For example, I once heard the singer of a secular band, when asked about his religious convictions,
simply say, “You gotta have faith!“. At Christmas time, we noticed a sign on the front door of a house that said, “This House Believes“. From time to time I see bumper stickers that say “Have Faith“, or simply “Believe!“.
This is a little like one of my favorite elephant jokes, the question of which goes like this: “What’s the difference between a duck?” Everyone’s normal response is, “A duck and a what?” The question isn’t
complete. Neither are the statements above, though, because faith is always a response to a proposition. It doesn't just simply hang there as some sort of a general solution to a problem. Those type of super-generalized statements appear to have a form of acknowledgement of God, but it's distant and unspecific.
"You gotta have faith!"? Faith in what? ~That it might rain tomorrow? "This house believes"? Believes what? ~That Santa
will come down the chimney? "Believe!" Believe what? ~Islam? The tooth fairy? The president?....
God offers us as humans a specific proposal: "God's Son, Jesus, is the Creator of the whole universe, and He died to pay for the penalty of your sins as the only perfect sacrifice that God would accept. He came back to life three days later, proving that the Father accepted His sacrifice. Sincere faith in who Jesus is and His
finished work, which leads to repentance of sin, will save you and guarantee you a place in heaven." While that's the proposal in a nutshell, it's something much more specific, and it's something that you either believe, or you reject. To get to heaven, THAT'S what "you gotta have faith in". THAT'S what you need to believe.
Don't fall for ambiguous statements and pleasant platitudes, thinking they actually have meaning and will get
you somewhere. They won't. Only Jesus can!
