Misunderstanding the Bible

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Faith

Faith that has Proof

Over time, the word faith has been misunderstood, misdefined, and maligned in Christian terms. Many people think faith means believing without evidence or proof—just blind faith. This is why many non-Christians deny the claims of Christianity, finding faith, or worse, blind faith, not enough to support the claim that God exists.

There are also many so-called Christians who believe that all they need is faith without proof. For them, faith is simply a feeling or an intellectual decision that God exists, without any evidence to support it. Isn’t that what faith means? To many people, the idea that someone could believe because they have proof seems almost contrary to the very meaning of the word faith.

In the Bible, faith is defined as the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

Yes, faith involves what we cannot see. God cannot be touched or physically presented before us. But that does not mean the faith God speaks of in the Bible is blind faith—believing without reason or evidence.

Biblical Faith

Faith is opening the door to God, discovering that He is real, and then choosing to trust Him even when we cannot yet see how He will fulfill what He has promised.

We do something similar in marriage. When we commit ourselves to another person, we cannot know with absolute certainty that they will always be faithful, respectful, and loving. We trust them because of who they are and because of what they have shown us. Yet there is still an element of trust—we cannot see the future or guarantee what they will do.

The Bible clearly teaches that there is evidence of God. God has given us messages, signs, and evidence of a Creator if we are willing to look. Just as we can look at a car on the road and understand that it did not simply appear out of nothing, but was designed and created by someone, creation itself points us toward a Creator.

There is evidence of God all around us. The question is whether we are willing to look beyond what is immediately in front of us and open our eyes and hearts to what that evidence is telling us.

Born Again

Evidence can open the door for us to seek God. It can move us from simply asking whether God exists to actually asking Him to reveal Himself to us. But there comes a point when a person has to be willing to stop denying God and honestly consider that we were created to live for Him—that life ultimately has no lasting meaning apart from Him.

When someone sincerely turns toward God and asks Him to reveal Himself, something begins to change. How does God prove Himself? That is difficult to fully explain because it is a personal experience. But the Bible describes it as being born again—receiving the Holy Spirit and being changed from within.

The change begins to show itself in a new desire and a new direction. A person no longer wants to live simply for the world or continue living comfortably with sin. Instead, there is a growing desire to live a life that pleases God. There is a desire to know Jesus, follow Him, and surrender every part of life to Him.

Over time, that relationship with God becomes increasingly real. You begin to recognize His leading, His conviction, and the fruit He produces in your life. What began as a search becomes something you personally experience. You know that something has changed within you. You know that you have encountered Jesus.

It is much like falling in love. You may not be able to explain every detail of how it happened, but you know when you have met someone who has captured your heart and with whom you want to spend the rest of your life.

In the same way, God’s love becomes evidence—not simply something you believe about Him, but something you have come to know and experience for yourself. What began with faith has become personal proof.

But personal proof does not mean faith is no longer necessary. You now know God is real, but you still cannot see everything He is going to do. You still have to trust Him. You still have to follow Him. Faith continues because faith is not simply believing that God exists—it is trusting God even when you cannot yet see what lies ahead.

It is faith that opens the door to discovering that God exists. Once God reveals Himself to you, you have personal proof that He is real. But then faith takes you further. You trust the God you have come to know, even when you cannot yet see how He will fulfill what He has promised.

When God told Abraham to leave his home and go, God did not tell him exactly where He was leading him. Yet Abraham went because he trusted God. That was not blind faith. Abraham had heard from God, and he trusted the One who had spoken to him.

The same is true of Noah. Noah built the ark because God told him to. Noah had faith in God, but his faith was not simply believing in something without reason. He trusted the God who had revealed Himself to him and acted on that trust.

Abraham and Noah did not have blind faith. They knew God in a way that gave them reason to trust Him. Their faith was not the absence of evidence—it was a response to the God who had revealed Himself to them. They had reason to trust God, but they still had to exercise faith to follow Him.

Proof of God

There are people who say, “I don’t know that God exists, but I have faith.” But that kind of faith may be nothing more than blind faith, and it is not something we should place our confidence in.

The Bible teaches that we can have assurance that we are saved, that Christ is with us, and that the Holy Spirit is with us. This is not something we simply believe because God said it and leave it there. We trust it because God said it—and because it becomes real in our lives.

God wants us to experience a relationship with Him, one that grows through trust and love. As that relationship grows, we begin to see the evidence of His presence in our lives. Our desires change, our direction changes, and the way we live begins to change. What began with faith becomes something we personally experience. That relationship becomes evidence that God has truly come into our lives.

And yet, even after experiencing God, we continue to live by faith. We may know that God is real, but we do not know everything He will do or everything He has planned. We trust Him because we have come to know Him. Faith is not replaced by proof; rather, personal proof gives us even more reason to trust.

This is what will make Heaven so heavenly. We will no longer have to debate, question, or wonder whether God is real. We will have known Him, trusted Him, and experienced His faithfulness on this side of Heaven. He will have proven His promises true. And in Heaven, there will be no more doubt—only the joy of living fully in His presence, His light, and His glory.