I have been crucified with Christ;
it is no longer I who live
but Christ live in me;
and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and
gave Himself for me
Galatians 2:20
Examining faith under next definitions it is found that faith is founded on the nature of its object. As it has been said: faith is the persuasion of the truth of things not seen. Visions swallow up faith, and we contrast the one with the other. An example is given by the Apostle to the Corinthian church: "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). The writer of Hebrews in a familiar passage all the objects of faith considered in chapter eleven are to be included under the categories of "things hoped for" (ἐλπιζομένων); and "things not seen" (tοὐ βλεπομένων); both being included in each other. Paul in writing to the Roman church says: "But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance" (Romans 8:25). The word "see" must be defined for if we don't we will take it as it is most commonly used and that is to see an object. The word can be used in three ways: (1) In the literal sense and we know that something is true that we see with our eyes. Being told by a truck driver that the city of New York is beautiful, (well, parts, Ha!) and the fact as a long-distant truck driver who delivers all over the United States, on his authority we believe, put our faith in his word, but when we have gone to New York City, faith has passed into knowledge. The conviction we had in faith by means of the authority of the truck driver and by means of pictures he may have had of the city and now having gone to the city conviction for both the authority of the truck drive and his pictures and our having been there is no stronger in one case than another. How can that be you may ask? We are just as sure that there is a city called New York City as though we had been there many times before as if we had seen it with our own eyes but the conviction is a different kind.
(2) The word "see" may refer to mental vision, to take heed for it can express an inner intent, earnestness contemplation and is thought to be true. This mental vision may be immediate or mediate, or intuitive or through a process of proof. In school, math, (ugh!) we learn about triangles, that a triangle has three sides of at right angles, and when the teacher is describing a triangle we take it on faith by the authority of the teacher, but when we have come to understand the proposition, our faith becomes knowledge. We now can see it to be true. Now the objects of sense-perception, the objects of intuition, those things that we recognize as true on a process of proof, are not according to this definition of the term, objects of faith. This axiom applies here as We know what we see to be true and we believe when we recognize as true what we do not see. Here is a truth: the same thing may be an object of faith and an object of knowledge; but not at the same time. You may wonder where are we going with all this definition? Bringing our thoughts to God; we may recognize ass truth the being of God, or even the proposition of the immortality of the soul based on the proposition that "God is," "the soul is immortal," are capable of proof because the arguments in support of those propositions are adequate to satisfy our minds. But, they are truths of revelation to be believed on the authority of God. Knowledge and faith, those states of mind, are not identical, neither are they strictly coexisting. It is by the demonstration of the one thing that produces a certain effect and the effect produced by the testimony of the Word of God is another thing; both include persuasion of the truth. We must look at the grounds for they are different in both cases and the persuasion caused by both cases are different in nature. When the arguments are before the mind, the conviction which they produce is knowledge. When the testimony of God is before the mind, the conviction which it produces is faith.
(3) Turning our attention to "things not seen." There are those who under that term would include all things not present in the mind. A distinction is drawn between presentative and representative knowledge. In representative knowledge the object is present at the time, we perceive it, we are conscious of it. In representative knowledge there is present an object representing an absent object. All we then have is a conception of a person or thing. In other words, the conception is present, but the thing represented is absent. Therefore, it is not before the mind and belongs to the category of things not seen. While the conception is present it is the object of knowledge and the thing that is represented is an object of faith. Looking at this closely we find that we know that we have the conception and we believe that the thing which it represents , does or does not exist.
This is very deep, maybe you, by now have a headache, that is understandable so we need a clear example to help, so here goes: You are standing on Glacier Point, Yosemite and looking across the valley you see Half Dome, looks very close from that position, you now that this place, Glacier Point, and Half Dome do exist and when we leave and go home we come away and form an idea of it, in other words, we can see those places in our minds, but all we have is a conception of those places, therefore it is a by memory that we believe in their existence. Faith enters as an element when we no longer see the representative, or have never seen the representative object(s) and yet are assured of their reality even though they are absent.
It has been proposed that when properly speaking, we know and can only know the actual and the present, for all real knowledge is an immediate knowledge. In the beginning of this blog it was mentioned as to mediate knowledge and those things said to be mediately known or not direct, is in truth not known to be, only believed to be. For instance, speaking of a professor and to his propositions this definition would apply for his propositions are "mediately" known to be true by a process of proof. One man said when speaking of memory; "It is not a knowledge of the past at all; but a knowledge of the present and a belief of the past." In the presentation to our senses and the presentable representations we are said to know the objects, but to believe in objects that we have seen in the past, those things that are not now present and those objects that we have never seen, and especially those objects we can never fully know, we are said to know within ourselves, by belief but this is most difficult proposition when it comes to the Infinite God.
We began by stating that faith is founded on the nature of an object. I have spoken of those objects that are representative or mediated in some manner, that we have come to know by means of a process, but so far all we have discussed is objects of reality, even physical, things which are perceived in the mind, both present and past, when objects are present or absent. Christianity, (all religions) are based on propositions, therefore we must consider faith in regards to the propositions of Christianity in considering our faith. A propositional statement makes a definite truth claim or attributes value to an argument. This is different in definition than faith as in representations of real objects. So next we will discuss how faith interacts with propositions.
A mind teaser: You walk in a room and see a beautiful couch and you take special notice of it, you know, have knowledge of it, then leave, only never to go back in that room again; is the beautiful couch still in the room, or is it only in your mind? What if some furniture movers came and took the couch away? Where is the real couch according to you?
"Not unto us, O LORD, not unto
us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your mercy,
Because of Your truth,
Why should the Gentiles say,
'So where is their God?'
But our God is in heaven:
He does whatever He pleases."
Psalm 115:1-3
May God Bless
Richard L. Crumb
No comments:
Post a Comment