“Seeing is believing” or “Believing is seeing?”

Word from the Center
Written By Dr. Gregory Seltz

Is seeing always believing or are there also things that are very real, even very true, that we cannot see just with our eyes? Our garage doors open by unseen forces at the touch of a button. We put our food into little rectangle devices and hit the button believing that, absent a heating element or a flame of any sort, microwaves will make our food piping hot. Even the most empirical of scientists has things in which he/she believes long before they are tested or visible to their eyes. One could make the case that observable science, the very scientific method we cherish today, was based on a belief that God created and ordered the world in such a way that it could be tested and its laws could be counted on. You might say that even the empiricist scientist had to believe in many things before he/she could actually see them.

Faith in God is a bit like that. It’s not that faith in God is totally absent data or information. But there are aspects to faith that are beyond our control. We are the creature; God is the Creator. He is the Redeemer; we are the redeemed. Faith in the God of the Bible does not consist merely of an academic exercise. Faith also begins to help us see the big picture of our lives here, and our lives eternally. In a paper delivered at the Oxford Socratic Club, C. S. Lewis remarked, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”[1] The Founding Fathers of America believed in liberty because they believed that God had created humanity for such a dignified life. With that faith, they began to structure a government that would honor such freedom. In the fundamental questions of life, believing is seeing!

The tension between “believing is seeing” and “seeing is believing” helps explain what is going on in our reading for today. The text describes how “Doubting Thomas” finally saw Jesus as his Savior. But it took a living Jesus presenting the very wounds of His crucifixion to engender such faith (see John 20:27). But who was this Thomas character? What was he really like? Was he always the skeptic that many claim him to be? Was he a pessimist? A doubter? Well, if he was at times, he could also be tough and tenacious; he was no wilting violet. When Jesus was going to journey into dangerous territory, Thomas didn’t shrink back; instead, he boldly asserted, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). But it’s also true that he was confused and distraught over Jesus crucifixion. If someone tried to console him by claiming that Jesus didn’t really die, he wasn’t going to have any of that (see John 19:31-37). He knew it to be true and was so overwhelmed by it that no amount of wishful thinking would change his mind.

What he forgot was that this “believing is seeing” attitude of the Christian doesn’t work because of our inherent power or our wishful thinking. It works because God’s promises are always true. God’s promises always come to fruition. In His time and in His way, yes. But they always come true because He Himself is trustworthy and true.

Maybe Thomas did you and me a favor. He wasn’t going to let our wishful thinking be the foundation of our faith either. He wanted the fulfilled Word of Christ to be evident for all to see, even if he had to look a bit foolish for that to happen. In this Easter season, take a step back from the rat race of your job, take a step back from all the striving, and try to see the big picture of your life with God in Jesus Christ. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, your life is redeemed. It is eternal, and it has purpose now too. If your life doesn’t look like that at the moment, why not take Christ’s Word for it first and foremost? Then begin to live in that resurrection reality with its eternal blessings right now. Put the power of “seeing is believing” to work by reading and trusting in the Word of Jesus, the resurrected one who did all of this for people like “Doubting Thomas,” and people like you and me.

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, teach us the depth of Your mercy for us, so that we might live faithful lives of grace and mercy to others. AMEN.

[1] https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/Christianity_Makes_Sense_of_the_World

See Also
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“Savior.” “Lord.” “Son of God.” If you asked someone in the ancient world who these titles referred to, they might tell you “Jesus.” But depending on who you were talking to, they might also tell you “Caesar.” Modern readers of the Bible often miss the fact that some of the language the New Testament uses to talk about Jesus was also commonly used to talk about the Roman Emperor, who was not just a political leader, but someone whom people worshipped and even offered sacrifices to.

May Prayer Partner Thursday
May Prayer Partner Thursday

Prayer Partner Thursday provides a month-long prayer emphasis in one of the four Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty areas of emphasis: Religious Liberty, Sanctity of Life, Educational Freedom, and Marriage as an Institution (family).

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Today’s reading is John 20: 28-29, where the Bible says,   

Thomas said to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

 

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D.C. We have seen religious liberties for Christians now protected and defended rather than threatened and litigated. We have seen other constitutional protections undergirded as well. But sadly, we are also seeing a growing callousness to the issue of life, not just from a select group of secular elites, but even from American citizens who are religious. The Pew Research Center shows that while conservative Christians still see abortion as an illegal action against innocent Children in the womb, other Christians are beginning to support the “abortion in all circumstances” mantra in pop culture.  The abortion euphemistic cover of a constitutional “right to choose” has been properly litigated, but now the deceptive phrases of “reproductive freedom” and “women’s health care” has many callously embracing the killing on demand of innocent children right up to the moment of birth. Politicians and citizens alike are growing in their support of the outrageous notion that a child can be aborted up to the time of birth and even after it is born, as long as the mother and the doctor decide.

May Bulletin Insert
May Bulletin Insert

The Bulletin Insert is designed to be printed and cut in half to fit conveniently inside a Sunday worship bulletin. Each month an insert will offer insight, encouragement, and information from the LCRL on the topics of Religious Liberty, Life, Marriage, or Education.

May 2025 Bulletin Blurbs
May 2025 Bulletin Blurbs

The dates identifying the LCRL bulletin blurbs are only suggestions. Please feel free to use any and all of the bulletin blurbs as your ministry needs allow.

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Their eyes got as big as saucers, and their huge smiles started to waver. I paused for a bit with a very serious look on my face, because it is all, sadly, true. I then continued, “However, you’re about to enter one of the most beautiful experiences you can ever have on earth. You’ll have glimpses of heaven that most will never see. You’ll delight in the love of Jesus overflowing to you from your spouse. When you fall, you’ll have each other to speak words of forgiveness and renewal. Your joy will grow and overflow to everyone. And I can say this with certainty.”

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April Prayer Partner Thursday
April Prayer Partner Thursday

Prayer Partner Thursday provides a month-long prayer emphasis in one of the four Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty areas of emphasis: Religious Liberty, Sanctity of Life, Educational Freedom, and Marriage as an Institution (family).

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Don't speak against abortion, though it will undermine everything you say about the sanctity of life and the Incarnation, our Lord who made His life in the womb. Oh, and babies will be killed. Don't be political and speak the truth of marriage, though God gave it for the sake of all children, so that they might have a mom and dad. Whatever you do, don't get into the whole male and female debate. Let the confused kids fend for themselves. Don't go out of your way, like some Good Samaritan to help them. Don't stand in the way of the predator wielding the knife.

April 2025 Bulletin Blurbs
April 2025 Bulletin Blurbs

The dates identifying the LCRL bulletin blurbs are only suggestions. Please feel free to use any and all of the bulletin blurbs as your ministry needs allow.

April Bulletin Insert
April Bulletin Insert

The Bulletin Insert is designed to be printed and cut in half to fit conveniently inside a Sunday worship bulletin. Each month an insert will offer insight, encouragement, and information from the LCRL on the topics of Religious Liberty, Life, Marriage, or Education.

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20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

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March Prayer Partner Thursday

Prayer Partner Thursday provides a month-long prayer emphasis in one of the four Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty areas of emphasis: Religious Liberty, Sanctity of Life, Educational Freedom, and Marriage as an Institution (family).

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OVERWHELMED BY JESUS – GRACE IS LIKE THAT!

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March 2025 Bulletin Blurbs
March 2025 Bulletin Blurbs

The dates identifying the LCRL bulletin blurbs are only suggestions. Please feel free to use any and all of the bulletin blurbs as your ministry needs allow.

March Bulletin Insert
March Bulletin Insert

The Bulletin Insert is designed to be printed and cut in half to fit conveniently inside a Sunday worship bulletin. Each month an insert will offer insight, encouragement, and information from the LCRL on the topics of Religious Liberty, Life, Marriage, or Education.

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WHAT OTHERS MEANT FOR EVIL!

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Genesis 45:3-7

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Jesus said a very interesting thing in Luke 20:25, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are Gods.” And later to Pontus Pilate, the governor of Judea, who claimed that he had authority over Jesus himself, Jesus responded, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11). Wow! God is at work. He saves the world through the person and work of Jesus; that’s the main message of the Bible.

Dr. Gregory Seltz
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