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.
]]>
