believing, a matter of willing?

Originally posted on January 14, 2009 – by Andre Piet

I was directed to an atheist site (godvoordommen.nl) where several contributions (+ responses) can be read about an evening that was recently organized concerning the possible existence of hell. I myself had earlier already written a short commentary on the contribution that Prof. van der Beek delivered that particular evening. On the atheist site the entire evening was mercilessly dealt with.

One quotation I find worthwhile to pass on here. It concerns a question that the well-known professor Cees Dekker asked that evening, namely whether all those people who do not want to believe in Christ will be lost. And then follows the comment of the “atheistically involved” blogger (bold typeface mine; Andre Piet):

Are we hearing this correctly? All those people who do not want to believe in Christ? Yes, we are hearing it correctly. Here again we see the caricature of the atheist being presented. They do not want to believe in Christ, those atheists! Very telling. Especially on an evening about hell it appears necessary to portray the unbeliever as a stubborn, contrary, and unwilling being. A wretch who has only himself to blame that he goes to hell. The starting point of Christians seems to be that everyone can choose of his own free will for a relationship with God. But can that be? Can we voluntarily make the choice to begin believing in God? I dare to assert that we cannot. And precisely the people from whom you would expect them to be experts in this field, the believers, in practice appear to step far too easily over this problem. So too Professor Dekker.

In order to be able to believe in a personal God and enter into a relationship with Him, you must first believe that God exists. To believe that God exists means: to be firmly convinced that He not only exists in the imagination, but in reality. Believing that God exists is a necessary condition for believing in God. Believing in God means: placing your trust in Him and entering into a relationship with Him. But precisely that necessary condition (believing that He exists) cannot be fulfilled by an act of will: you cannot force yourself to believe in something which deep inside you already believe cannot exist. If that were possible, a Christian could choose to believe that Zeus exists. And a day later he could reverse his faith again, and yet once more believe that the Abrahamic God of the Bible exists. Every believer knows that this is not possible, and therefore should also know that an atheist cannot force himself to believe in YHWH. The next step, believing in YHWH, is therefore also not a matter of wanting or not wanting. In order to believe something you must be convinced by good arguments. (…)

A completely relevant comment from this atheist, if you ask me. Believing is not a matter of choosing. It is a matter of being convinced and won over with head and heart.
Atheists understand that far better than most Christians…

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P.S. People who believe because they say they have chosen to do so apparently have no idea what faith is. The Bible teaches that a person believes with the heart (Rom.10:10). Believing = trusting. Is not much of what passes for ‘faith’ at its core the opposite of that (= mistrust)? One has been moved to ‘faith’ by the choice between heaven or hell. But what does that have to do with trusting God? Is this not rather a fundamental mistrust of God? Someone to whom you submit because otherwise you go to hell…
No doctrine has produced so much counterfeit faith (‘feigned faith’) as precisely the doctrine and preaching of hell.

Delen: