THEOLOGY & APOLOGETICS

Blind Faith

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Now, some might say that Christians are using or quoting their own book to prove their point; anybody who wants to make up a religion can do that. If I were going to make up a religion, would I quote my own book? Sure. But what kind of "book" is the Bible? The Bible is more correctly an "anthology" or collection of books, poems, and letters. The Bible contains 66 different books, poems, and letters authored by over 30 different people over a period of several thousand years. If someone were trying to make up a religion then it would be very, very difficult to keep stuff straight over a few generations, let alone even 100 years. But one of the key features of the Bible is that it is amazingly unified in the message that it delivers! If we want to talk about "blind faith," it takes A LOT of "blind faith" in humanity (given what we experience even playing the game "telephone" with 10 people over a period of 30 minutes) to think that that many different people over several thousands of years could keep a story straight. So, again, if I look at the evidence, which is that over 30 different people over a period of several thousands of years are telling essentially the very same message, I'm going to be inclined to put my faith and trust in what they have to say. .

On top of that, when considering if our faith is reasonably placed, I also believe it's important for us to look at the early Christians since they would have been the ones making up Christianity as we know it. Every single one of Jesus' disciples, except for John, were murdered because of their faith. I don't know about you, but if I'm making something up and someone threatens to burn me alive, filet off my skin, crucify me, behead me, or feed me to lions (all of which have happened to Christians throughout history) I'm going to renege on what I've said VERY quickly. Not many people that I know willingly die for something they know full-well to be a lie.

Now to be fair, there are instances where, as Christians, we must take God at His word without significant proof or outside validation. In these situations, we must step out on faith in the purest sense of the word. But even in those situations we step out on this "blind faith" because God and His word have proven trustworthy in other areas so often that we are inclined to trust Him when He speaks in these other areas. For example, God tells me that I am saved completely by the work of Jesus Christ and all that is required of me is to believe on Him as my Lord and Savior. I can't verifiably test that. But, because God has been shown to be truthful throughout the rest of Scripture, I can step out on that promise with significant confidence and conviction that what He has said is true.

So, while using the Bible to bolster our faith may seem like a form of circular reasoning and simple blind faith that denies proof, I hope that I've shown that nothing is further from the truth when considering Christian faith. Christians quote the Bible as proof of itself and lean on it as the foundation of our faith and doctrine because we have found it to be trustworthy after weighing the internal and external evidence concerning it.

For His glory,

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer" Psalm 19:14 (ESV)

Image Credit: dollen; "Blind (Faith)"; Creative Commons

Tags: Biblical-Truth | Christian-Life | Controversial-Issues

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Published 1-17-17