Believing can give us eyes to see and ears to hear, enabling us to understand and know. In the physical world, seeing comes prior to believing, but in the spiritual world, believing often precedes knowing, just as faith precedes the miracle. This saying contains an important spiritual truth. “I believe in order to know.” Credo ut intelligam.
In the spiritual realm, “I believe” can lead to “I understand.” I am fond of this Latin saying “ Credo ut intelligam.” Let me parse the Latin: “ credo” (I believe) “ ut” (in order) “ intelligam” (to know). Some truths, however, disclose themselves more readily to belief than to doubt. Cartesian doubt gave rise to powerful philosophic and scientific methodologies for discovering truth. Descartes dubito (meaning “I doubt”) led to cogito (meaning “I know”). Some truths are discovered through rigorous and systematic doubt, as Descartes famously demonstrated by trying to doubt everything.
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy” ( Hamlet 1.5.167-68). For, to paraphrase Hamlet to his college-buddy Horatio, “There are more things in heaven and earth. These skills and intellectual habits will serve you well.Īt the same time, I hope that your university education has not turned you into full-blown skeptics. In the process, you may have acquired what is often called “healthy skepticism” when it comes to assessing claims of pitchmen and politicians. If a person comes to you peddling a cream to cure your cancer or a scheme to double your money in a week, I hope that you will treat such claims with a large dose of skepticism and say, “Show me the evidence” before you lay down your money or mortgage your home.Īs a soon-to-be college graduate, you have developed the ability to gather and analyze empirical data to test truth claims and to reason your way through complex questions. Yes, there are optical illusions and other ways our senses and reason can be unreliable guides to knowledge, but normally people can safely believe their eyes.įurther, in most matters it is wise to insist on seeing before believing. You would rightly consider me crazy to doubt this. I’ve called my talk “Believing is Seeing.”īy saying that “believing is seeing” I do not intend to deny or disparage the commonsense notion that “seeing is believing.” I believe you are here because I see you in front of me. So, as you leave here, let me give you one last word of advice: be believing in order to see “things as they really are” (Jacob 4:13). The world you are entering will likely test your deepest beliefs. We often say that “seeing is believing.” In the spiritual realm, however, the reverse is also true: “believing is seeing.” Believing helps us see things with our spiritual eyes and senses. When you’re tuned in to God and asking him what he wants you to do, you’re saying, “God, I believe you want me to accomplish this action by this time.” When you do that, you’re acting on faith.Today I want to talk to you about seeing and believing. Your dream, your goal is an act of faith. Everything God has done through Saddleback in the last four decades was impossible before it happened. We all knew the price of land in Orange County. Nearly 40 years ago, I stood in front of a small group of people for the first service of Saddleback Church, and I shared a dream God gave me for a church with 50 acres of land, a church that would minister to 20,000 people every week. Nothing happens until someone believes it’s possible first. It makes reality out of what’s in your imagination. People say, “Seeing is believing.” God says the exact opposite: “Believing is seeing.” Some things you’ll never see unless you believe them first.Įvery great achievement started when someone first believed it was possible. Faith is visualizing the future in the present-it means seeing the future in advance. “Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it” (Hebrews 11:1 NCV).