Knowledge, not Faith

The title of this is almost one of the last points of the argument of this article. I started off thinking after hearing a debate on radio between an atheist evangelist and a prominent Christian. Irrespective of that debate, I was reminded that various Christians refer to their believe and discipleship in the Lord Jesus as their Christian Faith. On top of that I remember phrases like "you got to have faith" or "believe based on faith".

So thinking about my own walk, is it faith? Yes, it took faith for me to START believing. Before I believed, how can I know God? I don't want to get to technical and logical - but as many would agree it took faith to cross over from unbelieve into a state of believing in God and His Son Jesus. The key point that I found is that Faith was required for me to take that "Leap of Faith" and open to God and seek Him.

What I found after that initial step, not sure if most Christians agree, is that God began to reveal Himself to me through various means in life, such as through the Word, through the promptings of the Holy Spirit and other events. As we walk with God, and He continues not only to reveal Himself but lead us into His ways, (Paul calls this sanctification), our focus change to be more in tune with him. The question about whether he exists or not usually does not come into play. To summarize, faith is needed at the first step to jump into the hands of God, but when we give ourselves to Him, it becomes a matter of knowledge in the sense that we would come to know  God more and more, faith is not the main issue anymore.

So for Christians to be telling non-Christians that it is all about faith may be misleading. Because if it is just about faith, then anyone can believe in their own mind what they want to believe and God is not real. But for the Christian who walks daily with the Lord Jesus, he or she knows him like they know their fathers. It is reality, it is knowledge, it is true relationship with an unseen Heavenly Father - this is among the many promises of accepting Jesus as our Lord. It is faith that the unbeliever needs to make that leap into the knowledge of God.

As a side remark, it takes more faith in God's part to entrust the saving of souls to us humans, than for us to trust in Him.