Faith is reasonable because trust, which is the heart of biblical faith, is reasonable. Faith does not require that every question be resolved before it can proceed, for that would not be considered trust.<\/p>\n
This does not mean that faith is naive or without evidence to back it up. Yet there is only so far we will go in understanding overarching reality and having the knowledge and wisdom to discern all matters of ultimate concern. If we cannot be humble enough to admit our own frailties, limitations of knowledge, and need for greater wisdom than we can offer, then our hubris will have destroyed us. Sometimes I fear it already has.<\/p>\n
We all trust something or someone to provide a greater perspective on reality, moral authority, and wisdom. Choosing self or other people with the same limitations is self-defeating and unsustainable.<\/p>\n
Even more self-defeating is relying on an ultimate nothing, for then we are trusting mindless, purposeless, accidental processes to give us a solid grounding for our own ability to think and reason. Yet how can that be considered reasonable? And what about denying that we have faith at all? That is unrealistic at best and dishonest at worst. We all place our trust in something.<\/p>\n
In what, or in whom, do you place your trust? That’s where your faith rests. Is it reasonable? That depends on whether what or whom you trust is truly in the position for which such trust is warranted.<\/p>\n
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
\nbut we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
\nThey collapse and fall,
\nbut we rise and stand upright” (Psalms 20:7).<\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Doy Moyer Faith is reasonable because trust, which is the heart of biblical faith, is reasonable. Faith does not require that every question be resolved before it can proceed, for that would not be considered trust. A child does not wait for parents to answer every question about difficult matters before trusting them. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,36,129],"class_list":["post-45868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-faith","tag-reasoning","tag-trust"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":70241,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-not-have-enough-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":45868,"position":0},"title":"Do I not have enough faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Mr. Hamilton, I have a question in one of your articles titled: Does true faith mean the command to be baptized does not save a person? You said that: \"A person who does not obey demonstrates by his actions that he doesn't really believe.\" I have OCD, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":749,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-belief-include-anything-more-than-trust\/","url_meta":{"origin":45868,"position":1},"title":"Does belief include anything more than trust?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 30, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does belief include anything more than trust? Answer: Belief or faith is of primary importance to a follower of God. The writer of Hebrews state, \"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21186,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-faith-and-hope-still-exist-in-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":45868,"position":2},"title":"Will faith and hope still exist in heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question from I Corinthians 13 about faith, hope, and love with the greatest of these being love. I have led public prayers in which I prayed something like this \"to bless us with faith, hope, and love. For one day we will close our eyes in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50872,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faith-is-the-evidence\/","url_meta":{"origin":45868,"position":3},"title":"Faith is the Evidence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by\u00a0Doy Moyer \"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen\" (Hebrews 11:1, NASB). Some translations say that faith is the \"evidence\" of things not seen (KJV, NKJV). What does this mean? We often point out that faith is not blind. Because of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50006,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/anchor-points\/","url_meta":{"origin":45868,"position":4},"title":"Anchor Points","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer With so many reports of people losing their faith, we might wonder if there is anything to hold onto to anchor us down when we have doubts, questions, and deep concerns. We must not be dismissive of concerns, but allow the questions to be asked, never thinking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/anchor-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34512,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-want-to-be-baptized-but-my-parents-dont-think-it-is-necessary\/","url_meta":{"origin":45868,"position":5},"title":"I want to be baptized, but my parents don’t think it is necessary","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I lost a lot of my faith recently due to the fact that I realized baby baptism doesn't count and nothing that I did concerning God counted. I can't even be baptized again yet because my parents don't think it's necessary after infant baptism, so I don't know what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/trust-246x300.jpg\")
A child does not wait for parents to answer every question about difficult matters before trusting them. The child simply trusts that parents know what they are doing, and the child takes comfort in that. Yet how much greater is the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of God? We act like we cannot show faith unless God first answers every difficulty to our satisfaction. This is not faith. It is, instead, an attempt to bring all of reality under our own finite reason, and that is itself unreasonable.<\/p>\n