Post by phinehas on Mar 5, 2007 11:31:59 GMT -5
This seems to have gotten a bit of air time on the show today with people confused about whether a Christian's faith is blind or not and what that actually means.
Perhaps we will let the Bible define it's own terms of what Faith is.
First, let's look at an incident that highlights what Faith isn't:
24 But Thomas , one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
27 Then saith he to Thomas , Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas , because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
So as you can read, Thomas had to personally and visibly see Jesus and not only that, the person that looked like Jesus had to have the visible physical damage that Thomas personally saw Jesus have in order for Thomas to believe that the person was the one and the same, Jesus.
Therefore, those that didn't require the same standard of information that Thomas required are blessed. These people would be the ones that would fall under the "blind faith" category.
But does this group, really have "blind" faith? I don't think so. As a caller said quite well on the radio, there is "blind faith" and there is "informed" faith.
Most Christians don't have a blind faith, due to the fact that their faith is, at a minimum, based on testimony from eye witnesses, testimony that has been recorded in the books of the Bible. A trial jury bases their judgment on various data, one of them can be sworn testimony that is written down and submitted for consideration if the eyewitness is unable to be at the trial. How is this testimony determined to be truthful? It must be logical, not contradict but support the other data presented and the eyewitness must be credible.
Jesus proved his credibility on numerous occasions to numerous people. One of the ways he did this was in performing miracles in front of people...He healed people that were blind from birth and everyone in that town knew that person was blind from birth....Jesus did bring in "ringers" from the outside into towns in order to heal people, unlike "faith healers" of today....those people in that town KNEW for a fact that a person that was healed by Jesus was crippled or blind.
I can go into more details when I have more time.
This leads us to the year 2007. How are people to believe that Christianity is real. Excluding the discussion of what people experience in their life and only in the scope of the Bible....the Bible is the "sworn testimony" of what God stated but for this discussion, it is also the sworn testimony of what the Apostles and others experienced and wrote down.
How do we evaluate this testimony....same as above. It must be logical, not contradict but support the other data presented and the eyewitness must be credible.
As the same caller on the radio pointed out...how is the credibility of the witnesses determined? Could not the Jews or the Romans produce the body of Jesus? They would have if they could. Could they have produced the dead body of Lazarus had he not been made alive? Could they have produced the blind person that had not been healed by Jesus? All throughout the New Testament, there were people that looked for a reason to disprove what Jesus and his disciples did and said and they couldn't.
The credibility of the witnesses is the fact that they were KILLED for their beliefs...that they knowingly put their lives on the line to defend their beliefs and to espouse their beliefs.
These people's deaths have been historically documented and verified.
So, Christians don't have blind faith...they have faith.
An example of blind faith would be for me to walk in a visibly empty room, have a stranger walk in with nothing, walk behind me and tell me that there is a chair directly behind me and to sit down. I have NO information whatsoever that the person is credible, that there is anything in the room but two people....so for me to go into the motion of sitting down, would in fact be "blind faith".
But if I was informed that there were thousands of people that went through the same process and came out saying there was a chair there when they sat down...and that these same people would not recant and died not recanting their statments....then would that not be sufficient data for a reasonable person to sit down? I would then sit down in faith...THOMAS however would have to turn around and still look, to see if the chair was there, BEFORE he sat.
Perhaps we will let the Bible define it's own terms of what Faith is.
First, let's look at an incident that highlights what Faith isn't:
24 But Thomas , one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
27 Then saith he to Thomas , Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas , because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
So as you can read, Thomas had to personally and visibly see Jesus and not only that, the person that looked like Jesus had to have the visible physical damage that Thomas personally saw Jesus have in order for Thomas to believe that the person was the one and the same, Jesus.
Therefore, those that didn't require the same standard of information that Thomas required are blessed. These people would be the ones that would fall under the "blind faith" category.
But does this group, really have "blind" faith? I don't think so. As a caller said quite well on the radio, there is "blind faith" and there is "informed" faith.
Most Christians don't have a blind faith, due to the fact that their faith is, at a minimum, based on testimony from eye witnesses, testimony that has been recorded in the books of the Bible. A trial jury bases their judgment on various data, one of them can be sworn testimony that is written down and submitted for consideration if the eyewitness is unable to be at the trial. How is this testimony determined to be truthful? It must be logical, not contradict but support the other data presented and the eyewitness must be credible.
Jesus proved his credibility on numerous occasions to numerous people. One of the ways he did this was in performing miracles in front of people...He healed people that were blind from birth and everyone in that town knew that person was blind from birth....Jesus did bring in "ringers" from the outside into towns in order to heal people, unlike "faith healers" of today....those people in that town KNEW for a fact that a person that was healed by Jesus was crippled or blind.
I can go into more details when I have more time.
This leads us to the year 2007. How are people to believe that Christianity is real. Excluding the discussion of what people experience in their life and only in the scope of the Bible....the Bible is the "sworn testimony" of what God stated but for this discussion, it is also the sworn testimony of what the Apostles and others experienced and wrote down.
How do we evaluate this testimony....same as above. It must be logical, not contradict but support the other data presented and the eyewitness must be credible.
As the same caller on the radio pointed out...how is the credibility of the witnesses determined? Could not the Jews or the Romans produce the body of Jesus? They would have if they could. Could they have produced the dead body of Lazarus had he not been made alive? Could they have produced the blind person that had not been healed by Jesus? All throughout the New Testament, there were people that looked for a reason to disprove what Jesus and his disciples did and said and they couldn't.
The credibility of the witnesses is the fact that they were KILLED for their beliefs...that they knowingly put their lives on the line to defend their beliefs and to espouse their beliefs.
These people's deaths have been historically documented and verified.
So, Christians don't have blind faith...they have faith.
An example of blind faith would be for me to walk in a visibly empty room, have a stranger walk in with nothing, walk behind me and tell me that there is a chair directly behind me and to sit down. I have NO information whatsoever that the person is credible, that there is anything in the room but two people....so for me to go into the motion of sitting down, would in fact be "blind faith".
But if I was informed that there were thousands of people that went through the same process and came out saying there was a chair there when they sat down...and that these same people would not recant and died not recanting their statments....then would that not be sufficient data for a reasonable person to sit down? I would then sit down in faith...THOMAS however would have to turn around and still look, to see if the chair was there, BEFORE he sat.