Question:  Dear Greg,

            What exactly is “blind faith”?  I have a friend who contends that faith in God has to be “blind” because you can’t physically see God.  I can’t “see” the wind but I know it’s there.  I hope you understand what I am trying to ask.

            Ron

Answer:  Dear Ron,

            The term “blind faith” can be an oxymoron (two words that are mutually self-contradictory).  The term is often used for emphasis, to help us understand that faith is based upon evidence, that faith does not “come out of the blue”.

            Faith, according to the Bible, is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).  The “do not see” part leads to the use of the word “blind” at times.  But the emphasis on the term “blind faith” is about faith that has no grounding, no rationale, no basis in fact or history.  Biblical faith, given that context, is not blind.

            Faith, Paul tells us, “comes from hearing the message (of the gospel), and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).  Faith, the Bible tells us, is a gift.  We do not conjure up faith.  We do not wish for it.  We do not decide that we will have faith tomorrow when today we have none.

            The disciples asked Jesus to “increase” their faith (Luke 17:5).  They had the idea, as humans always have, that faith is like a commodity—that we can go to a heavenly grocery store or gas station and get more.  But faith is not quantified, and we certainly are not judged by God or rewarded (or not rewarded) because we have enough or insufficient faith.  In one sense our faith can be said to “increase” as we grow in Christ, for the more we are in Christ, and the more closely we walk with God the more faithful we will be.  That is simply a description of what God is doing in us because at the end of it all, faith is a gift from God.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht