One of the most common criticisms of Christianity is its reliance on faith. The implication normally is that faith is a blind hope that something is true and the opposite of the fact based, repeatable experimentation that science supposedly produces. Yet, faith actually consists of three components that Christians need to be familiar with and be able to explain in response to the blind faith view. The three include knowledge, assent and trust.
- Knowledge: This is the object, idea or person that is actually believed in based the study of information such as historical documentation, eye witnesses accounts and/or experimentation. The knowledge is the doctrinal component of the faith including that Jesus is the Son of God, was born of a virgin, rose from the dead etc. John 20:31 explains that “these [things] are written so that you may believe…”, that is they provide a fact base for believing. Jesus also provided evidence of His nature authority through His miracles.
- Assent: It is not adequate to just know something, so asset captures the conviction that the knowledge is true. You could know about Area 51 and the lore that surrounds it, but not agree to the idea that an alien spaceship is housed there
- Trust: Trust takes the knowledge assented to and moves to the point of relying or depending on it completely. It encapsulates the idea expressed in John 3:16 of believing in Jesus (John 3:16)
Let’s try to clarify the three components with a couple of examples. James 2:19 tells us that the demons believe that God is one. The demons are enemies of God, but they know and assent to the fact that He exists and is one being. They have the first two areas of faith, but are missing the third because they don’t rely on Him.
The second example is a frequent sermon illustration. In 1850s, Charles Blondin walked across Niagara Falls on a wire. He did this many times using various props to prove his skill. One day he asked the crowd if they believed he could carry someone on his back across the falls. Based on his previous success (knowledge) the crowd responded that they believed that he could (assent). However, when Blondin asked for a volunteer, no one was willing to step forward. While they thought he could do it, they did not trust him enough to put his or her life in Blondin’s hands.
Of the three components, trust is the key. We must allow Jesus to carry us across the chasm between us and God based on the merit of His life and sacrifice in His death, rather than depending on our own flawed works. We must have faith in Jesus for salvation. This faith isn’t blind or uninformed. We receive the information about Jesus, agree that it’s true and then depend on God completely to provide the forgiveness that we don’t deserve.
Based on What Faith Is and Is Not
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With blind faith, there is either no evidence to speak of or there is a refusal to look at or consider any evidence that might be available. It is, quite simply, an irrational faith.
“”If your retina ended up in the same state regardless of what light entered it, you would be blind. Some belief systems, in a rather obvious trick to reinforce themselves, say that certain beliefs are only really worthwhile if you believe them unconditionally – no matter what you see, no matter what you think. Your brain is supposed to end up in the same state regardless. Hence the phrase, “blind faith”. If what you believe doesn’t depend on what you see, you’ve been blinded as effectively as by poking out your eyeballs.
. (2 Corinthians 5:7) Because of this, some have mistakenly assumed that the Christian has been asked to navigate through life with a blind faith. However, although Paul did indicate that faith is what leads us—that “faith” is far from “blind.” Certainly, there’s a “faith” that we could characterize as “blind” (in other words, a faith based mainly on unproven assertions from others), but there’s also a “realistic” faith, a trust that is developed from extensive past experience. (By the way, evolution requires its believers to have a blind faith, since it is founded solely upon unproven theories and conjecture, and since traditionally scientific empirical evidence does not back this theory. Please see Defending Christianity for more on this.) And while it cannot be denied that many Christians are simply “Christian” for traditional reasons (rather than due to an honest examination of facts), Christians should learn to base their faith on the solid foundation of underlying facts, facts that God Himself provided to us so that we could truly be “rooted and grounded” in our faith.
The word faith leaves an option, I hate the word faith, because there isn’t any options, there is only a belief in God ! You either fear god or Satan has set up his throne in the temple of god and you are oblivious to the truth that your mind is the throne of god and Satan has taken his seat ,has said in isiah!