Worshiping a Sovereign Lord: Truth, God, and So Forth

On Saturday I was talking with a co-worker of mine about a book I was reading called Does God Exist?: The Debate Between Theists and Atheists. In that discussion I told him that I had a lot of interest in reasoned defense of faith. Apparently I was telling the truth, because along with that book I've also read Defending Your Faith by R.C. Sproul and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, both of which give such defenses. A few years back I also listened to the audiobook version of The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel and read More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell. So apparently I've had an interest in this kind of thing for a while.

As a result, I firmly reject fideism, which is basically a "blind leap of faith" kind of view of Christianity (or any religion, really) that would say that everything in terms of belief must be taken on faith and faith alone. This worldview rejects reason or science or logic, calling such things "worldly" and seeing them as the enemies of Christianity. This is the main view of Christianity in the eyes of most American non-Christians, but shockingly a lot of Christians hold this view as well. But such things should not be.

Let's take a quick look at how the Bible defines faith: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). I'm also going to give the verse in two other versions:

Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. (HCSB)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (NIV1984)

Look at those words: "assurance," "conviction," "reality," "proof," "sure," "certain." The Greek words mean "assurance" and "proof" respectively, but my point is this: faith is not simply "Oh, I hope this is true." Faith is rooted in fact. Faith is rooted in the truth. Faith is what we know. Yes, Hebrews 11:1 uses the word "hope," but hope doesn't necessarily equal uncertainty. Hope is what we want to happen in the future. We want to be saved. We want Jesus to reign over the earth and remake creation. What I'm arguing is that we can not only want that to happen, not merely hope it will happen with some degree of uncertainty, but rather be sure that what we hope for will in fact happen. As I said, faith is rooted in fact and truth.

So, what I don't understand is how any Christian can say that science and reason are the enemies of faith. If, in fact, our faith is rooted in fact and truth - if our God is the God of all truth - how can any truth from any discipline contradict it? Truth never contradicts truth. If any statement contradicts truth, that statement is not true. As Augustine once said, "Let every good and true Christian understand that wherever truth may be found, it belongs to his Master."¹

Thus, if Christianity is true, and if it is to be believed, then ultimately truth, no matter where it comes from, will not contradict what God's Word has to say. God created all things. God does not and cannot contradict himself. If Christianity is true, all true reason and science and philosophy and logic and math will not contradict God's Word and are not its enemies; they are its allies. We have to be careful because a lot of disciplines make claims to truth that are ultimately false, but any real truth will not undermine faith. In fact, it should strengthen it. We should see that it points to the Creator of all truth.