The bible doesn't change. People do.
Here is an example. I was at my regular Saturday morning scripture study. At present we are working through sefer (סֵפֶר) Mishlei (מִשְׁלֵי), the book of Proverbs. We do a perek (פרק), chapter, a week and we are up to chapter 27. There are about 18 of us and it is a fairly regular group. One gentleman has a very difficult time raising his highly autistic son on his own. This Saturday I was speaking with him after class about his situation. His faith is very strong, but it wasn't always. Some years back he was an aethist, but something happened in his life that lead to him to be a strong believer.
The rest of his story corroborates that the bible didn't change. He did. What was the change: he wanted to believe.
Therefore, the question is: What causes someone to believe? That's what I am going to think about in this blog.
First, to be clear, there is a difference between "believing" in God and having a deep, active, and continuous trust and reliance on God, known as abiding faith. I'm just somewhere past "believer." I try to make a conscious choice to "trust," but to be perfectly honest, I cannot claim to have "abiding faith." But there is hope.
People can believe in God without trusting in God. But people will not trust in God without believing. Therefore, belief precedes Trust.
The Lord gave us free will. One has to want to believe. If one wants to believe they will seek God. If they seek God, they WILL find Him. Therefore, the desire to believe precedes belief.
To Believe
2 Chronicles 20:20—And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.”
Believing readies the heart to take the final leap of faith into ultimate and abiding trust. "Belief" establishes God's word as reliable ground. Belief provides the mental footing that prepares us to jump from the self, our ego, and to take the risk to trust God. Without belief there is no basis for reliance.
Why do people believe?
The reasons people want to believe in God are the reasons to believe in God. I know this is a circular argument, but its true. The needs we have are the reasons people want to believe.
In other words, the capacity and even the tendency to believe in God is built into the human psyche. God instilled in us the desire to seek Him.
While some view it as an evolutionary byproduct, theological perspectives argue it reflects divine design, where God implants a longing for Himself. Our Creator's desire for us is mirrored by our desire to find Him. In effect, we are designed in God’s image.
God’s question to Adam in the Garden is Man's eternal question to Him once we were expelled from the Garden.
Scripture puts it eloquently.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 states God "has set eternity in their heart," creating an innate sense of something transcendent beyond the temporal world.
Psalm 42:1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. Like thirst, We are born with the need for God's word. I think that's a reason why the bible is source for so many other stories, songs, movies, etc. We can't do without it.
Society Discourages Belief
Studies show children as young as three exhibit a natural predisposition to attribute purpose and agency to natural events, fostering belief in supernatural entities. Cognitive scientists like Justin Barrett describe this as the "natural operation of human minds," echoing John Calvin's concept of an innate awareness of divinity called sensus divinitatis. Research across 20 countries confirms humans are predisposed to believe in god(s) and the afterlife. Rather than "nurturing nature," many now suppress it. Modern Western society doesn't just fail to cultivate faith, it discourages it. In Communist countries the rejection of God is systemic.
The desire to believe is the reason to believe
The desire for belief in God proves reliable because the object promises fulfillment to seekers. Philosophers like C.S. Lewis advance the "argument from desire," positing that our unquenchable longing for infinite joy points to its true object—God—much like hunger indicates food. Similarly, the name Yeshu'ah (Yeshua), which means "God Saves," is the object. The object points to the promise.
Yeshua summed this up so succinctly when he said during his Sermon on the Mount, "Seek and ye shall find." Matthew 7.7
The thing I find so interesting is that Yeshua didn't say what to seek or what you'd find. Thereby leaving the process open to the personal needs of each individual. Furthermore, it inferes that you'll find not only your true need, but God Himself.
What We Seek
People seek belief in God for a mix of innate (inborn) reasons: Longings, existential needs, and experiential draws.
Humans seem to have a compelling need to understand life's structure and for purpose beyond chaos.
Altruism, love, the beauty and complexity of nature, the conscience mind; All these point to a transcendent source rather than random evolution.
Fear of death and the desire for meaning amplify this desire—God offers hope, accountability, and belonging amid uncertainty.
People turn to God in adversity. Facing enemies, crisis and desperation... adversities catalyzes the need for the strength we lack to overcome forces against us. Pain, loss, emptiness, loneliness and deep remorse make us yearn for that which will help us cope.
People find power, forgiveness, transformation, peace and joy through faith. Individuals achieve outcomes that become compelling testimonies. Seeing and hearing others testimonies leads to believing. The witness of others implants a hunger for belief.
The longings and existential needs that God implanted in people are the same reasons to believe. In a meaningful sense, these longings are God calling to us.
Hebrew Clues
Leha’amin (להאמין) is the everyday infinitive for "to believe," as in "I want to believe" (אני רוצה להאמין). The words "Believe" (להאמין) and "faith" (אמונה) have the same Hebrew root, "amen" (אמן). A Hebrew root is by & large 3 letters. In this case it is א-מ-ן.
This א-מ-ן root also yields adjectives and nouns such as ne’eman (נֶאֱמָן) meaning “faithful or trustworthy” and emunah (אֱמוּנָה) meaning “faithfulness" or "steadiness.” They are all expressions of proven reliability. From a Hebrew standpoint, faith is built on belief.
BELIEVING VERSES TRUSTING
you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
Believing and trusting overlap significantly but carry distinct nuances, especially in biblical and everyday language. The core distinction is that "believing" centers on intellectual assent or conviction that something is true—accepting a fact, promise, or statement as reliable. Trusting goes further, implying relational reliance, action, and dependence, often built through experience or commitment. "Trust" (batach root בטח) emphasizes bold confidence and security, like leaning into support (e.g., Psalm 22:4).
Here is common practical illustration:
Believing: "I believe the chair will hold me" (mental acceptance).
Trusting: Sitting in the chair (acting on that belief).
You can believe facts about God without trusting Him personally; trust demands surrender and obedience. Emunah (faith) is a lived-out reliability; mere belief without action falls short. See the story of Abraham in Genesis 22.
HE BELIEVED
Genesis 15:6— he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him as righteousness.
Abram trusted so instinctively that jokingly, I'll say in tennis terms, Abram was given a "bye."
Because Abraham believed (Gen 15:6, echoed here), God swore by Himself: "By myself I have sworn... because you have done this... I will surely bless you" (Gen 22:16-18). This is what's called a causative action (he'emin). We can read of cases of relational trust in God exhibited by the prophets.
The verb הֶאֱמִין (he’emin, “he believed”) defines a person's act of entering into, or resting on firmness—placing one’s weight on what is reliable. For the Hebrew sages, saying Amen is a verbal declaration that what has been said is reliable, trusted, and firmly embraced.
Many Hebrew teachers draw “pictograph” associations for the three letters in Amen.
א (Aleph) – often associated with an ox head, conveying strength, leader, or the divine source. (Aleph=1)
מ (Mem) – associated with water, suggesting chaos, depth, or what is hidden and unknown. (Mem=40)
נ (Nun) – associated with a sprouting seed, suggesting life or offspring. The Hebrew letter Nun (נ) is strongly associated with birth, new life, offspring, and continuity, (Nun=50)
Isaiah 7:9-14—And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah; if you do not believe, it is because you cannot be believed." 10 And the Lord continued to speak to Ahaz, saying, 11 "Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord, your God: ask it either in the depths, or in the heights above." 12 And Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not test the Lord." 13 And he said, "Listen now, O House of David, is it little for you to weary men, that you weary my God as well? 14 Therefore, the Lord, of His own, shall give you a sign; behold, the young woman is with child, and she shall bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanuel.
TRUTH
The concept of "Believing" implies the that their is something to believe in. The obect of our belief must be "true," otherwise we have a false belief. Therefore, in a spiritual sense, we believe in the "Truth." We call that Truth God.
The Hebrew word for truth (emet אֱמֶת) is one letter difference than Amen אמן. In "Amen" the last letter is a Nun ן (seed). In "truth" the last letter is Tav ת (cross).
It is difficult to take the leap from believing to trusting. Several barriers can prevent someone who intellectually believes in God from fully trusting Him in action and reliance.
Obstacles to Trust:
Fear of losing control – Despite knowing God's power, past disappointments or unanswered prayers create doubt in His goodness, making surrender feel risky.
Desire for self-sufficiency – People want to rely on their personal strength for fear of vulnerability that comes with reliance on others.
Strengthening our belief helps to take the leap of faith and trust in God.
How Believing Happens
Here is what establishes and reinforces belief:
- Amazement in creation
- Scripture - reading and hearing the great stories in the bible
- Crying out to God/Prayer
- Personal encounters
- Hearing personal testimony
- Miracles
Miracles:
In Exodus 4:1-9 Moses worries Israel "will not believe" (ya'aminu, יַאֲמִינוּ) his words," prompting miracle signs to confirm trust.
Exodus 19:3-6— while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
Old Testament miracles confirm God’s word and calling, so that people believe on the basis of what they see.
- The signs in Egypt and the parting of the sea are repeatedly framed as “signs” so that Egypt and Israel will know that YHWH is God (e.g., Exodus 7:3–5). After the Red Sea, “Israel saw the great power that the Lord used… so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31).
- Manna and water in the wilderness not only sustains Israel but confirms that the same God who spoke at the Exodus is still present and trustworthy.
- In Exodus 4 when Moses fears Israel will not believe him, God gives three signs (staff to serpent, leprous hand healed, water to blood) “that they may believe that the Lord… has appeared to you” (Exodus 4:1–9). These miracles served as a basis for belief.
- In 1 Kings 17:8–24, miracles validated the word for Elijah and the widow at Zarephath: The jar of flour and jug of oil miraculously do not run out during famine, and then Elijah raises her son. Her conclusion: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth” (1 Kings 17:24). The miracles serve as direct confirmation of the prophetic word.
- At Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20–39), Elijah prays, fire falls on the water‑soaked sacrifice, and the people respond, “The Lord, he is God!” The sign publicly vindicates YHWH over Baal and confirms Elijah’s message.
- From the Fiery furnace (Daniel 3), Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are delivered from the blazing furnace without even the smell of smoke. Nebuchadnezzar then blesses their God and issues a decree honoring Him, treating the miracle as proof that “no other god is able to rescue in this way.”
- Daniel’s preservation in the Lions’ den (Daniel 6) leads Darius to proclaim that Daniel’s God is the living God whose kingdom shall not be destroyed, again interpreting the miracle as confirmation of Daniel’s God and faith.
Across these stories and many more, the pattern is clear: distress or crisis → divine word/call → miracle → confession or recognition that confirms belief. In a sense, “seeing is believing.”
The Hebrew bible operates as a divinely chosen pedagogy to ground and deepen faith. The Gosples are the Christian witness to the same, on more personal scale.
John 20:30—Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Conclusion:
This fundamental pattern is throughout the Hebrew and Christian bible: Believing Readies One to Trust.
In this blog post I explored things that establish belief, but the key is wanting to believe! If you want to believe, and you seek, you will find God. So the place to start is with the question, "Do you want to believe?!
I think the issue today with the lack of faith in God is that people do not want to believe. We face an existential dilemma.
"To believe or not to believe, that is the question."
That quote is an obvious twist on Shakespeare's famous "To be, or not to be" from Hamlet, that shifts from the existential dilemma of life/death to the fundamental choice between faith and doubt, between being an aethist and being a believer.
Do you want to believe?
“If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9:23)
