Jul 14, 2019
What Do YOU Believe?
7-15-19
I think contemporary folks see a wall of separation between knowledge, belief, and faith. Not necessarily hostile camps of the mind, mutually exclusive; but different provinces. Maybe like summer and winter: hardly the same, but both are “weather.”
However, knowledge, belief, and faith – and other versions of our core convictions; trust, security, even firm hope, you know them all – are really just words, words, words for the same thing. I can know the lamp will turn on when when I flip a switch; but that knowledge is based on a belief that a lot of people know how to make that happen. And I have faith that they will do so, tomorrow too.
These are not superficial distinctions… and they apply to, yes, our core convictions.
In Western civilization in the 21st century, “progress” has freed us from the necessity to have faith any more in many things once requiring faith. Of course this goes beyond religion: and I mean, very much, to have us realize how rudderless, value-less, we have become. We have been coddled into thinking that so-called progress, and intelligence, and science, are sufficient in all things; indeed, that vital aspects of traditional faith… are obsolete. Impediments. Relics of the ignorant.
But we still exercise faith – more than ever. Only in different things.
Governments, politicians, scientists, heroes, philosophies, secularists, the “mind” of the “universe.” Superstition. Self-help courses. Gurus, not God. At the end, however, we all still believe in things; we all have faith in something. Or other.
It surprises some people to know that the mighty Reformer Martin Luther, during the Renaissance and at the cusp of the Age of Enlightenment, declared that Reason is the enemy of Faith.
As we fight against the greatest surge of slavery in history; as we face oppression and abuse and heartache in our midst; as we wipe our hands of the blood of the previous century’s myriad slaughters… let us think for at least a moment where Human Reason, unleashed for 500 years, has gotten us.
Another figure of faith, an example of embracing faith in the face of the world’s certainties, and hostility, also speaks through the centuries:
To sacrifice what you are, and to live without belief, is a fate more terrible than dying.
– Joan of Arc
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Dear Mr. Marschall,
I hope this reply finds you happy and healthy. It seems possible that we err if we attack reason wholesale. Our God is a God of truth, and the goal of the sincere exercise of reason, science, etc. is to reach truth. Thus, reason which seeks truth will eventually bring us closer to the God of truth.
Furthermore, in the exercise of the Great Commission, it seems we become less effective and more likely to be pigeonholed as superstitious deniers of truth, rather than purveyors thereof, if we deny the value of reason, even reason guided by the Holy Spirit. Do you have any thoughts on the above assertion?
Yours truly,
A Owen
I will answer your thoughtful question with, not a parable, but a pertinent quotation from Theodore Roosevelt, who I find myself citing most frequently about life matters, after Scripture.
He said about voting, as about guns (and this is all the more pertinent these very days) that they are not positive or negative per se, but their usefulness depend upon the character of the user.
So it is about Reason, I think. As a thought process, or an intellectual gift, we may consider it yet another of God’s gifts. But it is exercised by our personal initiative and direction; its results are judged by our personal standards; and like everything else is subordinated to God’s own Will and Wisdom.
Luther might typically have employed hyperbole on the subject, but I think (!) Reason is subordinate to Faith — which by definition surrenders matters to the Lord — and therefore we have the proper pecking order before us.
By Faith alone? In social intercourse, often vitally important of course, it ought to be “Faith first, and pray guidance over our exercise of Reason.” After all, Luther effectively used Reason to confound his enemies at the Diet of Worms.