“A Blind Faith Against A Seeing Faith”

What is this thing that is taught, promoted, and spoke about within Christianity which they identify as faith? Faith is the starting point of why anyone pursues a relationship with God. According to Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (KJV). We see from within the verse, that faith is a necessity of even beginning to know that God exists. Is faith just a feeling I get by believing in God, is faith an emotion I have by going to church, or is faith a pleasurable state of hope that I acquire from the preacher which makes me feel happy? All these are legitimate questions to ponder and explore upon seeking out the truth of God. According to Hebrews 11:1 ““Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (KJV). Many individuals believe the opposite of faith is doubt, but I challenge this cognition to consider the contrast of faith is seeing. Now, I know what you are thinking as I have entitled this blog as “Blind Faith against a Seeing Faith”. What does this mean? When I say a blind faith, I am referring to one who attempts to premise/establish a belief system with little to no evidence to support their claim in what they believe. This results in a weak faith which leaves the believer to be illegitimately equipped to defend their faith and further remain rooted within their faith. This is no different than someone who walks into a complete dark room to try to find their missing shoe. There is no assurance in the fact that one will find the shoe because there is no illumination to expose the shoe. As long as it remains dark in the room, the person is only left to guess, assume, and hope to find their shoe by chance. This is what happens has not studied the evidence of God to solidify their faith in God. In contrast, the reference to a seeing faith is like walking in a room that is fully illuminated with light in an attempt to find that missing shoe. There is a great assurance and strong hope that is within the individual because they are able to see what they are faithfully seeking out. This same analogy is applied to someone who has studied the evidence of God’s existence, Jesus’s resurrection, and Christianity because they are entrenched in their belief due to the evidence they have to support their belief. A seeing faith does not it does not refer to the physical sense of sight; however, a seeing faith provokes a spiritual illumination within which guides the cognitive patterns of one’s mind. A blind faith dismisses the mind which is contrary to a biblical faith which only results in the individual being motivated by emotionalism and sensationalism which ultimately leads to a artificial religious practice.

“A Faith that Drives me to Intellectually Know God”

There is a responsibility of everyone who chooses to pursue God to also come to know God through the acquiring of knowledge of God in an persistent knowing of God. The pursuit of relationship with God is a journey of continuous knowing the knowledge to know God. The knowledge of God is infinite which is why we can never exhaust knowing God. Let me unpack this for you. Whatever someone strongly believes, they will assertively and sometimes aggressively defend their reason for it. Also, a person who strongly believes in something will seek out knowledge to affirm their belief in it. When I speak of intellectually knowing God, I am referring to the knowledge you have of God. It is difficult and rather malpractice of study to attempt to defend what you do not know. According to Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (KJV). The writer of Proverbs would even declare that true knowledge begins with a respect for God which implies a relationship with God, but there are those who choose not to believe and honor God which results in foolish and vain thoughts. If there is to be an understanding of knowledge, there has to be a first cause of a divine perfected mind from which all knowledge began. Any knowledge we have present day is facts, awareness, and skills acquired through experiences and education from which God revealed to someone. Any knowledge of present day inclusive of scientific discoveries, mathematical logic, philosophy, immaterial reality, and other categories of knowledge are all revelations of God given to man through divine intervention that was once hidden from humanity. I believe it is important here to note that no one ever has complete precise 100% evidence of anything, but you can have sufficient evidence to inaugurate a credible belief that can be proven objectively true. This is a wonderful dynamic of Christianity because God desires relationship with humanity, but the only way to have a relationship with him is to seek the knowledge of him. Faith in God requires a pursuit of experiencing him through trials, challenging times, adversity, and calamities. Furthermore, faith in God also requires a pursuit of examining the evidence of his existence. Many individuals doubt within our faith due to a lack of knowledge in the evidence of God. As one increases in their intelligence of faith through examination of the evidence of God, one is more apt to know why they believe what they believe which gives a more robust faith in God. Some arguments for exploring the evidences of God includes the Cosmological Argument, Teleological Argument, the Ontological Argument, Experiential Argument, the Moral Argument, and many other arguments that support for establishing a robust faith in God. We will further examine these arguments in later blogs.