Boolean Operators and Salvation, Faith, and Works

This came across my head recently:

In programming, if you want to compare the values of two different things to see if they true or false, you can use what's called "Boolean operators" in programming.  They consist of AND (&&), OR ( || ) , and NOT (!) as a modifier.  Lately I've had some trouble getting past some programming problems because logical operators can be a hassle to work around, especially the && operator.

Usually boolean operators are found within if-else statements.  It works the same way you would think: IF this is true, then do these things.  ELSE, do these things.  To determine which statements get executed, you use boolean operators.

For instance (in pseudocode):
IF the sky is blue
      it is a sunny day;
ELSE
     it is a rainy day.

If we look up and see that the sky is blue, it is most likely a sunny day, no?  Else, that is to say, if the sky is NOT blue, then it is probably raining.

Well sometimes you want to combine two different tests:
IF the sky is blue AND there are no clouds
     it is a good day
ELSE
     it is not a good day

If the sky is blue and there are no clouds, I would consider it a good day.  Or else it would be a bad day.

Now the trick with the boolean operator AND is that for it to be a good day, BOTH tests must pass: the sky must be blue AND there must be no clouds.  If any of them are false, then it is not a good day.
Also, another kink with AND.  It tests the arguments in order, so it will check if the sky is blue FIRST, then it will check if there are no clouds.  So if the first test fails, then it automatically skips to the ELSE w/o having to test if the sky is blue.

I was thinking how this pattern is like our salvation.  Let's say that we think we are saved.  Of course, we learn from the Bible that by grace and faith alone are we justified, and that our good works is a product of our faith in Jesus.  But during our struggles and inner conflicts with sin, how do we know if we are genuine Christians or not?  That's a natural question to ask yourself.

I put that question in the form of an if-else statement, and it actually fit quite nicely.  If we have faith in Jesus' death and resurrection and our faith produces good works, then we are mostly likely genuine Christians.  If not, then we are not genuine Christians.

Faith is followed by works.  If any of these is false, then our ELSE statement gets executed, and we conclude we are not genuine Christians.

Interestingly though, but shouldn't come to a surprise, the order of which faith and works is evaluated is the same way the boolean operators in an if-else statement are evaluated.

This is the way the evaluation is:
IF we have faith in God AND our faith produces good works...
     we are genuine Christians

Let's suppose we have faith in God, but our good works fails the test, then the statement that we are genuine Christians is not true, because BOTH faith and works must be there.

Now let's say we have good works, but we DON'T have faith in God.  Earlier I said that the first check will get evaluated first, and if it fails, the whole statement fails by default.  If in our lives our faith fails to meet the test, then we automatically are not genuine Christians.  It doesn't matter if you have good works; a lot of unbelieving people in this world have good works, but because they are without God, they are not Christians.

This is a call for us to check our own spiritual walks more closely to determine if we pass this if-else statement.  If we have faith and no works, then a reminder that James tells us that faith without works is dead.  You have faith in God, but do not carry out His will, and therefore that's just like not believing Him in the first place.  Because God has put you here on a mission to save souls, and not trying to accomplish that is rejection of His purpose for you.  We are called to work out our salvation.

On the flip side, if you don't have faith to begin with, then this is a call to repentance, to realize your depravity before a holy God, and to come before Him with humility and brokenness so that He may reconcile you to Him.  Your works isn't good enough to be reconciled to God. Isaiah 64:6 says, "For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment."  It's not enough.  We must have faith.

For those who know people in these situations, that's what accountability and evangelism is for; surely these are the will of God.

Recursion and Faith

When I was at Glendale, my programming teacher did spend a little time in recursion.  In programming, recursive algorithms involve method calls to itself, basically creating a chain of method calls until the it accomplishes its tasks.  My teacher at Glendale was not fond of recursion, because as someone who worked/works on video games, recursion uses up a lot of memory...and you don't want a lot of memory being taken up in games.  So she never emphasized using it.


However my programming teacher this semester at CSUN loves recursion.  The idea behind it is simple: you break down a difficult problem into smaller, easier problems.  But if you actually run through the code step by step, there are a lot of things going on and lots of things to keep track of.


My teacher assures us that recursion is easy to understand, because all you have to do is have "faith" in it.  As long as you understand the general big picture you want to accomplish and code to that end, just have "faith" that it'll work.  He said it's way to difficult to try to understand what is happening behind the scenes in recursion, but says that we need to have faith and trust that everything will work out.  If recursive algorithms are basically method calls to itself, creating a chain, questions like "When do recursive algorithms end if it just keeps looping into itself?" arise.  Again, our professor says to not worry so much about what's going on, but have faith that it will work.


I actually have quite a chuckle every time he talks about recursion like this; I think it's pretty funny when he says to put "faith" in recursion, to put faith into something that is so visually hard to understand.  But I thought that it sounded a lot like our faith as Christians.


Faith is a tremendous component in our walks.  There are a lot of unknowns we recognize as we continue in our walks.  We may pray things to God for Him to answer for us, but we're not even sure if it's in His will to answer it now, at a later time, or answer it at all.  We don't know how God works, and at times it is really frustrating because the question arises, "How do we know God is there at all?" even "If God works."  If you're a Christian, you've definitely struggled with that in your hearts; I definitely have.


But that's just a reminder of what faith is.  The writer of Hebrews tells us "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of the things not seen." (Heb. 11:1 - ESV)   Faith will only exist in our hearts if we undoubtedly know that God is there. If our faith in Him slips, so does our recognition of His presence. But the very essence of faith is what the author of Hebrews describes, the assurance of the things hoped for, of the things unseen. Even if we don't know how God is working, we do know he does work, because we've seen Him work throughout the ages, and His character never changes.

I may not know how what goes behind the scenes in recursion; having faith in it is pretty difficult because it's difficult to visualize what's going on. But I know it does work, why? Because I've seen the end result, and it proves to me that it does work. God shows us His works all the time, through answered and unanswered prayers. Most importantly, you've seen Him transform your own life.

So even if we don't know how He works, just look at the finished result. That's proof enough, and reason enough to continue to have faith.