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To begin, let me say that there is no real crisis of “The Faith,” for the word of God stands unchallenged.
Its author is in complete control even as the Psalmist declares that he sits in the heavens and laughs at man’s folly. It’s the times in which we live that have raised a challenge to God and his word, which in turn has created a crisis for many who would follow him.
This “crisis of faith” on the part of professed believers threatens the final undoing of their faith, retreating into either atheism or rejecting orthodoxy in favor of one’s own re-interpretation. For many today there is an added struggle to believe due in part to a seismic shift in values. These values challenge historic faith creating disillusionment from efforts to believe while holding preconceived answers and expectations. In simple terms, faith no longer works for me.
Imagine this disillusioned soul reading Matthew 17:20, where Jesus addressed the disciples for having failed at healing a young boy. When the disciples asked Jesus what went wrong? “He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” So, who wouldn’t want to move mountains? I’d settle to move just a few hills! Passages like this seem only to further tease one’s attempts to do likewise yet with a suspicion of guaranteed failure.
The suspicion of failure most likely comes from a misconception of faith. Oz Guinness in his book, “In Two Minds,” tells of encountering a peasant with a donkey loaded with firewood driving it up a steep mountainside. Stumbling from under the heavy load, the owner then beats it for failing to move upwards. Consequently, having fallen from his blows, he beats it again for succumbing. The absurdity of it all points to the fact that it is entirely possible to criticize faith as faulty when in reality, faith isn’t the problem no more than the man’s donkey. Obviously, the donkey could not do what the owner insisted that it should do largely because it was not intended to do so, and the same goes for one’s faith.
Turning to Scripture we can define a critical aspect of faith. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” — Hebrews 11:6)
The critical aspect of this is contained in the words, “believe that he exists.” The issue is just who is he that exists? This is the point where often a breakdown occurs in one’s understanding, leaving faith like the donkey subsequently targeted. Scripture tells us clearly that God is Who he says he is. From our place under the sun, we must then reckon that he has spoken to us in his word which is inspired and without error. Furthermore, if God is who he says he is, he has the capacity to preserve his words for us so as to communicate clearly to us. Paul affirms this in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is breathed out by God …”
The main point here is that when it comes to expectations of faith, it is what God has stated objectively in his word to us that really matters, not what we might think he has stated, nor what we would want to think! Faith does not function from our own set of values, but only as one humbly submits and relies upon his eternal word that opens the door to productive and satisfying faith.
Consider the story of the man in Mark nine who begged Jesus to heal his epileptic son. The man cries out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Struggling to believe, he realizes that he needs the grace and mercy of God to override his faulty understanding. That is to say it can only be done with the help of the very one who speaks his objective authoritative word to us. The vast number of believers struggling to believe are perhaps those who are placing their faith according to how they feel and think rather than what God has stated. It is faulty faith rooted in the subjectivity of human reasoning rather than in the God who speaks.
The critical issue involved here not only endangers one’s own faith but can lead inevitably to judgment on God himself! It’s one thing to fault and to berate one’s own faith, it is quite another to become disheartened with the God of grace and mercy.
I would suggest that if you’re at this point, wisdom would suggest that like the man in desperate need you cry out, “help my unbelief!”
Joel Cooper is the senior pastor at Grace Community Church in Howard City.
