The Reason of Faith, Pt. 1

So I'm reading a John Owen book called The Reason of Faith. In order to aid in retention and comprehension, I am going to take some notes and summarize as I go along...and as long as I am doing that, I thought I would post some of it on my blog. So, here goes.

Part I--What it is to infallibly believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God, and what is our reason for so doing.

1. We can divide our believing, or our faith, in to two parts; namely, what it is that we believe, and why it is that we believe it.

a) What we believe, or the material object of our faith, is the things revealed in the Scripture, declared unto us in propositions of truth.

Aside: Owen adds here, "for things must be proposed to us as truth, or we cannot believe them." One of the constant points of attack for the emerging church is the supposed Enlightenment propensity towards infallible propositions of truth. Propositional statements are very out of favor right now. But doesn't his small comment elegantly demolish all the opposition made to propositions of truth? When you read the accounts of the NT preaching of the gospel, whether by Jesus, Peter, or Paul, note that all speak propositions of truth. The propose truth to their hearers. This is not an Enlightenment development, but a characteristic of communication!

b) The reason why we do believe them is because they are proposed in the Scriptures.

In other words, we believe the truths of the Scripture because they are in the Scriptures. This may seem circular, but Owen likes to be thorough. "Christ's death, and burial, and resurrection, are the things proposed unto us to be believed, and so are the object of our faith; but the reason why we believe them is because they are declared in the Scriptures."

The reason for this thoroughness is that the answer to the two questions:

a) What do you believe? What is so.
b) Why do you believe this? Because it is so?

No, the proper answer to b) is Because it is revealed in the Scriptures.


2. We are searching for a faith that is divine and infallible because of the objective cause of the faith. In other words, not a faith based on human arguments or teachers. Many in the church have risen no further in their faith than this type...that is, a faith in the Scriptures based on other people's experiences.

3. Now, when I say an infallible faith, I don't mean "an inherent quality in the subject," as if I could infallibly believe. Rather, "that property of the assent of our minds unto divine truths that is differentiated from other types of assent." The nature of assent stems from the nature of the evidence from which the assent proceeds.

Now, a man cannot infallibly believe in that which is false, but a man can imperfectly believe that which is infallibly true, if he believes it to be true from a fallible grounds.

Hmmm...get it? Yeah, that is a bit of a tough one. What I am trying to say is that a man can believe in the truth for the wrong reason. For example, a man may believe the Scriptures because of tradition, or outward arguments. Since both of those things are fallible, his faith also is fallible. But if a man believes because of infallible evidence to the infallible truth, than his faith is infallible.

4. Therefore (and this is a very important statement, central to Owen's argument, and in fact, the reason more or less for this entire work)...

The authority and veracity of God in revealing the material object of our faith, or what it is our duty to believe (meaning, the things we believe in the Scripture), are the formal object and reason of our faith, from whence it ariseth and whereinto it is ultimately resolved.

In other words, the reason we believe that Jesus is the Son of God is because God has said it is so. If we believe on that ground, our faith is divine and infallible.

Here's how Owen lays it out: Our faith in the Scriptures is infallible with respect to the formal reason of it (divine revelation), and supernatural with respect unto the production of it in our minds by the Holy Spirit. (Owen calls this "the subjective efficiency of the Holy Ghost inspiring it in our minds.")

5. Just to confuse you more, if you weren't confused already, Owen goes on to say that the authority and truth of God, considered absolutely, are not the formal object of our faith, but rather, the authority and truth of God in that they are evidenced to us, or revealed to us.

6. Here Owen to some degree summarizes, using a series of questions. I will paraphrase to the best of my ability.

Statement: We do believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God.

A) Why do we do so?
---It is because of the authority of God commanding us to, and the truth of God testifying thereunto.

B) But how are our minds and consciences affected with the authority and truth of God, so that we believe them, which makes our faith divine and supernatural?
---It is only the divine, supernatural, and infallible revelation that he has made of this truth.

C) But what is this revelation, and where can we find it?
---Only in the Scriptures, which contains the entire revelation that God has made of himself, in everything that he would have us believe or do.

7. Then here is his final question. How, or on what grounds, do we believe the Scripture to be a divine revelation, or the very words of God which is truth divine and infallible?

Answer: It is solely on the evidence that the Spirit of God, in and by the Scripture itself, gives to us that it was given by the immediate inspiration from God.

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Some of my more philosophical readers may recognize that last bit. It has been developed into a rigorous philosophy in the 20th century under the title Reformed Epistemology. As such, it is a theory of knowledge (obvi) that is quite elegant. One of its best known advocates is a guy named Alvin Platinga. It has also been central to the recent revival of Christian philosophy and philosophers at many secular universities.