New Church Life Sep/Oct 2014 | Page 48

new church life: september/october 2014 in the heart that we cannot believe them until we are convinced by what we can apprehend, or perceive by the senses; this is the principle that leads to all folly and insanity, and is to be called the negative principle. The other principle is to affirm the things which are of doctrine from the Word, or to think and believe within ourselves that they are true because the Lord has said them: this is the principle that leads to all intelligence and wisdom, and is to be called the affirmative principle. There are illustrations throughout the Lord’s Word that demonstrate the wisdom of this affirmative principle. The sixth chapter of John tells us that many of Jesus’ followers left Him after He said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” They called this a “hard saying,” and because it made no sense to them, they walked away. But the twelve disciples remained, and when Jesus asked them why, Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68) Rather than rejecting the Lord because of sayings they found difficult to understand, they continued to follow Him, knowing that His words brought eternal life, no matter how difficult they might be to comprehend. And it is only because they took that affirmative stance that later they were able to understand something of what He meant. Even when we have the affirmative principle, though, we will naturally have doubts. The passage quoted above goes on to describe people who have doubts before they accept that affirmative principle: There are some who are in doubt before they deny, and there are some who are in doubt before they affirm. Those who are in doubt before they deny are those who incline to a life of evil; and when this life carries them away, then to the extent that they think of the matters in question, they deny them. But those who are in doubt before they affirm are those who incline to a life of good; and when they allow themselves to be bent to this by the Lord, then to the extent that they think about those things, so far they affirm. What this tells us is that although we might think of our doubts as purely intellectual, the reality is they have much more to do with the way we live than we realize. We might say to ourselves: “How can I know if Jesus Christ really rose from the dead? How can I actually know that He is God, and that He has an influence on the world today?” Our first instinct might be to think that the way to deal with those doubts is simply to collect enough evidence, weigh it rationally, and come to a conclusion based on pure logic – an intellectual exercise. The problem, though, is that people don’t actually work that way. Our desires and emotions have far more impact on our ability to assess data than we tend to think, and that’s as true for a committed atheist as it is for a committed Christian. We might not see the connection, but whether or not we want the Lord to be God will have a huge impact on whether we’ll accept or deny the 434