When you talk to people about God, some respond with, "I don't believe in what I can't see."
Before we're too hard on our skeptical friends, let's ask ourselves what we'd say if someone told us they'd seen a fairy underneath a mushroom in a garden. We'd likely say something like, "Oh, really? Show me." And when they couldn't, we'd say inwardly, if not outwardly, "That's what I thought."
We tend toward belief in what we can see, hear, feel, taste, and touch. That's the scientific method we grew up with, after all. We learn about the world around us by examining it and testing it.
We also try to fit our experiences into our current frame of reference. When we hear that a mild-mannered neighbor has been arrested for assault, we're astonished. We never saw anything to indicate he was capable of raising a hand to someone. We try to make sense of his behavior by wondering if he was ill, drugged, drunk, or provoked in some way.
How many times have we heard someone say, "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it."
When someone chooses not to believe in God because they can't see Him, we usually point out that there are several things we believe in without seeing. Wind, for one. We see its effect. We can track its movement on weather maps. But we don't see wind itself. We could say the same about gravity, electricity, love, and many other life experiences.
And we could point out that, just like wind and gravity and such, we see evidences and effects of God at work. We see His hand in creation. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).
We could also point out history. How do we know such persons as George Washington or Alexander the Great or others really existed? We might have some of their own writing or effects to examine. But more than that, we have historical evidence in documents and testimony about them.
We have the same with God. He has spoken through His Word over the course of thousands of years, with various people giving their testimonies of what He said to them, which all provides a coherent whole.
The field of apologetics, which comes from a Greek word meaning "speaking in defense," according to Wikipedia, explores these kinds of things. Many books have been ably written by men such as Josh McDowell (Evidence That Demands a Verdict) and Lee Strobel (The Case for Christ, his own testimony of coming to Christ while in the process of trying to disprove Christianity), and others.
These have done a much better job explaining and defending the evidences for Christian faith than I could, especially in a small blog post.
Faith is not a blind leap in the dark. Faith is based on God's Word and testimony about Himself and His gift of opening our eyes and hearts to His truth. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Recently, I began to ponder just how much of what we believe in is unseen.
Our Savior. "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:8).
Our protection. Once the king of Syria came after the prophet Elisha, because God had warned his people through Elisha how to avoid the king's armies. Then, "When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, 'Alas, my master! What shall we do?' He said, 'Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.' Then Elisha prayed and said, 'O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.' So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha" (2 Kings 6:8-23).
Similarly, in the book of Esther, God is not mentioned once, but His fingerprints are all over that narrative.
I hope one thing we might do in heaven is hear more about those "behind the scenes" times God was protecting us.
The heavenly realm. I marvel at Ephesians 3:10, which says "that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." Imagine, beings in heaven learn more about God by seeing how He deals with us!
Not only are there unseen beings in heaven, but later in Ephesians 6, Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
Coming glory. "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
All of God's promises fulfilled. We've seen multitudes of God's promises fulfilled in our own lives and through people in the Bible. But some of what has been prophesied has not happened yet. Hebrews 11 is often called the "hall of faith," telling how God worked in and through the lives of many heroes of the faith. But, the passage says, "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth" (verse 13). Later in the chapter, the writer says, "And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect" (verse 39). Some of the promises were fulfilled in biblical times, some in our time, and some are yet to come.
Our heavenly home. The writer of Hebrews says of those who "were strangers and exiles on the earth," "For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city" (Hebrews 11:14-16).
What do we do with these invisible realities?
We keep believing. "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (Luke 1:45).
We endure. "By faith [Moses] left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27).
We lay up treasure in heaven. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).
We live with eternity in view. "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth" (Colossians 3:1-2).
We run the race, looking to Jesus. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2).
We do the work He left for us. 1 Corinthians 15 deals with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and our resurrection after we die. At the end of the chapter, after talking about mortality putting on immortality, and death being swallowed in victory and losing its sting, Paul says, "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (verse 58).
Ephesians 2:8-10 says we are saved by grave through faith, not works. But "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." We work, not to earn salvation, but as a result of our salvation.
We look forward to heaven. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18).
We're encouraged. "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
We are blessed. After His resurrection, "Jesus said to [Thomas], 'Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed'" (John 20:29).
In the second half of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, which tells the story of the Pilgrim's wife, Christiana, one character only looks down, gathering up debris with a muck-rake. Someone stands above him, offering a celestial crown. But the man with the rake never looks up. The Interpreter tells Christiana, "Now whereas it was also shewed thee that the man could look no way but downwards, it is to let thee know that earthly things when they are with power upon men's minds, quite carry their hearts away from God."
Our senses are so filled here, we forget there are unseen realities. But those realities are more firm and lasting and important than what we see. "For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18b). May God give us grace to look up, believe, and live for eternity.
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