Consider the Source

The credibility of a truth claim rests on the credibility of the one who makes it. Today, R.C. Sproul shows that the Christian faith is grounded in the trustworthiness of God Himself.

When I was a kid and if I was insulted by somebody and I came home because my feelings were hurt and I was crying and my mother would wipe my tears, I’d say, “Richard Hayden said this about me.” And she would say, “Consider the source.” I didn’t know what that meant, but she would always say, “Consider the source.” She meant, when somebody says something, the credibility of what they say is directly related to the credibility of the person and the character of the person who’s making the statement.

Now, it’s one thing for me not to believe everything that you tell me, because I have had much experience in my lifetime where people have lied to me. But when was the last time that God lied to you? So, when I don’t believe what God says, I am assaulting the very integrity of the Almighty. And to not believe the Word of God is to sin.

And so, to believe in God is something—and not just to believe in God, but to believe God is at the very essence of what it means to be a Christian person. One of the things that distresses me greatly in our culture, in the media, television, newspaper, novels, they’ll hear statements like this: “Well, the scientist gave his reason, and the minister gave his faith.” Have you heard that kind of disjunction again and again and again? Here, faith is confused with credulity. Credulity is an unreasoned faith. Credulity is an irrational faith. I hear Christians say, “Well, what you have to do is take a leap of faith.” “A leap of faith? What do you mean a leap of faith?” “Well, it’s not reasonable to believe in the claims of Jesus Christ. It’s not reasonable to believe in the Word of God. Those things are irrational, and if you’re going to be a rational person, and if you’re going to be a scientific person and still be a Christian, you’ve got to take a leap of faith. You close your eyes, you hold your breath, you hold your nose, and you jump into the darkness and hope Jesus will catch you.” That’s an insult to the Spirit of God. The Bible never tells you to jump into the darkness. It tells you every day to jump out of the darkness and into the light.

Augustine labored the difference between faith and credulity. Credulity is the person who just believes anything anybody tells him for no reason at all. But faith, authentic faith, biblical faith, is grounded in the trustworthiness of God Himself. Nothing could be more unreasonable, nothing could be more irrational than to doubt a word that comes from God.

You’ve heard me say it a hundred times—maybe not a hundred, maybe only ninety-eight—that I see these bumper stickers: “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” And that makes me cringe. I want to go in with an eraser or a marking pen and cross out the middle premise. If God said it, it’s settled. God does not need your agreement for His Word to be true. The reason why we doubt the Word of God is not because His Word is unbelievable or incredible but because we project upon God the untrustworthiness that describes our own condition. Let every man be a liar, but God’s Word is true (Rom. 3:4).