Hey Thomas,

You have already been a great conversation partner in biblical studies for me and I count it a great privilege to be able to enter into dialogue over the “sticky” issues of the faith with you. I posit that our faith cannot grow if we back away from what we do not feel comfortable questioning or investigating when it comes to matter of faith. It is only when we venture outside our false sense of security with contemporary paradigms of Christianity that we will ever reach a true understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.

Anselm of Canterbury (AD 1033–1109), the renowned Christian philosopher and theologian, had a motto that I believe holds a paramount concept for how we should approach faith. When it comes to asking questions of faith, doctrine, and the church, Anselm lived by the motto: “Faith Seeking Understanding.” For Anselm faith was not just something that a person passively possesses, nor is understanding mean to supplant faith in a person’s life. What Anselm opposed was a faith that “merely believes what it ought to believe.” To Anselm, that faith is “dead.”

I agree.

Rather, what faith needs to be is active and alive, it needs to be searching ever-deeper for answers, and it should drive a person to act as God wills. In other words, what Anselm’s motto means is for the follower of Christ to have an active love for God that is constantly seeking a deeper knowledge of God and driving them further to an even more assured faith in him.

To simply believe the status quo. To simply believe the church. To simply believe your family and friends. To simply believe what you heard last week in the pastor’s sermon. To simply believe because you think you ought to: IS NOT FAITH. Please don’t get me wrong. I am not trying to be cynical of these avenues to learn about God and grow in faith. What I am attacking is using them as the sole basis for faith. If one believes only what they hear through human channels, their faith is grounded in their identity with those channels.

A person who follows the Lord Jesus lives by the words of the Lord. How can we call ourselves followers of Christ if we do not seek to personally know his teachings and those of his apostles? “Faith seeking understanding” has raised my eyes from the murky waters that I have known for so long. It has inflamed my soul to carve out the substance upon which I place my trust and upon which I stake my life.

Love is not a corporate entity, but a personal one; so is faith. Faith does not come because we choose to adhere to a body of doctrine from this church or that. Faith comes from one’s heart being touch by the life-giving message of the gospel and is then spurned on by a passion to relentlessly seek the Lord as though the knowledge of him be the greatest wealth one can acquire. To count all other things as but loss… (Phil 3:8).

Of course, maybe you disagree. I might be a little too radical for you brother. I doubt you will, though. 😉

Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”

P.S. Recently at the encouragement of a dear friend, I have been implored to take up a blog as well on specific issues of faith and Scripture that I have come to take great interest in. So, I will be joining you soon in the new “public square.” Woe to me for being another voice among the clamor, right?….lol.

You inspire greater things than what can be seen through your eyes, my friend. Keep living for the one who we owe it all to.

All praise and glory be to Jesus Messiah and God our Father. Amen. ~JW