It’s not every day I am graced with a question from a reader. When I received one from Nic Rossi, I took some time to think about it. He asked me via Twitter “@josephmcole on what foundation do you build your faith? there is no empirical evidence conducive to proving the fact that a deity exists.” My response to him wasn’t satisfactory, but how does one answer a question like that in a pithy 140 character response? So, I decided to blog my response.

Strangely enough, I have found myself pondering his question all weekend. “on what foundation do you build your faith?” If this had been a person whom I know, perhaps the answer would not be so long in coming, yet as it is, I do not know Nic. All I know of him is what I derived from his website, which intimidated me somewhat. In my opinion, Nic Rossi is a hard working, intelligent, well-read man with high ambitions in life. He also hails from a New England state, which is really cool for a Midwestern boy like me. Living next to an ocean has got to be awesome. With all of this in mind, I found myself formulating answers that I felt would suit him. Scientific, academic, scholarly answers ringing with erudite revelations of which he would admire, or at least deign to read. However, after all of my musings, I sadly realized that my foundation is not scientific, academic or scholarly. My foundation may not be one of which Nic approves, or even considers valid. Even so, I believe his question deserves an answer, which I humbly submit to your discretion, dear reader.

My foundation upon which I build my faith is the man, Yeshua of Nazareth.

More specifically, I build my faith upon the claims Jesus (“Yeshua” in English.) made concerning His personal identity (i.e. His Person) and what He did which proves His claims (i.e. His Work). Jesus makes a bold statement in John 8:42.

Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I came forth and am come from God; for neither have I come of myself, but he sent me.

In this announcement, I have inferred several things upon which to base my faith: 1.) God does exist., 2.) Jesus is the Son of God., and 3.) God loves us and wants to be a part of our lives. Maybe this inference is a stretch to you, but I think it’s reasonable for the following reasons.

1. God exists. – Jesus has no arguments to present, no evidence to show and no punches to pull. His statement simply assumes the existence of a deity. I do as well, confident in the knowledge that there is a boatload of evidences for God’s existence which has been presented by a myriad of intellectuals much more suited for that work than I.
2. Jesus is the Son of God. — The American Standard Version here interprets it as “…for I came forth…” The Greek word John uses is  exerchomai. The Blue Letter Bible Lexicon suggests this word to mean “to come forth from physically, arise from, to be born of.” Thus, I believe that Jesus was asserting that He was the Son of God. He is deity.
3. God loves us and wants to be a part of our lives. — Two times in this statement, Jesus tells us that God sent Him and that He willingly came. God shows through His Son’s willingness to come here and the mission for which He was sent that He loves us and fully intends to be a part of our existence.

If these claims are true, then I can trust everything Jesus says; my faith is secure. But how do we know that Jesus is not just blowing smoke? Other men have made such claims about their personal identity, but they have all been charlatans. I say that Jesus’ claims of deity and intentions are proved correct through the work that He did while He walked this planet. For instance, one could only be born of a virgin if he were God and one could only be resurrected from the dead by his own power if he were God. His actions proved His claims of deity.

So there you have it–the foundation of my faith. It may not be scientific, academic or scholarly, but it is a foundation nonetheless. My foundation is based purely on the personal identity of Jesus of Nazareth and the works that He did to prove His identity. He is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

By the way, be sure to check out Nic’s website. I found it professional and stimulating (Disclaimer: If you are OCD when it comes to English, beware that Nic’s style is like a modern day e. e. cummings. No capitalization. Kinda cool.).