Theophilus of Antioch was a Christian apologist who lived shortly after the Apostolic period, and so as an early writer his views have much significance for the Christian theologian. In a letter to Autolycus the pagan, Theophilus lectures on the necessity of faith. He writes specifically here in regard to the resurrection:
But you do not believe that the dead are raised. When the resurrection shall take place, then you will believe, whether you will or no; and your faith shall be reckoned for unbelief, unless you believe now. And why do you not believe? Do you not know that faith is the leading principle in all matters? For what husbandman can reap, unless he first trust his seed to the earth? Or who can cross the sea, unless he first entrust himself to the boat and the pilot? And what sick person can be healed, unless first he trust himself to the care of the physician? And what art or knowledge can any one learn, unless he first apply and entrust himself to the teacher? If, then, the husbandman trusts the earth, and the sailor the boat, and the sick the physician, will you not place confidence in God, even when you hold so many pledges at His hand? For first He created you out of nothing, and brought you into existence (for if your father was not, nor your mother, much more were you yourself at one time not in being), and formed you out of a small and moist substance, even out of the least drop, which at one time had itself no being; and God introduced you into this life. Moreover, you believe that the images made by men are gods, and do great things; and can you not believe that the God who made you is able also to make you afterwards? [1, 91]
It is obvious here from Theophilus' illustrative explanation that he understands faith to be fundamentally the same thing as trust. The significant aspect of his presentation here is not, however, his presentation of faith per se, but his presentation of the basis of faith.
There is no evidence here of the modern understanding of "faith," that damnable idea that faith is essentially a blind commitment to the least logical course of action. In contrast, Theophilus presents a reasonable faith, in which one trusts because it makes the most sense to do so. As Theophilus would say, you trust yourself to the physician because you know the physician is skilled in healing, and you trust yourself to the boat because you know that the boat was designed to float. And why, says Theophilus, should you believe that God will raise you from the dead? Because God has created you, and formed you in the womb, evidencing his power and capabilities. So in short, you have faith in God regarding the resurrection because of the reality that he is your trustworthy Creator.
If you will bear with me, I will transition into another very important concept: the fundamental doctrines of creation (general revelation) and the existence of God are not articles of faith. That is, it does not take faith to believe that there is a Creator God. Rather, this fact is evident from all the creation that we see and experience around us (Romans 1.18-20.) This basic understanding is implied even in the same writing of Theophilus:
Consider, O man, His works,--the timely rotation of the seasons, and the changes of temperature; the regular march of the stars; the well-ordered course of days and nights, and months, and years; the various beauty of seeds, and plants, and fruits; and the divers species of quadrupeds, and birds, and reptiles, and fishes, both of the rivers and of the sea; or consider the instinct implanted in these animals to beget and rear offspring, not for their own profit, but for the use of man; and the providence with which God provides nourishment for all flesh, or the subjection in which He has ordained that all things subserve mankind. Consider, too, the flowing of sweet foutnains and never-failing rivers, and the seasonable supply of dews, and showers, and rains; the manifold movement of the heavenly bodies, the morning star rising and heralding the approach of the perfect luminary; and the constellation of Pleiades, and Orion, and Arcturus, and the orbit of the other stars that circle through the heavens, all of which the manifold wisdom of God has called by names of their own. He is God alone who made light out of darkness, and brought forth light from His treasures, and formed the chambers of the south wind, and the treasure-houses of the deep, and the bounds of the seas, and the treasuries of snows and hail-storms, collecting the waters in the storehouses of the deep, and the darkness in His treasures, and bringing forth the sweet, and desirable, and pleasant light out of His treasures; "who causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: He maketh lightnings for the rain;" who sends forth His thunder to terrify, and foretells by the lightning the peal of the thunder, that no soul may faint with the sudden shock; and who so moderates the violence of the lightning as it flashes out of heaven, that it does not consume the earth; for, if the lightning were allowed all its power, it would burn up the earth; and were the thunder allowed all its power, it would overthrow all the works that are therein. [1, 90-91] [2]
Theophilus couches his explanation here in a lot of Biblical language, but nevertheless his point here is that God makes himself known to us through his work in creation. This is ultimately the basis for our faith: the God that makes promises to us in his written word is the same God that has revealed himself to us through his glorious creation.
- [1] Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, editors. The Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 2. Eerdmans, 1962.
- [2] A brief note on Theophilus' last argument: it is evident that Theophilus does not have the clearest understanding of the physics of lightning, but this detracts nothing from his argument. His point is that if God had made the lightning more powerful than it is, it would destroy creation. As the power of the lightning is restrainted, it is evidence of balance and order in God's delicate universe.
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