Blaise Pascal was a 17th century philosopher and mathematician. One of his most famous works is Pensées ("Thoughts"). In it he posits what is known as "Pascal's Wager." The idea is you can't prove the existence of God through reason alone, so the best option is to believe and live as though He does. If He exists, we're avoiding hell and such, and if He doesn't exist, we really haven't lost anything by living a good, moral life. Therefore, the most rational path is to believe in God.
It's all well and good and a lot of people make this argument based on ... well ... Pascal's Wager. There's just one problem. It isn't biblical. I mean, it doesn't make sense biblically. Consider, for instance, that Scripture says that God has already made His existence known (Rom 1:19-20). This whole pandering to the "we can't know for sure" side is ... a lie. Reason alone does prove the existence of God. It's Man's lack of reason (Jer 17:9) that is the problem. Of course, the other problem is ... well ... the gospel. We aren't saved by believing in God and being good. We're saved by a faith that is supplied by God (Php 1:29; Rom 12:3; etc.). It is a living faith (James 2:17). It isn't attainable by the mind because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God (Rom 8:7). This spiritual concept is not possible for the natural mind (1 Cor 2:14). According to Jesus, it requires being born again by the Spirit (John 3:3-8). Lots of problems.
Jesus warned that being His disciple was costly (Luke 9:57-62; Luke 14:25-33). He said that obedience wasn't produced by hard work, but by loving Him (John 15:23). We are saved by grace through faith, not of works (Eph 2:8-9), but that requires "the power of God" ... something we call "the gospel" (Rom 1:16). It's not a mind trick. It's not a wager. It's possible only by His power (John 15:5).
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