What is faith? Blind? Circular logic? Or the truth?
The problem with faith - to believe or not to believe

What is faith? In this specific case, what is Christian faith? People have lots of ideas about that. Some think faith is blind. Others may think the reasoning behind Christian faith is circular logic. Others believe Christian faith is the truth.

The adjacent image has a quote from Augustine - a well-known Bishop and author in the early church from the late 300's through the early 400's.

His statement is the source for today's question: "What is faith?"

In the image, the quote is set on a background of storm clouds. Those storm clouds represent the debates about what exactly faith is,

Some will focus on the storm, and never see beyond that. To them, faith must be blind because there's nothing there but the clouds.

Some will see through the storm and will even read the words about faith in the Bible. But they won't understand them. That represents people who think the beliefs behind Christian faith are just circular logic.

Still others will see through the storm clouds, read the words on faith in the Bible, and will understand them. They will realize that what God said in the Bible about faith is the truth.

What is faith? Is it like planting seeds?

Is faith like planting seeds? Christians should be familiar with the Parable of the Sower. If you think about it there are parallels between what the intro says about people's response to faith and with what Jesus said in that parable.

I was surprised to find out I haven't written in detail about the Parable of the Sower. I've made a note to do that and to add a link here when it's done. In any case, I do have a post on why Jesus spoke in parables that uses that parable in it.

Since Jesus explains the Parable of the Sower to His disciples, here it is from Matthew's Gospel. After reading it, we'll see the parallels with my introduction to today's topic on What is faith?

In the Parable of the Sower, we have the seeds eaten by the birds before they even have a chance to spout. This lines up with the people who can't see through the storm clouds. They never hear the words, so don't even have the possibility of understanding them. They know nothing of faith.

Then there are the seeds that begin to sprout, but for various reasons, they die before growing into plants bearing fruits of vegetables. This parallels the people who see through the clouds and do get a chance to read the words. But they don't understand what they read. Therefore, they don't believe that Christian faith is truth.

Finally, the seeds that fall on good soil parallel the people who see through the storm clouds, read the words, and understand them. We'll get into what's behind the understanding shortly.

Let's get into it - What is faith?

One of the most referenced passages covering what faith is about is in the book of Hebrews. When I was younger, it was pretty much accepted that it was written by Paul. Now, maybe with the desire for people to be "famous" by critiquing "old beliefs", this idea isn't held so much by Christians. However, Messianic Jewish people, who've converted from Judaism to Christianity, haven't given up on Paul as the author quite so much. I bring this up for two reasons.

First, the second passage we're going to look at is from Romans. Written by Paul.

Second, Hebrews, from a Messianic Jewish point of view at least, was written by Paul, who was a Pharisee converted/called to be a follower of Jesus by none other than Jesus Himself in an encounter you can read about it in Acts 9. As such, who better to address Jewish people on the topic of Messiah Jesus than the man who was the Pharisee of Pharisees, and who previously led the charge to persecute and kill His followers?

As always, I leave it to you, the reader, to come to your own beliefs about the actual author or Hebrews. I just want to give you a broader viewpoint on the issue. Ultimately, the things to remember is that Hebrews, regardless of the author, was written to give Jewish people an understanding of what was then known as "The Way" and became to be known as Christianity, follows from their beliefs as Jews.

As such, much of what's written in this Hebrews passage references back to what Christians call the Old Testament but was/is largely derived from Jewish Scripture known as Tanakh. For more on the Tanakh, and a bit on how it influences what I write, please check out TANAKH תנ״ך.

Now faith is ...

Actually, we can't go straight into what faith is when we ask a question like, "What is faith"?

Does that sound weird? Probably. And yet, it's true. When we, soon, get to read the passage in Hebrews titled "By Faith" in the 1984 NIV, we'll see it begins with, "Now faith is ...". As you likely realized, that's a transitional statement. We must ask, what came before "Now"?

So, let's back up to the previous passage in Hebrews. It's titled "A call to persevere", beginning at Heb 10:19. I haven't yet written specifically on this passage yet, although there are other posts referring to it. I'll add a link here when I do a writeup on the passage.

In the meantime, it begins with these verses:

A Call to Persevere

Heb 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 

This is a reference describing how Old Testament, old Covenant times. To a Jewish person, this passage brings them forward from what they knew, followed, and did prior to Jesus' arrival and ministry. This is their transition to understanding what Christian faith is.

However, once again, we see a transition word: Therefore. Therefore, pun intended, we must back up again.

The passage before A Call to Persevere is titled Christ's Sacrifice Once for All.

As you can probably tell, it's another transition passage. Under the old covenant, there were lots of sacrifices. They were for various reasons. Some were for all the people, as a group. Some were by/for individual people, depending on the sins they committed.

But now, under the New Covenant, Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross covers everyone who believes in Him. His death, His blood, pays the price for all of our sins, past, present, and future.

All of that backdrop is necessary to understand what follows in the passage By Faith.
So, let's get into it - finally. What is faith?

By Faith

Heb 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
2 This is what the ancients were commended for ...

Right away, we can see one problem mentioned in the title: blind faith. This sounds like the poster child for blind faith. "... certain of what we cannot see".

But it isn't blind faith. Not at all. The thing is, the Jewish people back then knew it wasn't blind faith. It was an extension of the faith they already had. However, for those of us that aren't Jewish and maybe aren't familiar with the Old Testament, let's take a look at what the author of Hebrews wrote about examples of Old Testament faith.

Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. ...

These days, so many people don't believe this anymore. There's a desire/need to make God fit into what we think we know from science. Even though there's really only one conflict between what the Bible tells us about creation and what science says about evolution, many people want to make God subservient to evolution.
By the way, that one difference is over who gets the credit for creation.

Obviously, the Bible says it's God. But many in science want to make it random chance for the beginning and then more random chance that things since then have come to be what they are. This, even though the statistical odds of random chance being responsible are far greater than every individual part/piece of a 747 airplane being sent into the air and coming down fully assembled.

In reality, the leap of blind faith is to believe in anything other than divine creation and divine intervention is the ongoing processes to reach where the universe is today.

Heb 11:4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. ...

This is but one example of us learning from events in the Bible. Things that happened thousands of years ago are recorded to help us with our faith. But "scholarly research" has turned more from an attempt to understand to an attempt to become famous by coming up with ideas that turn what was once believed into something unbelievable. Not by proof. Rather by uncertainty and doubt. In other words, trying to undo faith.

Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Honestly, Enoch is difficult to deal with. There are references in Jewish and Christian scripture to him. Enoch was the great grandfather of Noah. Genesis records:

From Adam to Noah

...
Ge 5:18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. 19 And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died.