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Writer's pictureBible Brian

Faith is belief in the missing pieces


In recent years, deceptive atheistic apologists have redefined faith as belief without, or even belief in spite of evidence. This is an attempt to define faith in such a way as to make faith appear irrational even before a discussion begins.


In reality, no meaningful definition of faith precludes evidence. Consider the famous "Hebrews Hall of Faith". Hebrews 11 begins by saying that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It then proceeds to list a number of "faith heroes". That is, men who are famous for their faith in God.


Of the people it lists, none of them lacked evidence for God. In fact, most of them had the privilege of meeting Him. Noah was given a direct command to build the ark. He hadn't seen the flood yet, neither had he survived it, but because God had told him there would be a flood, and given instructions on how to be saved, Noah was credited for his faith.


The same is true for Abraham. Abraham was told directly by God that he was going to have a son, and that through this son, Abraham would be the founder of a nation. Abraham obviously did not live long enough to see this nation, but he believed God. This, too, was faith.


And so you see that faith and evidence are not mutually exclusive. Consider the puzzle in the header image. There are three missing pieces. Faith is merely believing in the missing pieces. There is evidence of the missing pieces, but you do not see the pieces themselves. As Christians, we have missing pieces. Even those who personally spoke with God had missing pieces. No matter how many miracles God sends to verify His ability to fulfil His promises, these do not necessarily prove He will. Even the promises God has fulfilled do not prove He will fulfil the rest. To trust in God's promises is to have faith. This does not mean we have no good reasons for having that faith.


In reality, of course we do. Scripture alone is filled with good reasons to believe. In it, we find a detailed record of fulfilled promises. Prophecy foretold of Jesus, history records Jesus, it seems unfathomable that God would not fulfil His promise to save those who confess Him as Lord and believe He rose again. Our faith is not now, nor has it ever been a blind one. And atheists know it. This is why they have to resort to defining faith as belief without evidence. Not because it is, but because it isn't.

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