Faith and Knowledge
	Skeptics and unbelievers of various stripes like to ridicule faith & those who have faith. They claim that faith is believing something even though you know it isn’t true. Is that really what faith is? Do you have to unplug your brain to have faith in God? I’ve heard even brethren say that faith and knowledge are incompatible – that if you actually know something, then you no longer have faith. I want us to see that faith and knowledge are like two peas in a pod. Faith is not a big question mark – to the contrary, it is an exclamation point! Faith is not a leap in the dark, but a walk in the light.
	In the first place, let’s put a definition on faith that is in keeping with Scripture. Faith isn’t blind acceptance of someone or something with no logical reason behind it. Heb. 11:1 says faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That word evidence carries within it the idea of proof, not just accepting something blindly. Just because something isn’t visible to the human eye doesn’t mean we can’t know with certainty that it exists. And, by the way, faith goes well beyond the mere acceptance of something or someone as existing – it is the placing of your confident trust in that something or someone (in this case, God). In short, you can know not only that God exists, but that He is worthy of your confident trust an obedience. Let’s see several examples from Scripture where knowledge and faith are used together:
	John 4:42 – Jesus had encountered the Samaritan woman at the well. She had gone back to town & told everyone about Jesus. The Samaritans had come back out to Jesus & urged Him to stay w/ them, which He did for two whole days. V. 41 says many believed because of Jesus’ own words. Then v. 42 says, “Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him, and we know that this is, indeed, the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
	John 17:8 “For I have given to them the words wh/ You have given to Me; and they have rec’d. them, & have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.”
	1 Tim. 4:3 “forbidding to marry, & commanding to abstain from foods wh/ God created to be rec’d. w/ thanksgiving by those who believe & know the truth.”
	1 John 4:16 “And we have known & believed the love that God has for us.”
	Biblical faith and knowledge are not contrary to each other, but are perfectly compatible. You can know with confidence that God exists and that the Bible is His word. And you can put your loving, obedient trust in Him with full confidence that He is worthy of your trust and that He will keep His word.
		--Joe Slater (Justin, TX)