The insanity of unbelief

The insanity of unbelief

Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. – John 12:44

John 12:44-50

 44 Jesus shouted to the crowds, If you trust me, you are trusting not only me, but also God who sent me.

 45 For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me.

 46 I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark.

 47 I will not judge those who hear me but don’t obey me, for I have come to save the world and not to judge it.

 48 But all who reject me and my message will be judged on the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken.

 49 I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it.

 50 And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say.

In 2012, Max Davis published The Insanity Of Unbelief. In it, he explains, “How Science and the Supernatural Changed My Life.”

Max Davis writes, “One day one of my professors asked me if it was true that I was a Bible-believing Christian. When I answered yes, his polite, upbeat attitude instantly turned rude and arrogant. In front of my peers, he insulted my intelligence, belittled my faith, and discredited the Bible. To him, there was absolutely no doubt that science and academia had shown the pure ‘insanity of such belief.’”

Such a statement is both an assumption and a conclusion. But is it valid? Davis’ book, The Insanity of Unbelief, is a result of the author’s 30-year journey from childlike belief, to skepticism, and finally deep, abiding and secure faith. How did it come to pass? How did he come to enter a serious relationship with the Father, the God of the Bible?

Many think it takes blind faith, low intelligence, ignorance, and even mental issues to believe in the Bible or the Father God. Is this the case? Could it be that it takes tremendous faith not to believe? Excellent resources are available for anyone to examine. Do people have a serious engagement with information and arguments favoring either or both positions?

Many simply assume that modern science has repudiated the Scriptures and that “religion is unscientific.” Is this correct, or could something else be a major causal factor? Nobel Prize winner George Wald wrote, “I do not want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation arising to evolution.” His decision not to believe has nothing to do with science, but rather his personal opinion regarding the existence of God and choice not to believe in Him. Could it be that people do not believe, simply because they do not want to believe?

If everything arose from nothing, would not a scientific explanation be forthcoming to explain how something comes from nothing, that is nothing-nothing (Francis Schaeffer)? What is the starting point from which all else proceeds? Once postulated, how can it be demonstrated? Would it not be incumbent upon the agnostic and the atheist, to demonstrate scientifically that this is indeed correct?

John 5:24 I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

How can people hear the truth and witness the power and authority of the living God through miraculous works and yet do not believe?

John 12:37 But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him.

The apostle John wanted to impress upon those the readers of his gospel, that unbelief is an unexpected, illogical response to what people see and hear. “John wanted to impress his readers with the astounding fact that men did not believe on Jesus in spite of all that He did. The unbelief itself seemed unbelievable” (Tenney).

REFLECT & PRAY

Hebrews 12:25 Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!

Father enable us to believe our beliefs and doubt our doubts, rather than doubting our beliefs and believing our doubts.

INSIGHT

Besides personal bias for whatever reason, and decisions that flow from it, or any other factors involved in unbelief? The Lord Jesus Christ provides an answer: hard hearts and blind eyes.

John 12:39-40

 39 But the people couldn’t believe, for as Isaiah also said,

 40 “The Lord has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts – so that their eyes cannot see, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and have me heal them.”

The Father Who knows all things. He predicted that this would be a reaction of many.

Isaiah 6:9-10

 9 “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’”

 10 “ Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing.”

There is a blinding deceiving influence at work.

2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

People are held responsible for their reactions. Observing the work of God and being exposed to the truth of the word of God results in accountability

John 15:24 If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father.

Planet Earth is under a dark cloud and the hearts and minds of people are shrouded in darkness. Unbelief is not merely an unwillingness to assent to some fact, it is a rude, flat refusal to hear and accept the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ has spoken and the Father who sent Him. Consequently, when anyone chooses to live out denial, truth is removed from their consciousness.

He came as the light of the world to dispel the darkness.

John 3:19-21

 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.

 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.

 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.

John 8:12 I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.

“Detached intellectualism is (in the exact sense of a popular phrase) all moonshine; for it is light without heat, and it is secondary light, reflected from a dead world. But the Greeks were right when they made Apollo the god both of imagination and of sanity; for he was both the patron of poetry and the patron of healing.”

“But that transcendentalism by which all men live has primarily much the position of the sun in the sky. We are conscious of it as of a kind of splendid confusion; it is something both shining and shapeless, at once a blaze and a blur. But the circle of the moon is as clear and unmistakable, as recurrent and inevitable, as the circle of Euclid on a blackboard. For the moon is utterly reasonable, and the moon is the mother of lunatics and has given to them all her name” (Chesterton).

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