Through patient and thorough investigation of our doubts, without over-estimation of our reasoning faculties, we shall be able to settle the seeming conflict between reason and faith in a satisfactory manner. The examination of our doubts will prove that none of the truths which the Almighty revealed to mankind are contrary to reason.
In this way we are enabled to separate from our faith all elements that in reality are foreign to it; we shall be able to distinguish between faith and superstition. The latter consists of erroneous notions and beliefs which can be tested and subjected to the ordinary means of inquiry. Superstition is not tolerated by true religion; strict adherence to the teachings of our holy religion is the best check to superstitious beliefs.
The importance which the Bible attaches to implicit faith in God and His word may be gathered from the following passages:—
“And he (Abraham) believed in the Lord, and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen. xv. 6). [[8]]The Hebrew for “righteousness” is in the original צדקה which is used in the Bible as the sum-total of everything good and noble in man’s life.
When the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea, it is said of them: “And Israel saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord: and they believed in the Lord, and in Moses His servant” (Exod. xiv. 31).
Again, when Moses and Aaron had sinned at the waters of Meribah by striking the rock instead of speaking to it, they were rebuked for want of אמונה “faith,” in the following words: “Because ye believed not in me (לא האמנתם בי) to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them” (Numb. xx. 12).
When Moses in his song האזינו blamed the Israelites for their evil doings, he called them “children in whom there is no faith” אמון (Deut. xxxii. 20).
King Jehoshaphat, addressing the army before the battle, says: “Have faith in the Lord and you will be safe; have confidence in His prophets and you will succeed” (2 Chron. xx. 20).
In the same sense Isaiah says to King Ahaz: “If you have no faith, surely you will not be safe” (Isa. vii. 9).
Also Jeremiah, speaking of Israel’s disobedience to the word of God, exclaims: “The faith, האמונה is perished, and it is cut off from their mouth” (Jer. vii. 28).