Is Christian Belief Really ‘Blind Faith’?

By Tom Gilson Published on March 11, 2017

What is “faith”? Is it a blind leap into the unknown? I hear atheists talking about “blind faith” all the time. One Facebook commenter  wrote,

The core problem is that religion teaches that holding absolute beliefs without evidence (aka faith) is a virtue.

That’s what some people think Christianity is all about: Faith is holding on to beliefs we have no evidence for. Unfortunately it isn’t just atheists who say that. A lot of Christians think faith is “believing without having actual reasons to believe” or something like that. It’s almost embarrassing when you think about it — if it’s true.

It Might Look Like Blind Faith

Thankfully it isn’t like that, as is easy to illustrate from the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. All four gospels tell of Jesus calling Peter and Andrew to be His followers. The accounts in Matthew and Mark are similar. Here’s one of them. It could almost confuse you if you don’t get the full story.

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-20)

This almost looks a lot like the way some people conceive of faith: with no background information, no knowledge, no reason whatsoever, they dropped everything, leaving their whole livelihood behind, and followed this Jesus they had just met for the first time. It looks a lot like what the atheist called “holding absolute beliefs without evidence.”

But They Had Good Information Beforehand

But is this what they really did? Not really. We’re supposed to draw our information from the whole Bible, so let’s do that, starting with John 1:35-42, which (scholars say) records something that happened a full year before the events of Matthew 4.

They trusted Him because they had good reasons to trust Him.

Jesus was walking by John the Baptist and two of John’s disciples. John saw him and called out, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Based on that solid reference, John’s two disciples turned and followed Jesus for that day. This wasn’t exactly leaving everything to follow him — yet.

The passage continues, “One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ).”

Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptist, who had been preaching about Jesus Christ. As for Peter, he had a lot more than just a glance from Jesus to go on. He had strong personal references.

Finally a year later, after they’d had  plenty of time to think about this great man they had met, to ponder His teachings, and to hear of His reputation, He came back and called them to follow.

They Had Seen Jesus in Action, Too

But wait! — as they say — there’s more! Peter and Andrew had even more reasons to trust Christ enough to follow him. It’s in the book we haven’t looked at yet, Luke.

Before He ever called Peter and Andrew from their fishing boats, Jesus had already healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a serious fever. (Luke 4:38-39) Then in Luke 5:1-11 Jesus led these fishermen to a miraculously great catch of fish.

It wasn’t until after those two miracles, plus the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, plus (before that) the year to think about him, plus the strong personal reference from John the Baptist before that, that they “left everything and followed him.”

Their faith in following Jesus was no blind leap. It was based on an experienced reality, on data they had had a chance to reflect upon. They trusted Him because they had good reasons to trust Him.

Of course they still had to have faith in Him to follow. They were trusting their whole lives and futures to this teacher Jesus, and to the God whom Jesus taught. But it was not belief against the evidence. It was belief built upon evidences and experience.

Jesus kept giving evidences for who he was throughout his ministry. After he rose from the dead, “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs.” (Acts 1:3)

A tried and tested faith knows from study and experience that God is real and God is good.

That doesn’t mean God can’t turn a person’s heart around in an instant, for no outwardly visible reason at all. God can do whatever he wants. It also doesn’t mean that evidence is all it takes for a person to believe, for even where evidences and reasons exist, God still needs to draw people to Himself in His own way before they are converted.

Still, a tried and tested faith knows from both study and experience that God is real and God is good. For those who will explore it, Christian faith rests on the trustworthy testimony of history where the reports of Jesus’ life can be tested like any other historical report; and also on evidences from nature, human experience and philosophical reflection.

“Blind faith” isn’t what Christianity is about. Faith isn’t a leap into the dark against evidence. It’s a leap into the light of God, based on knowledge and experience.

 

Adapted from the Thinking Christian blog. Used by permission.

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