Many people today talk about the need for faith. “You just gotta have faith” is Hallmark card spirituality, as if faith is some kind of inner strength that will get you through hard times. Diagnosed with a serious illness? Just believe, and you’ll make it. Have a mountain in life to climb? Have faith – you’ll be able to climb it! I like how Francis Schaeffer critiqued this unbiblical view of faith:
Probably the best way to describe this concept of modern theology is to say that it is faith in faith, rather than faith directed to an object which is actually there. Some years ago at a number of universities I spoke on the topic ‘Faith v. Faith,’ speaking on the contrast between Christian faith and modern faith. The same word, ‘faith,’ is used, but has an opposite meaning. Modern man cannot talk about the object of his faith, only about the faith itself. So he can discuss the existence of his faith and its ‘size’ as it exists against all reason, but that is all. Modern man’s faith turns inward.
In Christianity the value of faith depends upon the object towards which the faith is directed. So it looks outward to the God who is there, and to the Christ who in history died upon the cross once for all, finished the work of atonement, and on the third day rose again in space and in time. This makes Christian faith open to discussion and verification.
On the other hand, the new theology is in a position where faith is introverted because it has no certain object, and where the preaching of the kerygma is infallible since it is not open to rational discussion. This position, I would suggest, is actually a greater despair and darkness than the position of those modern men who commit suicide.
Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There, p. 84-5.
Shane Lems
Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Hammond, WI. 54015
The Reformed Reader Blog 