Unbelieving Faith
“Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2:4 NASB
Faith – Years ago we spent a lot of time examining this critical verse from Habakkuk, cited by Paul as the summary of the letter to the Romans (if you want to review, try these two:
CLICK HERE and HERE
Abraham Heschel provides two insights that apply to this verse, insights which challenge our usual understanding of Habakkuk’s words. The first comment is about the difference between faith and belief. “Faith is a relation to God, belief a relation to an idea or a dogma.”[1] Heschel’s remark made me realize how much of my past “belief” was really about doctrines, dogmas, and church teaching. In fact, the various “statements of faith” that I had to sign over the years only prove Heschel’s point. None of them ever asked about my relationship to God. They all asked about my beliefs about God. It seems to me that we enter into some relationship to God as a direct result of His interaction with us and then we proceed to move on to belief, mangling the relationship into doctrinal shape. I wonder if Habakkuk was communicating the necessity of correct belief or pleading with Israel to renew the relationship?
The discovery that faith is not the same as belief leads to another discomforting conclusion:
“There is a slow and silent stream at the shore of all human history. The heaven is the Lord’s, but the stream is open to all men. And he who lives by his faith finds himself in the community of countless men of all ages, of all nations, to whom it was shown that one man with God is a majority against all men of malice, that love of mercy is stronger than power. Creeds may divide it, zealots may deny it, the community of faith endures forever.”[2]
Heschel’s comment implies that faith is not limited to one religious paradigm. It is not circumscribed by a particular theology, a certain ethnicity, or a specific community. If faith is a relationship, it is available to any man regardless of his circumstances. Belief, on the other hand, is particular, and as Heschel notes, the result of creed or zealots or whatever is used to define inclusive behavior. Taken to its logical conclusion, this means that Torah is not the only path of faith. Torah is the instruction manual, but it is not the relationship. Torah belongs in the category of belief.
“It is tragically true that we are often wrong about God, believing in that which is not God, in a counterfeit ideal, in a dream, in a cosmic force, in our own father, in our own selves. We must never cease to question our own faith and to ask what God means to us. Is He an alibi for ignorance? The white flag of surrender to the unknown? Is He a pretext for comfort and unwarranted cheer? a device to cheat despondency, fear or despair. From whom should we seek support for our faith if even religion can be fraud, . .”[3]
“Authentic faith is more than an echo of a tradition. It is a creative situation, an event. . . . Each of us has at least once in his life experienced the momentous reality of God. Each of us has once caught a glimpse of the beauty, peace and power that flow through the souls of those who are devoted to Him. But such experiences or inspirations are rare events. To some people they are like shooting stars, passing and unremembered. In others they kindle a light that is never quenched. The remembrance of that experience and the loyalty to the response of that moment are the forces that sustain our faith. In this sense, faith is faithfulness, loyalty to an event, loyalty to our response.”[4]
Topical Index: faith, belief, Romans 1:17, Habakkuk 2:4
[1] Abraham Heschel, Man Is Not Alone, p. 166.
[2] Ibid., p. 163.
[3] Ibid., p. 160.
[4] Ibid., p. 165.
