There is an eloquent and well stated position that is held by some Christian Theologians, which defends the belief that Christian faith will be strengthened by some sort of support from secular findings, Archeology, or a scholarly and well worded presentation. I don't believe this position has any biblical foundation. But please don't get me wrong. I don't argue that we shouldn't make intelligent retort. Rather, I argue that this line of thought "assumes" that man's eloquent speech, higher education, or tangible evidence is the power at work. But our ability to convince one of the validity of our findings, is really in the hands of God, not men. The Theologian's persuasive power is not from Him, but from the Spirit which dwells within the one hearing him. The Evangelist himself is nothing but the vessel or the tool which God uses. In our vanity and ego what we sometimes lose sight of is that the actual convincing of man, and the establishing of faith is not accomplished by anything man does, but by the working of the Holy Spirit of God. Since God is not thundering from the Mountain today and talking with man face to face, He uses men to bear witness to His Word! By our bringing His word "faithfully" others hear, and faith comes by that hearing through the working of the Spirit. It is not because we were presenting it with the greatest debating skills, or gracious tones, or with the most intellectual or scholarly words, it is because God through His spirit is convicting that person. Not by our words, but by His Words! I disagree with the widely held view that giving people (so called) tangible evidence like historical secular documents, Archaeology, or intellectual reasoning will bring any person to faith, or even strengthen their faith. If a Christian needs secular evidence to strengthen his faith, then there is something spiritually wrong with him from the start.

Even if one were to say, God can use these things to bring about faith (which is true), it doesn't validate the belief that God does. In other words, the fact that God used a donkey to prophesy once, does not mean this is what we should expect. Or the fact that God used an evil High Priest who wanted to Kill Jesus to Prophecy that one must die that the nation might live, doesn't illustrate that we can expect wicked priests to prophesy truth normally.

We need to first define terms. There is "true" faith (Given by God), the hope of all true believers. And then there is blind or hopeless faith, which will never Save anyone. The faith given by God is accompanied by the Holy Spirit of God. The man without this Holy Spirit of God may have faith, but his faith is dead faith without that Spirit of Life. For example, the "Crazed Religious Fanatic" who thinks that if he drives a truck load of explosives into a crowded building, he'll go to the happy sky palace, He surely has faith that what he believes is true. But that is blind faith. The works of his faith bears stark witness that it is dead and without the Spirit of Life. But true faith brings forth works which is the evidence in our life that it is the faith of God. That's why we read:

    James 2:20

• "But wilt thou know then, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?"

    James 2:26

• "For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

The body without the Spirit is dead, and likewise, body without the Holy Spirit is dead. It hasn't been raised unto new Life in Christ! Anyone who does not have the Spirit of God, will not have true faith that will bring about good works because they have the body without the Spirit. Any faith they have will be without good works. Any good they do will be as filthy rags to God. It will be dead faith, the faith without the Spirit. Good works are not the reason for the Salvation of faith, rather it's the evidence of it.

Faith never requires the support of worldly or humanistic reasoning, or man's logic. Not real faith at least. Man's reasoning says, "water can't be instantly turned into the finest wine!" But faith says, "..it could, and WAS!" Man's reasoning says, "the red sea could NEVER stand up like a wall, and have a path of dry ground across it where Israel walked through." But real faith says, "..It both could, and it DID!" These Theologians who teach this need to step back and understand the truth in the fact that true Christians don't need to find the Egyptians bones at the bottom of the Red sea in order to believe they were drowned there. Why not? Because we're Christian, and Christians live by Faith, not by sight. Not by blind faith, but by the faith that only God can give. The wide open eyes, the wide open ears, where we are those who can see more clearly, and hear things that natural man cannot! We don't we need any more evidence than we already have in the scriptures, because our faith is" our Evidence! God works within "us" to confirm these things, not within proper pronunciation.

    Hebrews 11:1

• "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the Evidence of things not seen."

We don't need to have secular historical evidence of anything. We don't need any scientific evidence of anything. We don't need Christian paleontologists to convince us that the world was created in 6 days. We have something far more reliable. How do we know the city of Jericho was there? By Faith! How do we know God created the Heavens and the earth? By faith! How do we know that the world was not created by evolution as it may seem? By faith! And we needed no scientist to convince us of that by their (supposed) scientific data. We had something far more reliable. The Word of God.

    Hebrews 11:3

• "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the WORD OF GOD, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

That's what God says. To man, it may "appear" that it was done one way, but by faith we (true Christians) know it was done as God says! It may appear Adam was 25 years old, but God created him that way in one day. It may have appeared that the wine Mary requested for the wedding was aged for years as the finest wine would be, but the Lord created it instantly, appearances notwithstanding.

Again, let me emphasize, I'm not saying Christian creationists and scientists are not good (I read them myself), what I am saying is that they are good for a defense of the truths that science has been misused and misapplied and evolutionists' theories are warped, biased and false. But they are not good to "prove" scripture. That is done by the Holy Spirit.

Man thinks we need to get historical proof to show people that God's Word is true that He did all the things His Word bears witness of. But God says, it's by Faith we know these things. The verses of Hebrews 11:1-3 is telling us faith is substance, and it is our evidence. It's not pretend evidence or circumstantial, it's substantive evidence. So while things may look like they were made another way, it is by the faith of Christ that we understand God did it simply by "..His Word!" Faith is the Substance of what we hope for.

In a related issue, I had a discussion with some (perhaps well meaning) Christians who claimed that the world must be at least millions of years old. No, they are listening to secular authorities and not God's Word. That verse of Hebrews chapter 11 is saying, it may "appear" so, but in reality, the worlds were framed simply "by the word of God". In other words, He simply said, let there be light, and there was light. Simply by His Word! And God didn't sit back waiting a billion years for that light to reach earth either. God is not subject to the laws of what is and is not possible! He's God! Miracles are the violation of laws God instituted for us, not for Him! God simply said let there be, and there was! How do I know that when scientists say it's impossible, and insist that the world is billions of years old? ..By Faith! Not by attempting to prove light can be established instantly from billions of light years away.

Again, a fellow told me that the Church is a trustworthy authority in matters of faith (Infallible is the actual word that he used). But the scriptures themselves tell us that this simply cannot be. Our Lord Warned the Churches dramatically and without mincing words in Revelation chapter 2 and 3. The Church wasn't always trustworthy and doing the right things. And far from being an infallible authority, it had gone away from it's authority, and God Himself warned it that it would be moved out of it's place, if it didn't repent and remember from whence it had fallen. Strong words for God to give to a (supposed) infallible Church wouldn't you say? Where was the infallible teacher in these Churches? The only answer is, he wasn't there unless we identify Him as "the Holy Spirit!" Leaders trustworthy? No Way! And unless they repented, that Church would be removed, by God. No way God would Remove an infallible Church. Therefore, by the word of God we see that the Church was never infallible. And God warned it, and said to us "..Hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches!" But to this day, there are those who refuse to hear. The point is, the Word of God is all the proof that the true Child of God needs. Having faith in the Word is having faith in God. But putting faith in leaders, man, secular history, science, archaeology, etc., this is not faith whereof we can test doctrines. That is blind faith, for no word is totally trustworthy, regardless of how faithful a man is. The Only totally trustworthy Word, is God's Word. When your faith is grounded in this Word, you have real Faith. Your house is built upon solid foundation.

So while these views of Faith coming from Historical evidence, Church, a well structured sermon, worldly logic, archaeology, man, etc., may be well stated and sound good, they are not Biblical. The Faith it takes is the faith God gives us by His word. Any attempt to put it in Man, or Archaeology, Historical proofs, scientific findings, Church leaders, etc., will usually end up with contradictions. That's because man is usually (naturally) at enmity with God, and even Saved man is at war in the flesh. By Faith we know the Bible is true and that God will provide "ALL" the hope we need. And by Faith we know that God's Word is far above any word uttered by any man. We don't get our faith from digs in the middle east, we get it from the Spirit of God, through His Word. We find it just where God Himself said it would be,

    Romans 10:17

• "... Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing, by the word of GOD."