{"id":552,"date":"2009-03-11T13:48:25","date_gmt":"2009-03-11T11:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/galmin.co.za\/myblog\/?p=552"},"modified":"2009-03-11T13:48:25","modified_gmt":"2009-03-11T11:48:25","slug":"misconceptions-about-christianity-blind-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.galmin.co.za\/?p=552","title":{"rendered":"Misconceptions about Christianity – “blind faith”"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rather common accusation sharply aimed at the Christian often goes like this: \u201cYou Christians are pitiful! All you have is \u2018blind faith.\u2019\u201d This would surely indicate that the accuser seems to think that to become a Christian, one has to commit \u201cintellectual suicide.\u201d
\nPersonally, \u201cmy heart cannot rejoice in what my mind rejects.\u201d My heart and head were created to work and believe together in harmony. Christ commanded us to \u201clove the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind\u201d (Matt. 22:37)<\/p>\n

When Jesus Christ and the apostles called upon a person to exercise faith, it was not a \u201cblind faith\u201d but rather an \u201cintelligent faith.\u201d The apostle Paul said, \u201cI know whom I have believed\u201d (2 Tim 1:12). Jesus said, \u201cYou shall know [not ignore] the truth, and the truth shall make you free\u201d (John 8:32).
\nThe belief of an individual involves \u201cthe mind, the emotions, and the will.\u201d I like the way F.R. Beattie puts it: \u201cThe Holy Spirit does not work a blind and ungrounded faith in the heart.\u201d (Beattie, A, 25)<\/p>\n

\u201cFaith in Christianity,\u201d Paul Little justifiably writes, \u201cis based on evidence. It is reasonable faith. Faith in the Christian sense goes beyond reason but not against it.\u201d (Little, KWhyYB, 30) Faith is the assurance of the heart in the adequacy of the evidence.
\nOften the Christian is accused of taking a blind \u201cleap into the dark.\u201d The idea often finds itself rooted in Kierkegaard.<\/p>\n

For me, Christianity was not a \u201cleap into the dark,\u201d but rather \u201ca step into the light.\u201d I took the evidence that I could gather and placed it on the scales. The scales tipped in favor of Christ as the Son of God, resurrected from the dead. The evidence so overwhelmingly leans toward Christ that when I became a Christian, I was \u201cstepping into the light\u201d rather than \u201cleaping into the darkness.\u201d
\nIf I had been exercising \u201cblind faith,\u201d I would have rejected Jesus Christ and turned my back on all the evidence.<\/p>\n

Taken from \u201cThe New Evidence That Demands a Verdict\u201d, Josh McDowell, xxxii, 1B<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n