WHY DO YOU FIND IT SO DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE?

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1 1 WHY DO YOU FIND IT SO DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE? If anyone chooses to do God s will, he will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on My own (John 7:17). As a scientist can reveal to me truths which are beyond my reason, so God can reveal to me truths beyond the power of my intelligence. Since I know Him to be One Who neither deceives nor can be deceived, I accept His revelation in faith. 1 Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Agnosticism is not an intellectual position, but a moral position, or better still, an intellectual defense for a life which is afraid of the light. 2 The Basic Problem Is Moral Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Speaking through his servant Paul, God pinpoints the problem with man s understanding: it is not in God s failure to offer sufficient evidence, but in the failure of the human mind to see things as they really are. Paul put it: So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts (Ephesians 4:17-18). This is a sobering description of the human mind: Futility of Mind Darkened Understanding Alienation from God through Ignorance Ignorance due to Hardness of Heart The basic problem of man is moral! The biggest challenge to faith is not intellectual but moral. It is not that man can t see, but that he won t see. Josh McDowell points out in his book, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, most people reject Christ for one or more of the following reasons: ignorance, pride or moral issues. 3

2 2 Ignorance (often self-imposed) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God s invisible qualities His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles (Romans 1:18-23). Pride You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. I do not accept praise from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in My Father s name, and you do not accept Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? (John 5:40-44) Moral Issues This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God (John 3:19-20) Man does not seek God for the same reason a thief does not seek a policeman. He doesn t want to face up to what he has done; he doesn t want to get caught.

3 The question of intellectual honesty in matters of faith cannot be faced apart from a look at the center of the problem--our intellects. All this is not to say we are stupid. It is not our I.Q. that is at fault. From the building of the pyramids and the designing of the Parthenon to genetic research and space exploration man has shown himself to be plenty smart. His grasp of science, art, history, engineering is astounding, and increasing in incredible proportions. 3 The intellectual problem we are dealing with has to do with his relationship to God. Here man s mind is darkened by his colossal ego which casts a deep shadow over all the evidence and hinders him from seeing it as it is. From the beginning man has pitted his will against God s and paid the price in confusion and misunderstanding. It is amazing that the brilliant and influential British philosopher Bertrand Russell, who claimed that there simply was not enough evidence for belief in God, never carefully examined the evidence for belief in Christianity. This is obvious in reading his essay, Why I Am Not a Christian. His remarks shows he never dealt with the resurrection in any kind of detail and it further leads one to doubt whether he even glanced at the New Testament. Yet he confidently claimed there was not enough evidence. Despite man s darkened mind, God makes a constant appeal to his intellect. Man s creation in God s image opens the way for communication between God and man, though man s sin produces all kinds of static. Come, let s talk this over! God calls! (Isaiah 1:18) Hear, know, learn, obey--these are favorite verbs of God, and they all imply understanding. Although the answers to these twenty-six questions have hopefully shed some light, ultimately man's basic problem is not intellectual; it's moral. While some of these answers won't satisfy someone s objections, a person s rejection of the answers don't necessarily invalidate them. On the other hand, it is also possible to be convinced and still not become a Christian. Some people may respond to these answers with a sense of satisfaction of having found reasonable answers to difficult issues yet not be willing to embrace the Christian faith for themselves. And the reason most often given is that it would mean too radical a change in their way of life. People have various motives for not wanting Christianity to be true. Aldous Huxley, the brilliant atheist, who has influenced many to be or to remain skeptical, confessed: I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics, he is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do, or why his friends

4 should not seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves.... For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political. 4 Many people are not prepared to let anyone else, including God, to run their lives. It's not that people can't believe; but they won't believe. At least people see what the issue is. The purpose of this information is to help people reach this point of understanding. People often ask, "If Christianity is true, why do the majority of intelligent people not believe it?" The answer is precisely the same as the reason the majority of unintelligent people don't believe it. They don't want to believe because they're unwilling to accept the moral demands it would make on their lives. God did not provide revelation by illuminating everyone so that it becomes self-explanatory with no questions unanswered. He did not provide His revelation for the gratification of man s curiosity. Rather He has visited this world in the Person of Jesus Christ who not only points the way, but is the way and the truth and the life. A person then must be willing to believe before he ever will believe! 4 God's speaking is a reminder of a royal messenger who is unsuccessful in accomplishing his mission. "The king had sent a letter to a wise but skeptical man, who, in his faraway province, refused to accept it. He was one of those men who think too much, who complicate their lives by complicating small things. He couldn't understand, not in the slightest, what the king might want of him: 'Why would the sovereign, so powerful and so rich, address himself to me, who am less than nothing? Because he takes me to be a philosopher? There are more important ones. Could there be another reason? If so, what reason?' Unable to answer these questions, he preferred to believe the letter a misunderstanding. Worse, a fraud. Worse yet, a practical joke. 'Your king,' he said to the messenger, 'does not exist.' But the messenger insisted: 'I am here, and here is the letter; isn't that proof enough?' 'The letter proves nothing at all; besides, I haven't read it. And by the way, who gave it to you? The king in person?' 'No', confessed the messenger. 'It was given to me by a royal page. In his name.' 'Are you sure of that? And how can you be sure that it comes from the reigning sovereign? Have you ever seen him?' 'Never. My rank does not permit or warrant it.' 'Then how do you know that the king is king? You see? You don't know any more than I.'" 5

5 5 In contrast John Bunyan, author of the classic Pilgrim's Progress, testified that as he walked the streets of Bedford one day, he overheard a group of women talking about God as they sat in a doorway. "I drew near to hear what they said, for I was now a brisk talker... in the matters of religion; but I may say, I heard but understood not.... Their talk was about a new birth, the work of God in their hearts... they talked how God had visited their souls with His love in the Lord Jesus.... They were to me as if they had found a new world.... At this I felt my own heart begin to shake...." 6 All of a sudden the words John Bunyan could not understand became God's word to him personally. He heard God's own voice through human speech. His shaking heart responded to the same voice that was heard through the prophets and all those in the past who humbly responded in love and obedience. God continues to speak, not only through the wonders of His world, but also through the wonders of His Son through whom God has become known. Such a revelation is communicated by the Holy Spirit to anyone who is willing to listen and observe. As we saw earlier, Kierkegaard warned us that doubt or unbelief is not so much the result of intellectual problems as it is an issue of rebellion and pride. Rebellion and pride will blind us to the truth and to the willingness to own up to it. This is why we must yield ourselves to the operation of God s Spirit. Then, and only then, will we be able to be as convinced about the truth as the apostle Peter was. He put it, "... we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:16).

6 6 NOTES 1 The Quotable Fulton Sheen, ed. George J. Marlin, Richard P. Rabatin and John L. Swan (New York: Doubleday, 1989), Ibid., 3. 3 McDowell, Josh. The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999, n. d. 4 Michael Green, Runaway World (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1968), Elie Wiesel, Souls on Fire (New York: Summit Books, 1972), cited in Paul K. Jewett, God, Creation, & Revelation: A Neo-Evangelical Theology (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 211 cited in Jewett, God, Creation, & Revelation: A Neo-Evangelical Theology, 94.