Faith in Christianity: The Believer's Journey

What Does a Christian Rely On?

The unbeliever cries out for proof or evidence that he does not expect to find. The unbeliever wants the doors of heaven to open wide for him so that he can see the great God of heaven and his Son Jesus Christ sitting at his right hand. Even then, only if Almighty God will guarantee to him in writing that by believing in him and in the atonement of his Son he will be saved will he mull over becoming a faithful believer. The quester, even as he or she demands answers, is not prepared to fall into the open arms of the Divine Son of God.

Teachers often meet students whose approach to learning is encapsulated in the phrase, "You can't teach me a thing!" What they mean is not that the teacher cannot teach, but that

The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But Thomas said unto them,

Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. –John 20:24-25

The situation in which Thomas placed himself on that occasion was the same as that in which all the faithless are found. They do not believe in God. They do not believe in God’s Son Jesus Christ. Nor do they believe in and accept God’s commissioned messengers.

Perhaps we are wrong, even sinful, to judge Thomas harshly for doubting the information that a man that had died in the sight of hundreds of witnesses from the massive blood common to crucifixion and its concomitant physical conditions that eventually suffocate the victim when he becomes too weak to raise himself up on pierced feet and anguished legs and so reduce the pressure that compresses his chest and compromises his ability to

Yet that was the message told to Thomas by his ten brethren. He had already seen one of their number betray Jesus and that betrayal had led to his crucifixion. But he had not taken on board the promises Jesus had made. When we read from the second chapter of the Fourth Gospel we might be surprised that Thomas seemed to have forgotten the direct words of Jesus in earlier