The Teaching Method of the Bible: Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen: The Leap of Faith
We are told that God exists. Many of us have no difficulty accepting that he does. We have seen Him active in our own lives and have moved far beyond questioning His existence. Too much has taken place in our lives that cannot be explained away. We are the lucky ones. The more we see Him doing, the stronger our faith becomes.
It’s what we witness Him doing that causes our faith to blossom. At the same time, God is invisible and we cannot see what an invisible God is doing. Never-the-less, seeing Him is the very core of our relationship. Knowing, beyond question, that He is there is where it all begins. Much of what He does has been simply to convince we misguided humans that He is real and involved in our lives at virtually every point. All things considered, the first step is for us to believe that he is real.
That places the onus on God. We humans never voluntarily make the change that allows us to suddenly understand that God is real, that He is there, that He is active in our own lives, and that He cares for us. It’s a really big leap.
The place God has in our lives eventually becomes so obvious to believers that it is difficult to understand why knowing He exists can be so difficult for unbelievers. God has done it all for us and not only our eyes, but our heart has been opened. Even while we are still unable to see into the invisible world very well (we see darkly), we can now perceive what God has for His people.
Many others simply cannot accept that God is real. For them, the idea that God is invisible is at least thought to be an insurmountable obstacle. If He cannot be seen, He must not be real. Since we live our lives in the visible world, we understand that world far better than we do the invisible world. Taking the step necessary to see into the invisible world is a major leap of faith and for unbelievers, it can be a very difficult leap, indeed.
Some, even while being aware of many things going on in their lives, are unable to attribute them to God. Many things may seem to have been coincidental. The most unlikely of events may appear to have had no cause. But, they have had one. Everything has a cause; but, not every cause is visible.
For all that God has done for us, even while we know it has all come from Him, we continue to say that we accept God, by faith. Even though we have had many encounters, we continue to cling to Him by faith alone. Many additional striking encounters are needed before we believe we have actually seen evidence of God. While our experiences have taken place in the visible world, we cannot explain, but somehow know that God is responsible for them. It is those many encounters that enable us to understand that God is real.
Never-the-less, we continue to think that His existence must still be taken by faith. We do not believe that such encounters rise to the level of proof. Perhaps to have encountered proof of His existence, we need an encounter in the physical world, not the spiritual world. Since He has been and remains invisible, we do not anticipate a visible encounter with Him. We see what He has done, yet, still do not see Him in the visible world.
It is often the case that things that take place before our very eyes continue to remain unseen. In other words we have overlooked something that could have been seen if only we had had our eyes open. When they are closed, we are asleep. We can be asleep literally. But we can also be asleep figuratively; in other words, we are not paying attention.
We might be asleep (to His presence) only because we have been told for our entire lives that it is impossible to see God. Having been so completely convinced of the impossibility of seeing Him, we may have given up looking for physical evidence of His presence. I am about to suggest that the overwhelming display of His presence you have seen here actually rises to the level of proof of His existence. It will be your option whether you believe it does or not. The case is strong; but, the choice is yours.
The only thing we are normally willing to accept as having come from Him and still remains visible (His entire creation being an exception), is His word. We accept the scriptures as having been given directly to those many saints who actually had done the writing. Thus, the scriptures become visible evidence of God. If we are willing to accept that the scriptures themselves have come from Him, He must exist. He could not have written the Bible, if He does not exist.
What readers, by this point, must have discovered is taking place entirely within the word of God, the scriptures. They are the only thing we normally attribute to God (again, aside from the entire creation) that we experience in the visible world. As you have seen throughout, the scriptures, do not just contain, but are made up of verses written in a way that humans just do not speak or write.
The literary style employed is entirely unique. The bible has been written by a combination of many people from many different cultures and languages over many years. For that reason, we could never have anticipated that so many verses could express themselves in the identical way. But they have. The bible has been written in a systematic way and has incorporated a uniform style of writing that is normally overlooked, but which actually becomes evidence of a common origin.
Once a reader realizes that the many different, greatly different, writers could not have produced a document that is consistently written using the identical literary style, in spite of being written so many different men, the heavens open. It is then that one realizes that our bible is not of human origin. In it God has included an ongoing style of writing that rises to the level of evidence that He had been far more directly involved in its writing than we have ever realized. It becomes evidence of His involvement. God has written this book.
Conclusion
To include such an unexpectedly huge number of scripture quotations is unheard of. I have no idea how thoroughly you may have read through them. I suspect you have glossed over many.
The interaction of the physical and the spiritual is not a new idea. However, how frequently they appear working together may come as a surprise. Readers have now seen 3,123 of them and the list is far from exhaustive. Deliberately not included are some that have been somewhat lengthy, complex, or uncertain and there are many hundreds that I have not spotted. My suspicion is that I have included only about half of them.
The purpose of numbering them has been to clearly demonstrate how frequently and intricately they are found working together. The frequency is a sure indication of how critical the association actually is. Virtually everything has both a spiritual and a physical component. My hope is that you now better understand not just that the visible and the invisible always work together, but, how that happens and the purpose of them appearing together is now better understood. God always has His part and man always has his! The association is a major component of the entire biblical presentation.
God promised us that He would neverleave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and He meant it. The physical and the spiritual are always found together because God is always with us. We are the physical and God is the spiritual. The two are inseparable. In every situation, every need, and every encounter, God is always very much involved. We never have to question it.
Most of us have probably spent most of our entire christian lives learning to accept that God is everything and we are nothing. We are correctly learning that the success of anything hinges entirely on God. However, what we may overlook is that nothing at all happens until the physical (the human part) has first been undertaken. While the actual contribution of the human part is functionally minimal and often seems to make the situation worse, it is a necessary part of what happens. God always has His part and we always have our own.
Learning to have complete trust in Him still seems to be a difficulty. We trust Him in one situation and still have doubts and fears in the next. If He is aways with us, no doubt or fear is justified. I believe, help my unbelief (Mark 9:24).
God is with us for a reason. He loves us, cares for us, and is continuously doing things to reveal Himself to us. His revelation comes at many levels. He knows that we continue to have unnecessary doubts but does not loose patience with us. We are an imperfect people. One lesson at a time, He is teaching us that He is not only with us, but He is to be trusted. If it takes 3,123 examples, He is more than willing to provide them.