Misapplied Faith

The book of Hebrews calls faith the "assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld." Scholarly dismissal of Hebrews from bible canon not withstanding, faith is almost always agreed to be a belief in things you can't see. The problem with discussing the bible with those who are faithful is that they often have no interest in the things they can see.

In a recent JW broadcast segment, Stephen Lett makes the erroneous claim that there is more evidence for "the Kingdom than there is for gravity." Yeah, he actually said that. Take a minute, because I sure had to...

Juxtaposed against Hebrews 11:1, Christians rely on centuries of assurances as the basis for their belief in all the things they practice. The two clauses of that scripture are not exactly polar opposites, nor are they mutually exclusive by their nature. But they almost certainly will never occupy the same space. Why is that?

Firstly, I don't think anyone will rightly contest that the "assured expectation" clause is the right of every living person, religious or not. You can hope in whatever you want, and can even be internally or externally assured of that. Whether that comes to fruition is something that only time will establish. It requires no validation, and most often requires revision after evidence to the contrary arises.

Secondly, the next clause is not faith. It's science. I'll even give you an example...

In 1781, British astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus. Having done so without the use of both hands and a map, what had once been regarded as a star was definitively identified as a planet. Numerous astronomers then took to observing Uranus and all noted the same basic thing. There were irregularities which could not be explained by Newtonian Gravitational laws... or could they?

French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier concluded that the effect which was observed on the orbit of Uranus had to be the result of another heavenly body not yet discovered. He calculated the presence of the planet Neptune using only mathematics and the laws of gravity. To be clear, no one had yet laid eyes on Neptune through a telescope. Interestingly, English astronomer John Couch Adams had been making the same calculations independently and arrived at his conclusions just two days after Le Verrier.

On August 31, 1846, the world was publicly put on notice that another planet was believed to exist. On September 23, 1846, Johann Galle of the Berlin Observatory, having been notified by both Le Verrier and Adams independently, looked into his telescope and found Neptune just 43 arc seconds from its predicted location. Using the Sun as a starting point, La Verrier and Adams missed by 580,000 miles. Put your finger on the period at the end of this sentence; on an astronomical scale, they were closer.

That, friends, is the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld. Laws, predictable, repeatable laws that can yield the same result across independent investigations are evident demonstrations. Gravity has no form that we can measure. But it does have predictable behavior with defined values. Can the same be said of faith?

Faith is actually a belief in something for which there will eventually be proof. Heretofore, the only thing evidently demonstrated is that humans will do almost anything if they think God is behind it,  which has generally required the dismissal of science throughout history.

Watchtower takes their rise from a few well-meaning men to their current stature as evidence of God's involvement. This is their "evident demonstration". Judaism, Islam, and every branch of Christianity has endured longer and hold more adherents than Watchtower does. Multiple religious movements around the world are growing faster than Watchtower. Multiple groups are under the fire of persecution. Every religious leader mentioned in the bible was under God's direction, often with direct lines of communication (though curiously, Jesus was never depicted of hearing God's voice directly... figure that one out). The Governing Body, however, is not inspired... by their own admission.

What then has been evidently demonstrated? That a group of people who have a common goal can achieve great things? That the world at large is tired of religious abuses? In no way, shape, or form can there be said to be any evidence of Godly involvement in the Watchtower organization. It's just not there. At least no more than any other religion. They are subject to the same pitfalls and perils as everyone else on the planet, religious or not.