I have come to the conclusion that people who believe in God, do so because the want to believe.
For the past couple of hours I’ve been sitting at Starbucks drinking a Grande Cafe Americano working on my sermon for this coming Sunday—and eves dropping on the conversation between a couple at the next table (yes, I am bad).
Apparently they saw my Bible and began to discuss the issue of faith. He’s a believer of sorts and she’s an agnostic—or maybe I should say an antagonist. In essence, he’s trying to convince her to believe in God while she’s making every excuse as to why she doesn’t believe. And she’s being rather antagonistic about it (maybe she thinks he’s being antagonistic).
Anyway, he’s made some basic but good arguments for belief in God, and she’s made some of the standard arguments for not believing in God (doesn’t believe in one way, doesn’t believe a loving god would send people to hell, doesn’t believe a loving god would allow so much evil, etc.). She’s arguing but not listening—playing the Devil’s Advocate—more interested in the argument than the conclusion.
I believe that I can prove the existence of God beyond a “reasonable” doubt using philosophy, logic, and rationalism. Yet none of the people I have led to Christ have been led through “convincing” but through “conviction.” In other words, those who wanted to believe accepted and those who did not want to believe did not accept.
All the philosophic arguments in the world will rarely convince, instead they just create arguments.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t argue for the authenticity of our faith and for the rational belief in God. But it does mean that such arguments do more to reinforce those who believe than to convince those who do not. More and more I find myself begging out of “arguments” with non-believers, yielding instead to the Holy Spirit’s role in bringing about conviction in their life. I can plant seeds of faith, but I can’t save anybody.
Ultimately they have to want to believe.
