blind faith Archives - Pilgrim's Rock

People Know Better

An atheist and agnostic walk into a bakery and observe a large display of baked goods. The atheist says, “A baker does not exist, science and reason prove that a baker does not exist, and no amount of blind faith will make a baker exist.” The agnostic, munching on a cookie sample, says, “No one can know that a baker exists, and no evidence exists for one.”

They walk into a store and observe a display of smart phones. The atheist says, “No one designed these, and people who say their design implies a designer deny science and discourage the pursuit of knowledge.” The agnostic, playing a video game, says, “Perhaps a designer of phones exists, but I have never seen one and science cannot prove they exist.”

They walk into an art museum and observe a beautiful painting. The atheist says, “People who claim a skillful artist must have created this exquisite portrait are naive, unreasonable, and unscientific. Beautiful art does not imply an artist.” The agnostic says, “Perhaps an artist exists, but the majority of scientists don’t believe in one.”

Absurd, you say? Yes, even ridiculous, but infinitely less so than denials of God in the midst of the comprehensive, conspicuous, compelling, and convincing evidence of His power and genius in every created thing.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:18-22 NAS).

People reject the obvious when they dislike the implications. People believe the absurd when they despise the alternative. People bow their reason to their fallen desires when they refuse to bow the knee to the excellence and authority of the One to whom we owe all love, honor and obedience. And, people know better.

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What’s So Foolish About the Gospel?

“For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).

Is the Gospel foolish? Do the ideas of a crucified Savior, exaltation by humiliation, the conquering of death by death, the overcoming of the powers of evil by weakness, etc., convey foolish elements that faith must overcome in order to believe in Christ? Or, put another way, does faith involve, to some extent, a belief in the absurd or unreasonable, a disregard or denial of aspects of reality? Does true faith include elements of blind faith, the belief in something without or contrary to evidence?

“Irrational Faith”
For some, faith is indeed irrational and blind, the embrace of an ideal despite history, reason, reality, and science. In fact, they view the courage to believe against all odds and opposition as a virtue. Moreover, a faith based solely on personal experience without an objective basis in history, reason, reality, and science, cannot be refuted by arguments of the same—nothing can deny or disprove another’s experience, goes the thinking. Perhaps you have heard people teach such a faith, or maybe you recognize elements of this blind faith as your own? What, then, are we to make of this?

A Fallen Perspective and Defective Standard
The Gospel does appear foolish and undesirable to most of the world, but, does that indicate a problem with the Gospel or the world? For instance, does the world exalt holiness? Scripture tells us people who love darkness and reject the light (John 3:19), including the light of the Gospel. Indeed, “the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it” (Matt. 7:14).

At the same time, could unbelief be justified in part by some of the “foolish” elements of the Gospel mentioned above? Perhaps, if according to a right standard, the foolish or absurd could be found in the Gospel. But, it contains no such elements. But what about a crucified Savior, weakness overcoming power and evil, etc., are not these ideas absurd or unreasonable? Yes, but only according to the assumptions of the fallen, unbelieving worldview. In God’s economy, justice demands a payment and sin demands death, while voluntary and infinite humiliation and suffering for the underserving displays the highest and most beautiful love. Moreover, the entire sacrificial system of Israel points to the need of a sacrifice, substitute, and mediator. Such ideas are noble to unbelievers in many contexts, such as jumping in front of a car to save a life, paying another’s debt, or martyrdom for a great cause (though Christ’s sacrifice was far more than mere martyrdom). Regardless, God determines what is right and foolish in the world. Apart from God, no standards of good, bad, wise, or foolish are possible.

Nothing of the Gospel history or message justifies unbelief. Rather, the heart hostile to God cannot see the beauty of God’s holiness and perfect character it displays. In fact, the world’s foolishness involves viewing the infinitely excellent as unworthy of notice or respect, including the revelation of God’s holiness, justice, love, grace, mercy, and wisdom in Christ.

Preconceived Notions
People view Christ and Scripture according to preconceived beliefs about God and the world flow from love or hatred toward the God of the Bible. Those unwilling to acknowledge God’s authority and submit to Him will interpret reality to support their desire to be independent of God. Nothing that points to the God of Scripture and our debt to love and honor Him will be viewed with an objective “neutrality.” Those set on living however they please will reject the Gospel as foolish and explain the world as giving no evidence of its Designer and Creator.

Reasonable Faith
Also, a blind faith contrary to history, reason, reality, and science is not Christian faith. We swim in a sea of evidence for God’s power, genius, and goodness. The heavens declare His glory (Psalm 19:1), the “rains from heaven and fruitful seasons” that satisfy our “hearts with food and gladness” declare His goodness (Acts 14:17). Moreover, all people have an inescapable sense of God’s existence and holiness because God has written His law on every heart (Rom. 2:14-15). The evidence appears so obvious in what God has created that all people “know God” and are “without excuse” for not worshipping and giving God thanks (Rom. 1:18-22). Even as the order, intricacy, and beauty of the universe proclaim its designer in the same way a beautiful painting proclaims the existence and genius of the artist, unbelief suppresses and denies the knowledge of God from hostility towards Him.

Unwanted Implications
Moreover, the mere fact that we can reason and conduct science clearly affirms God’s design and power over the universe—random chance produces no “natural” laws by which we think and do science. Reality, as well as science to describe it, cannot exist without God. Indeed, that some scientists observe the amazing order and design of creation and still claim it evolved by time and chance indicates that something other than the scientific method drives their conclusions. The theory of evolution, as impossible and unscientific as it is, serves to explain life without a debt to love and obey the One to whom we owe all things. The same applies to denials of the authority of Scripture. Christ put it this way, “If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself” (John 7:17). In other words, if you have a heart to do God’s will, you will know that Christ’s words are God’s words and the expression of God’s will.

Open Eyes
Therefore, while true faith involves experience—the heart embracing Christ as God and Savior in love and trust—it also accepts objective reality as created and ordered by God, and the true nature of Scripture. So, what’s so foolish about the Gospel? Nothing. As believers, our eyes have been opened to see and love its excellence, “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). Thus, with the saints we sing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1988, 1995. Used by permission.

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The Blind Faith of Atheism (Part 2 of 4) – Faith Versus Miracles

In the previous article we observed how atheists have great faith in their opinion and presumed ability to know what cannot be known. We’ll now examine how that same faith underlies the claim that the miracles of the Bible are unscientific, illogical, and impossible. Can unbelievers really know that the great and supernatural works of God recorded in Scripture are untrue? As we will see, all arguments against the historical reality of the biblical miracles, regardless of their sophistication, rest on simple and unjustified assumptions of blind faith.

Random Reasoning
To begin, have you ever noticed the contradiction of appealing to fixed and universal laws to deny biblical miracles in order to affirm a universe built and operating according to random chance? Uniform “laws of nature” can only exist because God designed, created and sustains them, apart from whom no such laws are possible. A world founded on random chance gives no basis for uniform laws of anything (to be discussed in part four). In short, the appeal to uniformity in nature to deny miracles affirms God’s existence in order to deny it. Besides, if the universe is founded on and operates according to random chance, how could anyone know how the universe operated at the time of the biblical miracles, or presume that it existed and operated the same way “millions and billions of years ago” as the evolutionists claim to know? To assume that things have always behaved the same way contradicts their explanation of a random chance universe.

Comparatively Small and Entirely Reasonable
How, then, can the atheist know that the miracles of the Bible are impossible? If a God of infinite power exists, He can do whatever He wants. Indeed, the miracles of Scripture pale in comparison to God’s ongoing exertion of His might to arrange and sustain every particle in the universe at every moment. God the Son “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3 NAS). God’s power displayed in His plagues on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, or Jonah’s cruise in a whale are relatively small compared to His ongoing work of ordering and upholding all things. Every miracle of Scripture is reasonable in light of God’s infinite power. And as God created and sustains the laws by which atheists deny the possibility of miracles (laws that are nothing more than how God chooses to order the universe for a particular period of time), He cannot be limited by them.

Mystery and God’s High Ways
God tells us, “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NAS). Given the limits of our human understanding before a God whose ways are infinitely higher than ours, mysteries and miracles should be expected. Thus, to deny the possibility of the biblical miracles, the atheist must first demonstrate that the biblical Maker and Sustainer of all things does not exist.

Essential but Impossible Knowledge
How, then, can the atheist know that the biblical God of infinite power does not exist, and that miracles are therefore impossible? As we saw in part one of this series, complete knowledge of everything in the universe and beyond is required to legitimately deny the existence of God, an impossible task. And if atheists cannot possibly know that God does not exist, they cannot possibly know that the miracles of Scripture are impossible. Lacking the evidence and ability to justify their claim, atheists must presume what they cannot possibly know to deny the possibility of God’s miracles. Swimming in a sea of evidence for His power, genius, and goodness, they use their God-given reason and blessings to deny the obvious and place their faith in personal opinion and a presumed ability to know what they cannot possibly know. Rightly Scripture tells us, they are “foolish” (Psalm 14:1) and “without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

In the next article I will discuss the unwarranted faith behind the atheist’s denial of God based on what they view as illogical teachings of Scripture.

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The Blind Faith of Atheism (Part 1 of 4) – Human Limitations

God created and sustains all things. His every work bears His fingerprints and signature, giving such clear, comprehensive, and compelling testimony to His power and genius that all people are without excuse for not worshipping and giving Him thanks. Believers and unbelievers, alike, swim in a sea of evidence for God’s nature and existence. But, for the sake of argument, let’s ignore this basic fact for a moment and ask the question: How much knowledge is necessary for an atheist to know that God does not exist?

Infinite Knowledge
The short answer is knowledge of everything in the universe and beyond. In other words, one must have the omniscience of God to legitimately deny the existence of God. Or put another way, one must be God to deny God.

The Garage
Yet, all people are subject to great human limitations. If I can’t know the contents of my neighbor’s garage without looking inside it, how can I possibly know what is beyond the three or four dimensions of my existence or on the other side of the universe?[1] Can we trust the opinion of people concerning ultimate realities when they have a hard time remembering where they put the car keys?

Baseless Opinion and Limited Perspective
Atheism, therefore, rests on faith; faith in the authority of human opinion and faith in a presumed ability to know what cannot be known by people with great human limitations. Is it any wonder that Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’”? God’s words to Job are instructive:

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me! Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, who set its measurements, since you know?” (Job 38:1-5 NAS)

And as God’s words through Isaiah remind us:

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in a pair of scales? Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as His counselor has informed Him? With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge, and informed Him of the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales…. All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless (Isaiah 40:12-17 NAS).

A Proper Perspective
Indeed, a proper view of God provides a proper view of our limitations, and the limitations of those who would deny Him: “Thou hast made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Thy sight, surely every man at his best is a mere breath” (Psalm 39:5 NAS). And while all atheists will eventually meet the God they work so hard to deny, we need not be intimidated by their arguments of faith and unfounded opinion until they do. So, the next time you feel intimidated by the sophistication and confidence of atheists or the thickness of their books, remember that they don’t know what is in your garage, let alone what is on the other side of the universe.

[1] See Craig Biehl, The Box: Answering the Faith of Unbelief (Carpenter’s Son Publishing, 2015).

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The Box: Answering the Faith of Unbelief by Dr. Craig Biehl

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