By Jokim Schnoebbe

There are many Christians who defend their faith in the inspiration of the Bible by saying (in effect) that they have accepted it by faith. They have thus, as it were, accepted their faith by faith.

This might lead us to suppose that all of them regard their faith as something subjective, but this is not so. Many of them claim that their faith is true, that their opinions correlate to objective reality. When asked why they believe this, most of them say it is because they have the inner assurance that their faith comes from God.  Therefore it is the true faith.

Now if all these people agreed about the content of their faith, we would have to admit that their faith does likely come from God. The trouble is that they do not. Which leads—provided that God exists at all—to two possible conclusions: (1) God grants different people faith for various contradicting opinions. (2) Their faith is not only a God-given thing but also the result of their own reasoning, experience and authority (and often an ill-thought-out jumble of these three).

To Christian apologist C. S. Lewis, the first conclusion was not an option. Otherwise he would have had to believe that God did not care much for truth. And that would be the same as saying that God did not care for reality, because truth is a description of reality. And how could Ultimate Reality not care for reality? To keep believing in such a “God,” one would have to reduce Him to something very much less than God. He would be some sort of indefinable force that gives people faith no matter what the content of their faith.

Having said this, C. S. Lewis did recognize that all knowledge of God is incomplete, and that people’s use of Reason, Experience and Authority is never perfect. His God was One who saw people’s true desire for Him, even when buried underneath many incomplete and even false conceptions of Him. Lewis believed that “every prayer which is sincerely made even to a false god or to a very imperfectly conceived true God, is accepted by the true God and that Christ saves many who do not think they know Him.”

This leaves us with option two. People’s concrete faith is not only a God-given thing but also the result of their own reasoning, experience and authority. The examples one could give in support of this are too numerous to recount.

Can anyone doubt, for instance, that human reasoning is involved in the current debate on homosexuality in the Anglican Church? Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson thinks that homosexuality is a good thing; but a number of his colleagues, particularly in the developing world, think of homosexuality as a serious perversion of God’s creation.

Robinson has obviously a very different kind of faith on this point than his opponents. Both, however, seem to share a strong sense of God being on their side. Robinson described his bishopric as “a calling from God.”  But others, such as Bishop Robert Duncan, were not impressed by his claim of God’s approval. “This body has divided itself from millions of Anglican Christians throughout the world,” he said, adding: “May God have mercy on this church.”

The one believes in a God who blesses the church by giving her homosexual leaders; the other one calls on God’s mercy for the church’s apostasy in this area. Both cannot be right. Their respective faiths cannot both be God-given. They can conceivably be given by a force, by some vague energy, but not by the Ultimate Fact-hood of all existence.

Can a supposedly God-given faith, then, ever be sufficient evidence for the divine origin of the Bible? Judging from C. S. Lewis’ efforts to give reasons for his faith, it is safe to say that he did not think so.

This is taken from Jokim Schnoebbe’s blog, he is also known as the Author Jacob Schriftman. I first met Jokim a few years back in South Africa and we traveled together for a teaching tour in the far east. We also lived together here in Sweden for a few months where we both were involved in a course with YWAM. He is a talented speaker,artist,teacher,author,father,husband and fotball player (and a few other things). I warmly recommend his work.You can read more about him on his site schriftman.net and purchase his books on Amazon as Jacob Schriftman or as Jokim Schnoebbe.