Faith is based upon a higher knowledge, the knowledge which comes only from God. But revelation does not contradict historical and scientific fact when these are based upon reality and are sufficiently complete. Such things that men call “knowledge” are only conjecture or opinion rather than fact. Faith rests solidly on truth as God knows it. Faith gives us spiritual under- standing of all that is real.
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3).
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
Faith is our acceptance of God’s truth as it is revealed to us; it is not limited to what can only be learned through our senses and instruments of science. God is Spirit. Some facts about Him can only be spiritually discerned.
Faith is not Gnosticism.
There is no contradiction between matter and Spirit in the Christian faith. God was manifest in the flesh- He took upon Himself a real human body and became subject to the same limitations we all experience as mortals. Christ was historical; He existed at a point in time and space, and He continues to live forever in His resurrected body.
“Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God “(I John 4:2).
Faith is not Pragmatism.
William James, John Dewey, and others of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries tried to avoid the necessity for commitment to faith as fact. They taught that it is sufficient to adopt a “working hypothesis.” If this produces the desired results it was considered worth keeping. Whether or not it could be proven true was irrelevant. God gives us truth, and this also works. Faith is commitment to absolute truth, to a God who cannot lie.
“Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Tit. 1:1, 2).
Faith is not Existentialism.
Faith is not inner or subjective reality alone; it embraces and reacts to objective reality-a God who is there and whose words are truth. Faith is valid not because it is self-authenticating through personal awareness, but because God’s record concerning His Son is reliable. Faith is not mystical but historically based.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us . . .” (I John 1:1-3).