Explanations Explained...  

3rd September 2024

We're on the launch pad of a new blog series exploring Susan Jones' really interesting article: 15 Things Non-Believers Want Religious People to Explain... - the title alone has prompted two blogs already! But before we blast off into the specifics of the 15 things, I thought it was worth exploring what kinds of explanations might be helpful and which not be.

Interpretation Matters...

Sometimes when two people are talking, they can use the same word but actually mean very different things... the technical term for this is homonyms, and there are loads of examples of this:

• Bark (of a dog... or of a tree?)
• Left (as in the opposite of right... or the past tense of leave?)
• Nail (the one on the end of your finger, or the one at the end of a hammer?!)

And we could easily add a host of other candidates: bat, park, bank, watch, saw, trunk, ruler, row, rock... the list goes on and on.

Then there are words are spelled differently, but sound identical. You'd spot them on the page, but not as easily in casual conversation. There are called: homophones and again, in English there are literally hundreds of them! For example,

• son/sun
• ate/eight
• cereal/serial
• break/brake
• bear/beer
• been/bean
• bored/board

And you're probably already thinking of other words that could make the list too!

What's fascinating about human beings is that we are so used to this weird multiple-sounding-multiple-meaning form of communication that part of our brains is able to decode these options at lightning quick speed (well, most of the time anyway!). We all make choices as to what we presume the speaker means so instantly and so instinctively that we're not even aware that we're doing it. 

So, I do think it's worth defining a few terms that will hopefully help along the way ...

The first word that's worth defining is: faith. 
 

Faith in Words...?

What are we talking about when we talk about faith...? Even a quick google highlights the fact that the word faith gets used in many different ways...

• Is it simply "something someone believes"; a set of statements (like a creed, or collection of doctrines) that together encapsulates the teachings of a religion/belief system?
• Is it a "group to which people belong"; a means of classification of people into various different religious groups? We sometimes hear the phrases: people of faith, or faith communities, etc...
• It is sometimes used as "the strength to which someone believes something"; as in 'that was a huge leap of faith...' or 'that's a person of great faith'...
• Is it something that someone "chooses to accept despite of evidence to the contrary"? Faith and science are often held up a polarised opposites. In reality of course this either/or argument is always going to fail to recognise the full complexity.

There are probably plenty of other ways too that the word gets used - but hopefully you get what I mean...
 
It probably won't surprise you to learn the word gets used an awful lot in the Bible... but it might surprise you to learn that is in none of the ways listed above.

In the Old Testament, which was originally written in the Hebrew language, the word for faith is: emunah, and we derive the English word "amen" from it! So, if you've ever concluded a prayer with the word "amen," you've spoken a word of ancient Hebrew origin! (Sorry, Bible-geeks like me find that kind of stuff pretty cool!)
 
More often than not though, when emunah is translated into our English version it is not translated as faith but as faithfulness.

When we hear the word: faithful - we don't think of someone full of beliefs but someone who is of full of commitment, loyalty, and steadiness. That's because this Hebrew word for faith has less to do with what we think and more to do with what (or who) we trust.

From a biblical perspective 'faith' is not a noun (an object, person or place)... or an adjective (a describing word)... it's a verb (a doing word). Therefore my faith cannot be something I have, nor is it a group of which I'm a member, it is something I do... Faith is not simply believing that God exists - it is coming to actually trust God in an active, deliberate, ongoing and personal way. 

To hold to a doctrine or an opinion with intellect alone is not to believe it.
A person's real belief is that which they live by.

George MacDonald

By necessity trust requires a relationship... and as that relationship grows, so too can the trust.


 

Explain yourself...

Here's where it can get a little tricky because close, personal relationships aren't easy to "explain" in the normal way.

Sure, they can be quite easily characterised as professional or romantic or friendship or family etc, etc... but that label fails to fully describe the intimate nuances of how that relationship works or what it fully means to the person. 

Relationships don't tend to fit neatly under a microscope... and are far less tangible and yet far richer because of it.

What Jesus came to offer the world was not another religion, - but a life-giving, life-changing relationship. He constantly invited people to "follow me..." - to abandon their former way of life, to devote time to Him, and to allow all He shares with them to transform their entire understanding of God, themselves, and how the world works.

And we believe He still does invite people into that new grace-fueled relationship. It is simply a fact that millions still report that they find freedom and hope, forgiveness and love as they live in the wake of His presence.

For Christians, that life is faith.
The trust we place in Jesus, and the peace and joy we experience in return, is what faith is.

A number of years ago I issued an online challenge for people to share a photo of themselves holding up a piece of paper with the words: "I believe because..." and then finish the sentence in their own words. One person published a photo of themselves holding up the words: "I believe because my experience of encountering the love of Jesus leaves with no other option, and no desire but to do otherwise." 

I couldn't put any better than that.

All of which may sound like I'm wriggle out of this challenge, or trying to talk myself out of this blog series - which I'm honestly not. But relationships are something we experience more than anything else, and faith is something that is lived more than learned. Like the taste of a cheeseburger or the sensation of being stung by a bee, some experiences are difficult to encapsulate with words alone. However, with this understanding, I am more than willing to share my own journey with you, hoping it may illuminate the path you find yourself on.

So enough with the preliminaries... it's time to dive into this headfirst. Starting later this week with the simple and straightforward question of: If God is all-powerful, why does evil exist?

Buckle up...
 

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