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"Blind Faith": Difference between revisions
→Isn't blind faith good?
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==Isn't blind faith good?== | ==Isn't blind faith good?== | ||
Message believers are hesitant to embrace an evidential faith. They think faith that requires evidential support as weak and inferior, while blind faith (a faith that simply trusts without question) is the truest, most sincere, and most valuable form of faith that we can offer God. | |||
When Jesus presented Himself to Thomas, He made an important statement that is occasionally offered as an affirmation of some form of “blind faith”: | When Jesus presented Himself to Thomas, He made an important statement that is occasionally offered as an affirmation of some form of “blind faith”: | ||
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Without any other context to understand what Jesus believed about the relationship between evidence and faith, this single sentence (“Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed”) does sound like an endorsement of faith independent of evidential support. But context changes everything. Like other declarations offered by Jesus, this statement has to be reconciled with everything else Jesus said and did before we can truly understand what He believed about the role of evidence. | Without any other context to understand what Jesus believed about the relationship between evidence and faith, this single sentence (“Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed”) does sound like an endorsement of faith independent of evidential support. But context changes everything. Like other declarations offered by Jesus, this statement has to be reconciled with everything else Jesus said and did before we can truly understand what He believed about the role of evidence. | ||
Yet Jesus also seemed to have a high regard for evidence. In John 14:11, He told those watching Him to examine “the evidence of the miracles” if they did not believe what He said about His identity. Even after the resurrection, Jesus stayed with His disciples for an additional forty days and provided them with “many convincing proofs” that He was resurrected and was who He claimed to be (Acts 1:2–3). Jesus understood the role and value of evidence and the importance of developing an evidential faith. It’s time for all of us, as Christians, to develop a similarly reasonable faith.<ref>J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels (Colorado Springs, CO: DavidCCook, 2013).</ref> | |||
==The Apostle John thought evidence was important== | ==The Apostle John thought evidence was important== | ||