The difference between faith and faithlessness appears to be that faith is active and faithlessness is inactive. A secular person does not have to consciously disavow belief in God to go about living like they don’t believe in God. No. The secular person just does things without actively believing in God. They live as if they have never met God because they have never met God.* Whereas the “believer” actively seeks (or should strive) to believe in God daily. If the Christian fails to actively pursue faith in the Lord, the Christian’s belief will soon sour into smelly works, reeking of unbelief. It is not, then, a question of whether one has faith in God or faith in man because the latter is the human default (i.e., unbelief is everyone’s default; while belief takes effort, unbelief takes zero effort). See Romans 1:18–23. True faith is an active posture by man (through the Spirit) away from man (and towards his Creator). See Matthew 16:24.
Or, I could put it like this: there are two kinds of faith. The first might be called a presumptive faith, a kind of faith characteristic of every person in the world. All act on the basis of presumptive faith: assuming the uniformity of nature, that the gravity of yesterday will appear again today; assuming the universality of logic, that two plus two equals four in Singapore (too); and assuming the commonality of behavior, that slapping is never a greeting. This faith is called “presumptive” in that it goes unconsidered, assumed, and taken for granted. Presumptive faith is the universal default. On the other hand, operative faith is engaged, instructed, and directed by a metaphysical power. Operative faith involves a recognition of dependency, a realization that one is of limited knowledge and power. No one has to say, “I believe in gravity today,”[1] for that is of presumptive faith and ought to probably be left there. But the person of operative faith might say rather often, in either word or deed, “I believe in God today.”
*See e.g., Romans 5:2, Paul’s use of the word “access” means “introduction,” implicating the idea that Jesus introduces us to God for the first time.
[1] I think I saw this exact quote on one of those “Signs of a Sociopath” articles.
[2] Smith, Believing Like a Lawyer, 40 B.C. L. Rev. 1041, 1098-1099.
The header image is from the historic Trinity Institute in Tehuacana, Texas, which collapsed exactly one week after myself and about six others toured it for a theological arts conference. The photo illustrates “presumptive faith.” (No one was injured in the collapse; it happened in the middle of the night).
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