In the 1970s sitcom, All in the Family, Archie Bunker said about the biblical account of creation, “It ain’t supposed to make sense; it’s faith. Faith is something you believe that nobody in his right mind would believe.”1
As sad as it is, that is exactly how most people think about faith. Almost everyone agrees you cannot be a Christian without faith. The atheist sees that as a weakness; the Christian knows “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6).2
Both sides agree you cannot follow Christ without faith. But what if I told you the vast majority on both sides get faith wrong?
Let’s open our Bibles together and sort through this surprisingly complicated issue. As we do, we will expose three common lies about faith and then look at three vital truths.
What is it so many get wrong about faith? Put simply: they do not even know what faith is. Many—both atheists and believers—struggle to understand the relationship between knowledge, faith, and evidence. The common view is that knowledge is based on evidence and is certain, while faith is weaker, more doubtful, and less connected to evidence. If that were true, biblical faith would never be equated with knowledge, and it would never be grounded in evidence.
Let’s test that idea.
Lie #1: Faith Has No Evidence
Archie Bunker’s definition of faith reflects a popular idea: biblical faith is irrational. If you believe in God, the resurrection, creation, or any other biblical doctrine, you supposedly do so without evidence. If that were the biblical concept of faith, we would expect Scripture to discourage critical thought and tell us to just accept its teachings “on faith.”
But we find the opposite.
Paul instructed the Thessalonians to “test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). John wrote, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). Both commands assume we should be rational in our beliefs, accepting only what is supported by evidence.
John’s gospel makes this explicit. After recording Jesus’ miracles, he writes:
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
John 20:30–31
John deliberately presents eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ signs so that people would believe based on evidence. So the idea that biblical faith is belief without evidence is not just slightly off. It is flatly unbiblical.
And yet, some go even further…
Lie #2: Faith Defies Evidence
According to this view, faith not only lacks evidence; it flies in the face of evidence. Mark Twain captured this attitude when he quipped, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”3
In this view, there is a mountain of evidence disproving a position, but one stubbornly believes it anyway under the banner of “faith.”
To be fair, the Bible does call us to believe some seemingly incredible accounts. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to Christianity, yet everyday experience tells us that once someone dies, they remain dead. Many scoff, claiming Christian faith is believing something contrary to all the evidence.
But first, notice that this is actually the point. Romans 1:4 says Jesus “was declared to be the Son of God in power… by his resurrection from the dead.” For His resurrection to stand as evidence, it had to be unusual. There must be compelling evidence that people do not normally rise, so that Jesus’ resurrection stands out as unique.
Second, while general experience tells us the dead stay dead, the specific evidence in Jesus’ case is different. In 1 Corinthians 15:4, Paul says that Jesus “was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Likely, Paul has in mind passages like Psalm 16:10: “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” Peter quoted that very verse in Acts 2, then contrasted David’s still-occupied tomb with Jesus’ empty one. The implication was that there was a real tomb with a real missing body.
Then Paul lists extensive eyewitness testimony:
He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
1 Corinthians 15:5–8
For most resurrection claims, the evidence is overwhelmingly against it: the person is still dead. In Jesus’ case, Scripture, an empty tomb, and eyewitnesses all line up to say He rose. Faith in Jesus’ resurrection does not defy the evidence; it follows it.
Still, others say…
Lie #3: Faith Goes Beyond Evidence
This view says evidence will only take you so far. To get the rest of the way, you need a “leap of faith.” Much like Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade, you are told to step out into the chasm with no visible support. According to this view, you can only be certain where you have direct evidence. Anything beyond that belongs to “faith.” To live by faith, then, is to believe what you cannot really know.
If that were true, we would expect Scripture to pit faith and knowledge against each other. But that is not what we see. In John 17:8, Jesus says of His disciples:
I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
John 17:8
When it came to Jesus’ origin, they both knew and believed. Paul echoes this in 2 Timothy 1:12: “I know whom I have believed.” Knowledge and belief are not enemies; they are intertwined.
Consider Theophilus, the original recipient of the New Testament books of Luke and Acts. Luke says he wrote so that Theophilus would “know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed” (Luke 1:4, NKJV). Theophilus had not personally witnessed Jesus’ miracles or sermons. He had “merely” been taught about them. In that sense, we are very much like Theophilus. Yet Luke insists his reader can know with certainty.
According to the Bible, it is possible to know that what you believe is true. Faith does not begin where evidence ends. It rests on evidence. Which leads us to three vital truths.
Truth #1: Faith Is Based on Evidence
You would think if there was anyone in the Bible we should believe “just because” it would be Jesus Christ. And yet, Jesus never asked anyone to believe Him blindly.
A powerful example is found in Mark 2. Four men lowered a paralytic through the roof to Jesus. Before healing him, Jesus said, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). The scribes rightly thought, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Notice what Jesus did not say. He did not say, “You just have to trust me,” or “You just have to accept it on faith that his sins have been forgiven.” Instead, He said:
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
Mark 2:10–12
Jesus performed a visible miracle to prove an invisible claim. He linked forgiveness to evidence.
The basic beliefs of Christianity are like that. We are not handed a list of wild ideas and told, “Believe them because I said so.” We are shown evidence:
- The order of the universe.
- The complexity and design of life.
- Our understanding of morality.
- The unity of Scripture, written by about 40 men over about 1,600 years.
- Scripture’s accurate view of the world and its fulfilled prophecies.
- Jesus’ fulfillment of prophecy, His miracles, and His resurrection on the third day.
God has never expected belief without providing the necessary grounds for that belief.
Truth #2: Faith Becomes Evidence
Now this phrase might sound strange, so let me explain.
Not every single statement from God comes with a brand-new miracle attached. Instead, God provides evidence for Himself and His messengers. Once that trust is established, that faith itself becomes evidence when He makes further promises.
Abraham is a prime example. God promised he would become the father of many nations, even though Abraham was old, Sarah was barren, and everything about their situation screamed, “Impossible.” On that occasion, there was no lightning from heaven, no fresh miracle as a guarantee.
So how could Abraham be so sure?
In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
Romans 4:18–22
By the time God promised Abraham that he would become a father, Abraham knew God. He had walked with Him for years. He had seen God provide, protect, and keep His word again and again. That history with God was all the evidence he needed.
That is exactly what the author of Hebrews means when he writes, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
We have not yet seen the end of the world or the judgement of all mankind. But we know they will happen because we trust the One who said they will. Our faith in God, based on His past faithfulness, becomes evidence to us of His future promises.
Truth #3: Faith Includes Obedience
Many people limit “faith” to mentally agreeing with certain statements: that God exists, that Jesus is the Savior, and so on. That is often what people mean when they talk about “just believing.”
According to Scripture, that is a kind of faith, but it is useless. James calls it “dead” (James 2:14, 26). In that passage, James uses demons as an example. He says they “believe that God is one.” In Mark 1:24, the demons confess Jesus as “the Holy One of God.” They believe and even confess truths many humans deny. But no one would argue they have saving faith.
So here is the challenging question: what separates my faith from the “faith” of the demons? The answer is obedience.
According to the Bible, real faith changes how we live. It produces submission and obedience to the One we trust. A great passage to illustrate this is John 3:36:
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Did you notice the contrast? Jesus sets belief not against unbelief, like we might expect, but against disobedience. In its fullest sense, there is no gap between faith and obedience. If I truly believe Jesus is Lord, I will obey Him. If I stubbornly refuse to obey, whatever I claim, I do not have biblical faith. Like Jesus asked:
Why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and not do what I tell you?
Luke 6:46
So what is faith?
I appreciate Dick Sztanyo’s definition: “Faith is the volitional commitment of an informed intellect.”4 In other words, faith looks at the evidence, is persuaded, and then chooses to commit wholeheartedly to a Person or cause.
That is biblical faith. Until we understand it, both atheists and Christians will continue to get it wrong.
Now, to take your faith further, I recommend digging into our studies on Christian evidences, or our study on how you can obey the gospel today.
- All in the Family, “Mike’s Pains,” season 6, episode 5, written by Lou Derman and Milt Josefsberg, directed by Paul Bogart, aired October 6, 1975, on CBS. ↩︎
- In this study, except where noted, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. ↩︎
- Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World (Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, 1897), 124. ↩︎
- Sztanyo, Dick. Graceful Reason: Studies in Christian Apologetics.( Vienna, WV, Warren Christian Apologetics Center, 2012), 105. ↩︎