recorded human history.
The Providential Record
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” - 1 Peter 3:9
The marvelous thing about scripture is the fact that God has given us a record of his interactions with humanity. He has actually taken an active role in history, and covenanted with individuals and people many, many times. This shows a powerful interest in who we are, and the destiny of us lowly humans, we learn that God has given us individually promises, collectively as well as promises concerning future times.
Jesus fulfilled all of the promises concerning the Messiah, and we await the promises of His coming Kingdom. We have recorded hundreds of fulfilled Biblical prophecies, and each instance becomes another convincing proof of God’s unfailing love, mercy and assurance towards the hope we have in Jesus.
Conclusion
Salvation through faith in Christ is a promise, a promise made to us by God and on that promise is built these five pillars, and becomes the “substance” of our faith. God does not ask us to follow Him blindly; all of these things taken together give us confidence to a supernatural degree, even unto death.
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18
Christians willingly die for their faith because it is built on something tangible; it satisfies the intellect and the soul. As we grow in Christ we recognize that it is God’s Holy Spirit, that completes this great work in each of us individualy God through His spirit leads us to the tidbits of knowledge, the interesting facts, the quiet convictions of heart, through the moments of doubt, and into the joyous epiphanies of realization as to who He is and who we are in Him. Jesus becomes our King, not through the force of arms or manipulation of half truths as does the world, but because He builds into us on levels unseen as a personal Savior and God.
Though the Christian faith seems foolish to the world, on further inspection the Christian life is a rich tapestry of physical evidence, spiritual evidence, emotional evidence, intellectual evidence, philosophical evidence, antidotal evidence, social evidence, and collective evidence.
We should never concede, or yield ground to the world especially considering the many manifest ways God reveals Himself to us as created beings. All other systems have debased human dignity and offered up governing structures that reduce us to the ignobility of animals through the rule of unadulterated force and tyranny. Atheistic structures stand out as failed governing systems, seeing their flawed moral system can only steal for Western Culture and in vain offers up nothing more than illusions and facades that hardly reconcile human experience and truths. The virtue signaling of the secular world feigns moral standing, and is demonstrable contradictory and unnatural having it grounded in human imagination and whim. No system of human justice, morality and government can be built on human whim, we have tried that to our collective pain for eons and eons.
Instead we need to reprove the world, realizing the modern human is quick to abandon God, His word, and the time tested Truths in scripture. We need to draw upon our own pillars of experience and take seriously the charge that the Apostle Paul gave to his fellow Christians at the close of his life, and run the race to completion looking to the blessed hope and assurance of His soon “appearing.”
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
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