Faith requires the suspension of good judgement. This is needed as faith is fact free and only a type of wish fulfilment. Really?
At a talk, I once addressed the whole idea that Christians are accused of “taking things on faith”. In essence, the charge is this: Christians have a Fact Free Faith.
The Origins of Fact Free Faith
How on earth did such a definition of faith come about when historically, Christians didn’t have such a definition? If you think about it, it may well be that those who accuse Christians of having a fact free faith are actually projecting their own definition of faith onto Christians. Just look at how those with a scientism mindset make statements about everything naturally coming from nothing, fact free origins of abiotic biogenesis and that “Religion is the opiate of the masses.”
Fact Full Faith
Mark 12:30-31
Here’s the truth – in the Christian worldview, faith is based on fact. It’s based on reality. A Fact Full Faith based on the the promises of God and the evidence that He reliably keeps them. Faith springs from a foundation of evidence, not a lack of it. But it still does exist because there are things yet to be understood, things to be seen, promises yet to be fulfilled. And that in itself is a hint of the reliability of the Christian worldview.
Every part of our being has been corrupted by the fall. Perhaps the most obvious are our bodies and hearts (since we have emotions and desires which rebel against God). Less obvious is the corruption of our minds. This isn’t just about the messages and values we are faced with everyday. It’s about our very cognitive abilities also being corrupt. This is why research endeavors to continually expand the boundaries of our knowledge. We wouldn’t have to if we had perfect minds. We don’t know everything about anything. However, we know enough to carry on and that’s why research never ends. Faith in the Christian worldview is much like that and another demonstration of its reliability.
In this world, our shared reality is finding patterns of clues. A worldview either fits these patterns or it doesn’t. It’s an exercise in frustration and futility if one were to expect to know everything about something – it’s simply not possible with our limitations. But one can expect to know enough to meaningfully engage with it and learn more.
Such is the role of faith. It allows us to grapple with the issues of life, giving us the opportunity to deepen our knowledge of them. Rather than being an intellectual liability, the presence of faith as defined by the Christian worldview is actually another pointer to how it reliably corresponds with reality.
Faith is the bridge between today’s and tomorrow’s facts. It is the lens we view the past through to the past to be. As such, all worldviews use faith. The difference lies in the accuracy of their assumptions of the past and what they call facts.
Lastly, here’s an excerpt from a 2010 booklet called “What Is Faith?” by R. C. Sproul which states how Christians view faith in another way:
Faith Is the Substance of Hope
The most foundational definition for faith in the Bible is found in Hebrews: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony” (11:1–2, NKJV). Note the distinction the author of Hebrews makes between faith and hope. These ideas are intimately connected, but they are distinct nonetheless. In a similar way, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 of the great triad of Christian virtues: faith, hope, and love. This passage also reveals that there is a distinction between faith and hope.
Before we explore the link between these concepts, let me address the biblical idea of hope, because the word hope functions somewhat differently in the New Testament than it does in Western countries today. When we use the word hope, we usually are referring to an emotional state of desire in our hearts regarding what we would like to happen in the future but are not sure will come to pass. We may hope that our favorite teams will win football or basketball games, but that hope may never materialize. For instance, I am a perennial fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I regularly hope that the Steelers will win their football games. This may be a vain and futile hope because it’s anything but a certainty. There is a kind of hope that does not make us ashamed (cf. Rom. 5:5), but I’m constantly afraid that my hopes for the Steelers may make me ashamed, for while they regularly win championships, they lose games, too.
However, when the Bible speaks of hope, it is not referring to a desire for a future outcome that is uncertain, but rather a desire for a future outcome that is absolutely sure. Based on our trust in the promises of God, we can be fully confident about the outcome. When God gives His people a promise for the future, and the church grasps it, this hope is said to be the “anchor of the soul” (Heb. 6:19). An anchor is that which gives a ship protection against aimless drifting in the sea. The promises of God for tomorrow are the anchor for believers today.
When the Bible says “faith is the substance of things hoped for” (Heb. 11:1, emphasis added), it is speaking of something that has weight or significance—something of extreme value. The implication is that faith communicates the essence of the hope.
In a real sense, hope is faith looking forward. The word faith carries a strong element of trust. If my hope is based on something God has said will happen in the future, the hope I have for that future promise finds its substance from my trust and confidence in the One making the promise. I can have hope because I have faith in God. Because I can trust the promise of God for tomorrow, there is substance to my hope; my hope is not just a chimera, a fantasy, or a wish projection based on idle dreams. Rather, it is based on something substantive.
Image: Kevin Tam x AI