So last time we settled on what faith is, and is left with the two questions:

1) Where does the basis of faith come from?

2) How can we truly know that the basis is true?

Well so we can go to the Bible, in Romans 10:

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?

So where’s the basis of faith? The basis of faith is in the Word of God.

But how do we know the basis is true?  When one first heard the gospel, how doe she know that it is the truth?  This is where predestination comes in.  Without the power of the Holy Spirit, no one can believe in the truth. Only the Holy Spirit can give us the certainity in the truth of the gospel, man can never believe in the gospel through reasoning.

Back in the days, the Catholics believed that human reasoning has not been contaminated by the power of sin.  In other words, it is possible to deduce the existence of God through human reasoning.  From then on, many Christians tried to develop arguments and raises debates on the existence of God, but they never have any real impact on the world (just look at how many educated persons are actually Christian now).

The Catholics are wrong.  Yes, with logic we can still deduce many fabulous things, we can do great works, we can have great achievement.  But sin has polluted our reasoning, and only the power of God can reveal himself to us; we can never find him on our own.

Thus, Pastor Tang describe faith as “The return of the reasoning to the Truth.”  Faith is when the Holy Spirit moves you and persuades you to believe, you will humble yourself and recognize the limitations of your reasoning, and put down your reasoning under the truth.  This is different from blindly believing, because blindly believing is based on something that even you are not sure about.  But when the Holy Spirit moves you, you will feel so much certainty that the reasoning that previously hold you back seems like weak excuses.

Debates will never win souls, because debates are subject to human reasoning, and the polluted reasoning can never find its way back to God.  All we need to do is to preach the Word of God, and pray diligently that the Holy Spirit enlighten them.

The topic of faith will never be complete without talking about the Book of James, which we will do next time.