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Preached on 04-11-99

FAITH & DOUBT

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me" (Jn. 8:18)

WE ARE GOING TO CONSIDER this morning the foundations of our faith -- that is, the reasons we have for believing as we do. How is it that we know the Word, in all its three dispensations, actually is the Word of God?

We are believers in a world that seems filled with a majority of non-believers. In believing what we do about the Heavenly Doctrines, we stand alone. Indeed, the faith we hold is something which would be ridiculed by many people. And because we cannot fail to be affected to some degree by the world around us, we are inevitably going to suffer occasionally from periods of doubt.

Into our minds can float the nagging painful thought that perhaps we are wrong after all, and that the non-believers are right. Perhaps, we might think, we are mistaken in holding on to our beliefs and ideals when all around us such things are openly rejected and sometimes even scorned and blasphemed.

There can be a deep pain indeed associated with such thoughts. If we love something dearly, then we are torn apart when we see what we love being threatened or hurt. This is the very essence of temptation. When we are aware of doubts creeping into our minds and assaulting our faith, it hurts. It hurts on a very deep level indeed. All we live for, all we love, is centered around our faith. Therefore when doubts threaten this faith, they threaten all that is precious to us. Yet we cannot simply dismiss these doubts without good reason -- to do so will only lead to further doubt, and to a feeling that perhaps we are indulging in wishful thinking. So it is that states of doubt concerning the things of faith can leave us in a very unsettled state of mind.

When our faith is tempted, we develop a longing, a need, for evidence. All our doubts could be washed away if we could have firm indisputable evidence that the Writings and the rest of the Word are unquestionably true.

Now this desire for evidence or proof in matters of religion is a recurring theme within Divine Revelation. In the New Testament, we read of the scribes and Pharisees asking the Lord for a sign, and the Lord replying that "an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign" (Matt. 12:39). In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the Lord tells of the rich man, being tormented by the fire of hell, desiring to have Lazarus sent back from the dead to warn his brothers still living in the world. To this, father Abraham, who of course represents the Lord, replies that "if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead" (Lk. 16:31). And whilst the Lord was on the cross, one of the thieves crucified with Him "blasphemed Him, saying, 'If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us'" (Luke 23:3). Yet the Lord did not come down from the cross.

Now it is true that during the Lord's life on earth, He performed many miracles, which to some degree served the purpose of convincing people. But we also see the Lord, when people doubted who He was, refusing to give them confirmation of the truth of His words. This is the theme which occurs in the incident from which our text is taken. The Pharisees challenged the truth of what the Lord was saying. They pointed out that He bore witness of Himself. There was nobody else to corroborate the truth of what He was saying. The Lord's answer hardly satisfied the doubting Pharisees. He said: "Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true" (Jn. 8:14). Later He adds, "I am One who bears witness of Myself" (Jn. 8:18). The Lord doesn't seem to answer the demand for proof of His words.

Now we all know the basic reason why the things of religion cannot be proved. Proof would compel belief, and if belief were a matter of compulsion, a person would no longer have freedom in spiritual things. Added to this, if those in evil could be forced to believe the truth, they could then proceed to profane -- to desecrate -- the truth. Indeed, so important is it that people be prevented from profaning the truth that at times the Lord ensures that they will be unable to see it. As we read in Isaiah: "Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed." (Isa. 6:10). So it is that not only are religious truths unprovable, but at times the Lord even takes certain steps to ensure that people who will profane the truth are actually prevented from seeing it.

However, with somebody in the church undergoing temptation in matters of faith, such restrictions on seeing the truth would not seem to apply. A person in the church basically believes the truth -- he wants to believe as much as possible -- but he still has occasional nagging doubts. He is like a man, the father of a child possessed by an evil spirit, who cried out to the Lord with tears in his eyes and said: "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mk. 9:24). We realize that the cynical atheist will never see the truth so long as he remains stubbornly opposed to it. But what about a person sincerely groping for faith, who is shaken to the depths of his soul when nagging doubts disturb the serenity of his belief? Why cannot the Lord provide proof of the truth for such a person? It seems as if we are at times forced to make a leap of faith -- to trust blindly that the Word speaks the truth.

Yet there is no need for blind faith. Indeed, as the Writings make manifestly clear, blind faith is not a faith at all. Faith is to see the truth, and what we do not see to be true we cannot really believe. To believe in the Lord and His Word need not and should not be a form of wishful thinking -- a feeling that we hope it is true. The fact is, the Lord actually offers us indisputable evidence that what He teaches us is the truth -- the living truth of God.

There is this proof, this evidence, this witness, which bears testimony beyond any doubt whatsoever, that the Heavenly Doctrines, the New Testament, and the Old Testament, are true. Now it is not a proof that can force somebody to believe against his will. There is such a thing as wilful disbelief, and somebody in such a state will not, indeed must not, be forced into a acceptance of the truth. He must be allowed by the Lord to close his eyes to an acknowledgement of the truth. The kind of proof or evidence the Lord offers us does not convince us against our will.

Consider once more the Lord's reply to the Pharisees who accused Him of bearing witness unto Himself. "I am One who bears witness of Myself." To them such a reply was totally unacceptable. It was a well established principle of law that two witnesses were required before a man could be punished. As it is written in the Book of Deuteronomy: "One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established" (Deut. 19:15; emphasis added). One man's testimony was not enough. Corroborating evidence was required in such an important matter as the guilt or innocence of an accused man. By applying the same principle to the Lord's words, the Pharisees concluded that what He said could not be trusted, for there was nobody else to back up His statements. When the Lord told them that He bore witness to Himself, this statement must have convinced them that they could not believe in Him.

But the real reason for their lack of belief lay in the fact that they didn't want to believe. They didn't even want to really listen to what the Lord had to say. If they had listened, they might have realized that what the Lord was saying did indeed point the way to why He should be believed.

Though the Lord bore witness of Himself, His witness did not stand alone. What He said could be demonstrated to be the truth from more than one source. He said, "I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me" (Jn. 8:18).

Before going into just what the Lord was saying, let us consider what is involved in our belief in the Lord's Word. What the Lord tells us in His Word is indeed true. But how can somebody come to see beyond a doubt that it is true? The way in which we can know something to be true is actually the subject of a long and involved branch of theology and philosophy. In general, though, we see the truth of something when things fit together. In a court of law, when two independent witnesses testify to the same thing, it tends to confirm the truth of what they say. So too, if we are to really see the truth, say, of the Writings, we must see their truth in more than one way. Since they are true, certain things must tie together. This is what is involved in the law of Moses that two witnesses at least were required for a conviction. Internally there is involved the spiritual law that "one truth does not confirm" (AC 4197). It is indeed vital that a person see the truth of the Word confirmed by various reasons which fit together. Only then can he see for himself that it is really true. What is more, only then can his belief be a real understanding. Those who have never considered within themselves whether something be true or not, but believe it in a rigid and forced fashion, tend to have little comprehension of what it is they supposedly have faith in. It is only when somebody sees something rationally that he can understand it, and, even more important, only then can understand how to apply it to his life, and so do what is good. If we were forced to believe the truth, we wouldn't understand it, and, not understanding it, we would be incapable of living it.

So it is that we must consider within ourselves whether the Word is from God or not. We must consider for ourselves whether or not it makes sense. Yet even this does not sound quite right. How can we, who relative to God, are in complete ignorance, with incredibly limited powers of understanding, sit in judgment on the Word of God? We have to, if we are to see the truth for ourselves. Yet how can we really do so? Man by himself is in such darkness that he would be incapable of recognizing a truth even if it were staring him right in the face.

This is what is meant by the Lord bearing witness to Himself, for, He said, "I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going" (Jn. 8:14). In other words, by ourselves we are incapable of judging the truth. Only the Divine is capable of bearing witness to the Divine. What then is the answer? A person must see the truth for himself, and yet by himself he is incapable of doing so. The answer is a simple one. Since the Lord alone can bear witness to Himself, we must therefore receive Him into our minds, so that from Him we might have the ability to judge the truth of His Word. It is the Lord's presence with us which gives us the ability to see, beyond any doubt, that what He tells us in His Word is Divinely true. And so the Lord bears witness to Himself. Yet His witness is true, that is, demonstrably true, because He comes to us in two different ways, which together will do away with all doubt whatsoever.

"I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me." The Lord, whilst on earth, represented, and indeed was, the Word. His Father, or the soul within Him, was the Divine love. It is through both truth and love that the Lord bears witness of Himself, so that all who are willing might believe in Him. As we read in the Apocalypse Explained: "It is the Divine that bears witness concerning the Divine, and not a person from himself: consequently the Lord is in the good of love, and in the truth of doctrine therefrom, that are in a person, and it is these that bear witness" (AE 635:2). The good of love and the truth of doctrine: these are the two witnesses.

Somebody is in doubt. He wonders within Himself whether or not the Word is true. He wonders if the teachings of the New Church are to be believed when so many people believe so many other things. Why does not the Lord show Him the truth -- show it to him in such a way that he cannot possibly doubt? The fact is, the Lord does indeed offer him such a sight of the truth. The Lord offers those in His church irrefutable evidence that what the Writings say is the living truth of God. This evidence, though, can only be found when an understanding of the truth is joined with a life of good.

To see the truth of the Word, to understand how it is true, requires that we have spiritual light within our minds to see it. Just as natural light is essential if we are to see objects in the world around us, so too is spiritual light essential if we are to be able to read the Word and say to ourselves, "I see . . . I see that this is true." Such glimpses of the truth can come to us if our minds are not filled with falsity. They can come to us when we are in states where the light of heaven shines into our minds. But such insights into the truth of the Word are not permanent at first. While evils remain active within us, the light of heaven is periodically cut off. and we doubt the truth of what we have seen. It is only as we live the truth, and through the life of reformation and regeneration receive a love of what is good from the Lord that we can come at length into a permanent clear insight of the Lord's truth.

Then, and only then, can we see the truth beyond any doubt whatsoever. It cannot be before this, for the ability to see truth comes from the Lord alone -- it comes from His presence with us in the truths of doctrine and in the goods of charity. It is in this way that He bears witness to Himself -- bears witness by showing us, within our individual minds, the truth of His Word.

For somebody in this state, this witness of the Lord constitutes firm proof of the truth of the Word. But it is not proof which can be conveyed to those unwilling to seek it for themselves. Faith, in the final analysis, comes only to those who desire it. They must be willing not only to read the Word, but also to live what it teaches. In a sense, it is analogous to the so-called proofs of science -- in which a theory must be tested by experiments. So too, if we are to come to understand and believe the Word in such a way that we are freed forever of nagging doubts, we must put what the Lord says to the test by living it. If we are willing to obey His Word, we will be given to see clearly, beyond any doubt, that His Word is life, and that His Word is the living truth itself. If we are not willing to do what the Lord tells us, we will face increasing doubt, until, in the other world, all belief in the truth will be taken from us completely.

In short, we must shun evils as sins and so obey the Lord's commandments if we are to come to acknowledge the truth not only in our minds, but also in our hearts. As we are advised in the small work called the Doctrine of Faith: "If any one should think within himself, or say to some one else, 'Who is able to have the internal acknowledgement of truth which is faith? not I;' let me tell him how he may have it: Shun evils as sins, and come to the Lord, and you will have as much of it as you desire" (F 12).

Amen.

Lessons: Deut. 19; Jn. 8:12-18; F 11-12