Not Seeing, Believing
Evidence of facts leads to an understanding of truth. (At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work!) God created us with senses and common sense so that we can gain knowledge.
I know the coronavirus exists even though I’ve never seen it in a microscope. Somebody has, and they say it has spike proteins that make it look like a crown. That’s how the pathogen got the name “corona,” Latin for crown.
I accept that a 15 pound creature can silently defy gravity because the eagle floats in the sky. A land based creature can move without legs. Consider the snake on a rock when you are one step away. Boats can slip along silently with invisible propulsion when their sails billow. And who can deny the invisible bonds between a man and woman committed to loving one another? Oh the wonderful things we can observe and know! (Prov. 30:18-19)
We take thinking and reasoning for granted. One wonders how an unthinking and unreasoning universe that came about on its own could produce such higher order intelligence. But that’s off point. The point is that God did create us with the senses of touch, sight, hearing, and taste which, combined with logic, means we can know things about our world. God has even embedded within us a framework by which we can know about Him. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made” (Rom. 1:20).
Jesus’ disciple Thomas relied perhaps a little much on his senses, declaring unless he saw and touched he wouldn’t believe Jesus had resurrected from the dead. Jesus addressed Thomas’ doubts straight up when He let him see and touch. Yet Jesus knew that millions would find other evidence compelling when He said, “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” (John 20:29).
That doesn’t mean Jesus expects blind faith. It’s a fallacy that faith means connecting the dots in the absence of evidence. Biblical faith is grounded in historical, scientific, and logical evidence. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1, KJV). God has created us and the universe we live in so that we can know Him. And at the right time, He came to walk on the earth as one of us.
After his denials, Peter finally pieced together enough evidence to know the truth about Jesus. His writes his encouragement to you. “Though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls (1 Pet 1:8-9). Are you among those who did not see, but believe?
