The earth is the LORD'S,
and all its fullness.
The world and those
who dwell therein.
For He has founded it upon
the seas,
and established it upon
waters.
Psalm 24:1-2
When we studied faith we came to the conclusion that intuitive faith is saving faith. Truth in God sometimes seems far distant and He unapproachable. It is hard for some to believe in a Sovereign God as they surmise that this condition of the world could not be decreed by God. An earlier Church divine Thomas Boston (1677-1732), a Scottish church leader summed this problem of faith due to circumstances in this manner: In the Book "The Crook in the Lot" he states: "A just view of afflicting incidents is altogether necessary to a Christian deportment under them; and that view is to be obtained only by faith, not by sense; for it is the light of the world alone that represents them justly, discovering in them the work of God, and consequently, designs becoming the Divine perfections. When they are perceived by the eye of faith, and duly considered, we have a just view of afflicting incidents, fitted to quell the turbulent motions of corrupt affections under dismal outward appearances." Faith in the fact there is a being, a God, who is Sovereign and is Truth leads to continue to understand truth. Yes, we all have in our constitution the fact of God. It is our design and not due to any process to understand. But, we come to understand by our knowledge and desire to know Him. Examining truth further we find:
Truth is to be found also in the fact that all the feelings and faculties of our mind and bodies have their appropriate objects. In fact, to have possession of these faculties supposes the existence of those objects. What is meant is that our senses suppose the existence and reality of those objects sensed. Example of this would be that we have a sense of sight and that sight is due to the structure of the eye. To have this sense then would also presuppose that there be light. The same would be for the ear, to have the faculty of hearing presupposes that there be sound. Why would we have the sense of touch if not for the fact there are tangible objects. We have affections which can only be true and realizable because of the existence of our assumption that necessitates relations suited to their exercises. Does not then our moral nature presuppose a sense of right and wrong? Yes! In fact this knowledge is not a myth or imaginary. Following that argument that our senses supposed what it can and may sense then our sense of a Higher Being, one in which we are responsible too and we have religious feelings toward, presupposes that there be a God. Some may cavil at this thought and make our intuited belief and necessity to be one without virtue. But, this objection overlooks the fact that the moral character or our feelings do not depend on the origin of that feelings, rather it is our nature. It can be said that these feelings may spring from the constitution of our nature yet be either good or bad as the case may be. for instance a mother's love for her child is instinctive and the absence of this love is something that is unnatural and be universal and as is, condemned. Our sense of pity and justice are virtuous, but they are instinctive. This is so true of our religious feelings and all that our belief involve. We have the feeling of responsibility and this is right that we do. Can we think of a world where there is no responsibility and what all that would entail? If a person does not have this feeling of responsibility we call them "reprobate." When Adam was created he did not need to go through some process to gain the knowledge that God existed. He believed in God the same as he believed in the external world. His apprehension for both God and the external world held the same confidence that his senses apprehended the other. This being said is that this knowledge that men have is of great importance that the know and feel by their very nature that by this nature they are bound to believe in God. Furthermore, they know that they cannot emancipate themselves from that belief without doing harm to themselves by derationalizing and demoralizing their whole being. All that has been said and proved is that man cannot state that he came to know of a God by some process of education. Knowledge of God is intuitive and it is innate.
How precious is Your
lovingkindness, O God!
therefore the children of men
put their trust under the
shadow of Your wings.
Psalm 36:7
Rest in the LORD and wait
Richard L. Crumb
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