Faith should be trustworthy and verifiable. Each religion makes claims about reality and if they are true then they should withstand criticism. Religions, then, are not just created to give some people more purpose or meaning. Yet too often people use “faith” to suggest an irrational hope or mere wishful thinking. They assume that since nobody today has witnessed the events of the Bible, or seen the God of the universe, the Christian faith is founded in an entirely unverifiable hope. The Christian faith, though, is not based on this at all. Christianity is grounded in the historical fact the Jesus Christ rose from the grave on the third day (1 Cor. 15:14). Oftentimes, the confusion stems from not understanding the difference between blind faith and biblical faith. Blind faith is an irrational hope or belief in something when there is no evidence to support it. Meanwhile, biblical faith is grounded in evidence and prepared to make a defense.
The narrative about Christians seems to be switching away from evidence-based faith. Instead, Christians are perceived as individuals who chase after arbitrary feelings. However, this idea better represents blind faith. Blind faith is when somebody has an assurance for something without reason. For example, blind faith would be if someone, without checking any kind of weather forecast, had faith that it is actively raining in the Sahara Desert. It is blind because there is no evidence to suggest that is raining. In fact, the likelihood of it raining is slim to none. This would be an unanchored and unreasonable faith to have. This example of blind faith is far from the faith Christians are called to have. God desires for Christians to defend their faith with reason and evidence. 1 Peter 3:15 reads, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” Christians must be prepared to defend their faith, and blind faith cannot do that.
Pursuing truth is not hopeless. Of course, people will naturally disagree on which religion is true, but this is what makes discussion so valuable. Individuals can reason through difficult topics and pursue the truth together. While it is impossible to prove a religion to be true, the question everybody should be asking is what is the most likely scenario? Did Jesus really rise from the dead or did the disciples steal his body and die for a lie? Did Jesus really rise from the dead or did over 500 witnesses all hallucinate the exact same thing? This is the kind of apologetical evidence that defends somebody’s faith, and after considering all the evidence, the hope of all Christians is that one day in heaven faith will become sight.
Written by Luke Radtke