Or to put it another way, why believe in what God says? Why believe in God at all? Why trust what is written in some old book?
I wrote those questions as if an unbeliever were asking them to me. It is interesting, isn’t it, how the questioning of God’s trustworthiness cannot proceed very far without the trustworthiness of the Bible being questioned.
And with that transition question the unbeliever will perform a magic trick with his next question (or a variation of the following), “Why trust the words of men written in some old book?”
What has happened is similar to a magician’s subtle slight of hand. The original question is left forgotten, while a new one takes its place, all the while the magician wants you to believe there is no difference between the two questions.
To make it clear, the first question was “Why trust God?” and the second one is “Why trust man?”
It may seem obvious that these are not the same question. However, it is no exaggeration to say that many have left the faith (an act often labeled today as deconstructing) because they confuse the two.
It seems that by harnessing the obvious, pervasive, and undeniable treachery of man, to make us doubt the faithfulness, goodness, and love of God, the devil has won over many souls.
Yet, the cruel irony is this. By forsaking God out of doubt in man, man is left with no one to trust at all. For who is left for man to trust (if God is not) but untrustworthy mankind? Without God, we are left with nothing but our peers, our friends, our enemies, and our own brain (which often feels like a combination of all of the above).
We are told to trust science – an exercise performed by men, who we are so adamant in refusing to trust.
But I originally set out to answer a question – Why trust God?
You see this question, simple as it is, rests on an unspoken assumption – a presupposition. God exists.
Given this assumption, there is a choice we all have to make – to trust God or not.
I trust Him.
You ask me why? Why does a newborn trust her mother? Why does a dog trust its master? Why does a man trust his wife? Why does a whale trust the sea?
The answer, of course, is because the newborn knows her mother. The dog knows his owner. The husband loves his wife. The whale and the sea are old friends.
Trust, or belief, or faith, is not an academic thing you can isolate and study without getting your hands dirty with the messiness of a relationship.
I trust God because I know Him. And, more importantly, because He knows me.
By the way, people don’t trust God for the same reason they don’t trust a stranger who offers to house sit. Not, as they claim, because they don’t think God is real, but because they don’t know each other.
And then I will declare unto them, ‘I never knew you; depart you from Me, those working lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:23