The American Christian author Greg Boyd has a new book called Benefit of the Doubt. In it he challenges the common idea of faith that many Christians have been taught. This idea says that the more psychologically certain you are, the greater your faith. If you are less certain, your faith is weaker.

A problem Boyd sees in what he calls “certainty-seeking faith” is that it has led many Christians to incorrectly interpret the doctrine of being “saved by faith” to mean that we’re saved by feeling certain about a set of beliefs. In his opinion, this explains why studies show that the faith of most Americans has little impact on how they live. To a large extent, the same is sadly true of Australia.

A passage used to support certainty-seeking faith is James 1:6-7: “You must believe and not doubt … those who doubt should not think they will receive anything from the Lord”. A problem occurs, though, when we take a passage like this out of context. James, of course, devotes a lot of his letter to faith, his main point being that faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26).

This leads us to Abolitionist Sunday. This year it is being held on Sunday November 24. It will be a day when Christians across Australia come together to raise awareness and take action against the injustice of human trafficking and slavery. There are many Christians who have worked tirelessly for the abolition of slavery. One of them was Charles Finney.

Finney was a fiery revivalist preacher during a time called The Second Great Awakening in the USA in the 19th century. He is known for inventing the altar call, where people come forward to publicly declare their new faith in Christ. But what many people are not aware of is that Finney really invented the altar call to sign people up for the abolitionist movement. For Charles Finney, faith and justice were inseparable.

This year we are calling on Christians around Australia to be ambassadors for the abolitionist cause. Greg Boyd says that real faith cannot but radically affect every area of our life. I pray that this year’s Abolitionist Sunday will bring out the true faith in each of us.

Let us, by our works, show our radical faith in Christ on November 24.

Find out more at http://www.worldvision.com.au/takeaction/AttendEvents/AbolitionistSunday.aspx

Read more about slavery and human trafficking: 

• Who is being exploited so you can wear your favourite label? 
• There’s more to slavery than sex: Salvation Army
• “The devil’s playground”: ministering in the dark streets of Athens