Faith and Knowledge

Posted on July 2, 2020

"Faith is indeed intellectual; it involves an apprehension of certain things as facts; and vain is the modern effort to divorce faith from knowledge. But although faith is intellectual, it is not only intellectual. You cannot have faith without having knowledge; but you will not have faith if you have only knowledge" - J. Gresham Machen

After coming across the above quote recently, it brought to mind some related quotes and thoughts that I have decided to put together in this article. Before I share my thoughts on this subject, here is another good quote that I think explains faith well, from Dave Hunt's book titled Seeking And Finding God: "Rather than an irrational leap, [faith] is a rational step that follows the evidence and logic as far as reason is able, then takes another step beyond reason - but always and only in the direction that evidence and reason have pointed" (Page 25).

To back up what was said in that quote, I also want to share a clear biblical indication that faith and reason go together is in this next quote: "Come now, and let us reason together", says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18).

The last quote that came to mind was from when the apostle Paul asked for prayer "that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith" (2 Thessalonians 3:2)

Clearly, faith and reason go together if those who don't have faith are "unreasonable" as Paul said. One good example of how the faithless are unreasonable is seen through the communists who try to force their way on everyone. Since facts and reason are not on their side, they try to get their way through either violence or censorship instead. Their view of "hate speech " appears to be any speech they disagree with but can't refute. If they could refute it, then they would have no need to censor it.

Sadly, the increase in censorship that many of us see from big tech companies like Facebook, Twitter and You Tube is not the only example of this. I have experienced the same thing from the professing church, and I am not the only one who has. Back in 2008, I was banned from "The Rapture Ready Message Board" simply for trying to expose some of the false teaching and slander that has come from James White. After this happened, I later found out that the moderators on this message board had been banning lots of people for disagreeing with them. But they eventually lost their jobs as moderators there after the owner of Rapture Ready (Todd Stranberg) found out about this.

I have also been blocked by professing Christians on Facebook for merely having a different opinion than them. In 2014, I was blocked from Johnathan Cahn's Facebook page for respectfully disagreeing with him, and the same thing happened with another Facebook page promoting his teachings. Other Christians have experienced similar cases. For example, Marcia Montenegro from the ministry Christian Answers For The New Age was blocked from John Hagee's Facebook page for respectfully challenging his Blood Moon teachings.

With all the censorship I have seen from both the world and the professing church, it has become clear to me that there is now little difference between them. Blind faith is rampant on both sides. As I have shown here, biblical faith is based on reason, and it is not reasonable to censor people for disagreeing with you. If you truly do have factual reasons for what you believe, then you should have no reason to censor beliefs to the contrary. The only reason I can think of for someone to do so is that their beliefs are not factual, and they simply don't want them to be exposed as such.



What Role Do Evidence And Reason Play?

The Flight From Reason (Video)

The Further Flight From Reason (Video)

Is Faith In God Rational?

Controversy And a Simple Solution

THE REASON FOR THIS SITE

WHAT IS SALVATION?

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