Month: September 2026

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Faith is Not Unreasonable

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” — Hebrews 11:1

The famous skeptic H.L. Mencken has been quoted as saying, “Faith is the illogical belief in the occurrence of the impossible.” The philosopher David Hume said that faith and reason are two different things. To him matters of faith were unsupported by reason.

Anthony Flew once tried to illustrate this with the following parable: Once upon a time two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing were growing many flowers and many  weeds. One explorer said, “There must be a gardener who tends this plot.” The other explorer answered, “There is no gardener.” So they pitched their tents and decided to watch.

No gardener was ever seen. On the assumption that he might be an invisible gardener, they set up an electrified fence, and patrolled the area with bloodhounds. No movement of the fence or cry of the hounds betrayed the existence of an invisible gardener.

Yet still the believer remained unconvinced. “He is an invisible gardener who is insensible to electric shock, he comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves.”

The skeptic was exasperated. “How does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener, or no gardener at all?” (It is interesting to note that Flew later renounced atheism.)

John W. Montgomery said that Flew’s parable is a damning judgment on all religious truth claims except those of the Christian faith. In Christianity we do not have merely an allegation that the garden of this world is tended by a loving Gardener; we have the actual entrance of the Gardener into the human scene in the person of Christ.

When the Christian talks about faith he/she is not espousing a blind leap into ignorance, or faith in faith, or believing something known to be false. Faith is an intelligent commitment consistent with reason. The Christian faith is based on solid evidence, “being sure of what we hope for,” and “certain of what we do not see.”

This is telling us that the claims of Christianity are dependable and trustworthy, based on evidence. For example, consider Jesus’ claim to be the truth in himself (John 14:6). This is an absolute claim. If it can be disproven, then the whole Christian position comes crashing down. Does Jesus’ character match his claim?

He claimed to be sinless. His followers claimed he was sinless. Even his enemies were unable to produce any proof of his wrongdoing. His followers were not specialists in public relations. They did not invent extravagant stories to burnish Jesus’ image. They could not have made this up. They were uneducated Galilean working men.

Not only that, they were Jews! No Jew would ever ascribe sinlessness to another human being, no matter how much he was revered. But Jesus’ followers believed that Jesus was perfect, the living embodiment of the truth of God.

They faced persecution for preaching this. If this had been a made-up story there were too many people still living who could have refuted it. Nobody did because nobody could produce evidence that Jesus was anything other than  morally perfect.

A professor in a university announced on the first day of class that, “the first thing you have to learn is that there are no absolutes!” A student asked, “Are you sure of that?” Before he thought better of it the professor replied, “Yes, of course, I am absolutely sure.”

The writer of Hebrews is telling us that we can know some things for sure: Faith in Jesus is “being sure of what we hope for.” If Jesus is without moral imperfection, he can be trusted to tell us the truth about salvation, about God, about things beyond the physical world. We can be “certain of what we do not see.”

Those who have knowledge of physics know that there are sounds which are too high pitched for the human ear and there are light waves which are invisible to the human eye. Yet there are scientific instruments which can detect these invisible phenomena for us even though they are beyond our natural comprehension.

Thus it seems perfectly reasonable to me that there is a super-human wisdom and knowledge that are beyond my natural ability to comprehend. A person like the professor who says that there are no absolutes is limiting himself to a very tiny part of the spectrum of knowledge.

Real faith is not blind faith. It is a simple recognition that we must put our confidence in the only one qualified to lead us into that realm beyond human knowledge, and that one is Jesus Christ.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

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Jesus Before Pilate

Pontius Pilate appears in the gospels as a cowardly vacillator who was willing to sacrifice justice for political convenience. When the religious leaders of Israel brought Jesus to him, they were accusing him of blasphemy on religious grounds. Since they could not carry out a sentence of death, they wanted the Roman procurator to do it for them. So they based their demand for Jesus’ execution on a charge of treason against Rome.

Jesus’ trial before Pilate, as reported in John’s gospel, has Pilate asking Jesus seven questions. These reveal his conflicted mental state, his contempt for the Jews, his uneasy conscience, his fear of being reported to Caesar, and his amazement at the calm demeanor and other-worldly wisdom of Jesus. One gets the sense that for Pilate, this was the great personal crisis of his life. He was on trial before Jesus!

“Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked this, with emphasis on the word “you,” as if to say, “you, a preacher from Galilee, you, a rival to Caesar? Really?” Jesus answered in the affirmative. But he added that his kingdom is not derived from this world or dependent on worldly power (John 18:33-38).

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate’s unabashed sarcasm reveals his hatred for the Jews. Here they were, clamoring for the death of an innocent man while at the same time scrupulously observing a religious rule (John 18:28). The religious authorities wanted Jesus to die by crucifixion. This meant that he would die under the curse of God (Deuteronomy 21:23). In fact, this is what happened. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree'” (Galatians 3:13).

“What have you done?” Was Pilate asking this so that Jesus would admit to some criminal activity? He was not concerned about the fine points of Jesus’  theology. He was only interested in deeds and their consequences. If only he had pursued an answer to this question! John’s gospel is the record of Jesus’ powerful deeds as signs of his divine authority.

“What is truth?” It has been suggested that this may have been the cry of a tortured soul, that Pilate let slip a brief moment of vulnerability. Or was this question another sarcastic jeer? Or was it offered with a shrug of indifference? He did not know that the very embodiment of truth was standing before him.

“Where do you came from?” There may have been a vague hint of pagan superstition in this question. Jesus had often said that he had come from God, (John 5:37, 8:16-18). Now the religious leaders remind Pilate that Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God (John 19:7). Was there some dim awareness in Pilate that the person standing before him in dignified silence came from another world? Jesus did not answer.

“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate is afraid (John 19:8). He is annoyed. He is offended. Jesus’s silence is his answer now. He has already declared his truth and his kingdom and Pilate has been dismissive. Jesus could see into Pilate’s heart. There was no use in answering.

“Don’t you realize that I have power?” He could say the word and Jesus would be crucified, or set free (John 19:10). He represented the most powerful government on earth. In his mind, there was no greater authority. In Jesus’s mind, however, there is the knowledge of the power of the living God, before whom all nations must bow. Jesus reminds Pilate that human government is a gift from almighty God (John 19:11) and is to be employed in the exercise of justice and righteousness.

Recognizing that Jesus was no threat to Roman civil authority, Pilate wanted to set him free (John 19:12). The fact that he did not is a cautionary tale. His capitulation to religious bigotry and the injustice of mob violence is a warning to us. Pilate killed an innocent man to try to preserve his own position.  Pilate condemned himself.

As for those who turned Jesus over to Pilate, our Lord says they were “guilty of a greater sin” (John 19:11). “‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered” (John 19:15). In saying this, the leaders of Israel renounced their Messiah and turned their back on their national heritage. They condemned themselves.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

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Where Was God?

I will always remember where I was on this date 25 years ago. I was attending mission board meetings at Glen Eyrie, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Our morning devotional was interrupted by the news of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. As the television news reported the unfolding events throughout the day, we became aware of the four hijacked airliners, the thousands of casualties, the attack on the Pentagon, and the heroic intervention of the passengers on United Airlines flight 93.

As a result of these attacks, the military was on high alert and all commercial flights were grounded. I was unable to get a flight home to Oklahoma City for several days. The staff of Glen Eyrie, headquarters of the Navigators, offered me kind hospitality during that time.

I was in Colorado Springs. Where was God on 9/11?

Where was he when hundreds of office workers were burned to death in stairwells and elevators? When civilians and first responders were crushed to death when the towers collapsed? When passengers on the four planes were killed when they crashed into the buildings? When thousands of families were told that their loved ones would not be coming home? When the deadliest terrorist attack in history challenged the mightiest nation in the world?

President George Bush issued a statement which included these words: “Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security have been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in  Psalm 23: ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me.'”

“You are with me.”

A pastor was called to the home where a tragedy had occurred. A teenage boy was killed in a car crash. The embittered father snarled at the pastor, “Where was your God when my son was killed?” The minister sat silently for a moment, then replied, “He was where he was when his own boy was being killed.”

That wise pastor was saying that God is not oblivious to our sorrow. In fact he has entered our world of sorrow and is with us when we grieve. He is with us in the person of Jesus Christ his Son who endured the greatest of all suffering when he died for the sins of the world.

Bruce Milne described it this way: “(Jesus) enters into the full reality of death, not merely walking with us right up to the door only to pull back at the final second, leaving us to walk the dark valley on our own. He comes all the way with us right into the grey, after-death world of funeral parlors and the making of arrangements for the disposing of the body, the world of strained faces, hushed voices and tear-stained eyes.”

Of course that is not all. In his triumphant resurrection, our Lord “is alive forever and hence our contemporary. He still comes to transform broken, sorrowing and fearful lives with the sheer, uninhibited gladness of discovering him, alive and with us.”

Where was God on 9/11? President Bush got it right when he quoted the promise that God is with us when tragedy comes. He was with us on 9/11. If our faith is in Jesus, he will be with us whenever and however our end comes. He will be with us on that great day when he restores creation and there will be no more death, sorrow or crying, and no more 9/11s!

Pastor Randy Faulkner

A Note to Readers: If this blog is helpful to you in any way, I invite you to expand its witness by re-posting it on your favorite media platform.

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Read Your Bible

A young graduate student working in a European university was working on a doctoral dissertation. He was looking for some writings by an obscure Spanish thinker of the 18th century named Hierro.

He unearthed a dusty volume and in turning its pages he found what appeared to be a document in Hierro’s own handwriting. It was written in 1741. It was Hierro’s will, bequeathing all his worldly goods to the first person who would study his book which had apparently been ignored during the philosopher’s lifetime.

Spanish courts determined that the will was legal and that the student was entitled to collect nearly $250,000.

The Bible promises us an even more priceless treasure than that. It offers us the title deed to eternal life, purchased by the blood of Jesus through his death on the cross. We would do well to read and believe the Bible.

Peter the apostle wrote, “We have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it” (2 Peter 1:19). That is Peter’s way of reminding us to read our Bibles.

We should do this, Peter says, because the Bible is truthful and trustworthy. The word Peter uses is “certain.” That means it is sure, reliable, dependable. He refers to prophecy. The Bible is full of predictions that have been fulfilled 100% of the time. For example, if you do a careful study of the prophecies about the coming Messiah, you will discover that they are fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.

Another reason Peter gives to encourage us to read our Bibles is that the Bible illuminates our lives. It gives light for our darkness. “Pay attention to it as a light shining in a dark place,” Peter says. In this he repeats a theme found throughout the scripture. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105). When we are engulfed in the darkness of discouragement or suffering. the promises of God’s word bring the light and hope of his presence.

Peter gives another reason to read the Bible: it is a living message from the living God. In other words his Spirit inspired its writing. Peter says, “No prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21).

The Bible did not come into being through the writers’ own personal interpretation of things. The Bible was not the result of human imagining. L.S. Chafer said, “The Bible is not such a book a man would write if he could, or could write if he would.” It is divinely inspired. That is reason enough for us to read it. Its human authors were under the influence of the Spirit of God.

Just as the Lord Jesus was both divine and human, so the Bible is both divine and human. It is amazing in its unity and consistency: 66 books, written over a period of 1600 years, in many different places, by 40 different authors, in three different languages. Yet it all fits together like the pieces of a puzzle with Jesus Christ the savior as its main theme.

In my youth I had a Sunday school teacher who asked the class every week, “Did you read your Bible every day?” That was good advice. He knew the Bible would direct us to Jesus and his promise of eternal life.

What a treasure!

Pastor Randy Faulkner