Does Christianity Require a “Leap of Faith?”
“Becoming and remaining a Christian requires a ‘step of faith’ rather than a leap of faith. And that step of faith is not unique to Christianity. Throughout life we do many things that require a step of faith.” - Roger Olson
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Unfortunately, in my experience, very, very few people are willing to have a deeper conversation about these matters. In my experience, anyway, the “I can’t make a leap of faith” argument is a conversation stopper more than a conversation starter. For those who want to know if Christianity is reasonable and requires only a step of faith, not a leap of faith, I recommend Greg Boyd’s book Letters from a Skeptic.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
I remember wanting to jump off the high diving board as a kid. Before I could make that leap I had to make a lot of steps. I even climbed up there and went back down before going back up again and finally jumping. If someone had tried to push me off, I likely would have never went near that board again. We need to give people time and let God work as they take the steps and finally make the plunge.
[Roger Olsen] On the other hand, many devout Christians throughout the centuries have talked about traveling a road of reasonable cognition to Christianity and basing their Christian faith, in part, at least, on evidence and reason.
Christianity is certainly reasonable. In fact, Biblical Christianity is the only reasonable position to take as any other worldview collapses under its own weight of incoherence. However, the evidence for Christianity, which exists within Scripture, takes faith to see. That is what faith is – confidence in the yet unseen fulfillment of the promises and statements of God.
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