tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6821288.post3556046430038077719..comments2023-11-05T04:01:05.199-05:00Comments on Phil Wilson's Blog: Phil's FaithPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11540149196113374329noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6821288.post-48369642548524617402009-02-23T14:40:00.000-05:002009-02-23T14:40:00.000-05:00Phil, I had this long (and of course GREAT) commen...Phil, I had this long (and of course GREAT) comment in mind, but let me just say that your faith is REAL because I can see the fruit it produces.believingthomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07278359951689938736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6821288.post-58143104142861639532009-02-20T21:22:00.000-05:002009-02-20T21:22:00.000-05:00Hey Phil,I'm really glad you are writing this stuf...Hey Phil,<BR/><BR/>I'm really glad you are writing this stuff. Thank you.<BR/><BR/>And . . .<BR/><BR/>You don't need to prove your faith to me or anyone else. <BR/><BR/>If I indicated in any way that you do need to prove it, or that your faith is on some kind of chart against other people's faith, I am truly sorry. That was not my intention.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08954413651635300181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6821288.post-19926156760127035652009-02-20T17:09:00.000-05:002009-02-20T17:09:00.000-05:00Phil, I love the honesty with which you expose you...Phil, I love the honesty with which you expose yourself in your blog. Good stuff, brother...Elysa Henegarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07234435414663688688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6821288.post-87290864046047571542009-02-20T10:28:00.000-05:002009-02-20T10:28:00.000-05:00Phil,I don't doubt your faith for an instant -- no...Phil,<BR/><BR/>I don't doubt your faith for an instant -- nor do I think that anything you've said suggests that your faith is weak or questionable in any way. I'm just not sure that your language is saying what you actually mean or what you actually believe. I think you are underestimating the power of what God has given you when you articulate it in this way.<BR/><BR/>You keep saying that "in the face of no empirical evidence, [you've] made a decision to have faith." When you say that, I hear you saying that there are *no* reasons for your faith.<BR/><BR/>But then you say that your faith is based in part on where and how you were raised. If by that you mean that your faith is based in part upon the examples of faithful living with which God has surrounded you, then how is that *not* empirical evidence? <BR/><BR/>The faith you have seen is the evidence of the Christ you have not seen -- that is precisely what the Hebrew writer says (and precisely why James says that faith cannot be mere mental assent).<BR/><BR/>Part of our problem is that so many people value brute facts. We want to be in control -- just the facts, ma'am. Since so many people think this way especially in the wreckage handed to us by modernity and the Greek deification of the mind, they think that God must operate in this way. Human values are deeply skewed this way.<BR/><BR/>I think of how, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore could not convince Harry that his ability to *love* was more powerful than anything Voldemort possessed. It couldn't get through to him until he walked that path.<BR/><BR/>In the same way, God has chosen not to provide the kind of data so many people want -- precisely because that kind of data does not lead to relationship. "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up."<BR/><BR/>We haven't been left with faith, hope, and love because they are inferior, but because they are the only ways to true life. Part of our mission in our culture is to model faith, hope, and love as superior ways of knowing and being than the epistemologies of laboratory and manipulation.<BR/><BR/>This conversation has challenged and enriched my faith as well. I hope I have not suggested in any of this that your reasons are unworthy. I merely mean to say that you denigrate your reasons by saying they are not "empirical evidence."<BR/><BR/>in HIS love,<BR/>nickAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6821288.post-29632525648552127452009-02-20T10:25:00.000-05:002009-02-20T10:25:00.000-05:00Phil...this is a good post. I'll mull it over!Phil...this is a good post. I'll mull it over!Jeff Dodsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11427234007898951023noreply@blogger.com