I Still Have Faith in You

And in terms of religion or politics, I tend to be slightly scared of people who talk in terms of absolute certainty.

Then again, we do have core beliefs, reasonable assumptions. I can see the computer screen and feel my fingers as I type. It’s reasonable for me to believe that it’s not just a dream or that I’m not some sort of a conscious entity that someone in the future has created using artificial intelligence (AI).

I am reasonably sure that my senses give me a true view of the world and that my memory functions reasonably well. But I have been wrong at times. I just need to assume that my model of reality broadly corresponds to reality, unless I discover that this isn’t the case.

In my late teens, I was keen on communism, pacificism, and Christianity. All three would be fine if they worked. And they work to some extent. Pure communism or pacificism doesn’t work, but in Ireland, the rich are expected to share with the poor, and we’re not zealous for war. Christianity was never about being perfect. It’s an ideal we strive towards, but you only need to look at the New Testament to see that it’s a struggle. But the whole idea of a Saviour coming into the world is that we fail and we need to be saved.

And whatever faults that I might find with historical Christendom and with particular church doctrines, I do have confidence in the Scriptures. And a core belief of the New Testament is the resurrection of Jesus. If you asked me to offer 100% absolute proof that it happened, I could attempt it, but I might not convince you. But I think that if anyone approaches it with an open mind, they will be convinced. Paul could confidently challenge the Greek philosophers to examine it. Not all did, but some did.

Acts 17:31
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” ³² When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” ³³ At that, Paul left the Council. ³⁴ Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

And when you explore the gospels, you see that so much happened in the public arena. It was not a case of someone claiming to be a prophet or meeting an angel or claiming that they found some sort of a golden book somewhere. In that case, you’d need to take just one person’s word for it. Hundreds of people witnessed the works of Jesus, and the thousands of people who became disciples in the early years were in a position to examine all the claims.

I sometimes use the following illustration. I was one of 400,000 people who came to see the pope in Greenpark racecourse, Limerick on October 1st, 1979.

And if you look at the New Testament church, they could have just carried on with the ethical teaching of Jesus. But they didn’t. The key message was that Jesus was risen, and hundreds witnessed this (1 Cor 15:3-8)

If the disciples were peddling lies, it would have been easy to expose them. Thousands experienced the miracles of Jesus and those of the early apostles. People were amazed at the words and works of Jesus.

Matt 8:27
²⁷ The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

John 7:45-46
⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” ⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

John 9:32
 ³² Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

Yet, some did oppose and disregard Jesus. They had preconceived notions of what the Messiah should be like, and when he actually came, he didn’t fit the bill. It’s a little lesson for us to be open minded and willing to revise our views. In the last 45 years since I committed my life to Christ, I have changed my outlook on many things. But I still believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that the Bible is God’s word. And I would still describe myself as an evangelical Christian, but evangelical Christians have lots of different opinions about secondary matters; and rightly so. I wouldn’t want to attend a fundamentalist church that insists that everyone believes exactly the same thing about everything.

Perhaps the closest I could come to absolute certainly is to consider my beliefs briefly through the Apostles Creed, and the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland Statement of Faith. These are attempts to summarize the doctrines of our faith.

Actually, you could quibble with a few things in these. For example, Christ’s descent into hell (from the Apostles Creed) isn’t clearly and explicitly taught in Scripture. A few passages, such as 1 Peter 3:18–20, touch on the notion, but these are subject to varying interpretations.

And some evangelicals would disagree with some aspects of the Baptist statement, such as baptism by immersion. So, we’re all more certain about the Scriptures themselves that we are of creeds, but that doesn’t mean that we can be certain about our interpretation of the Scriptures, which is why we should read, pray, and meditate on them throughout our lives. And though we might respect and learn from experts or denominations, I don’t think we should trust church authorities over the Scriptures. But ultimately, our trust is in Jesus, however uncertain we might be about details of Christian doctrines.

Here are three hymns that express confidence in Jesus and his message.