Faith & Works; Paul & James: 4

Faith & Works; Paul & James: 4
Brad Reiches
Dec 4 2006 10:32PM

On Friday, December 2, in the GTW! entitled, "Paul & James; Faith & Works:  2,"  I regretfully misquoted Matthew 5:20.  It should read,

"Unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the Pharisees, you shall not enter the
kingdom of God."
Matthew 5:20

Fortunately, the context surrounding the misquote remains accurate.  The quote was immediately fixed in the archives.  Thank you to the hundreds of GT subscribers who pointed this error out to me. 

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Tuesday, December 5, 2006
GodThoughtsWired!

"Paul & James;
Faith & Works"

PART 4

FAITH #2.  "BLIND FAITH."  Belief in false gods.  This is the faith of false religions, including that of the "self-help" gurus, "faith in faith."  There is an unfortunate perspective on prayer that is gaining popularity.  It's proponents suggest that the power of prayer is found in the prayer itself.  "Just pray."  Of course, the truth is, that the power of prayer is utterly dependent on the object of that prayer.  You can pray to a rock as long as you wish, however, that rock has no power to help you.

As with prayer, the power of faith lies not in the faith itself, but in the object of that faith.  The dictionary defines faith as, "complete trust or confidence."  Indeed, you may have faith in that same rock that you pray to, but to no avail.  This is what is known as a "blind faith."  Whereas the Christian faith is based on the sufficiency of the evidence (meaning:  there is ample evidence from scripture, history, archaeology, creation, personal experience, etc., to put your "complete trust" in the God of the Bible), "blind faith" puts its trust in something or someone despite the lack of tangible evidence.