Sequence of Faith, Session 1

Introduction

And it is after lunch and I too much probably. So y’all need to keep me awake by asking questions. Is the is are the mics working? Have I got them on correctly? Okay. Thank you. That’s good. Well, we’re changing gears really. I mentioned this morning uh the lesson this morning and then the lesson will be like tomorrow night are really about life decisions managing our uh the expression of our faith uh in in our um in our life but then these lessons in the middle starting with this one have more to do with establishing our faith um preventing or I shouldn’t even say that we can’t prevent it but dealing with doubt when it when it arises and then uh maybe thinking about a special case of someone who is in the process of losing their faith.

And that’s the lesson tomorrow morning for the sermon. And um I’m not a preacher and that is a great thing when you need to make excuses for what you’ve ended up doing. You know, uh this is I think these are somewhat strange lessons. I mean, they’re certainly not gospel meeting sermons. I I don’t say that as a good thing or a bad thing. I’m just saying don’t expect that. Um, but I do think they’re irrelevant and I hope that the strangeness of them, even the sermon tomorrow, I’m I’m frankly anxious about it.

I’ve done it once before in the home congregation and uh, you know, I got some comments that was great, but others were, well, that was different, you know, so you always wonder, well, how should I deal with that? So, you know, wear your seat belts tomorrow, uh, and so on. But, okay. morning. Yes. The Sunday morning serve uh sermon. Yes. For Sunday morning. Yes. We only allow an hour and a half. Okay. I’ll try to shrink it, but it Yeah, it’s it’s a little bit lengthy, but I think I hope it’ll keep everyone’s attention.

I hope it’ll be relevant. That to me, it’s one of more relevant things I’ve had to do in a while. Okay. Um here’s the outline. uh we’ll talk about and and really the first section here is mainly just defining terms. I’d like to define them in a little more precise way than we normally use them. And if you don’t like these precise definitions, you don’t have to use them as soon as I leave town. But while I’m here, we’re going to use these terms in these ways.

I think it’ll help us think about it. I want a brief little section on presuppositions. Uh it is from John nine. For the sake of brevity, I’ve taken that all the references to John Nine. But you all know that story. I think the man born blind. Remember that? And uh it’s just to me it’s a humorous story of people ignoring the evidence that’s right in front of their face and and deciding they’re not going to believe no matter what, you know, kind of thing.

But anyway, that’s number two. Number three, uh is a is a class exercise. It’ll be a little bit of a di DIY and see if we have learned enough by then. And then IV, you may need an IV at this point to stay conscious or something, but and you’ll understand what I mean by below the line trust if if you’re still awake uh by that point. Okay. Um, as a teacher and I have presented this as a somewhat of a course before, I like to uh define learning objectives, which means that I would want to change your behavior, not mine.

Learning objectives are what a student does, not what a teacher does. You could say cover this or that. Well, that’s what I’m doing for you. I would like for you to be able to repeat some things or think of some things or distinguish some things or recognize some things. And these are uh hope changes in your behavior. That’s why I call them learning. For example, at the end of this period of time, I hope you will be able to list and explain the two types of faith.

And so you you don’t know that answer right now, right? Mostly I mean you could probably make something up. I suppose I should have added Marty’s idea of what the two types of faith are. But okay, given that uh these are changes, something you’ll be able to do then that you can’t do now. Does that make sense? as a student. This is a little bit of a contract if you and I’ll give you a little quiz when we’re done. And if you fail the quiz, guess whose fault it is?

I’m committing to this. This is my contract with you when we’re done. Uh you’ll be able to do these things. Um and so we’ll we’ll cover those in each one. So I’m talk about belief and trust. Just to get started, just to warm up, um let’s uh I want you to talk to each other. Think for maybe two or three minutes how you would answer it if somebody said this. Christians have a blind faith. Blind is italicized. I guess that means you say it louder or something.

A blind faith by definition because here’s why. They believe in something that can’t see it. You see God. You believe in him. Okay. Well, that’s blind, right? You can’t see it. So, y’all think about how you might answer that statement or talk about it. It would help you to verbalize. I really do think it would. Your Three, five, We have to evolution. I want to stud Okay, let’s hear have some discussion. Hebrews 11:1. Okay. What does that is that does that mean you agree with the statement or not?

I agree with the statement. Okay. And the creation. Okay. It’s not really blind because I mean wait. So it isn’t blind or it is blind. Well, it’s not to me it’s not. Well, I don’t I think by definition some sense in some sense it is blind. I don’t if I just stand here and don’t respond yes or no that that okay we’re gonna talk a lot more about this so it probably save time if I don’t comment on more more thoughts what would you say is this do you see the state Christian to atheist okay it also fits oh okay so implicit in what you’re saying is that this is a negative thing I’m not taking a position on that yet either but do you see this as a criticism ism of Christian.

I mean, think of who who might likely say this. Would it be somebody who’s who’s in agreement with you or disagreeing with your faith? It’s a it’s almost a badge of honor. Jesus said, “Y’all believe because you see.” Yeah. Yeah. Blessed is the man who has not seen. Believe and and not has not seen. Okay. Is not seeing the same as being blind? No. Yeah. So that I mean that’s just a thought to think about. I don’t know. Well, I guess since you have it in italics, should you define blind?

There’s a good way to start. Why don’t we define terms? And maybe we it’d be a simple answer, yes or no, once we kind of all agree on what the words mean, right? Is blind necessarily bad? Well, it depends on what you mean by blind. Y’all can see where that’s going to go. All right. Well, although however, is this a pretty common criticism of Christianity? Yes. Oh, you’re believing in the pie in the sky beyond the what is it again? I can’t remember. In the buy and buy or something like that, you know, that’s and it’s an irrational faith because you can’t see it.

There’s no reasoning behind it. It’s just that’s what you believe. And and blind’s not bad in and of itself. Thank you. But yeah, I did not see the hand motions there, but Okay. Yes. Thank you. All right. Here are objectives for this part. List and explain two types of faith with Bible examples. List and explain two ways of knowing. List list the opposites of faith and the opposite for knowing. You see, I’m just trying to define terms here. Do y’all see that? It won’t won’t be hard. I’m just I just think we need to think more carefully about the terms and list of these three Bible examples of evidence-based reasoning that should lead to a belief in God where the Bible actually does that.

1. Is Belief in God Commanded?

So I’m just going to start with this. This is not really accomplishing an objective, but it’s putting a relevance uh stake in the ground here. Is belief actually it’s in the title. So why am I asking the question? Is belief in God commanded? Yes. Okay. I mean here here’s a few examples, right? These are verses we Whoops. These are verses we many of them we quote all the time. The implication is probably two implications at least. One is is it possible to disobey it?

Well, you can kind of see that in these vers you know if you don’t believe at the same time it is possible to obey it. Do we sometimes think of belief as something that just happens to you or it’s coincidentally a property of one person but not another instead of thinking of it as a command that we better figure out how to obey? Y’all y’all see what I’m talking about? Are we commanded to believe? Will we be judged if we don’t believe except you believe that I am he?

I’m quoting old timey uh American standard. What will happen to you? Wow. That suggests that if I’m actually commanded to believe believe I understand baptism these are actions that uh there must be a way for me to do that y’all. This is seem like an obvious point. Y’all are just kind of quiet on that and maybe it’s after lunch. I understand. But I just want us to say that figuring out how to believe and hold on to our belief is a kind is part of what obeying God is.

Right? I mean, we don’t normally think of it that way. Well, yeah, he’s an unbeliever. He was born that way or something. I I don’t know what we’re thinking that way, but that’s not okay. All right. What are some things that we are commanded to believe if we want to use that terminology, God? Good. Thank you. There is a God. Jesus was the son of God. That’s good. What we see was created by things we don’t see. Okay. That’s that’s okay. So yeah, that’s has to do with the existence of God, I think, and his actions, the creation.

I would say one other thing that’s kind of essential and they’re really derivatives in a sense. God exists, right? Although, well, let’s just say God exists. Second, Jesus’s God, son of God is a way it’s kind of expressed in the revelation. In the revelation, that’s the third. What’s the third thing we kind of have to believe? He’s coming back. The scriptures are holy ghost there. I think that’s right. The scriptures are inspired. Those are fundamental things. And I would just add almost as a footnote.

I think if a person who does does not believe these three things and there’s probably four or five, you can come up with 10 if you like, but they probably we don’t really have fellowship with them in the sense of believing in the same God and the same truth. And I think the New Testament would bear me. I’m not here to present that. But if you’ve denied that the apostles acted by uh inspiration, well then we have no basis really to to work together, worship together, reason together about scripture and all that.

But it seemed like if you could get these three things uh believe you believe on these things, now I have actually a basis for going forward and thinking about how to obey specifics about uh religion and so on. Is there evidence for these three things? Evidence for these three things? Yes, there are uh there’s a lot of other things we believe that don’t have evidence and that’s what I’m trying to do in the next few minutes to sort out really I’m going to call it two different kinds of faith and I’ll talk about that.

2. Two Types of Faith: Belief Faith and Trust Faith

If you look in Vine’s expository dictionary of New Testament words, I don’t know. I I was just thinking that those Greeks should have come up with some more words for faith besides one. Pistus is the word and all of its derivatives. And it kind of refers and I’m thinking if I knew Greek, which I don’t, and could maybe look at the prepositions or look at the structure of the grammar, I I would detect more subtlety of meaning. But this word means lots of different things. I mean, they’re all kind of related to believe, but it can mean trustworthy means that’s the oby of the object that you believe.

There’s that same word again, believe in. Y’all understand there’s an OB. I believe I’m the I guess it be the subject, right? And then there’s an object and that’s trustworthy. Well, that same word is applied there and so on and you’ll see some of those. But anyway, in binds it says this, a firm conviction pro producing full knowledge acknowledgement of God’s revelation. That’s just what they say for and here’s a negative of that or maybe a let’s just say a sinful example.

He sends them a strong delusion that they will believe, there’s the word, believe a lie. So somehow they’re convinced in the accuracy existence truth of this lie. You see that? But that’s the same word pistus for that for that. And you always quote James, the devil’s also there it is same word believe and treble. So there’s a sense in which they accept the reality of something. Y’all, y’all see the word not only that, but the limitation on it. And then I’m going to talk about above and below the line a lot.

So, there’s a line. Just keep that in your head. I’ll come back to what below and above the line means. There’s another use of the same word sometimes called faith. Faith the same English. See, at least we have belief and faith. Two different words in English. They didn’t in the Greek that I know of. Uh, and that would be personal surrender. um to those who accept him, to them he gave the right to become sons of God. Y’all know that verse who believe.

There it is. Same word again. Who believe on his name. Do you see a difference between this kind of belief? Believe a lie. Devils believe and tremble and this kind of belief those who accept him gave the right to become sons of God who believe on his name. I’m sorry it’s the same Greek word. So we can’t depend on that but we can look at the context and see. Okay let’s try again. Uh first 2 Corinthians 5:7 we walk by and there it is again in the noun form.

We walk by faith. Same word in the Greek not by sight. kind of relates to the blind question, right? Okay, I’m seeing puzzle looks, but I’m in a minute I hope some people will maybe get Okay, so I’m going to invent two terms because I’m trying to sort out the Greek. These are the two kinds of faith I’d like to talk about. I’m going to call this trust faith and this belief faith. And when I keep saying below the line, you’ll understand maybe more later, but I mean I move actually in my life I move from a belief faith to trust faith.

I’m calling that going below the line. I’m sorry when Marty goes out of town this tomorrow night, you can forget all this, but just for now accept this terminology, okay? Just I’m sure there are better ways to explain it, but this is the only way I can come up with. Okay? Um, so here is out of www.dictionary dictionary.com. I don’t know. But anyway, it helped me to read this. Read this. Belief. Now, this is English. No Greek involved here. Confidence in truth or existence of an opinion or conviction or something, right?

A statement that’s not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof. That’s interesting. Okay. But you believe it, but you might not be able to touch it or taste it. Something like that is implied there. And then the verb form believe uh to have confidence in the truth, existence or realability of something although without the absolute proof as in touch, taste, smell and so on. And part two to have confidence in the truth of something give credence to.

All right, that’s one. But now look, there’s more. There’s a word called trust, which is the English word also used to translate pistus in the Greek. The reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, shity of a person or thing or confidence. Trust to rely on or place confidence in someone or something and it’s usually followed by in. That is confidence in something or I had the confidence to do something. Okay, I know we’re not there yet. Hang with me. I know.

Oh, it’s right after lunch. This is kind of hard, but it’ll make sense. All right, so here here’s the idea. I may believe something to be true. I’m going call that belief faith. And I normally have evidence for that. And it may be indirect, right? Maybe indirect. In fact, the the somebody was pointing this out. We often use that word faith or belief often to indicate that I haven’t really tasted, touched, or sensed it directly. We’ll come back to that in a minute.

I walk by faith or belief and not by sight. Well, that’s a firsthand, you know, s physical senses experience. Okay. So, there’s that. But then, but then if that belief, faith, and the evidence is headed toward qualifying something as trustworthy, same Greek word, worthy to be believed in, worthy to be trusted in, then what happens to me is I actually now have trust faith. I’m sorting these out as two different kinds of phenomena. I know they’re sh I’m going to come back at the very end of the lesson and show how they kind of all put them back together if I promise but for now I’m sorting them out.

Do you see that I have now I have trust faith and that would lead me to obey or be compliant or you know accept something that I might not even have evidence for which is weird. Like I have evidence for the upper one, but on the bottom one I might act counter evidence like no a building of ark for a what had ever happened before. You y’all see what I’m getting at, right? Okay. So I hope that maybe that helps. Um I’m here some more detail on this chart.

All this evidence and so I have a conviction and confidence that the source is trustworthy. I’m going to call that belief faith just for today. And then that leads me to belief in the other conclusions without additional evidence. Woo. Because why? They’re consistent with that evidence-based belief in the source itself. Okay? Is that I’m going to call that trust faith. Okay? So I I have to tell a story. This is a true story actually. Um, I was headed up to the Indiana camp and um, uh, I u, in fact, I had a preach that Sunday and I got Bell’s pausy.

Any y’all ever had that? Yes. I mean, but you’ve probably seen somebody that had it. Your face is like one side just drooped down you and uh anyway uh if you want to go online at Embry Hill, you can see my I called it my one-sided sermon because I you know, but anyway, there’s a video of it. So, the next day I had a physical and I went into the doctor and the lady that was seeing me, she was actually a PA, but let’s call her the doctor. And uh you know, she said, “How are you doing?

Everything fine? All my blood tests and all that?” She said,”Well, do you have any other medical problems that you want to talk about?” Well, I’m standing there like this, you know, and uh so so here’s the way I want to tell the story. I I got to the office, you know, for my physical, but I’m I’m thinking I we’ll talk to her about this Bell’s pausy. And in the waiting room, there are all these big uh framed documents on the wall. You ever seen those in waiting rooms before?

and they’re they’re diplomas, right? Or their special awards for some thing or the completion of some research project or something like or a fellowship in this or that this some medical organization. Y’all have seen those. Maybe I don’t know what kind of doctors you go to, but I but I like to see those in the lobby. Why? You can trust this doctor. I can trust this doctor. In fact, nowadays while I’m sitting there, I whip out my phone and I say, “I wonder what kind of rating this doctor has.”

You know, like I got, you know, she’s got 43 one-st star ratings. This is not good. But you can see the evidence could go the other way, too. What am I doing reading those diplomas and looking on my phone at the stars and all? What am I actually doing on this chart up here? Where am I? That’s what I’m doing here. I’m doing this, right? And so I go in there and she says, “Okay, uh, here’s the deal. Um, I don’t know. This is what I usually prescribe. I’m going to give you these pills. I think they were greenish colored.

And I want you to take six of them as soon as you can get this prescription filled. Do it again the next day. Do that for five days. And then take five pills. And then take four. And then take three. Those in the medical probably know this is a steroid, right? So, I’m getting my ramp down. You all know how that works. I don’t know how steroids work. I don’t even know what causes Bel’s palsy. Do you think I should take those pills? Y’all understand the analogy I’m making?

I hope you do. I hope you’re running ahead of me on this. I’m not going to make her explain all the evidence behind why steroids work for Bell’s pausy. I might I mean I’m just a nerd in some other ways, right? So I might but that’s not the issue. I am going to take those pills. Why? Because I know all the reasons behind it. No, because she’s a trustworthy source and I’m going to do it and it’s the best option I have and I’ve done my best to do the diploma walk and the online, you know, assessment.

I’ve collected evidence for the trustworthy. Do you see how this applies in our faith? You see that some of our faith, our belief faith needs to be evidence-based. I think in our compliance with the command to believe, we better start studying these things. That’s how we obey God, it seems to me, is to figure out what is the evidence for what he’s asked us to believe. But once we’ve established faith in that, are there some other things that I will do that may not I may not have evidence direct evidence for?

Yes. How do you answer the person that says, you know, I really don’t need evidences. Yeah, I I would disagree. I’d start with that. So, what I would also say, yes, there are some things I don’t need evidence for either, but it’s because I have evidence in the source or I have belief, trust, belief, right? Believe faith in the source, which is established a trust, faith in the information. The reason this important to me is I think sometimes when we go to talk with people about their faith, they want to know, well, I think any church that doesn’t allow women preachers, that can’t be right.

Where are they? Where do they argue women preachers? Where is that on this chart? Where is it? Do I need evidence that that’s a good plan or do I just need to know God said it and he’s trustworthy? They’ll see the difference. A lot of our religious arguments end up being something I just don’t like the conclusion. Not, oh, I don’t think God exists or the Bible’s not inspired. I just don’t want to go there, right? Or I think God should be this way.

You see why I’m trying to sort this out? I think sometimes we argue about something. We think it’s an argument about our faith, but really what it is is we’ve jumped to the bottom, the below the line stuff that um without actually establishing the credibility, the trust. Jesus did many other signs. These are written that you might believe. Which kind of belief is that? Belief, faith, or trust faith? Yeah. Well, I’m going to give you some more tests on that in a minute.

3. Belief Faith and Trust Faith Come in a Sequence

But in second Corinthians 5, we walk by faith. Sorry, same Greek word, but I think a different meaning. What does that mean? We walk by faith and not by sight, right? Means I don’t have to figure out all these things that God’s told me. I just walk by faith. And look at that text in particular. It has to do with our eventual uh resurrection and a bunch of other cool things. Okay. All right. Let’s have a test. Which type of faith is this? Somebody already quoted Hebrews 11:1.

Let’s look at six. Without faith, pistus, it’s impossible to please him. He who comes to God must believe that he is and that he’s a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Is that belief faith or trust faith? Okay. I say it’s both. Did you say both? I do because you believe the first part and then you trust that you’re going to get the reward that you’re looking for. So, okay. Sorry. I don’t want to hurt your hand. Don’t hurt your hand. Y’all hear that?

It’s actually illustrating both things. You have to believe that God is. Is there evidence for that in the world? Yes. Yes. But then somehow I figure out that he’s a rewarder of those. I’m sure glad God’s that way, but I can’t prove it to you with evidence. I can prove to you the word, which I have faith in and confidence in. Right? I’m just repeating her answer in large with a lot more words. Y’all do. Does that make sense? It’s really both. And I think they come in a sequence.

That’s why the title of this module is sequence of faith. You don’t jump to the end. You start at the beginning and establish confidence. Right? I walk the diplomas of the waiting room before I take the pills. You know, uh, okay, let’s try another one. Uh, by faith, Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen. Seen the theme there. And by the way, what’s Hebrews 11 all about? Right. Abraham and Sarah and all these others, right? Moved with godly fear. There’s a hint there.

Prepared an arc for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of righteousness, which is according to Pist. Which kind of faith is that? Just what’s being referred to according to faith. Well, he trusted that the flood was coming because he could prove it scientifically. No, not at all. In fact, was there counter evidence that there might never be a flood? Never had rain. Yeah, right. I mean, even rain is kind of a questionable thing.

Y’all know what I mean. Much and much more. I never know whether to say much less or much more. But anyway, much more. A flood that destroyed the whole world. You know what I mean? I’m saying that’s trust faith. And I believe that’s what Hebrews 11 is all about is people doing crazy things. Crazy things. Countercultural, counter uh rational, you know, counterintuitive. Yeah, that Yeah, good word. I think that’s what Hebrews 11 is all about. And I think he’s encouraged the Hebrews, hang in there.

Boy, I know our temple’s a little bit hard to see compared to the old temple of the Judaism and our sacrifice and our high priest and all those other things that it’s hard to compare those to the unseen. Sorry, to the seen world of of Judaism, but anyway. Okay, so we’ve not studied Hebrews, but okay, how about this one? Behold the proud. His soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith. Now, I need you to remember that Habach is coming to the right conclusion finally about this business of God’s going to take the Babylonians and destroy Israelites because of their sin.

That doesn’t seem like a good idea to Habach. And he’s complaining a little bit about that. And the answer seems to be um you know what, no matter what happens, the just shall live by faith. And Paul quotes that in several other writings in the Hebrew letters to say that that okay which is that I’ve said too much. What do you think? Trust or belief? Yes, it’s trust. Hang in there. God does things in a strange way, right? But we have believe in his credibility to know, yeah, we can handle that.

And I will trust him and and that will allow me to survive would be one way to translate that. The just shall survive by trust by trust faith. Okay. All right. Let’s try another one. He gave her his hand. He lifted her up. He called the saints and widows. And he presented her alive. Tabitha Dorcas. That right. Dorcas. And it became known throughout all Japa. And many believed on the Lord. What do you think? That’s belief. Why is that? Why do you say believe, right?

That’s right. Yeah. Here’s another way to think of it, too. I could come to that circumstance with not many presuppositions about Peter being apostle or any of that and I could still say, whoa, that what he did that’s I saw it. I saw her and therefore I would come to conclusions about a certain fact which is Peter must be working with God and so on. Saul increased more and more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

What do you think? Yeah. In this case, his proofing I think is from their Old Testament or their scripture. They didn’t call it that, but that is as often he did in Thessaloning and alleging that it behooved the Christ to suffer the rising in the third day and that this Jesus is the Christ. That’s a logical argument. Look at your Old Testament, which by the way, you have confidence in as trust faith. But still, I’m building now a second layer. Okay, you got that. Let me show you some prophecies that pointed to a Messiah that would have to die and be raised again the third day.

And oh, by the way, some history involved here. There was a man who matched all of those things, right? And so, I’m proving that Jesus is the Christ. That seemed to be the uh the evangelical method. I shouldn’t use that word. The ev evangelistic method, sorry, of the of the apostles in Acts. They would show from the scripture, hey, you don’t understand what this is saying about the Christ, whoever he is. And they go through all that and then they’d say, oh, by the way, there’s a Jesus guy and he did all this.

All of that’s in the belief faith area. Okay, good. Uh, truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence, but these are written that you might believe. That’s easy. What is that? Yeah. Okay. So y’all y’all can get that. So we got that. What are the two types of faith we’re talking about here? Belief faith and trust faith. Which is built on evidence, right? And which is built on trust in a source? Yeah. Do you understand that whole process is rational? We kind of do it every day, right?

4. Two Ways of Knowing: By Faith and by Sight

Okay. All right. Now let’s talk about another uh uh maybe another um clarification of terms. Knowing perceive understand is a fact of truth to apprehend clearly and with certainty. Let me show you a is there a difference between someone who knows something or someone who believes something in the way they act? Yes. Yes. I was not hoping for that answer. There’s only one more answer. I really, really believe it’s going to rain really hard this afternoon.

And what will I do as a result of that? You’ll prepare. I’ll prepare. I’ll bring an umbrella. I’ll think about how close I parked the car to the building. I’ll do something, right? I know it’s going to rain this afternoon. What am I going to do as a result of that? Just Bring it up. I’m going to do the same thing. Do you all understand that? Yeah. If you really believe something is true, I think we use that word all the time interchangeably with I know.

I know. I believe. Right. You all right? Sometimes in English, I think we use the word believe to mean I’m not 99% certain, but uh I believe he’s 30 years old. You know, not not you, but right. What do I mean by that? That’s the best estimate I can give. I could say, “Well, I know he’s 30 and maybe there’s more confidence.” But as far as my actions, my conclusions, my ability to reason, it’s the same thing. Yeah. You’re trusted at that point in yourself.

Maybe I know he must be 30 and I’m trusting myself to be a judge of Sure. Okay. I I’m not sure that’s true. I mean, and here’s why I’m going to say that. I think there are a few cases where Um, I have a little bit of teeny teeny tiny bit of evidence that doesn’t support that, right? I’m 99% sure, but not 100%. Am I going to act any different? No, not really. And so, in a sense, that you could use the word belief to cover that 1%. But in terms of my the how did I get to that belief?

How did I get to that knowledge? Either way, it’s kind of the same process and the results are really the same. I’m going to prove this from Bible text, too. But yeah, go ahead. Oh, okay. So, take a look at this. I have given them words which you’ve given to me. They’ve received them. What does receive mean? I think more than just they heard them. They accepted them. Yeah. And have known surely that I came forth from you and they have believed that you sent me.

Do you kind of see similar statements there? This is Jesus talking by the way. What words is he equating with each other? Except the known. Except known and believe. I think y’all see that it’s kind of the same. Yeah. Belief. And and by the way, John’s of course the key guy. He because knowing is a big deal in John’s gospel. We have known and believed. Wait, which? Yeah. That the love of God has the love God has for us. God is love. He abides in love.

Abide. You see the idea there? These things I’ve written to you who have believed in the name of the son of God that you may what? Know and believe. You see how these are interchangeable. I think we should think of it that way. I’ll show you a little diagram that help. And that you may continue to believe in the name of the son of God. Am I convincing you these could be interchangeable words based on Bible texts? Yeah, I think so. And uh here’s one uh Paul writing.

I know him. This is from the Amplified Bible. Whom I have believed. Wait, I know him whom I have believed. Right? And I have confidence, you know, and am persuaded he’s able to guard that which I’ve entrusted to him until that day. Now, I think when he gets to this point, he’s moving into trust faith. But do you see how he’s used these words interchangeably here? I’m over making the point. All right? But here here is the main point. There are two ways of knowing. All right, this is what I’m trying to say.

And now I’m talking about belief faith here. There’s two ways. One is by faith and that’s based on evidence, right? And there’s one by sight which is based on senses, firsthand experience. That right? Can you see that? Do you really think I’m standing in front of you right now? You believe that? He does. He believes it and he knows it. Do you y’all know that? see that now does okay he knows it but is it by faith evidence indirect or is it by sight senses it’s this of course it’s that right but if he were not in the room but he heard my voice and someone came out and said Marty’s still up there talking you know right there’s evidence but you don’t see it maybe hearing the voice I shouldn’t have put that in the illustration take that out can you would you still act the same way that I was talking up here.

Yeah, you would. If someone tried to say, “Marty’s still in there talking and you hear the evidence and you see the evidence, you might put that over here if you want.” I’m not sure this is all that clear-cut between the two. But I will say this. Wait a minute. Who knows? Um, who knows? Do you know the who is the first president of the United States? Do you know who the first president? Oh. Oh, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. You girls know George Washington.

Okay. They know. They said they know that. Which of these two ways did they know it? Look at up here. They said they knew it. Yeah. It has to be this. They didn’t see George Washington. They weren’t even around to read the newspapers when he was president. But somehow, you know that. And you think there’s some evidence that he really was the first president of the United States? Of course there is. And that’s how we know it. It’s written everywhere. But I’m just telling you that knowing is not any different. I mean, it’s has two ways of doing that.

In fact, think hard about this. Think of all the things you think you know in your head about the world, about people, about the news, about current events, about geography, about astronomy, about anything. Where is most of it on this chart here? It really is. I mean, you stop and think about it. How much of our little limited senses in the limited period of time we live can we collect all the things we know and have them assured by taste, touch, smell, and I never can list all five very quickly, but you know, senses.

Yes. You know, that is a good illustration of how we assume things because it’s collective knowledge. Contemporary. Yeah. that George Washington was the first president, but actually it was called the United States of America under the articles of and the president of that group was not George Washington. Yeah. Yeah. He served one year at a time. So, so he’s illustrating something that’s kind of interesting. Are we sometimes mistaken about what this evidence should be telling us?

But that never happens over here, does it? I hope you can tell by my expression. You’re supposed to say, “Yes, it does. Are there times that we thought we heard something and that’s not really what happened? Yes. Yeah. And so what what really is going on is in terms of, you know, uncertainty or counter evidence or whatever is I never know anything 100%. Even the things that that slap me in the face in my senses, I don’t know. But I am able to reason.

I’m able to draw conclusions. God’s asking me to believe as a command actually, right? And so what’s going on is they’re both logical. They’re both based on the weight of evidence. Is that fair? I don’t know. With some degree of of persuasion, I might convince you that I’m not really standing here. It’d probably take me a long time. But could I potentially create some doubt in that? Y’all know what I mean. But the reason it’s so hard is that the weight of evidence is so heavy. The senses and all that are pushing in that direction.

Are there ever any things? And I would always think about a jury trial where they actually going to, you know, put somebody to jail forever or, you know, whatever. Are any of those jurors are any of those jurors living over here acting on what they saw witness? If they did, they probably would be disqualified, right? They’d be kicked out of the jury. What we’re asking them to say is somehow enough evidence that it’s beyond the shadow of a doubt or preponderance of evidence.

And the legal folk understand all those differences. I don’t. But they’re just saying weigh it out, right? And it has to be tipped at least this far, but better if it’s this far, you know what I mean? To come to a conclusion. And when it’s done, they kind of say, well, we know he’s guilty. Why? Well, there’s preponderance of evidence one way or the other. And they deliver that verdict to the judge. This is not maybe I’m overstating all this stuff, but I just think it’s helpful for us to be clear about our terminology that faith and sight are really two ways of knowing.

And you saw that in the Bible text. You establish the evidence of something strongly enough. It’s just part of your knowledge base and you use it to draw other conclusions. You build on it the same way. Okay? Both change behavior in the same way. There’s a couple more that we already covered this, right? George Washington, gravity. This I like this one. Japan will not conquer the United States in the next year. Right. Do we know that? Do we believe it? What would you say if you had to put a confidence on that?

5. The Opposites: Doubt and Forgetting

What would your confidence be percentage- wise? Yeah. Right. Right. and and I I can go through what the evidence might be. One is we’re kind of friendly at the moment. Uh second is well used to be they had a constitution didn’t allow them to have you know fight wars or have you know aggressive weapons after World War II and other things in terms of relative power. Will you act consistent with this or will you go and start learning Japanese because you know it could be right there’s that 1% chance I need to start learning Japanese or will you kind of act consistent as if you knew this for certain yeah you probably do that all right in all that you kind of get these things here all right now I want to talk about opposites for just a minute uh and that is knowing and faith and sight um what’s the opposite of sight that is Um, and I know it’s unseen, but I the evidence for knowing something is that I saw it.

Well, what would be the evidence against it? I didn’t see it or I saw something different, an opposite, a contradictory thing, right? So, it could be that. So, I saw the opposite of that. And what would the opposite of faith be? So, you know, in anything, I thought I saw it, but then there’s this other evidence and I’m weighing what I thought I saw or the opposite or something like that. But these are my senses. What is weighing against faith sometimes?

By the way, evidence is going in both of these, right? The thing I didn’t see and the thing I did. What What fights against faith here? Unbelief is an easy answer, but it’s not a wrong answer. The confidence you have in yourself to deduce that whatever you think could be plausible. Okay. Does that make any sense? Yeah. I think self-doubt is a it’s a different dimension. I wasn’t planning to talk about that but but I actually used the term that is the answer to the question.

Doubt. Doubt. Thank you. Yes. And in that the case that sometimes we believe something but we also have these other things that are kind of convincing us otherwise. Right. And so I think the opposite over here would be doubt. We could also call it unbelief. Did Jesus ever use that terminology like where is your faith or doubt Lord I believe but help my unbelief. Wait what? Same guy. You you know those are those are always a kind of in way maybe intention. And in the same way that I can know something by looking at how these two weigh against one another.

All the time I’m believe trying to keep my belief up. I’m actually weighing it against an amount of doubt that I have. So this the idea of managing doubt becomes kind of important in in areas of of faith that are faith and not sight but still based on evidences. Okay. Uh what causes doubt? And you know what I may shorten this because my my class in the morning is is a little bit more about doubt and the phenomena that leads us to doubt. So I may just see yeah let’s skip to this.

This is kind of fun. What’s the opposite of knowing? That is by what I mean by that is either through evidence and belief or through senses and sight. I I’ve established that I know something. What happens when you lose knowledge that’s in your head? There’s a word for that. My dad used to say this is the one thing humans are excellent at. Forgetting. Y’all understand that? And that can be like just a natural dementia or whatever, but it can be intentional, right?

In fact, I think Peter uses that term. Second Peter, this they willfully forget. Really, you can force your And I think by not thinking about something, you kind of have essentially forgotten it. You push that fact out of your head. So, I think for our our um it’s the knowing is the opposite of um forgetting or the opposite of knowing is forgetting. I’m going to Yes. So here’s Peter using that same terminology. He who lacks these things is shortsighted. What’s happened to all that evidence that he saw that led to his belief and maybe even the firsthand experience that he had in those days for sure seeing a miracle or something.

What do you have to do? You’ve forgotten what has happened in the past. And so therefore, what was Peter trying to do in his second letter while he was still in this tabernacle? as long as I’m here, I have one job, and that’s to keep reminding you. I don’t think he’s telling them new things. He’s just saying, “Don’t forget this.” So, faith and sight contribute to knowing, right? The opposite of knowing is forgetting. I’ve established that, but I can forget it. And when I do, it affects the way I respond.

6. Bible Examples of Evidence-Based Reasoning for Belief in God

I hope this picture maybe helps. I don’t know. We’ll say a little bit more about doubt tomorrow. Okay. Does the Bible make evidence-based uh statements about why we should believe in God? Does the Bible do that? Do you know what I mean by that? Is there are can you think of a text where the writer inspired writer is saying you should believe in God for this reason and gives reasons. I mean we do that in our arguments and do you can Yeah. what we see the the power that must have existed for creation.

Yes. Okay. Yes. And the answer is of course yes. However, there’s a caveat. Go ahead. Do you have there’s a caveat there and that is for the most part the Bible is I I always want to ask a question but then I always run the risk of somebody taking a hard position. Is the Bible written to people who probably already believe in God and believe the Bible’s inspired? Is that who it’s primarily written to or is it written to unbelievers to try to convince them that there’s a God?

Which of those two is more true? People who have some concept I think so. Yeah. I mean always people Yeah. Yes. Who were the epistles written to? Non-Christians or Christians? and the Old Testament revelation. Even the prophets when they were slamming the people for their disobedience and unfaithfulness were talking to people who should have believed and had the revelation. And I guess the implied uh assumption was these prophets are from God. You better be listening to them. So really the fact the Bible uh is is not actually written to convince an unbeliever that God exists, it that almost suggests that there’s some other reasons we might want to find that are not there.

But there are some evidence as presented in the Bible. Here’s a few. They’re somewhat indirect, but God, your point, God’s power is shown in the in nature. There’s a supernatural origin of things. Uh Hebrew writer, I’m not sure as an evidence, but he just says the things that are seen were made by the things that are unseen. That’s almost like there’s some physics in there, I think, because everything that’s seen is temporal and burning up and wearing out and all of that.

So, it must have come from some other source. I may be stretching that verse too far as a physicist, but still I think there’s something in that. But the invisible things of God are clearly seen through the things that are made, even his eternal power and divinity. That’s what Paul argues. What’s his point? Gentiles are without excuse. Even those people that didn’t get the word, they don’t have an excuse because it should be so plain to them that there’s an eternal God.

Why? Because Paul wrote Romans. No, you can see it in the world. They should use their brain. That’s evidence. In fact, it’s kind of almost like I know it’s there’s deduction, but there are things that they touch and feel and see almost by sight. Yeah. Go ahead. The supernatural origin of of the natural. It never struck me before, but spiritual obviously doesn’t wear out. Yeah. But anything physical can including well I mean the Hebrew writer seems to be making not at the end of story time but the beginning of time argument like things don’t just pop into existence that is in the world I’m familiar with right physical world so there must have been another cause it’s not in this world but you’re you could make the same argument on the other end of time this is going to wear out and so on.

Yeah. Okay. Do you all understand what I’m saying here? These writers are kind of telling us, you should have figured this out about God’s existence at least, right? And he’s arguing that they’re without excuse because they didn’t. I think the Bible was also written for seekers. Seek and you shall find. Sure. So, I don’t think it’s just for people who already accept a certain amount of truth. They they’re looking for answers and it will give you answers if you’re sincerely seeking.

And shouldn’t that be super natural origin of natural? Is it a supernatural? Supra means above nature. Supra. I gota I don’t know. I got to think about that. Yeah. Okay. I’m going to come back to this when we talk about the actual sequence when you get into it. I’m going slower than I intended. Uh but I think that will be okay. I I think for example there’s order and wisdom in the universe. And I think that um that Paul when he’s there in uh Athens, Mars Hill, when he’s in Lististra, and you know, the audiences here were not believers.

They weren’t Jewish believers. I mean, they were just pagans, plain old everyday pagans. And uh here he’s kind of arguing, you know, you kind of look and see some order in things, the seasons, and the fact that everything seems to be in its right place. I think we see more of that the more we know about sciences, we should be just blown away by the order that exists in the natural laws. I think Paul’s making the beginning of that argument here. Similarly, in Acts 14, although he adds to that and this all this stuff brings gladness.

Oh, no. That’s an interesting reference. He’s almost suggesting that we are here on this world and we resonate with that order of seasons and good things and it should make us glad. That’s an evidence of design perhaps that it matches our needs, our desires. Y’all see that? Now, these are not strong explicit arguments, but I think Paul probably took a lot longer than Luke records, right, to give this sermon, but I think he’s making to the pagans this argument based on some order in the world and so on.

And then the psalmist just notes. I don’t think he’s doing this to prove God exists, but he notes. Every time I think about this thing, this machine that I’ve lived in for quite a while, I’m amazed at the design and so on. So he carries it. Yeah. Paul those places, he’s dealing with something that they’re ignorant of even though idolatrous practices. Yeah. But he’s he’s identified Yeah. who’s ultimately responsible. He is for what they already appreciate and know exist.

So there’s they kind of have this appreciation of the world and the knowledge. They’ve never quite put the fact together that that came from something and not just something powerful but something with an intelligence behind it. I think that’s part of that too. Uh yeah. Yeah. They believed or a lot of them did at least in a quote unquote higher power Zeus or Exactly. I’m going to say something about that here. I think Paul leverages that fact say, “Hey, I’m looking all around.

You guys must have some idea of the supernatural or supernatural, I don’t know, right?” Because they built all these temples, right? There must some some appreciation. Not only that, they kind of figured out that they could look at themselves and deduce some things about that God for we are his offspring quoting their own poet poets, right? They knew that. They figured they should have figured that out or at least they had in their experience. Had they twisted the wires together yet?

I don’t know. But you know uh and then uh Ecclesiastes writer talks about eternity in man’s heart. I’m not so sure what that means to be honest, but it’s in the list. Uh Psalm 8, he’s made man a little lower than the angels. What I see there is this noting that that the superiority of man to animals is is an amazing thing. Uh but anyway, and then uh Paul argues that the Gentiles have a moral sense. They do by nature, the things that are actually in what God revealed is what we should do.

Okay? But y’all understand the Bible is not an apologetic book per se, but it makes references to that those facts that they should be able to figure out that you see that. And I almost feel like if a person is a seeker as we’re saying the seeker should have come maybe to the Bible or maybe be pointed to those presuppositions that they’re probably there must be maybe I mean possible that and if he is then he’s may be something share characteristic with me must be pretty powerful must be pretty smart you know all those things are kind of almost like what you come to the seeking with if you’re open and humble enough to do that before you even open the Bible maybe.

Conclusion

Okay. All right. Here’s the test. We finished module one. Uh listening. What are the two types of faith? You may answer that. Belief faith and trust. Faith. Right. One uh one’s based on evidences and the other is based on the trust and the credibility of the source. Trustworthiness source. What are two ways of knowing? I’m not sure I convinced y’all this one. You do it by sight or you do it by faith. But both of them lead us to do things and act and conclude and convict people who’ve committed a crime and all of that.

Okay. What is the opposite of faith? Doubt. Doubt. And the opposite of knowing. Forgetting. Yeah, we’ll talk about that some more in the morning. And can you list some three Bible examples of evidence-based reasoning that should lead to belief in God? I’m You got that? We just covered that on the slide before. Did you pass the test? Yes. That means I did okay.