One would think that this of all questions should be easy to answer for Christians. After all, it is our faith in Jesus that separates us from all other people on earth. And yet almost no one seems to know exactly what faith is. I came to this realization in a discussion that I was in several months ago about whether or not God has faith. I was always taught that God was both the object and example of our faith, and that His faith is what is imparted to us as a gift by His grace. Much to my surprise, the person I was talking to took great offense to the concept of God having faith! However, even after much prodding, I could not discover why the idea of God having faith was so threatening. Nor could I explain to him why I was equally as convinced that God did have faith. Obviously neither of us truly understood what faith was, so we changed the topic. At that point I began to seek the Lord to find out more about this subject. I eventually discovered why the topic of God's faith was so offensive to some when I was reading a book by a well known Christian author. In this book I found this statement:
"A being who must exercise faith is limited in both knowledge and power, since faith lies in the region of non-absolute certainty and control."
Well that explains it doesn't it? If faith lies in the region of non-absolute certainty and control, then obviously God couldn't possibly have faith, as this would threaten the most fundamental qualities of the God of the Bible! The only problem with this explanation of faith is that it's wrong! The Bible itself provides a definition of faith in the book of Hebrews:
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Heb 11:1 NIV)
I like the way the Amplified Bible puts it:
Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title-deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality--faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.(Heb 11:1 Amplified)
The proof of what we don't see? The conviction of their reality? Perceiving as real fact? This doesn't sound like something in the region of non-absolute certainty! In fact, a better definition of faith would be ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY. This isn't such a radical concept is it? If you're a Christian, think about it this way: You have faith that Jesus Christ is Lord of all and that he was raised from the dead, right? Well are you absolutely certain of this, or just pretty sure? I hope you answered absolutely certain. Now an unbeliever would say "how can you be absolutely certain of something that happened so long ago?" Good question, but one thing at a time. By the Bible's definition of faith, is it reasonable to assume that God has faith? To answer this let's go back to the beginning of creation:
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light,"...(Gen 1:2,3 NIV)
Stop right there. You judge for yourself, at this point was God absolutely certain that light would be?! The answer is obvious. In fact, from the Bible's definition, God MUST have faith because if He doesn't, He has doubt! And if He has doubt then:
A being who has doubt is limited in both knowledge and power, since doubt lies in the region of non-absolute certainty and control.
So in fact what some Christians call faith, the Bible calls doubt! No wonder there is so much confusion in this area. I think what has happened is that the Church has unknowingly adopted the worlds definition of certain biblical concepts. Since an unbeliever has no true faith in God, they think that anyone who claims to have faith is guessing, because in their minds, no one really knows. So then biblical faith becomes blind faith, and since it can never be proven, it becomes little more than popular mythology. So the world talks about having "faith" in a sports team or a political party or a particular cause and we Christians pick up on this and bring this type of "faith" to church with us. But according to God faith IS proof and it is never blind. So this brings us back to the question "How can you be absolutely certain about something that happened so long ago?" Because the intelligent creative Spirit who maintains and empowers and fills all of existence revealed Himself to me in the resurrected person of Jesus Christ. This Jesus personally guides and strengthens and teaches me through His Presence and His Word (a best-selling book that He wrote called the Bible). He is my Lord, my King and my best friend. For me to doubt His existence is to doubt existence itself! This is what I mean by faith, it is not philosophy or guesswork or wishful thinking, it is a continual, increasing revelation of and relationship with the Creator and King of the universe! Many Christians when asked "why should I believe in Jesus or the Bible"? will try to convince people of their faith, using arguments that depend on the natural world such as the impressive archaeological or historical evidences. Although these arguments have their place and can certainly lead people to investigate Christianity for themselves, they can never be a basis for true faith in God. To illustrate what I mean let me use an analogy. Let's say there is a culture made up entirely of blind people. This culture is highly skeptical of the claims of some other cultures to "see". They simply find it impossible to believe that such a power exists, and think that people who claim to see are "kooks" and "fanatics". The ancient stories of people who could see are nothing more than mythology. So you decide to convince these people of the power of sight by explaining scientifically how the human eye works. You explain that electromagnetic radiation is focused through the cornea and lens of the eye onto the retina, which then transmits the information via nerve signals to the brain. You go into great detail of how each component works even comparing the eyes mechanism's to the ear (which of course everyone in this culture believes in, except for the deaf people, but they're just kooks and fanatics). Some of the people say " we don't believe in electromagnetic radiation". Some of the more educated say "we think there may be electromagnetic radiation, but we don't believe that these "eyes" could detect it, let alone transmit it to the brain, it would be gibberish, your story is very far-fetched, far too complicated to work.." Frustrated you give up. But then one day one of the blind people trips and hits his head and is spontaneously healed of his blindness. Breathless and excited he runs to his blind friends screaming "I can see, I can see!" and his friends say "Oh no, not another one? He's gone right off the deep end, he's been hanging around with those sight fanatics too much!"
What sight is to the blind, faith is to the unbeliever. Before they receive it, its foolishness and nonsense, no matter how well its explained. But after they receive, it needs no explanation! Does your ability to see depend on your understanding of sight? Once true faith in God comes, naturalistic or philosophical explanations, although interesting, are certainly not necessary. We've been trying to get people to "see" God or the Bible through explanations and philosophy, and it simply won't work. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can heal people of their spiritual blindness, and it is only through Him that true faith comes. Of course God will use these explanations to bring people to true faith, I'm just saying you can't argue people into the Kingdom. This is why the Lord said:
...no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him. (John 6:65 NIV)
This same principle was explained in Peter's confession of Christ:
"But what about you?" he (Jesus) asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man (Lit. flesh and blood), but by my Father in heaven.(Matt 16:15-17 NIV)
Peter's statement was not a shot in the dark, but a declaration of extraordinary conviction. He had true biblical faith and was absolutely certain that Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus explains that Peter was blessed because he had received a revelation from God. Such a revelation is not only as certain as what you see and hear it is FAR MORE certain!
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor 4:18 NIV)
Faith from God is literally seeing into the eternal things of God, and it is precisely this "sight " that is the solid rock foundation upon which we build our lives:
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." (Matt 7:24,25 NIV)
Only those who have true faith, will be doers of the word and not just hearers only, because they are absolutely certain that the words are true and trustworthy for:
"All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you. (1 Pet 1:24,25 NIV)
There should be no separation between our faith in the Word of God (both the teachings AND the PROMISES of the Bible) and our faith in Jesus Himself, since Jesus is the Word made flesh and everything we know about Him is from the Bible! One of the greatest deceptions the enemy has used is to undermine our faith in the Word of God. He does this because he knows that if he can get us to doubt the Word, we're actually doubting God Himself. He is literally trying to cut out the foundation from under our feet! This attack has come from two main directions at once. First is the Pharisee attack; this form of deception is probably found to some degree in every church in the world! The Pharisees were people who claimed to believe the Scriptures and yet had more faith in their own traditions than in the Word itself!
So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"
He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." (Mark 7:5-8 NIV)
This deception can be extremely subtle in its modern form as it leads people to compromise the Word without even realizing it. Instead of allowing the Word to teach and guide them, they begin to twist scriptures in order to fit what they've been taught (or what they want to believe). The result is devastating! As one translation put it:
So for the sake of your tradition (the rules handed down by your forefathers), you have set aside the Word of God--depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect. (Matt 15:6 Amplified)
I believe there is only one way to avoid this error. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you the Scriptures AND to expose and remove any traditions of men from your heart! We can't afford to be arrogant about this. Some new movements within Christianity that claim to expose the traditions of men within the church have just as many traditions (and some brand new ones) as the denominations they came out of. This has nothing to do with how much education you have, or how many times you've read the Bible! Paul the Apostle was an extremely educated man and yet he missed the entire point of the Scriptures until the Lord directly intervened in his life. And this is what it will take with us, direct and CONTINUAL Divine intervention. Stay humble and open to correction and further teaching on even the most basic and time honored doctrines:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. (Prov 3:5 NIV)
I'm not saying that this will be easy! It's never easy to accept discipline and correction, especially when everyone around you may be pressuring you to believe it their way and may not understand what you've been shown. Remember not to get arrogant yourself and try to pressure them or look down on them for not seeing it your way:
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1 Cor 4:7 NIV)
The moment you think you've arrived and figured it all out, is the moment of your greatest deception:
...Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God. (1 Cor 8:1-3 NIV)
So simply trust the Lord and believe that if you put yourself completely in His hands He will never lead you wrong. The one who fears deception has already been deceived by fear! God has promised to personally teach you all truth:
As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit--just as it has taught you, remain in him. (1 John 2:27 NIV)
I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:12-13 NIV)
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. (John 14:21 NIV)
&#The second of the enemy's attacks against the Word is the Saducee attack. The Saducees were a group of people that really didn't believe in the Word at all. They denied the existence of spirits and the resurrection of the dead. They seemed to be more or less a political body of skeptics. Does this sound familiar? Today there are a number of denominations, movements and individuals within the church that have denied the authority of the Word altogether. They say the Bible is the opinions of men and not the Word of God, hence they reject almost every supernatural event in the Word as mythology. There is no virgin birth, miracles, spirits (good or evil) or resurrection. This is obviously a much more direct attack against the faith. The result is of course, no covenant, no promises, no relationship with God, and no hope! This takes people who think their Christians right back to where mankind was before Christ came:
...remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. (Eph 2:12 NIV)
The Lord Himself warned us about these two satanic strategies:
..But be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Saducees." Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against teaching of the Pharisees and Saducees. (Matt 16:11,12 NIV)
The warning was against the teaching, not against the people doing the teaching, and it still applies today! For far too long the Church has been paranoid about the philosophies of the world getting into the Church, when all along the philosophies of the world have been undermining the faith from WITHIN the Church!