Confidence To Believe!
Dr. Mike Murphy
I grabbed my keyboard, ready to jump in and help. We have all been there, seen someone on social media who placed themselves in the eye of the storm. Knowing that the attacks were getting ready to come at them from all sides, because of a comment or reply they have made. As I watched that day, I saw an older woman I knew speaking up to defend Christ.
Speaking up in the middle of a discussion where many were looking to do nothing but attack Christ, and the faith she held dear. Before her reply, a couple of others had looked to respond, to question why so many attacked a belief in God. But the sarcasm, demeaning words, and hatefulness of the replies they received, had driven them from the discussion. Chasing them, out of fear, from daring to reply again. But despite what she knew she would face, she spoke up anyway.
And speak up she did! She not only stated why she believed, but questioned how anyone could not believe. Asking how anyone could take a single look at the world around us and not see God. With each response, those who would attack her became fewer, and those who would belittle her, became less. By the end of the discussion, only her words were seen, only her words remained. And by the end of the discussion, the glory of God stood. Each of her replies showed me, she did not need my help. She was already receiving the help of One who had far greater insight and words to offer than me.
We have all been in or seen someone in the situation this older woman found herself in. The question becomes, what did you do when you found yourself or someone else in this situation? Did you quickly jump into the discussion to defend your faith? Did you stay quiet, not knowing what to say? Or did you remain silent, hoping another would step up to speak? As a Christian, we do not have to shy away, but can boldly defend our faith with the greatest of confidence. We so easily forget, our faith is not a blind faith, but one supported with the greatest evidence and proof this world has ever known. God’s Word tells us, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”(Hebrews 11:1). Just as we can have complete confidence that the sun will rise tomorrow, we can have the same confidence that each word of God’s Word is just as real!
Often in discussions of our faith, many will ask for proof of Christ outside of the Bible, wanting historical evidence to be given of Christ. But I would ask, what better historical evidence is there than the Word of God? What book, what historian, could we better turn to than the One who set into motion all of history? There has been over twenty-five thousand archaeological finds that support exactly what the Word of God tells us. On top of that, there are well over twenty thousand manuscripts that completely support word for word what God’s Word says. The Bible has been, by far, the top selling book of history. No other even comes close. You can take the total sales of the next top twenty books combined, and they will not even come close to how many Bibles have been published in the last two hundred years alone. And the Bible continues to find itself in the hands of billions despite the fact that it is the most attacked publication of history. But with every dispute, a truthful answer is given, and absolute proof is shown. And each dispute soon finds itself left without teeth, silent and pointless, because each attack proves that you cannot dispute a word that our Lord has said.
If someone wants the greatest of proof that Christ was exactly who He said He was, the Bible provides us with that undeniable proof. Christ fulfilled over three hundred prophecies with His life, death, and resurrection. Think about the power of that for a second. If one man were to fulfill just eight prophecies, he would do so at the odds of 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. For one man to fulfill forty-eight of those prophecies, he would do so at the odds of 1 in 10 to the 157th power, that is ten with one hundred and fifty-seven zeroes behind it. For one man to fulfill over three hundred prophecies, would be odds greater than a man is capable of calculating, much less ever being able to fulfill. No man could ever accomplish this, only One could, only God!
When we look to the confidence of our faith, we have to look no farther than Christ for the greatest of examples. Time after time, Christ told all who would listen that they should believe in Him because of the undeniable evidence His life brought to this world(John 2:23, John 10:25-38, John 14:29). And with each word Christ spoke to us, He made it clear that every word of God’s Word serves as a witness to the truth, and provides us with all the evidence we could ever need to believe. Without evidence, every man should rightly refuse to believe whatever is being presented to him. I could tell you tomorrow that aliens are real, and “little green men” are about to land on this earth and take it over. But if I did so, most logical people would never take me serious, because I would have no real evidence to support that the Martians were landing tomorrow. I could only hope that you would blindly believe what I say, trusting what I said despite the fact that I had absolutely no proof of it. But with God, we are not left blind. We have enough evidence to fill every library in the world with the proof that we can trust what each word of the Bible tells us, and what each day that Christ walked this earth brought us. Christ removed the blinders for all men, and left us with a perfect vision of exactly what the truth looks like.
Evidence alone, will never bring someone to salvation apart from the influence and presence of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit does not leave us with an absence of logic, but instead fills us with the wisdom of God. And it is in that wisdom that all evidence is found. One of the most powerful ways the Spirit reaches a needing world is through reason, and it is through the proof and logic of that reason God often works through us. When we tell others about Christ, and show them the evidence of truth that can only be found through Christ, we become a powerful tool in the Lord’s hands. A powerful tool that shows this world that there is no more logical decision we can ever make than to accept Christ as our Savior.
There are two primary ways we fulfill Christ’s call to take the Gospel to this world(Matthew 28:18-20). First, we share the proof and evidence of Christ with this world, showing this world the difference that only He can make in our lives. Second, we confront the preconceived ideas and assumptions this world falls back on about God. Showing them how reason and logic can only be found in His words, not in our own. With both, we proclaim the name of Christ, and show this world the wisdom that can only be found in Christ, and the beauty that can only be seen in a personal relationship with Christ.
Not one place in the Word of God does He ever tells us to believe in Him “just because”, but shows us with every word that our faith is based on trust. A trust that is rooted in the proof that history shows us, and a trust that is evident in the difference He, alone, makes in our live each day. God does not expect you to follow Him blindly(1 Thessalonians 5:21), and He sure does not expect you to accept Him ignorantly(Acts 17:11). God knows that believing in Him is the most intelligent decision you could ever make. And He offers you the evidence for making that decision everywhere you look. You can see His proof in the nature around you(Psalm 19:1), in the science that informs you(Genesis 1:1), in the logic that grounds you(Isaiah 1:18), in the history that educates you(Luke 1:1-4), and in the experiences that define you(Roman 1:20-21). God even goes a step farther. He does not just give you the evidence to belief, but leaves you with the confidence to follow.
Your faith is far from blind, it is a vision of all the evidence and proof God has surrounded you with. All He ever ask of us is to open our eyes and see that proof. To realize, it is this world that blinds us, and only He has the cure we need for that blindness. The Holy Spirit places in you the greatest wisdom this world could ever know, the truth to every situation you could ever find yourself in, and the answer to any question this world may ask. In you is found His Truth, and that is a truth that no man can ever dispute. In you is found the most incredible gift of reason, logic, and wisdom this world could ever know. In you is found the confidence to believe!
May the confidence of your faith be seen in you each day!