Author:
Pat
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Date Posted: 03/27/09 11:55am
Tracy,
Faith is actually a gift of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, a person can believe a lot of the right things, but still not have that conviction you're talking about. That said, I will explain a few things.
God chose us before He formed the universe. A lot of churches teach that you have to make a decision. The truth is, we CAN'T make the decision until God calls us through the Holy Spirit. Our free will has been corrupted by sin, and all we can do is choose evil and death.
People who tell you to pray the sinner's prayer are also saying you have to make a decision, not even knowing if you have been called.
However, if you have that desire to believe, you already HAVE the Holy Spirit. When people ask you when you were saved, what they really want to know is when you became aware that the Holy Spirit has called you. If someone asks me when I was saved, I tell them, when Jesus died on the cross!
Another thing to be aware of is that faith is not a feeling. It is a state of being. When I was clinging to the cliff with my fingernails, I didn't want to trust in God. But I knew that God was my only answer and my only hope, so doggedly, I maintained my faith that somehow things would work out. And literally, that's what it was. I was too stubborn to give up on God. I sure didn't FEEL like believing.
I have a close friend. When I met her, she weighed 500 pounds and took up a whole double bed, and she could scarcely get out of bed. She has three children. To make a long story short, the oldest one got into drugs and killed a security guard. He was sentenced to a very long term in prison. Years later, he became a Christian. Her daughter had a baby out of wedlock. Her younger son had been placed for adoption as an older child because she couldn't manage him. He would play hooky and break into people's homes and set fires. When she found him as an adult, he had been convicted of crimes several times and was in and out of prison. During the years I have known this woman, she had a bout of bone cancer (now in remission), psychosomatic blindness, and many other afflictions. Her life was grim. But one of the foster moms of her children was a Christian. I never really discussed the Christian faith with her during that time. I tend to follow the words (I don't remember who said them), Preach the gospel. Use words if necessary. Our conversation should be our behavior. Just as your conversation to your husband should be your behavior. The Bible tells us that this silent conversation is what wins the spouse. Anyway, my friend became a Christian, but she didn't have the joy of this other woman, so one day we were talking, and she said, I always knew there was something different about you, but I didn't know what. (Of course, I was too slow to use words if necessary). And she said, I don't have the joy anymore, so what's wrong with my faith? And I told her, it's not the joy; it's not an emotion. Faith is being in Christ, a state of being. When you don't feel joy, that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with your faith. And incidentally, Tracy, faith is also not about prosperity and health. God being sovereign, decides what gifts of life to give us, and He has his reasons, whether He gives these things, or like He did with Paul, He gives us the grace to endure other things.
Now all of that said, there is also ABUNDANT empirical evidence that the Bible is true, and accurate in every respect. The Christian faith is the ONLY complete faith that is completely backed by the evidence! From the scientific evidence regarding the origin of the world and life, from the accuracy of the prophecies, and many other aspects, the Bible is completely reliable. Here I am talking about the original writings, called the "autographs". We don't have those. What we do have is thousands and thousands of manuscripts we can compare with each other.
When we do this, we can, through careful scholarship, reconstruct the exact wording of the autographs. And that is what we have done. In questions of the fine points of doctrine, going back to these versions (the Textus Receptus and a few refinements made since that was prepared) can tell us what the true position of the Bible is. That is why I am a Lutheran, incidentally. On top of that, the critical truths are repeated so many times that there is no mistake. Salvation is by grace ALONE through faith ALONE. We are not saved by good works, we are saved FOR good works. Good works are the FRUIT of being grounded in Jesus, Who is the vine. They are EVIDENCE of faith, nothing more. But if the evidence is not there, chances are, the faith isn't, either.
My husband rejected the theory of evolution shortly after we were married. He did so on the basis of evidence and logic. The theory of evolution is devastating to faith, and devastating to human rights. My husband's rejection was partly based on his experiences working in the geochronology lab at the university (where they did radiometric dating). It was based partly on things I said, and books that we had. But even though all these years, he didn't believe in evolution, he still lacked the certainty you seek. But the first step is to get rid of the baggage: all the favorite theories people believe to avoid confronting God.
The discipline of studying the evidence for the Christian faith, and the evidence against cults, is called apologetics. There are two main areas of apologetics. One does deal with origins. My time being extremely short this weekend, I will simply point you to some things you can search by Google and readily get the links. The other deals with doctrine and cults. The Institute for Creation Research (which I think is http://www.icr.org) and Answers in Genesis are both excellent sources. If you're not quite ready to go there, the Discovery Institute talks about intelligent design. The Apologetics Index is good on doctrine and cults. There are also historical writings, and some of the excellent Lutheran ones are online. Luther wrote two catechisms which are grounded in Bible. There is also the Book of Concord. This is pretty deep study. But a summary of the essential doctrines of the faith is found in the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. These two don't address origins, because it wasn't an issue at the time, but they address just about everything else. Some churches don't specifically confess these creeds, but they do have a statement of faith which says much the same thing. We speak of the cardinal doctrines, on which we all agree. Among them are the Trinity, Jesus as both God and man, and salvation through Jesus' death on the cross. If a church doesn't confess these, it's not Christian, no matter how much it claims otherwise.
Ultimately, if you ask God for faith, He is gracious to give it. If you want that kind of certainty, ASK. It's not that you won't have doubts. Jesus rewarded the person with doubts (Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief) by telling him he had the essential faith. Doubts which are dealt with actually make you stronger. I think that's where you are right now. So whenever things seem hopeless, or when you have doubts, go to God in prayer. Pray from the bottom of your heart. He WILL answer you. He will do so in His own timing and His own way, but He will answer.
I pray that you will soon experience the assurance you seek.
Hugs,
Pat
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