The Great Debate—Part 4: Believe, Act, and Succeed

Before I continue on to the wilderness option I want to explore another issue in the Egypt/Promised Land debate.

I first got interested in this text my first year at Westmont College.  At the same time I was reading this text I was also reading William James’ The Will to Believe.  I like to read this debate in light of an observation James makes in his brilliant little essay.

James postulates that often, in matters of life and faith, belief is the only way to generate certain outcomes.  Even in the beginning of the 20^th century, when he was writing, there must have been a lot of guys with Approacher’s Anxiety because James uses an example from the world of dating.  He writes that to successfully invite a woman on a date one must believe that she will say yes.  If one does not believe that a yes will come he will either never even bother to ask her or even if he does ask his lack of confidence will turn the woman away.  James makes a similar observation about interviewing for a job.

He does not guarantee a certain outcome if one is willing to believe but is noting that certain outcomes are only possible if one is willing to believe first while the outcome is still uncertain.

In his essay, James will go on to argue that the same is true of religious experience.  To have a religious experience one must first be willing to believe that there is a God even if God has never been experienced.

On the East Bank of the River Jordan opposite of the Promised Land there is the exact same paradigm at work.  There is the blatant empiricism of the Egypt faction arguing that all they can see are giants and impregnable city walls.  To counter-balance this Joshua and Caleb are arguing that God will act, and although they do not make this argument, I think it is safe to assume they are basing this on historical observation that God acted for them in Egypt, on the shores of the Reed Sea, and in the wilderness.  At the end of this debate what the people should do is uncertain.

And here is where William James would have made a great arbitrator for this conflict.  He could have pointed out that the only way God could act is if the people were willing to believe that he will act.

In the bizarreness of faith, the only way to get to the Promised Land is confident belief that God will act even though that is by no means certain.  There is no way for them to experience certainty that God will act on their behalf before they act.

The Promise Land is possible but only through trust.