Faith is one’s personal trust or belief in something with or with no proof of its existance, and takes action accordingly. Everyone has faith in something whether it is tangible or metaphysical. The connotation around “faith” is “oooo… religion,” but people don’t realize that faith does not always mean religion; we inquire faith in our everyday lives. A hackneyed example of faith is sitting in a chair; you don’t know that the chair will hold your weight but you sit in it anyways, by faith.
Faith is something I personally struggle with. I have a problem with doubting everything. I doubt in myself, others, and eventually God too. My mind becomes disturbed when I read the verse, Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” What if I THINK I have faith but truly I don’t? If God is omniscient and our life story was written by him before we were even born, then where do we have free will? Our faith is what takes us to heaven and if our destiny has already been decided by God, what are we supposed to do? What is our point in life? These questions puzzle me. If you have any thoughts or answers to my questions, please comment because I want to see life from someone else’s perspective.
I admire those who have strong faith in God. Religion wise, there is a difference between those whose faith is real and those whose are fake. Though I have no right to judge others, for when I judge people, I judge based on perfection, which I am not, I am bothered by those who try too hard to be ostentatious about their “faith.” Usually, they are the people who are very emotional and “HALLELUIAH!” at Church or Bible camp but when they leave the building, their life is not the reflection of a true believer.
My thoughts may be scattered or even confusing in this post so I apologize. Faith is a hard topic for me and with too many questions I have about faith relating to life, I had a hard time gathering my thoughts.
1 comment:
Amy,
You brought up some major theological debates that have raged for centuries! The doctrine of predestination (the question you had of free will) is definitely a difficult one. If God is omniscient then he knows past, present, and future. Also, God, being omnipresent is outside of time, so if time is a continuum and we see it as linear, he can see the whole picture. If this is true, then how can we have free will if God knows all, including who and who won't be saved. There are a couple arguments for and against this doctrine. Scripturally, there are supports for both. One theory suggests that when it comes to free will, that somehow God has created a "blind spot" in his omniscience, only when it comes to predestination. Others suggest this is impossible, because if he has a blindspot, then he is not omniscient, which goes against a fundamental principal of God.
Another thing you need to distinguish between is predestination and determinism. Determinism would mean that God knows what has happened, is happening, and is going to happen, but doesn't necessarily "intervene" or "choose" what people are going to do, maintaining the idea of free will. Predestination means that God not only knows what is going to happen, but he "chooses" what happens, negating free will. He chooses who goes to heaven and hell.
Think of this also. Just because you know someone is going to do something or choose to do something, does this mean that you chose it for them? Knowledge of something happening (omniscience) doesn't mean that you made it happen. To believe this you would also have to believe that God is controlling (manipulating) as a puppet master all people and all events.
Sorry for the theology, but I thought it might give you some more things to think about.
p.s. your post really intrigued me so I did some research!
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