Wanting to Believe
April 15, 2009I 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.
The bigger question (for me) is “why WOULD people want to believe?” or “why DO people want to believe?” Just thinking out loud, maybe she CAN’T believe.
The Bible certainly teaches that “no one can come to Christ unless they are drawn…” (John 6). But it also teaches that it is God’s desire for “every” person to come to repentance (2 Peter 3). Maybe God is “drawing” her through the converstation with the man. Who knows?
Q: “Who knows?”
A: God…from the foundation of the world.
Ah, this is true. In His “foreknowledge” He has “chosen” (1 Peter 1).
Thanks for the reminder that no one is saved because of a good apologetic. People are saved when they hear the gospel — Christ and Him crucified — accept its truth and place their fatih in Jesus Christ and living a converted life. This is the Lord’s work that he accomplishes through us by his Spirit. I don’t understand the mechanism and am not comfortable with the theological boxes that have been created to explain the process by which conversion takes place. I DO know that we are to be faithful proclaimers with our words and by our examples, making the most of ever opportunity knowing that the results are up to God.
I think the converse of your statement is true (and perhaps more true): People DON’T believe in God because they don’t WANT to believe in God. And some of us believe in God in spite of ourselves… This faith stuff is like nailing jello to the wall…
It is much easier for me to have faith in a God that does not make much sense to me than it is to have faith in a god that makes perfect sense to me.
Therein lies one of the reasons so many people are so fascinated with Him—He truly is the “Undiscovered Country.” No matter how learned or well read one can be, God is unlimited beyond our understanding. If we could get our mind around God then He could not possibly be God (this line of thinking led St. Anselm to coin the “Ontological Argument” for the existence of God).
On the flip side of the coin, however, is that God makes enough information available to us (through Creation, through Conviction, and through Revelation) that we can draw appropriate conclusions about Him—conclusions that are sufficient to draw us to Him.
“God makes enough information available to us…that [is] sufficient to draw us to Him.” So, in the end, salvation is really about having the right information and the being one of the lucky ones to make the right decision.
It’s a shame lots of people just don’t figure it out given all the information at their disposal.
Actually many people don’t have all the information. Furthermore, many people that have the information or access to it, can’t comprehend it at a level that makes faith/belief possible.
But they have “enough” information available to be able to choose. That’s the point of the first serveral chapters of Romans. The Jews had enough information but didn’t get it. The Greeks & Romans had enough information but didn’t get it. And they didn’t get it because their hearts were hard–in other words–they didn’t “want” to get it.
So why doesn’t God give some people a little more information, if enough won’t get it? I assume He knows which ones of us need a bit more help than the others.
Are you saying there are some people that just NEVER WILL get it? And if so, why does God allow them to be born? It would seem in that case, God is allowing someone to be destined to hell from the beginning, with really no chase of salvation since their hard heart prevents them from “wanting” to believe…and God seeing and knowing everything would have absolute foreknowledge of their never choosing. I’m assuming that if God “sees” it in the future, it will happen exactly as He sees it.
You ultimately choose to believe what you want to believe.
Keith, you want to believe in John Calvin and so you look for biblical support to believe in John Calvin. I want to believe that man has the ability to choose or reject God, so I look for biblical support to believe that man has the ability to choose or reject God–and scripture bears out this truth. The Bible tells us to “choose” who we will serve–so I believe that we can choose. I believe the Bible. The Bible also tells us that we can fall away. I believe the Bible. I don’t look for theological loop-holes and strawmen to try to explain away what the BIble clearly teaches.
BTW: I’m assuming that if God “sees” it in the future it’s because He has “foreknowledge” that allows Him to see what’s going to happen in the future. Whom does God “choose” for specific purposes, but those that He “sees” will choose Him. Why do I believe this? Because I believe the Bible. I don’t care how Calvin & Zwingly defined it all, and neither did the early church leaders. They were apparently comfortable with the tension between “foreknowedge” and Free Will because they taught both.
At least that’s what I “want” to believe
A reader, who read some of the comments on this blogpost, made the observation that I sound very arrogant and snotty. I’m not going to post the comment. However, I sincerely apologize for being arrogant and snotty. However, I love the debate (my dad always said I would make a good lawyer) and often participate in heated ones that are never intended to be personal and/or hurtful. In the future, I will be more gracious–and if you catch me not being that way–you can call me on it. (But I probably won’t post the call).
I agree that there is plenty of information showing God exists, in my opinion. I believe many choose not to believe in God, just as many people choose to believe in Him. However, I contend that for numerous and various reasons there are plenty of people out there that are NOT ABLE to understand God enough to believe or disbelief Him. Now the number of these people pales in comparison to the number of those who choose to believe and those who choose not to believe. I believe the Church as a whole (and non-believers as well) focus almost entirely on those choosing to believe, those choosing not to believe, but neglect those that can not believe and fail to take on the challenges of reaching those people.
Darren: I “think” that the Bible teaches that those who are “not able” to understand God will not be held accountable for their lack of understanding. At least that’s what I do with that phrase in Romans 4 that says, “Where the is no law there is no transgression.” I think…, but my jury is still out on that one. I am convinced of this: some of the kids you work with fit into this group and I appreciate the fact that you do what you do.
“not be held accountable for their lack of understanding.” is the train of thought I’ve heard most of my life and given by most people regarding people with cognitive (mental) challenges, for both kids and adults. The other and more harsh extreme, in my opinion, is those who claim “God doesn’t make exceptions.”. I guess my problem with both of those thoughts, is that neither one requires any work or effort. People are basically saying “there’s nothing we can do…its in God’s hands”, yet these same people spend countless hours and resources on trying to bring others close to God. I think too often, though not always on perhaps, we judge not who is saved, but who want to be saved.
“…not be held accountable for their lack of understanding.” Would it kinder (is that a word) for us to NOT tell people about Christ? As long as they have no understanding, following this line of thinking, they would not be accountable and therefore would not be condemned to hell. BUT, the minute we inform them, they’re toast (so to speak). (FOOTNOTE: I do think God somehow handles those, as you put it, that are not able to believe because of mental challenges, etc. David expressed absolute confidence that he would be reunited with his infant son–the product of his adultery with Bathsheba.)
“there’s nothing we can do…its in God’s hands” True. He simply uses us –gives us the privilege of being part of the process. If God wanted to save everybody, He’d just do it. Then we wouldn’t need preachers, missionaries, Sunday School teachers, etc. “All dogs go to heaven.”
“these same people spend countless hours and resources on trying to bring others close to God.” That’s because none of us have the mind of God. Jesus said to go out and make disciples. We obey. God sorts it out. It’s not my job to try and figure out who is or who will.