The thing that I think most people get wrong about faith is the part about believing. Most people think believing has all to do with acknowledging something’s or someone’s existence. For example, according to pewresearch.org about 90% of Americans believe in God. Additionally, what most people mean by a ‘profession of faith’ is that, not only do they believe in God, but 1. That Jesus is the Son of God, 2. That he came to die for our sins and did so on the cross, and 3. If we believe this event actually took place then our souls will go to heaven after it leaves behind this mortal coil, the stuff altar calls are made of.
But I ask you, what does believing in these assertions have to do salvation? Without trusting that they are true, what does it matter? What people fail to realize, and what churches fail to teach is that, at the end of the day it’s not the veracity of these assertions we are claiming faith in, it is the hope they give us that make us ‘believers.’ And it matters little that they are factual or historical without trust. Faith is not ‘believing in,’ but ‘trusting in’ these assertions.
When the ‘faithful’ begin to doubt in the literality of these assertions and question them, they are, all of a sudden, deemed ‘unfaithful.’ The good news (the gospel of Alec, haha!) is that the historical accuracy of these assertions and our faith, as trust in God, are not mutually inclusive. What that means is, Christian spirituality has very little to do with historical facts, and more to do with the decision to live our lives in imitation (obedience) of Jesus. People get hung up on historicity, because of a popular but erroneous notion that all must be literally true or else our faith is void. That’s just simply not true, and the ‘Christian faithful’ are misled.
No one knows, nor will ever know, and fewer people care, for that matter, whether these events are true. Those who believe them, simply do because they choose to, not because they are ‘true.’ The truth is, we don’t know very much about what actually happened in the life and ministry of Jesus, if we know anything at all.
Perhaps Jesus understood the nature of trust, the basis of all relationships, better than we know; to Thomas who proclaimed “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side”, Jesus said, ‘blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believe.’ (John 20:24-29)
Faith is not about Seeing then believing, it’s really the other way around. It’s about Believing then seeing.
A Promethean Dialogue 