Simpson on Faith

"Faith—what is it?" was the theme of the address Rev. J. Ewan Simpson of Central Baptist gave to the Evangelical Union on Wednesday.

Rev. Simpson said that faith was not primarily mental assent—much more than this was involved. He likened Faith to a mathematical proposition the truth of which a mathemetician could test, but which a non-mathematician could not. The Christian stood in a "mathematicians" position towards his faith.

Vital in building a man's relizion, faith could not come just by rational compilation, nor could it come by emotional pressure. It involved knowledge of the truth plus a personal commitment.

Rev. Simpson built up his argument starting from the assumption of God's existence (any dissent being left aside for the moment) and of His historical revelation to Old Testament patriachs and prophets; and in the New Testament through Christ the Incarnate Son of God. Present knowledge of God, he asserted came in an unwelcome form, through conviction of sin from the Holy Spirit.

"But can an average man believe all this?" asked the speaker, and proceeded to answer his own question by stressing the historical fact of the Resurrection of Jesus. On this Christianity rested. If Jesus had not risen from the dead then there was no possible reasonable explanation of the subsequent behaviour of the disciples. From broken and dispirited they had suddenly been converted into zealots on fire with the desire'to spread the news of the resurrection and man's redemption. If Christ had not risen any pretensions of the disciples could have been completely discredited by the Jewish authorities. Instepd, after the resurrection they took Christianity to the bounds of the known world.

Rev. Simpson then gave a personal testimony from his own life. He had once been in a very poor spiritual condition, unable to be sure even of the existence of God. By chance he had come across a book purporting to disprove the possibility of eternal life. Step by step he had followed the reasoning, and come to the final conclusion that the book was wrong, and that eternal life was the only likely thing. After this had come an upsurge of faith in his life.

But, could we be really sure that God has spoken and still is speaking was the next question the Rev. Simpson proposed. His answer was that this is where faith helps. A Christian is a person who knows God has spoken to him at some stage. With every individual the story might be different, but the move over to faith came when he listened to God with an open mind. This implied three things.

(1)	A recognition that faith is the ultimate concern.
(2)	An acceptance of God's will as supreme.
(3)	A commital to Christ.

Faith could not be judged by emotion felt, though some found faith by emotion, some by intellectual discussion, and some by neither (e.g. St. Paul's conversion when confronted by Christ). Being stubbornly silent to doubts was not faith, nor was a mere knowledge about the truth adequate. Rather faith involved doing something about what you know to be true—listening on God and recognising his will for you, concluded the Rev. Simpson.

The meeting then divided into groups and discussed the ideas the speaker had put forward.