In the words of theologian R.C. Sproul, “We live in a time where we’ve been infected with what’s called fideism, which says, ‘I don’t need to have a reason for what I believe. I just close my eyes like Tiny Alice and take a real deep breath and scrunch up my nose. And if I try hard enough, I can believe. And I jump into the arms of Jesus. I take a blind leap of faith.’”

The problem with this fideism, according to the late pastor and other scholars, is that it makes the claim that faith is detached from reason. To “take a blind leap of faith,” as they say, implies we’re leaping into darkness, uncertainty, or the utter unknown. It’s an open agreement that our faith is empty, and we’re okay with that. But Sproul, with enthusiasm, countered such a notion: “No, no, no. The Bible never tells you to take a leap of faith into the darkness and hope that there’s somebody out there. The Bible calls you to jump out of the darkness and into the light.” This, he emphasized, “is not a blind leap,” for “the faith that the New Testament calls us to is a faith that is rooted and grounded in things” we can be sure of.

Christians can’t afford to embrace a belief system that insists that faith does not require reason. This is antithetical to what Scripture teaches and calls us to. The danger of fideism is twofold, harming both the witness and spiritual well-being of the believer.

1. Fideism hurts our witness.

Many atheists love to argue that Christianity has no grounds of legitimacy — no evidence to back it up. However, quite the opposite is true, and Christians should be the first to point that out. The story of Lee Strobel serves as an example against such common claims. During his pursuit of debunking Christianity as a journalist and self-identified atheist, Strobel found himself overwhelmed with evidence for the existence of God. He became a prolific author of such books as “The Case for Christ” that details the evidence of Christ’s life and the reliability of the scriptures.

The Museum of the Bible, located in Washington, D.C., in part exists to display and bring awareness to a mere fraction of the countless artifacts discovered over time that proves both people and stories in the Bible are anything but fictitious. And for those who claim studying science snuffs out faith, it was Werner Heisenberg, often referred to as the father of quantum physics, who said, “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”

The point to be made by bringing up these examples is that it doesn’t take mental gymnastics to tumble into the case for Christianity. Rather, even from a secular point of view, there’s more than enough objective evidence in science, history, archeology, and more to prove that our faith is not futile, irrational, or a blind leap. Christian’s ought to understand this best, especially when considering it has so much to do with our witness of the gospel of Christ.

During my undergrad, I took several classes with unbelieving professors and peers at a secular university. Some of the professors, in particular, made their opposition to Christianity clear enough for me to feel fairly awkward. What if they find out I’m a Christian? I would ask myself. It’s not that I was scared about getting a bad grade or treated differently, albeit that may have crossed my mind. Really, I was scared to engage in dialogue. I was concerned that if my faith became known by these vocal professors who disagreed with my entire worldview, I would then have to make the case for my faith — one that I didn’t have.

Doubt did not arise as to whether I was a believer or that Jesus was my Lord. But I realized, when confronted with a demographic of people who felt there was no connection between faith and reason, I had no arguments outside of that of emotion to claim otherwise. Here’s the thing: I wasn’t a fideist. I assumed my faith had reason. But what good is that if I can’t spell those reasons out? And when considering my call to be a witness to the truth and reasonableness of the gospel, my faith likely appeared as nothing but a leap into unreasonable darkness.

2. Fideism hurts our spiritual well-being.

Beyond hurting our witness, to believe that faith does not require reason, or to be ignorant of what that reason is, only hurts our spiritual well-being.

To truly believe that faith is a blind leap gives us no assurance or confidence in our salvation. To be unable to answer questions that challenge our beliefs often cause Christians to trickle into doubt themselves. Having a defense for the hope that is in us, as 1 Peter 3:15 discusses, is not just applicable to our conversations with others. It’s unequivocally connected to the strength of our own faith, particularly when met with trials and uncertainty.

When life is fine, we don’t see anything wrong with taking our happy-go-lucky blind leap of faith. It’s not until we’re met with pain, suffering, temptation, anxiety, depression, death, war, and all sorts of vexations and grief that we realize: We must know the hand that soothes our pain. We need to understand the One who gives purpose to suffering. We need to remember our God promised a way out of temptation. When we have a defense for the hope that’s within us, we better (and rightly) rely on that hope to shine brightly when we feel overwhelmed by the darkness of anxiety and depression.

The believer doesn’t have to fear death because our King defeated death on the cross. We know wars have no power over the sovereign God of the universe. When rooted in a faith inseparable from reason, there’s no vexation or worldly grief capable of dragging us off of the Rock of Ages. It was Paul who wrote in Romans 8:38-39 “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Dear Christian, you need to know and understand these truths. You must be equipped, at all times, with the knowledge of God that provides our hope in life and death, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, and the assurance that our faith is never in vain (Philippians 1:20, 4:7; 1 Corinthians 15:14). As I began with the words of R.C. Sproul, so shall I end with them: “The Spirit does not ask people to put their trust and their faith and their affection in nonsense, or in absurdity, or in unsubstantiated truth claims.” No, we’re called to put our faith in the God of truth.

The Parable of the Sower in Luke 8 gives some examples of how people register the gospel message. One hears it and tramples it underfoot. Another hears it, pays attention to it, but falls away when the trials of life or the doubts of unreasonableness choke it out. But the final illustration portrays the seed that “fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.”

The seeds that didn’t last had no root. May we grow firm roots and bear fruit in the unutterably reasonable soil of the truth of the gospel. “I’m not taking a blind leap of faith,” we cry out. “I’m taking a confident leap of faith out of darkness and into light. Out of death and into life. Out of isolation and into the arms of the Father.”