"I don't believe in God anymore"

I don’t believe in God anymore. I used to, though.

This is a choice I’ve made. “Belief” in God connotes–at least as I see it–a set of ideas about God that may, if time allows, eventually make their way to other parts of my being.

The older I get, making sure all my “beliefs” of God are lined up as they should be loses more and more of its luster. I see the Bible focusing a lot more on something far more demanding: trust.

Try it. Which is harder to say? I believe in God or I trust God?

I see a huge difference between “I believe in a God who cares for me” and “I trust God at this particular moment.” The first is a bit safer, an article of faith. The latter is unnerving, risky–because I have let go.

You’ve all heard of the “trust fall.” There’s a reason they don’t call it a “belief fall.” Belief can reside in our heads. Trust is doing it, risking it. Trust is humility, putting ourselves in the hand of another. Trust requires something of us that belief doesn’t.

God promised an old man a lot of kids. Abraham trusted God to come through. That is way harder than believing. Believing has wiggle room. Trusting doesn’t.

The same thing holds for the gospel. “Believing” in God–or even having “faith” in him–doesn’t cut it. At least the way these words are used today.

Beliefs can be collated into a “belief system”–an intellectual construction of what sorts of things are right to think and not think about God. Followers of Jesus, however, are called to do something much harder.

The older I get, the less interested I am in believing and the more I am in trusting. That takes a lot of practice. In my experience, God seems more than willing to provide plenty of opportunities.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenns/2013/03/why-i-dont-believe-in-god-anymore/

This is Peter Enns’s transparent effort to rationalize his progressive apostasy. A preemptive, softening up exercise.

The distinction between trust and true belief is nothing new. That’s a stock distinction in Reformed theology.

However, Enns has it backwards. He drives a wedge between the two. Although true belief without trust falls short of Biblical faith, it’s no less the case that trust without true belief falls short of Biblical faith.

According to Scripture, it makes all the difference in the world who or what you trust. Trusting Baal is no substitute for trusting Yahweh.

Moreover, Enns loses out on both counts. Enns doesn’t trust the Bible. He quotes the conversation between Yahweh and Abraham, but does Enns believe that conversation ever happened? Enns doesn’t trust the historicity of the Bible. Enns doesn’t trust the veracity of Scripture. His position is defined by distrust.