Is faith in God or the Bible rational or irrational?

Is Faith in God and the Bible Rational?

Some people describe faith in the Bible and God as just a wish, or jumping off a cliff not knowing where you will land or if you will live. But that definition of faith is inaccurate. This brief answer defines faith and then reveals that the Bible is logical and gives us reasons to believe. This article reveals why the Bible is completely trustworthy. Biblical faith is a rational faith and not just a wish.

Biblical Understanding of Faith

Some think that faith is not rational – that it is like a soap bubble that will eventually pop. But that is a wrong view of biblical faith. A biblical concept of faith is not a wish, a soap bubble, or just luck. A biblical definition of faith is given to us in Hebrews 11:1. The verse says,

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 (NASB)

The Greek word for “assurance” has the meaning of a guarantee of a transaction. A.T. Robertson states that the word was “. . . common in the papyri in business documents as the basis or guarantee of transactions.¹So, true faith is rooted or based on a guarantee or a promise. Then the Greek word for “hope” is different than the English definition. Biblical hope is a confident expectation that is based on facts. So, biblical faith is not a hope or a wish. Biblical faith is a confident expectation of a guarantee that has been made. That is the correct definition of biblical faith. So, what is the basis or guarantee of biblical faith? Once we discover that, then we will have a hope or a confident expectation that the guarantees which are promised will be fulfilled.

Facts Lead to Rational Faith

It has been said that facts lead us to have faith, and faith results in feelings. That is the pattern we see in the Bible. The Bible has given us some scientific facts, historical records, and fulfilled prophecies so that we can know that it is trustworthy. It speaks truth whenever it speaks. So, we will examine several important examples.

The first important example is we know that the book of Daniel existed before its major prophecies were fulfilled. For example, we know that Daniel was written before 570 B.C. for Ezekiel 14:14 refers to the prophet. The book of Daniel existed by 450 B.C. because it was known by the Jewish Great Assembly which then placed it into the Tanakh. Flavius Josephus tells us that the book was shown to Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. It also existed in the Septuagint (circa. 200 B.C.), the Dead Sea Scrolls (circa. 164. All of Daniel’s prophecies except for one occurred after the book was written. Now that is an important book of prophecy. Real facts lead to faith and prove we can trust the Bible.

A second important fact is found in Luke 1:1-4. In that passage we are told that the gospel of Luke was written “so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.” That is, the gospel of Luke gives us the life of Christ in chronological order. It gives us the names of the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus, Tiberius Caesar, a Roman governor named Quirinius, Herod the Tetrarch, Philip the Tetrarch, Lysanias the Tetrarch, and Pontius Pilate. Consequently, we can estimate the date of Jesus’ ministry and other events given in the gospel.

Third, in the gospel of John we are told that the gospel of John was written so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that believing we can have eternal life. Here is the passage.

Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. John 20:30-31 (NASB)

That is, faith in our God and in the Bible is rooted in facts and not feelings.

Fourth, we are told in Acts 26:24-29 that King Agrippa knew the facts about Christianity and was considering becoming a Christian.

Fifth, there are also quotes from historical people who have left records testifying about the life and works of Jesus Christ. Here are just three quotes to consider:

Tiberius Caesar Believed Christ Was God — We know that Tiberius Caesar had received a report from Pontius Pilate that Jesus had performed many miracles, had died, and was then resurrected. As a result, he was so convinced that he asked the Roman Senate to declare that Jesus Christ was God.

Pontius Pilate Reported About Christ — Multiple sources say that Pontius Pilate sent a report to Rome in which he reported that Jesus performed many miracles, died, and was resurrected.

Dionysius, Thallus, & Phlegon Report About Darkness — Multiple observers report that total darkness occurred on the afternoon while Christ hung on a cross and died. The observers could not explain why it happened since this occurred during a full moon and during a solar eclipse.

Other reports can be found at the “Historical Quotes About Christ” section.

The sad part is that some individuals today want to rewrite ancient history based on their supposedly superior knowledge at a distance of 2,000 years after the events. But the point is simple. Faith is not hope. Real faith is based on facts. The Greek word for faith actually means “belief.” Faith is believing the facts.

Bible Speaks About Some Objective Facts

The Bible recorded thousands of historical data points, which repeatedly have been proven to be correct as archaeologists continue to dig and find that the Bible is accurate. The website Answers In Genesis is an excellent source about historical data, especially on the topic of evolution. There are hundreds and hundreds of prophecies in the Bible that have been fulfilled. Maybe the most significant and demonstrable prophecies are from the book of Daniel. A good source for additional information on Biblical archaeology is Unearthing the Bible: 101 Archaeological Discoveries That Bring the Bible to Life.

Unfortunately, the western world has distorted science. Our “science” is not always true science. Increasingly what is called science is purely opinion based on convincing rhetoric. It is also often biased against Christianity. However, engineering is based on the unyielding laws of physics. One cannot build a house, a train, a car, or mobile phone based on opinion and rhetoric. One must build based on real world principles.

I was involved in the development of missiles as a beginning engineer and later as a defense program manager. I noticed that a missile cannot be designed by people who are clueless about the laws of physics. We also noticed that most university professors teaching engineering knew very little about the extreme details of how to actually design and build missiles. They may have been great theoreticians in the classroom; but at Raytheon Missile Systems Company, we actually built missiles that worked. Missiles cannot be launched based upon compromise within a group of politicians, or by university professors who had no real life experience designing and making them. The missile either worked or did not. If it did not work, then the engineers failed to understand some law(s) of physics, or failed to understand that science is very unforgiving and cannot work based upon sloppy designs or sloppy work. That is also true of medicine to some degree. As my primary care doctor told me, medicine can be somewhat of an art since it does vary from person to person. But that is not true for missiles. Missiles are not biological.

For the last three decades evolutionists have been using the Hubble telescope to discover the age of the universe and to investigate the expansion rate of the universe. If the expansion is slower than the theory, that would reveal the universe is older. If it is faster than the theory, that would suggest the universe is younger. Scientists are reporting the expansion rate of the universe is significantly faster and exceeds the prediction. That means the universe is much, much younger than they have been advocating. So, how did they respond? They started looking for new theories that will support their concept of an older earth. They are hanging on to the old dates and trying to find supporting theories since the data supports a younger earth.

The Bible indicates a young earth. One honest evolutionist has admitted that the entire evolutionary system is a theory built on very poor data. In short, Darwinian evolution is not based on science like the design of a missile is based on science. In comparison, evolution is actually not science. If the practice of the evolutionary theory was applied to aerospace, no missiles would fly! If a missile fails to function correctly, someone missed a scientific law or they did not design some part of the system correctly. Evolutionary theory is primarily developed by professors in universities. Aerospace is a very unforgiving science developed and tested in the real world . But that is not true of evolution. The Big Bang theory cannot be tested in the laboratory. We cannot destroy the universe and recreate the universe. We cannot go back in time and redo it. Evolutionists are guessing. They cannot find the incremental transitions between species in the soils that would actually prove Darwinian evolution. Thousands of reputable scientists reject the evolution religion since it lacks credible real-world facts. Evolution is built on the world’s definition of hope.

Conclusion

In short, the Bible is accurate about everything it states. The Christian faith is supported by facts and not a wish or a soap bubble. The Bible has given us some scientific facts, historical details, prophecies, and information about Jesus Christ. God gave us the Bible so that we can know the facts and believe in the Bible and in Him. So, the facts in the Bible lead us to faith in the Bible, and a confidence that all its promises will come true.

References:

1. A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933), Heb 11:1.