Is Faith a Blind Leap?
To answer this question, let’s begin by looking at the word the Bible uses for faith. It’s common to make the mistake of bringing our own definition of words into the Bible. In this case, Christians who have grown up with the view that faith is blind instantly assume that the Bible is referring to a belief without knowledge or evidence (that is, “blind faith”). But when we take a careful look at the Bible, it appears to be saying something completely different about faith. The word used in the New Testament for faith is pistis, which is commonly used to express “the state of believing on the basis of the reliability of the one trusted.”1 It can thus also mean “trust” or “confidence.” Note that it doesn’t mean the hope that something is true or the wish that something would be true—those are different ideas. It might reduce some confusion, then, if we just use the word trust when talking about this idea. We use this biblical version of faith, or trust, all the time. Think about the l