Attacks on faith, however common they may be, are nothing new. At the beginning of the semester, I walked into the department office dressed in my customary white shirt and tie only to be asked by a geology professor, whom I like, if I was going out proselyting. She didn’t know that I already did that or that I even belong to that Faith, because for her it was meant as tongue in cheek. All through time, men of any Faith have been attacked for the “fantasies of their deranged minds” until far too many of them become as Doubting Thomas. Beset with a constant barrage of attacks that question the validity of divine manifestations, they forget what they know and look for signs.
The problem with things of Faith is that they lie beyond the metrics measured by men. As fascinating as science may be and as dependent as I am on it for a living, it has its limits. When we first left the atmosphere, we learned that things don’t work outside it like they do here. When Voyager I first tried to leave the solar system, we learned that the extra solar space wasn’t like we thought. As our tools increase in capacity, we find it necessary to correct our conclusions. While a student, I remember learning that Linus Pauling had actually built an inaccurate model of DNA before Watson/Crick presented theirs. He didn’t have enough accurate information. Likewise, I remember Dr. Schooley telling us to rip out pages of our book because recent discoveries showed that those things were not true. Despite those things, men of science, so called “men of reason” will insist that you prove them wrong even though science is regularly debunked, incorrectly taught and inexpertly articulated. If it is your premise that proof is required, why should I have to prove YOU wrong? The burden of proof is always really on the nay sayer.
Such arguments from ignorance are however the modus opporandi of the worldly. They continue the clarion call that faith is “the opium of the masses” meant to control whilst men of science regularly use science to control people (a al Global Warming). Interested in being gods among men, these men exalt themselves by virtue of their knowledge, their hubris, apparently unable to recognize that man is nothing. I took this picture up at Red Rock in Icebox Canyon, and it shows how the earth folded rock like it was paper. Show me a man who can do that. We are so insignificant, yet we believe ourselves to be powerful because we have thoughts. Big deal. So do psychopaths.
Far too many men are Doubting Thomas’s because they seek to be gods among men. Look at Pharaoh in Egypt. He knew Moses. He also knew that Moses was a tribal herdsman by his garb. Pharaoh ejected Moses from Egypt. In Egyptian tradition, Pharaoh was a GOD. How laughable to think nothing of this but insist when people of faith insist on a higher being that it’s bunk. Pharaoh was shown many signs by Moses, but he did not believe until his own son was slain. Even then, Pharoah did not believe; he let Israel go in order to forestall further decimation of his empire. Then, he chased Moses so as to not be made to look foolish in the eyes of other rulers. He was, after all, a god.
Other Doubting Thomas’s persist because God “let them down” by not following their commandments when they ignored His. King David first ranted at God for the loss of his son Absolom. Apparently it was nothing for David to arrange for the death of Bathsheba’s husband in battle but not acceptable for God to allow David’s son to die. David could have had anything he wanted for the asking, but he took rather than asking, and he broke several basic commandments to do so. He coveted his neighbor’s wife, he arranged for the murder of one of his own Mighty Men, and then he committed adultery with the soldier’s widow! Only Moses broke more commandments at once than David! When God told David that Solomon would assume the kingdom but that it would be broken apart after that, David was still upset, but he knew that because he had not kept God’s word, God was not obligated to keep His to David.
Many men of faith are required to prove faith. Apparently the intelligentsia misapprehend what Faith actually means. If you have faith, you hope for things unseen that are true. We have faith all the time. We believe the sun will rise in the morning. We believe that plants will continue to make oxygen so we can live. We believe that our employers will pay us two weeks from now for work that we do today. We believe that people care enough about us to at least contact us on our birthdays. Why is it so hard to believe in a Messiah, that Christ shall come and make it possible for us to rise above our baser natures? Why is it so hard to believe that there is a purpose to the universe, that a God organized it for a reason? Why is it so hard to believe that in a few “weeks” God will “pay” us for our deeds? Why are men, who are fallen, the only creatures that can plan and build and create? If there is a being more intelligent than we, could it not also keep itself hidden from us? Apparently, only if it’s an alien species. I love this cartoon from XKCD because it shows how silly we are to assume there is not God because we have not conclusively found Him yet. Remember that “everyone” once “knew” the earth was flat.
In the Book of Mormon, Korihor demands that Alma prove there is a God before he will believe. Why is the onus on Alma? He didn’t make the claim that there is no God. He didn’t even start the conversation. Yet, as is true in our courts, the burden of proof falls, not on the accuser as logic would dictate, but on the unprepared and unsuspecting respondent. We expect a coherant and cogent response from him in five minutes when the claimant took weeks, months, or even years in preparation. This isn’t debate. This is an ambush. They will attack the messenger as incompetent or bigoted because they cannot argue on substance. Rather than debate and disagree, they must make you out to look the fool, because of course then everything about you must also be foolish by association.
The Pharisees even did this to Christ. “Is not this Joseph’s son?” they asked. How could a carpenter birth a smart son let alone the Savior? That is a class argument that continues today protractedly that unless you come from a particular location or degree or socioeconomic status you cannot possibly be worthy. “Has anything good come from Nazareth?” they will ask. In doing this they forget that God chooses humble, obscure, poor, and untrained people because they do not have the biases of others. They don’t think they know everything already.
Expect opposition for believing in Christ. From their earliest days, His followers were called Christians as a mark of derision. His detractors meant to mock Him. Before Christ’s birth the detractors spoke of how foolish it was to believe in something to come; today, scientists declare the apocalypse with certainty unless we control the population or emissions or the size of our armies. If we can’t know of Christ in the future, how can they know of those things? Since Christ’s birth, people have tried to make Christ out to either be a loon or to be just an ordinary prophet. As CS Lewis wrote, Christ did not intend to make it a question in anyone’s mind. He declared Himself the Son of God. Either he was completely mental and raved about asinine delusions or He was what He says He was.
Maybe when you find it hard to believe in God it may help you to know that He believes in YOU. “For God so loved the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son, that whoso believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” When we need rain, it falls. When we are cold, the sun rises. When we are hungry, we find wild berries. When we are alone, someone finds us or calls us. When we fall, Christ lifts us. When we are humble, Christ leads us. When we submit to Him, Christ remakes us so that we are fit to return to the Father’s presence. Do not wait until you see Christ and feel the prints in His hands and feet to trust that the Lord Jesus was and is divine. Beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. When men say that you must recount your faith or die, remember that you are not alone. Have More faith, have Liddell faith, and have lasting faith and tell them that until you die you shall not remove your integrity from you. For whoso saveth his life shall lose it, and whoso loseth his life for My sake shall find it.
This Easter Season, remember the reason for your rejoicings. Remember that most men are idiots. Remember that nobody has all the answers. Remember that you must choose your own adventure. Remember to look up, to look forward, and to look steadfastly to the source of your faith. God does not force you to follow. If you choose to, He promises you a bounty, a Land of Promise. I have personally benefitted from trusting His wisdom, His direction, His inspiration, His timing, and His love. In the last five years, He freed me from a vindictive and vicious ex wife, from a virulent and vile accusation from a coworker, from several violent vehicular collisions, and from many other potential disasters to my person and possessions. I testify that there is a God who sent His Son to help us on earth. I testify that on the third day Jesus rose. We can rise with Him if we remain faithful. Keep your faith in Christ, because that’s what it means, to believe in truths we cannot really understand because we cannot see them. When men prove faithful, other men reward them, so how much greater the potential for reward from the Creator for your faithfulness to Him! As you are faithful, He will be faithful to you.
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