How can you have faith in something you can't understand?

Question

Christians are fond of saying that our finite, fallible human minds are incapable of understanding god's plan. But is it really possible for those self-same finite fallible minds to truly understand god? If we can't understand god, how can we really say that we believe in him? Isn't your faith really in some shadowy, incomplete idea of god, not in the real god? does that mean you're going to hell because you aren't worshippng the real god, only a patheticly small vision of god?

Answer 1

A Jewish philosopher once said that the only people who had a hope of understanding god were prophets and philosophers. Everyone else was simply worshiping a projection of him/herself. Which would explain all the religious wars. As far as going to hell, I don't know but I doubt hell exists anyway.

Answer 2

I am Pagan not Christian, so I don't believe in Hell. However, I have faith that if I lead the best life I can, and always strive to do the right thing, as I understand it, then eventually, I will understand. I do not have to understand the infinite scope of the Gods and the Multi-verse to know right from wrong here on Earth, and since this is where I live, on Earth, understanding the "Big Picture" can wait for another day.

Answer 3

With great difficulty if you are equipped with a brain. But, you can read the Truth about God and the Universe in entirely logical terms in "Rational Spirituality" on the Dhaxem website. And if you can think, you will understand God.

Answer 4

God gave us the Bible and His Son's life, death and resurrection to educate humans about Him. Have you studied it with His help? He has given a clear enough picture for us to know Him well enough if we study and try to communicate with Him there is enough evidence for faith. He also will give us the faith necessary to trust fully in Him. Then He proves Himself in our lives.

You are correct that humans will never be capable to understand fully and completely God or His plan of salvation, but if we could understand Him we would be on His level and be like gods ourselves. We are created beings. Only God has all knowledge and is everywhere in the universe at once. He always was; without beginning or end. That is a far-out concept that our minds can not comprehend, but we know enough about Him to love Him and serve Him and give our lives to Him. You should try it.

You will never be happy unless you give your life to Him. You can talk to Him and He will hear you. He loves you. He gave His son to die for you; that you may have the option of live eternally. That is a level of love that humans can not understand as well.

Answer 5

I have faith because I never lost it as a child.
Most of us are introduced to God as children. There is no doubt then, our parents love us and God is in heaven with our ancestors and watches us. And one day we'll die and get to go to Heaven and meet Him.
As we get older it's not so rock solid ~ is it? Well to some people, but not to me. I don't need to prove this to you, God knows my faith. And that is the only thing in life to accomplish, all else is failure. As I said to another non-believer, it doesn't matter if you believe in Him, He believes in you, that's why He made you.
I try and keep my mind open to any and all possibilities God has to reveal to us. This is the truth of Jesus. He didn't give us ALL the same unwavering faith as Jesus because that is the test. To trust thru adversity, and I see you are in trouble. God bless us everyone.

Answer 6

How do we know that God ever existed in the first place? Did we make God up? I believe that God existed even before the galaxy was created and in the Holy Bible, it says that we should not lean on our own understanding, but, rely on every word from the mouth of God, our heavenly father.

Answer 7

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Everything that we need to unerstand and live by is outlined in the KJV bible. God's plan is to weed out those who are unworthy of becoming His son Jesus, who is the Lamb of God's bride in heaven. Why is that so hard to understand?

Revelation 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Revelation 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife

Answer 8

Yep I know what you mean. Knowing God and trusting Him with everything takes alot of time. To be able to trust someone with your life and everything in it, well, you have to know that person first. It is possible to know Him and to trust Him.
When I first got saved I didn't know Him, and got to know Him by reading the Psalms and the other Scriptures, as they tell about Him. As I got to know Him, had prayer with Him, and fellowshipped with Him I trusted Him more and more. The neat thing about getting to know God is that the closer you get to Him the closer He gets to you. He answers your prayers and let's you know He is the One doing it. He comes thru for you when nobody else will. He shows Himself to you as nobody else can. These kinds of things helps our faith in Him to grow, because He is always doing things for you that only He can do. It's a process tho. I remember going for walks with a friend who was a Christian too and asking many many questions, it's healthy to ask. Just know it takes some time to know and to trust.

Answer 9

We are finite, and God is infinite.

We cannot understand all of God, but He has given us much we can understand.

The most important is that we can have a relationship with Him, through His Son Jesus Christ, that we can begin this relationship by asking Jesus to forgive us our sins, as He died and took the punishment which we deserved.

I have been a Christian for 37 years now, and there is so much I don't understand about God - but what I do know and have experienced is wonderful, and I can tell you, He is worth getting to know.

Your welcome to go to http://groups.yahoo.com/seeking_reality

Answer 10

God has given us precisely what we need to know to grasp His plan for us. He hasn't created us with the capacity to understand how He is capable of creating us or what the depths of His mind includes in all its dimensions, or we would be God ourselves. He tells us,

"All SCRIPTURE is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be THOROUGHLY EQUIPPED for EVERY good work" (2Ti 3:16-17).

God conveyed to us the Bible, the Bible contains what is sufficient for us to know what He wants us to understand and do.

Perhaps someday He'll let us in on His plans past, present and future in eternity. For now, I can barely handle the depth of Scripture, but I've got what I need to be in a positive place with Him, via Jesus Christ.