Though the verse “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12) lives (as they say) rent-free in my head, I am so logically, rationally, and intellectually convinced of the Adventist message that, well, I almost don’t need faith.
Notice—I said “almost.” Not only do “the just” live by faith, but everyone does, and not only in religious matters. I believe that George Washington was the first president of the United States, but I’ve never dissected the assumptions, arguments, and leaps of faith that I take in order to believe it.
I recently came across the phrase “the Munchausen trilemma,” named for Baron Munchausen, who extracted himself and his horse out of the mire by pulling on his own hair. The idea being, of course, that he really couldn’t, because what he was pulling on to get himself out of the mire needed to get out of the mire as well. In the same way, the trilemma argues that we cannot really “prove” anything that we believe—from logic or math, along with religious beliefs or history or even what our senses tell us—apart from three dubious modes of thought: (1) circular arguments (assuming what you seek to prove); (2) regressive arguments (each proof requires another, ad infinitum);(3) dogmatic arguments (assumptions simply asserted as opposed to defended).
It’s no wonder that I am so logically, rationally, and intellectually convinced of Adventism.
It’s true: a certain amount of contingency, wiggle room, and doubt infects whatever we know (or think we know). Many times the contingency, the wiggle room, the doubt, is negligible, almost meaningless (except for philosophical musings). Maybe I am not sitting here at 2:52 a.m. writing this column but am still in bed, dreaming? Is it possible that George Washington wasn’t the first president of the United States? I never met him in person, nor was I at his inauguration, and even if I were, maybe it had been staged to deceive me?
I know one bright fellow who not only denies the Apollo moon landing but gives some logical and reasonable arguments against it, which shows that logical and reasonable arguments can buttress almost any absurdity. It’s simply the nature of not just belief, or of opinion, but of truth as well.
And that is why, when it comes to my Adventist belief—which I am so logically, rationally, and intellectually convinced of—some faith is needed, even for the most obvious truths. But the amount needed, in contrast to the logic and evidence for it, is minuscule. From the existence of a Creator (perhaps the most obvious truth that I know); to trust in the Bible as the Word of God (lots of convincing evidence); to belief in Jesus’ atoning death and resurrection (overwhelmingly validated); to the seventh-day Sabbath (a biblical no-brainer); to the dead sleeping until the resurrection (the only reasonable way to interpret the texts on death); and, finally, to the life and ministry of Ellen White (for which we have more than enough reasons to trust)—it’s no wonder that I am so logically, rationally, and intellectually convinced of Adventism.
It would take more faith, in fact, for me not to believe it than to.