Brothers and sisters: If we believe in God based on the viewpoint “seeing is believing”, is it in accordance with the truth? Can such faith be approved by God? Can people with such faith welcome the Lord’s return and enter the kingdom of heaven? How should we practice so as to have a true belief in God?
The Bible recorded such an incident: When the Lord
Jesus was resurrected three days after being crucified, He appeared to His disciples. At that time, some of the disciples saw Him, but Thomas didn’t. He said, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). Later, the
Lord Jesus appeared to all His disciples, and Thomas was with them. The , “Reach here your finger, and behold my hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.” When Thomas saw the Lord was really resurrected, he knelt down and said, “My Lord and my God.” However, the Lord Jesus said: “because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:27–29). Thomas was one of the twelve disciples and followed the Lord Jesus all the time when He preached and worked. He saw the Lord preached in all places and taught people, and saw the Lord performed many signs and wonders, such as, healing the person who was born blind, feeding five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, raising the dead, calming the wind and waves, and so on. But why did he still doubt the Lord’s identity? This problem has been puzzling me for a long time. I sought many pastors and elders for that, but none of them could explain it clearly.