Session 7: Belief

Oct 8, 2017

The young do not know enough to be prudent and therefore they attempt the impossible and achieve it, generation after generation. – Pearl S. Buck

Belief is the framework/lens/narrative through which we see the world.
Beliefs make life easier and better: Money, Joint-Stock Company, Hammurabi Code, Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration was informed by beliefs, a purely humanistic perspective would have created this document: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men evolved differently. That they are born with certain mutable characteristics and among these are life & the pursuit of pleasure.
Homosapiens have no natural rights just as spiders, hyenas, and chimpanzees have no natural rights. Yuval Noah Harari
The followers of Jesus believed Jesus was dead and staying dead.

Scripture

Matthew 26:69-75
Luke 24:13
Luke 24:36
Matthew 26:55-56
Acts 2:22-24

We should not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology. We must not be nervous about “parallels” and “pagan Christ”: they ought to be there- it would be a stumbling block if they weren’t. For this is the marriage of heaven and earth: perfect myth and perfect fact: claiming not only our love and our obedience, but also our wonder and delight, addressed to the savage, the child, and the poet in each one of us no less than to the moralist, the scholar, and the philosopher. – C.S. Lewis

Some of the greatest accomplishments in human history have come, not because something was true, but because someone believed it was true. Every medical accomplishment was previously thought impossible until someone did it. Running a less than 4-minute mile was considered beyond human ability until Roger Bannister did it in 1954.

When we speak about belief and faith we often do it in strictly religious terms. We assume that belief is a concept that has to do with God and nothing else. In reality, belief is necessary for every part of our lives.

In the 17th Century The Virginia Company sought to raise funds to travel from England to the “New World.” They received a charter from King James I allowing people to buy a “share” of their company. This would benefit the investors if the company did well and would give The Virginia Company the capital it needed to make this voyage.

Now, you can’t really buy a “share” of a company so what are you buying? There is no tangible item yet people do this all the time. You are buying into an idea and a belief in what can be.

What we need to acknowledge is that no matter what your thoughts are about God, you already have beliefs. Beliefs bring meaning to our life and make life better in many ways. Everyone has beliefs.

  • What beliefs do you hold?
  • How do some of your beliefs make life better?
  • Like the example of the less than 4-minute mile, why do we assume something is impossible until we see it?

Scripture Focus:

Acts 2:22-24

Faith is not intellegent understanding, faith is deliberate commitment to a Person where I see no way. – Oswald Chambers

BOTTOM LINE: SESSION 7
  • Life is better with a belief in eternity.
  • Christianity requires faith in a person which is why for anyone investigating Christianity, the first question that must be answered is “Who is Jesus?”
  • We don’t have faith in something Jesus taught, we have faith in the fact that he died and rose from the grave.

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