You Cannot Give Yourself Faith…

In the Nederlands Dagblad (Dutch Newspaper, September 17, 2024), I read an interview with one Eddo Evink (57), a professor of philosophy. Among other things, he talks about his background in the Reformed Liberated tradition. The answers he was given within that tradition did not satisfy him at all.

As a child, I was somewhat anxious. Obedient, well-behaved—I felt little room to go through a rebellious phase. In discussions about matters of faith, I did push the boundaries. Even as a child, I found it frustrating that while you were encouraged to study the Bible, when you came up with all sorts of questions, that was not appreciated. You would be told: ‘You shouldn’t want to understand everything; you just have to believe.’

And regarding the crisis during his student years:

At the same time, as a student, I quickly found myself in an existential crisis due to that freedom. The rational house of cards of faith collapsed. I realized: it’s all nonsense, none of it is true. But on the other hand, faith had been the most important thing I had received up to that point. I couldn’t just cut off my entire life history.

I remained within the pillar for a long time to avoid trouble, but inwardly, I was searching. What should I believe? Why am I in this world? What is the meaning of it all? I even tried for a while to see if something would change if I prayed faithfully every day. And even when I decided to quit altogether, I still thought: maybe faith will come to me after all!

It was especially the following statement in the interview that struck me (italics mine, AP):

What ultimately helped me to let go was that I gradually realized that you cannot give yourself faith. In the end, a believer has a passive relationship with their faith. That was a liberating insight for me. You can tell yourself: now I am going to believe that it is all true! But if that does not actually convince you, then it simply does not work. You are either convinced or you are not.

Without perhaps realizing it, Eddo Evink here affirms a one hundred percent Biblical truth. Faith is given to you. Because indeed, you cannot convince yourself—you are convinced. Paul expresses it this way in Ephesians 2:8-9:

For by GRACE ye are having been saved, through faith, and this not of you – IT IS THE GIFT FROM GOD, not of works, THAT NO ONE MAY BOAST (YLT)

How wonderful that the one GOD, in His time and way, will ultimately convince and bring every creature to the heartfelt acknowledgment that Jesus is Lord. To the glory of God the Father! (Phil. 2:9-11).

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