Gooding, David: 3 - Is Faith Rational?

My first pleasant duty this evening, which I discharge with all my heart, is to thank you sincerely for the way you have welcomed me in on these past eleven occasions, and for your amazing, uh, courage and powers of of of perseverance to manage to sustain such unconscionably long discourses. I have to tell you that your criticisms voiced to the elders and organizers of these meetings have not reached my ears, so that, uh, you know who to blame for the fact that even tonight I shall not improve upon past practice. Our topic this evening, as you have heard, is, is faith rational? And I would like to begin by reading a passage from the New Testament, because later on in our talk, the passage will become relevant, and it will be good if it doesn't come as too much of a surprise. It is one John, the first epistle by John, and chapter five. One John chapter five, beginning in verse six. This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the son has the life. Whoever does not have the son of God does not have the life. So far then, the word of God, and we shall come back to consider it later on. I should like to begin by telling you a fable, or rather a bit of a parable. I made it up myself so that I can tell you it's true in its way. The parable is about some pygmies in the rainforest of Zaire, you'll see. And in the course of their sundry occupations in the rainforest, one day, to their surprise, they came across a motor car and knew not how it had got there, or even what it was. Nor can I tell you. Of course, in the end, curiosity got the better of them, and they began to examine this strange object, you see. Opened its doors, fiddle about with the steering wheel, and eventually someone turned the ignition key, and the engine sprang into life, and they were, they were terrified. Thing was alive, they thought. And they pondered the situation, decided there must be a God inside there making it go. And then one who was learned in these things noticed there were three letters on the front of it, F-O-R-D, and decided this was the name of the God inside it, Ford. Well, eventually they took to engineering and studies and things like that, as pygmies will do if they get the chance. And, uh, they took the thing to pieces, bit by bit. And lo and behold, it wasn't all that difficult to understand how it worked. And they ended up by understanding all of its works, do you see? I felt quite proud of their achievement. They could now explain to you how it all worked, and the interesting thing was they found there wasn't any Ford in the engine. Nor did they need any Ford in the engine to explain how it went. They could understand it perfectly without, uh, any Ford. And then they made a great leap of logic. Because they didn't find any Ford, Mr. or God Ford, i- in the engine, they decided there had never been a Ford who designed it. And you can see the falsity of that step of logic, can't you? And yet, you know, I hear sometimes very learned professors telling us that they can now understand how our universe works. And we admire their tremendous scientific skill and insight. But they will add that they, because they can understand how it all works, they don't have to suppose there's a God in there making the universe work. We've no need of God to explain how the universe works, they say. Okay. You can understand how it works. But then they take a similar leap of logic and declare that they don't believe that there ever was a God who designed and made the universe. Like the Pygmies, they decide there never was a Mr. Ford. Ford. It's a false step of logic, isn't it? But then Professor Wal- Wa- Wa- Walcott of London, like many another such atheistic scientist, will tell us, as he frequently does on BBC Radio four, that you'll see science is the thing. It proceeds by scientific investigation, by drawing scientific hypotheses, examining the evidence, testing the theories, and comes to assured results because of the processes of science, you'll see. And then he will say, well, of course you believe in religion if you care to. But the difference between science and religion is this, the religion is all arbitrary. There is no evidence, there is no proof. You just make up your mind to believe. That's what faith is, just arbitrarily making up your mind to believe some story or other without any proof. And many people are of that opinion, are they not? Science deals in proof. Religion is a matter of faith, and faith is arbitrary, and there's no proof whether it be right or wrong or whatever. And yet, you know, for all the scientists claim, science itself is built on faith, is it not? As Einstein himself pointed out. And you see an example of it in recent times. Since in the middle of the last century and onwards, scientists discovered the quantum theory of physics. Then they came across very strange things. You get a little particle here of stuff, and it, uh, interacts with another little particle of stuff, and then somehow they split, and one goes off here and one goes off there, and now perhaps they're light years away from each other. But what the scientists found is this, that if you interfere with this little particle over here, do something to it, the other particle light years away will immediately change according to what you've done to the other particle. And Einstein himself found it very difficult to believe that. Though we did have a learned professor of science, professor, uh, who, uh, lived in the Shankle, you'll see, Professor Bell, who proved Einstein wrong. And then the French came along and invented a th- uh, an experiment to prove that Professor Bell was right. So Belfast complains up can complain certain honors, can it not? You'll see. Einstein found it difficult. He said, you see, but how could that happen? It would mean that information from this particle here that you've just altered, the fact that it had been altered would have to be conveyed to that other particle light years away. It would have to tra- uh, it would have to travel faster than the speed of light itself, he said. And of course, for Einstein, that upset all his physics. So what did the scientists do? You say gave up physics. No, they didn't. Here they were faced with a very big problem pro- problem they couldn't as yet solve. But they went on their research, with their research. Why? On what ground? On the ground of faith, of course. For all science depends on faith. Faith that it is worth investigating the universe around us. Why does that require faith? Well, who knows but what it might have turned out to be just a chaos of mumbo jumbo with no regular rules, laws, or anything about it. So that you come one day and it's this way, and you come tomorrow and it's some other way. Well, science would be impossible then. Science and its research is based on the fundamental faith that it is worth examining the universe, because faith tells us that the universe is logical and rational and will repay rational study. It would be good if we had a few more scientists like Einstein, who admitted to the world that science itself is built on faith. There are many, however, who want to make a contrast. Science is built on facts, demonstrations, proofs. But belief in God, they say, you can't prove it. And what they mean when they say you can't prove it is they mean you can't prove it on a piece of paper, by some kind of logical argument and prove by philosophical logic that God exists. And so they dismiss it as airy fairy, you'll see, this is faith, because you can't prove it. It's arbitrary. My reply to such people is to say, yes, but a child couldn't prove his mother loves him. Could it now? You try it on a seven-year-old, and he says, mommy loves me, and you say, prove it, old boy. What? Suppose the child ought to be able to prove it by philosophical logic before it would be right to believe that its mother loved it. You, sir. You got a girlfriend? Prove to me that she loves you in a way she loves nobody else. And I want it proved logically, with a premise and logical deductions and a philosophically logical proof. Can you do it? Of course you can't do it. So you've given up your girlfriend, I suppose. You don't believe in her anymore. Because you say to believe in her would be irrational. Really? You, sir, in your middle age, could you prove to me with philosophical logic that your banker is reliable? And you're going tomorrow on a plane somewhere to London or elsewhere, aren't you? Can you prove to me with philosophical logic that the plane won't come down in midair? You can't, can you? But you go in faith, don't you? And suppose I said I'm not getting on that plane. You can go on it if you like. But your faith in that plane is not rational. I demand philosophical proof that this plane's engines will go and will not stop, nor will they suffer any mechanical breakdown until we land safely in London. And I shall want a sheet from the Airplane Society proving every point before I get on it. What would you say of me? Would you say he's highly rational, you know? You wouldn't, would you? You'd say the very opposite. Well, the stupid man. That kind of demand is not rational. Now we're using rational in the sense of reasonable, aren't we? And ten thousand things in life we all of us believe without philosophical proof, and we're not irrational to do so, of course. And when it comes to understanding either the universe at large or ourselves, there is a question that rises, is there not, for anybody who has reason enough to think that science cannot begin to answer by definition. You know how the universe works. We know how our bodies work, more or less. What's the universe for? What is my life and your life for? What is the purpose? Perhaps I'm talking to people that have a great purpose in life. You support, who is it, Tony Blair or that other man or somebody else, because you ardent believe in certain principles. Did you come up those principles by philosophical logic? Or are they things that come out of your heart and conscience, and you feel them strongly, and you believe in them strongly enough that you're prepared to put your effort and life indeed into them? Many people so support their political parties, don't they? Though you might have a job philosophically to prove that either of them or all of them together were absolutely correct in all their details. But now it's a question of values, isn't it? And purpose. Remember purpose in life, tell me, what is the purpose of life as a whole? And if I may be so stern, what's going to happen to you when you die? Not a topic we like to dwell on necessarily, is it? But wouldn't it be irrational not to think about it? Doesn't rationality demand that we face facts? And one day, unless Jesus Christ returns and takes believers home to glory without dying, as he promised he would, we shall die. What's going to happen to you? You say, I don't think about that because that would be irrational faith. Well, half a minute. Multitudes of people have thought about it and still think about it, don't they? Various religions have all sorts of theories. When you die, the Hindus will tell you that you eventually come back again by transmigration of souls. Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, said that there is a heaven, and there is a hell. You say, I can't be sure. Is it therefore rational not to think about it? Because all are agreed, who hold these things, that the way we have behaved in this life will affect our experience after death. There are moments when you agree, aren't there? Would you believe in morality? Yes? You think that utter rotters, Hitler and company, should not get away with things. You think morality is all important. You do? How important? Would you have the claims of morality end when a person dies? So that if I've been an outrageous criminal, and when the law begins to catch up with me, I shoot my brains out, and I've won. Or would you hold that morality, by its very nature, is trans-temporal? We shall have to face it after death, as before. The Bible says, it is appointed to men and women, that is for human beings, once to die, and after that, the judgment. Not being sure is not adequate intellectual grounds, is it, for ignoring the situation and trying to find out what the truth is. But let me move on. People say, you'll see, science is based on the scientific investigation, evidence, logical deduction, hypothesis, theory, testing of theory, proof. It is very rational. Faith, they mean faith in God. Well, this is airy fairy stuff. No evidence. This is arbitrary. Oh, wait a moment. Let me tell you something. Quite irrelevant, it will sound. Um, opposite where I live, my neighbors across the road have a tree, and it's a magnolia tree. And just at this time of year, it has, I should think, five thousand blossoms on this tree. It is a magnificent sight. You say, how do you know, Gooding? How do I know? How did I come to know that this was a, you know, this tree was in blossom? Is it some, uh, is it somebody has suggested I got a sort of a color thing on my eye that registered on my brain, and I said to myself, what kind of a thing can this color be? And I thought and worked it out logically and came to the logical conclusion it was a magnolia tree. Is that how I did it? Just say, don't be silly. You knew it was on bloom because you saw it on bloom. Uh, do you think my brain, my mind, such as it is, was acting properly when it saw the magnolias or some daffodils and confidently said the daffodils are in bloom? I don't think you would expect me to prove it, would you? By some logical inference. To say there are certain things in life that we, we know. What the philosophers call basic knowledge. Know by just looking at them. Know because we see them. Know because we experience them. That is true, isn't it? That's what we have minds for, you see. Let me do a little anatomy on you. I wonder what you'll say. You have a heart inside here somewhere on the left hand side, generally speaking. What do you hold it's for, this heart thing? You say the purpose of the heart is to pump the old blood round the system, that's what it's for. Oh, you think it was designed that way? Well, you say it's a very clever design, marvelously clever design, and when it's working and does its job properly, it's a magnificent thing. Yes, designed for the purpose of, um, hmm, pumping the blood. And your stomach? You say, yes, oh, thank God for a stomach. I- I- it's designed to to process the old food, you know, and send it around the system via the liver and the kidneys and other such things to feed the brain and the muscles and the bones and everything else. You think it was that for that, you see. It does a moderately good job. Yeah, good. Mm-hmm. And you say, what do you say about my brain? Well, you don't have to answer me publicly face to face, of course not. But you see, when I look at that tree and I say, look, that's a tree, and I know it is. I don't have to prove it either. Was my brain designed to do it? Is it reliable? Oh yes, I make mistakes, of course I do, and I can see mirages and things. But most of the time, it's working as it was meant to work, isn't it? Because I'm a Christian and I believe in God who designed it anyway. And I know the magnolia is there. I'll tell you something else I know, and that my mind is designed to know, and your mind as well. There is a God. Now, I suspect you might, uh, be, uh, of the opinion that no, you don't know there's a God, but you actually do. At least that's what the Bible says. It says that God, our Creator, has put within our hearts the awareness that there is a God built in and can be triggered, and frequently is when people go out, for instance, of a starry night and they see the majestic, magnificent display of the planets and the stars and the galaxies, and are overwhelmed with the realization there must be a God. The great philosopher Kant, who held that you couldn't prove that God exists. His philosophy, philosoph- philosophical reason has not stood the test of time, but that's what he held. You couldn't prove there's a God, but he says, two things make me aware that there is a God. What? My moral conscience within, says he. That demands that sin shall be dealt with. And very often it isn't dealt with in this life. There must be a God who will enforce his moral law in the life to come. Two things tell me there must be a God, the moral law within and the starry heavens above. Yes, you say, but how can I believe in God when there are so many terrible things happen in the world? Oh, but wait a minute. The Bible doesn't say that the starry heavens and creation around are evidence that God is love. That it doesn't say. It says they are evidence that there is one who is a God, who is God, and is evidence of his almighty power. To find out that God is love, we must look elsewhere, where God has shown it. But that's what the Bible says. God has revealed it not merely to men, but in man. And men know. And the Bible adds that very often they try to suppress that knowledge. And come to convince themselves that they don't know, when all the while they do. And you'll see it in the atheist who, in a crisis that suddenly comes upon him, will say, oh God, save me. Yes. There is a God. And how should we know what that God is like? The Bible's claim is, of course, that God, no one has seen him at any time, but the only begotten Son of God comes from the very bosom of God. He has told him out. Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Come, as he only he himself put it, come to seek and to save that which is lost. So that it is not a question merely of our trying to reach up to heaven. But the God who made us has come down from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ to seek and to save us. You say, but how would he prove he is the Son of God? Well, according to John the Evangelist in the fourth gospel, one of the early things our Lord did was to ask the people to consider and use their moral judgment on Christ's moral teaching. Have you ever done it? The so-called Sermon on the Mount, of course, is a compendium compiled by Matthew of the moral teaching of Jesus Christ, our Lord. How would you find out whether it was true or not? Well, read it. Try to live it. Ask, is it morally true? I have not the time to elaborate on its details. The verdict of history has been that the Sermon on the Mount, if no other, puts Jesus Christ preeminent among the moral teachers of the world. Live with that Jesus Christ and his moral teaching for six months. And you will find that his diagnosis of the human heart is correct. Who of you convinces me of sin, said he to his critics. But another thing follows, you see. The Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, preeminent as a moral teacher on our wor- in our world. He also claimed to be God incarnate. And that sets us... the question to be decided, doesn't it? If Jesus Christ were the author of the Sermon on the Mount, the high Himalayas of moral teaching. And yet he claimed to be the son of God. Well, if he wasn't the son of God, and his claim was a deception, then Jesus Christ is the biggest imposter and rotter that ever walked the face of the earth. To pretend one minute to preach the morality, and the next minute deliberately to lie and deceive. Are you a good judge of human character? I shall demand, secondly, that you test not only his moral character, but his own moral sinlessness. He claimed to be the Son of God. It is not rational behavior to ignore his claim. To study it and come to your decision, well, that is a serious matter, but to ignore it is not rational. It's ostrich-like to put your head in the sand and not face the big question. You say, what evidence has he? Well, let me tell you within my time limits some of the evidence. You'll see the notion that faith in Christ is a leap in the dark. You suddenly decide to take it. It's not true. The Bible itself offers you evidence that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And among the evidence are the miracles he did, called in John's gospel signs. These miracles, these signs did Jesus. That you might believe that he is the Son of God, the Christ, the Son of God. You will say, that's the just the trouble, my good sir. I don't believe the record. I don't believe miracles are possible. And if I first of all got to believe a miracle like that thing he, he, he, he turned water into wine at some wedding, well, I don't believe it to start with because I don't believe miracles are possible. So what's the good of my reading it? Okay, you don't believe that miracles are possible. Well, but then these miracles that our Lord did, as well as being miracles that actually happened, were also parables, weren't they? For instance, he multiplied bread and fish miraculously and fed a multitude of five thousand, the gospel records say. And having done that, he preached to the people and pointed to himself and said, I am the bread of life. The man may eat thereof and never again be hungry, so to speak. The miracle became a parable. So did his first miracle. The wa- making of the water into wine at a wedding in Galilee. It's a miracle, but a parable as well, wasn't it? For it's the story that at this wedding, presently the wine ran out. The wine was there, of course, to facilitate the joy of the occasion. For weddings are red letter days, aren't they? Or they used to be, uh, you'll see, red letter days in people's lives, and to be celebrated, time of great joy. The wine was there to facilitate the joy, of course. And presently, the wine ran out at the wedding. What is it saying as a parable? That the wine sometimes runs out of weddings. Yes? The joy runs out. Is that true? It's run out of a few thousand these days, hasn't it? There are all many as almost as many divorces as there are marriages. The wine runs out. The joy runs out. True. It's not irrational to say so, it's a matter of fact. And not only does the joy run out of the marriage relationship, but between parent and sons and daughters and fathers and mothers. The joy of human relationships so often runs out. Why does it run out? When our Lord did the miracle of turning water to wine, he didn't do it just with any old, any old tap water. There were a number of big pots, enormous great pots, there holding gallons of water. They were there for the purifying of Jews, you see. Jews at that time had customs, and among those customs was this insistence on cleanliness. And of course, at the wedding, there would be an insistence that the guests be cleansed constantly. It was ritual cleansing as well as physical cleansing, do you see? And weddings in particular. In days gone by when I was young, the girls at the wedding liked to wear white, didn't they? We know why. It was to profess they were virgins. Weddings made people think of purity and cleanliness. It's gone by the board, hasn't it? And the wine has run out of many weddings. Yes, but when our Lord, uh, met the need, he didn't just command wine to come down out of heaven, it fell from the roof into the c- uh, wine glass, as you know. He took that water of purifying and turned it into wine. That was a parable, wasn't it? You see, it, that water was there, it was part of their religion, and at all times you had to be, uh, ritually pure, but at a wedding particularly so. Very good, but the trouble was with that water, it could only cleanse your skin, you know. And I suppose some weddings break up if the husband doesn't bath frequently enough or something, but that isn't the chief problem, is it? For our Lord himself commenting upon this situation elsewhere, said, it's not what goes into a man defiles him, but what comes out of him. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, unfaithfulness, and all the rest of the ugly brood. These things defile a man. Preeminently selfishness among them. And rejection of God the Creator. What is there that can deal with that? And change the human heart at that level. That is what Jesus Christ said he had come to do. To bring us cleansing of the heart from a guilty conscience. The guilt that comes from being aware that we have offended not merely our friends and loved ones, but have offended against God Almighty and deserve God's indignation. And Christ has come to deal with that guilt. Not by pretending it doesn't matter, but himself stepping in the place as our substitute to bear the penalty of the law we have broken, so that we might be forgiven and enter the very family of God. And secondly, he came to perform the wonderful miracle of regeneration by the power of the living Holy Spirit of God, so that our hearts may be cleansed from an evil conscience and our persons bathed with the pure water of the Holy Spirit's regeneration. That is the claim of Christ. True or not? There's only one way to find out that. One can listen to the experience of those that have proved him true. The only other way is to prove him true by listening to him, coming to believe in him, and allowing him to make that cleansing of conscience and cleansing of behavior by his Holy Spirit. How shall I know? How can I be sure, you say? In that passage I read at the beginning of my discourse, we have the Apostle John writing to Christians, and he tells you what this, uh, reason is that he writes. That you may know that you have eternal life, you who believed on the name of the Son of God. So John first presents the evidence. This Jesus Christ was marked by this: he came by water and by blood. When he was baptized, it was the official demonstration through John the Baptist that Jesus was the Lamb of God sent to bear away the sin of the world. When he came to Calvary, he showed what the prime purpose of his coming was. To put away sin. To come alongside us. And take from us the burden of our guilt and bear it for our sakes and suffer God's holy indignation and the penalty of the law for us, that we might go free. As I said, I think on a former occasion, there's only one who will ever come alongside you and say in your ear and to your heart, my dear, I am your creator incarnate. You've gone your own way. You have transgressed God's holy law. You deserve its punishment. But I'm your creator, and I love you with a creator's love. And rather than you perish eternally, I died for you. He died, as the Irish hymn has it, he died that we might be forgiven. Died to make us good, that we might go at last to heaven, saved by his precious blood. No one else in any other religion this world through will ever talk to you like that. You'll only have to decide it once. But Christ will seek and to demand a reply from you. Then how shall I know it works, and how shall I know I have this eternal life? John eventually gives us the answer, and he makes it clear that faith is not irrational. Faith is a making up of our minds about the character of God. Is God a liar or not? Can you trust God? For this in the end, is the pivot. The testimony that God has given about his son, and who should know about his son if it weren't God? So if we receive the witness of men, says John, and we do a thousand times, don't we? We're going to London, ring up the, uh, the travel agent, and what time is the plane from the city to London? And some voice we've never heard before says, uh, ten thirty in the morning, sir. Oh, we don't know who the woman is anyway, never met her, never likely to meet her. Trust her implicitly. Though we have by experience known that sometimes they can be mistaken, but we trust her. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, such that God has only to speak, and we ought to believe him. And what is the testimony? What is God telling us? To translate it literally, it is this: God has given us eternal life. Not will give it, has given it. That life is in his son. He who has the son has the life. So that, if this were eternal life, and I said to you, look, I'm giving you that eternal life. Supposed to bring it down to earth, it was a fifty pound note. And I said, look here, ma'am, I have given it to you. There it is. The book will be on the piano there. I've given it. And the gift is in the book. She who has the book... has the fifty pounds. And you wanted the fifty pounds. What would you do? I wouldn't like to go up in front and take the book with all the people watching. But I can see you as you were going out the door looking around saying, is that book still there? And perhaps could I come back when everybody's gone, and if the book's still there, I- I, I get the book. And if the moment you took the book, I was alongside, and I said, ma'am, what have you got in that book? And you said, I got a fifty pound note. It says, how do you know? Well, the preacher said so. Simple logic, isn't it? He that has the sun has the life. Sir, if I ask you what your name is, and you said, my name is Giles Parmenter. I said, Giles Parmenter, unusual name. Yes. And somebody came out to my side and said, Gooding, what is that man's name? And I said, well, he says it's Giles Parmenter, but you know, takes some believing, wouldn't it, you see? I think that wouldn't be really rational to believe it just because he said so, would it now? Hm. And what would you say? Would you be inclined to say to me, am I such a liar that you're not prepared to believe me when I tell you my name is Giles Parmenter? This moment, God is listening, my dear friends, at this very moment. And God is saying to us, I've given you eternal life, but it's in my son. Do you have my son as your savior? And if you do, says God, he who has the son has the life. My own response, what else can it be? I say that the terms God as best I know how, as my only hope for time and for eternity, to make meaning of life and heaven of eternity, I take your son and I have him as my personal and only savior. And God says it. I have eternal life. You don't believe it? You don't believe God. Then, as God's, uh, John says, you make God a liar. My dear friend, think it out well. You couldn't live eternally in a heaven with a God you believe is a liar. It comes to our personal relationship with the Almighty God, and a question of what we think of his character, and what we think of his son. Shall we pray? Our Father, we pray thou would look upon our study, and more upon our hearts, as we have listened to thy word, and thou has read the emotions that run in our brains and in our hearts. I nurse our reactions. By thy grace of thy Holy Spirit, we pray thou wilt authenticate thy word to us, make us know thou art the living God, And how now we must make our decision whether to trust thee or to reject thee and make of thee a liar. With such things hanging upon our decisions now, we pray thy grace. As we conclude this time together, look upon us, we beseech thee, and to those that have received thy son, fill their hearts with the assurance of thy loyalty and thy truth and the reality of thy salvation, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord. Amen. Amen.