I would say that faith and evidence are linked, since …

Comment on Board requests progress reports from LSU administration by John Howard.

I would say that faith and evidence are linked, since Paul did:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

Isaiah recorded a related concept:

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord:…” Isaiah 1:18

And He’s given us plenty of reasonable evidence upon which to base our faith — prophecy, the book of nature, the phenomenon of a changed life when one accepts Jesus as his/her personal savior.

John Howard Also Commented

Board requests progress reports from LSU administration
Stephen V.,

I find it somewhat amusing that you would think to “talk down” at me as though I didn’t understand the English language. I’ve spoken, read, and written it for around a half-century now, and your patronizing attitude hardly does anything to support your argument.

Find your nearest english grammer teacher and ask him or her what this sentence is saying.

There’s a good example of what I mean. Condescension writ large. By the way, just so you’ll know — I’m an instructor at a fairly large university, and one condition of employment is that my English proficiency (including comprehension) be at a level significantly above that of the average person. Not trying to toot my horn, that’s just a fact. Consequently there’s not a great need for me to be consulting with an English teacher right now, especially not at the prompting of someone who evidently isn’t familiar with the proper spelling of the word “grammar,” or the rules governing the correct capitalization of words like “English”! (See the blockquote above, from your previous post.) That old saying about rocks and glass houses comes to mind… 🙂

Once again, your contention that something can be equal to, yet at the same time unrelated to, something else flies in the face of common sense and logic. God does not require blind faith, and John 20:29 doesn’t indicate that Jesus wants us to be blind in our belief without recourse to any evidence whatsoever. Granted, it does show that He wants us to take some things on faith without visible evidence, but it would take the expunging of a great many Biblical events to establish that He would have us to go through life without any evidence at all. As Paul wrote, for example, “Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not:…” 1 Cor. 14:22. God does give evidence in attempts at persuasion, with respect to His existence and the truths of the gospel of Christ. He prefers that people would believe Him without needing such evidence, sure. But some people need more persuading than others, as I said above, so He gives them what they need. Jesus did satisfy Thomas’ ‘requirement’ after all, didn’t He? John 20:25-27.

So contrary to what you’re saying here, I still think you’re misconstruing the plain meaning of what Paul wrote in Heb. 11:1, and misconstruing it pretty badly.


Board requests progress reports from LSU administration
Hi Stephen — I want to be respectful too, but you’ve just made what I consider to be quite an erroneous statement:

Faith “IS” the evidence of things not seen. He is not saying that faith and evidence are linked.

Now that’s like saying, “A = B, but A and B aren’t related.”

I hope you can see the fallacy in what you wrote there. God most assuredly gives us evidence upon which to base our faith. It’s all around us.

I would also maintain that “reasoning together” in Isaiah involves looking at the evidences of God’s love for us. It takes some people longer than others, y’know? Some need to review the evidence, to look at the facts of the matter before having a change of heart. Certainly God is aware of that facet of human nature, and makes allowances for it.


Board requests progress reports from LSU administration
Erv Taylor is playing a very dangerous game with his soul when he presumes to pick apart the SOP into what’s reliable and what’s not.

I have my work to do, to meet the misconceptions of those who suppose themselves able to say what is testimony from God and what is human production. If those who have done this work continue in this course, satanic agencies will choose for them. . . . {4MR 63.1}
Those who have helped souls to feel at liberty to specify what is of God in the Testimonies and what are the uninspired words of Sister White, will find that they were helping the devil in his work of deception… — Letter 28, 1906, p. 2. (To Brother George Amadon, January 15, 1906.) {4MR 63.2}

I hope and pray that he’ll realize the error of his ways, and change them before it’s too late.