B.B. Warfield (1851-1921) makes the point that a person’s faith in Christ ultimately comes to pass from the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. Apologetics (defense of the faith, using reason and evidence) is an avenue through which the Spirit conveys truth to a soul prepared by God and willing to go where, if left on its own, it would never go.
Warfield states:
“Mere reasoning cannot make a Christian; but that is not because faith is not the result of evidence, but because a dead soul cannot respond to evidence…The action of the Holy Spirit in giving faith is not apart from evidence, but along with evidence; and in the first instance consists in preparing the soul for the reception of the evidence.”
“…the world of facts is open to all people and all can be convinced of God’s existence and the truth of Scripture through them (facts) by the power of reasoning of a redeemed thinker” (italics mine).
Faith, then, is “conviction passing into confidence” via the empowering and continuous enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.
Norman Geisler and Patrick Zukeran elaborate on this process further by paraphrasing the words of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) from Edwards’ book, Of Being:
“Notwithstanding all of his stress on rational and objective evidence, Edwards did not believe that either general or special revelations were sufficient to make depraved men and women open to God’s truth. In addition to objective special revelation, there had to be a subjective, divine illumination. Only ‘the Devine and supernatural light’ could open a person’s heart to receive God’s revelation. Without this divine illumination, no one ever comes to accept God’s revelation, regardless of how strong the evidence for it is. A new heart is needed, not a new brain. This is accomplished by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. This divine light does not give any new truth or new revelations. Rather, it provides a new heart, a new attitude of receptivity by which one is able to accept God’s truth.”
The above quotes align with Jesus’ own teaching:
“When the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, namely, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, He will testify about me,” (John 15:26).
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all that I said to you” (John 14:26).
Jesus explained to Nicodemus:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit." John 3:5b-8
And Paul, too, confirms:
“Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:12-14).
Jesus plainly states that we are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37), and the Apostle Peter instructs that we are to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18a).
If we are to love and grow in this way, then it makes sense that we are to begin to know in this way—seeking, finding, meeting God in Christ Jesus via the Spirit’s revealing of what was previously to us a mystery—a mystery now unfolding through the willing capacity of our God-given and Spirit-established hearts, minds and souls.
Faith, then, truly is a spiritually intellectual and experiential “certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Copyright Barb Harwood
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