Just recently I ran across the all-too-familiar, lazy refrain from those who wish to dismiss the faith of a Christ-follower, calling it blind faith. As a follower after Christ, is your faith a blind faith? Is there even a difference between faith and blind faith? Perhaps the phrase blind faith is really just a redundancy. Maybe my head is buried in the sand in an effort to hide my intellectual void.
In truth, I believe my faith is neither blind nor intellectually vapid. Indeed, I believe it is a faith borne of overwhelming evidence. God has provided an abundance of waypoints and signs to direct our journey as we walk by faith and not by sight. All nature screams of God’s existence and his love toward us. I argue in Finding Faith in Slow Motion that seeing is not believing, and that simple sight can lead to profound deception. The diligent follower after Christ is one who carefully examines the evidence and comes to a logical faith, or a well-founded faith.
The reality that God has provided guideposts for us along the way does not negate faith at all. Rather it strengthens and confirms faith. It manifests the love of the one who is calling us home.
I’m reminded of a story told by the late Francis Schaeffer, wherein he described the dilemma of a man who was hiking in the Swiss Alps. The man ascended the Alps, climbing higher and higher, until he reached the peak he was climbing for. Before he realized what was happening, a fog moved in, overtaking him, leaving him with no sight and no sense of direction. Knowing there was a cliff in one direction, the man faced a life-threatening decision. To move one direction surely meant a deadly fall, while moving the other direction meant he would likely find safety. Staying put was not an option as he would freeze to death before morning. He had to move one direction or the other. It would be a blind step, one that could hardly be called a step of faith. A step of fear, perhaps, but not faith.
But what if there were another man on the same path, a man who had seen the first man ascend the peak and become shrouded by the fog? And what if, realizing the first man’s predicament, the second man called out to him, advising him which way to move? If the first man trusted the voice of the second man, and followed his directions, is that considered a step of faith? I believe it is, but it is not a blind step of faith. It is a guided step.
God’s righteous sons and daughters live and walk by faith, but it is nothing even close to a blind faith. God has provided ample guidance for us through the forefathers and prophets, through Creation, through his Son, through the Word. Evidence abounds for us to make guided, intelligent, sound decisions.
Walk confidently!
Victoriously in Christ!
– damon
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