Faith
Trust me, Mrs. Jones, I can cure you, the doctor says dramatically as the poor ailing woman clutches his white smock. I have faith in you, doctor, Mrs. Jones replies before she falls into a coma.
This TV drama has been repeated over and over throughout the last fifty or so years, and before that, such melodramatic scenes were often played out in movies, plays, novels and poetry. Faith is a word that is bandied about so much that it has little meaning to most people. Faith has come to mean a conviction or belief that something will happen, sometimes regardless of how irrational or ironic that belief is (Websters).
Recently I had a conversation with a self-admitted pagan that went like this:
Me: So what happens to you when you die?
Her: Well, I go to the collective spirit that you might call heaven.
Me: Do you know this will happen, or are you just hoping?
Her: No, I believe it will happen.
Me: What is your belief based on?
Her: On faith, just like yours.
Me: But what is your faith based on?
Her: Same thing yours is based on; the belief that my gods and goddesses will embrace me.
Me: Well, what is that based on?
Her: What do you mean?
Me: Is that written down somewhere, or is it just a feeling?
Her: Feelings are reality.
Me: Id want something more than feelings if I were basing my whole life on a hope like that. Do you have anything in writing from your gods?
Her: No. I dont need that. I have faith (Christian Forums)
This is typical of the circular reasoning that most people wrestle with when they think or talk about faith. Faith is a feeling, something insubstantial, based on nothing, an expectation based on an idea, and not on anything verifiable or substantial.
To many people, the word faith really means an desire, a wish (M-W.com) The pagan woman in the above example had pinned her hopes of attaining heaven on a wish, a self-created feeling that her soul will be taken up by gods and goddesses and folded into a universal spirit that she has no evidence even exists.
Other people would say that faith is to believe in something hard enough that it becomes reality. If you have enough faith, you will be healed, people will sometimes say. Even well-meaning, but misinformed, Christians will echo this concept. You can will things into being by the force of your thoughts, they think. This idea comes from a psycho-sociological movement called the Positive Mental Attitude Movement, and its catchphrase is The Power of Positive Thinking. In 5-minutes you can easily create the life you want, the advertisements promise. With promises like Create Wealth, Create Health, and Create Romance, it is clear that this power is supposed to come from within yourself. Harnessing your limitless power through positive thinking is an exercise in faith, faith in yourself to be able to overcome the world, and the things in this world that impede you from achieving whatever you want. And faith in the power of thought to change reality (Creative Living).
But like the pagans faith, when this kind of faith is tested to any real extent, it fails, because people are not unlimited and the power of your thoughts affects only your brain, not the world outside of you. Faith alone doesnt even have any power within your own body. You cant, by thinking positively, even cure a common cold. Telekinesis is a fictional, if highly desired, power.
Other people, even some who might ally themselves with Christianity, say they have faith, but are unable to say what that means. They believe that Christ is the Messiah, they believe that the Bible contains a guide to life, they believe that they will attain heaven based on works or their good deeds outweighing their bad deeds. But beyond that mere assent to these principles, they dont know what they mean when they say they have faith. They have a credence, rather than a faith (M-W.com).
Even some born-again believers have trouble identifying what faith really means.
So what is faith then? If it is not a baseless belief, a desire or a wish, the power of positive thinking, or a credence, what is it?
The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible says faith is not merely assent to a statement, but assent united with trust in the one who made the statement. It is the difference between these two statements, I believe you, and I believe in you. Belief is the assent illustrated in the first statement. It is a statement of assent to the veracity of the person. You believe that he/she is telling the truth.
Faith is more than that; it is the assent and trust illustrated in the second statement.
It is a statement not only of assent to the veracity of the person, but in the ability of the person to perform the promised action. You believe that they are able to do what they said. To believe someone, you only have to accept that their character will cause them to tell the truth.
To have faith in someone, you have to accept that, plus that their character will cause them to complete their promise. The first is a present-tense action, the second is a present tense action and a future tense action. Faith requires not only a statement, but a promise of future action. It is an expectation as well as a conviction. For the Christian, it is absolute confidence in the truthfulness of every statement which comes from God. (Davis, pp180-181).
Essig defines Christian faith as the unqualified assent to the truths of God, either revealed or concealed. This reiterates the concept that true faith must be based on a person (or being) whose character is worthy of trust. Faith is an issue then, not only of the will, or desire, but of the character of the one in whom ones faith is placed. The pagan woman, whose religion is based on oral tradition and individual feelings, is hoping on the character of gods and goddesses whose character is unknown, and thus true faith is impossible. Her faith is placed in beings who, if they exist, have characters which are a matter of hearsay and conjecture. Her gods and goddesses have been fashioned on oral tradition and individual thought and feeling, and not on actual observations of their character or even on ancient texts. No one has ever seen her gods, no one has ever experienced her gods, no one has ever heard the voice of her gods (Jeremiah 10), and most importantly, no one has ever received a promise or seen the fulfillment of a promise from any god, (Isaiah 36).
What she has is pretension, the desire to believe in something that is untested or untestable.
Christians find their security in God as revealed in the Bible, in nature and in Jesus Christ (Baker). This is very different from the pagans faith, in that it is based on observable character, not on hopefulness and conjecture.
We can read for ourselves what God has promised, and how he has behaved in the past. We can hear and read testimonies from people who have experienced Gods character, and we can see in nature Gods character revealed. Actually experience God in the here-and-now through the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5, 14:7, 15:13, 2 Corinthians 6:6, etc.).
Therefore, our faith is true faith. It is assent to the truthfulness of God, and to the trustworthiness of a being whose character can be experienced and observed.
Works Cited
Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, Mass., 1989.
Merriam-Webster Online, Merriam-Webster Inc., http://www.m-w.com/, 2002.
Loh, Erwin, Christian Forums, www.christianforums.com, Sydney, 2002.
Creative Living, Discover The Secrets To Creating Success And Happiness, http://www.creativelivinginc.com/, New York, 2001.
Davis, John D., The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1944.
Essig, Montgomery F., The Comprehensive Analysis of the Bible, Southwestern Company, Nashville, 1922.
Bakers Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, http://bible.crosswalk.com/Dictionaries/BakersEvangelicalDictionary/bed.cgi, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, 1996.
All scripture references are from Gods Word, World Publishing Inc., Cleveland, 1995. Used by permission.
Trust me, Mrs. Jones, I can cure you, the doctor says dramatically as the poor ailing woman clutches his white smock. I have faith in you, doctor, Mrs. Jones replies before she falls into a coma.
This TV drama has been repeated over and over throughout the last fifty or so years, and before that, such melodramatic scenes were often played out in movies, plays, novels and poetry. Faith is a word that is bandied about so much that it has little meaning to most people. Faith has come to mean a conviction or belief that something will happen, sometimes regardless of how irrational or ironic that belief is (Websters).
Recently I had a conversation with a self-admitted pagan that went like this:
Me: So what happens to you when you die?
Her: Well, I go to the collective spirit that you might call heaven.
Me: Do you know this will happen, or are you just hoping?
Her: No, I believe it will happen.
Me: What is your belief based on?
Her: On faith, just like yours.
Me: But what is your faith based on?
Her: Same thing yours is based on; the belief that my gods and goddesses will embrace me.
Me: Well, what is that based on?
Her: What do you mean?
Me: Is that written down somewhere, or is it just a feeling?
Her: Feelings are reality.
Me: Id want something more than feelings if I were basing my whole life on a hope like that. Do you have anything in writing from your gods?
Her: No. I dont need that. I have faith (Christian Forums)
This is typical of the circular reasoning that most people wrestle with when they think or talk about faith. Faith is a feeling, something insubstantial, based on nothing, an expectation based on an idea, and not on anything verifiable or substantial.
To many people, the word faith really means an desire, a wish (M-W.com) The pagan woman in the above example had pinned her hopes of attaining heaven on a wish, a self-created feeling that her soul will be taken up by gods and goddesses and folded into a universal spirit that she has no evidence even exists.
Other people would say that faith is to believe in something hard enough that it becomes reality. If you have enough faith, you will be healed, people will sometimes say. Even well-meaning, but misinformed, Christians will echo this concept. You can will things into being by the force of your thoughts, they think. This idea comes from a psycho-sociological movement called the Positive Mental Attitude Movement, and its catchphrase is The Power of Positive Thinking. In 5-minutes you can easily create the life you want, the advertisements promise. With promises like Create Wealth, Create Health, and Create Romance, it is clear that this power is supposed to come from within yourself. Harnessing your limitless power through positive thinking is an exercise in faith, faith in yourself to be able to overcome the world, and the things in this world that impede you from achieving whatever you want. And faith in the power of thought to change reality (Creative Living).
But like the pagans faith, when this kind of faith is tested to any real extent, it fails, because people are not unlimited and the power of your thoughts affects only your brain, not the world outside of you. Faith alone doesnt even have any power within your own body. You cant, by thinking positively, even cure a common cold. Telekinesis is a fictional, if highly desired, power.
Other people, even some who might ally themselves with Christianity, say they have faith, but are unable to say what that means. They believe that Christ is the Messiah, they believe that the Bible contains a guide to life, they believe that they will attain heaven based on works or their good deeds outweighing their bad deeds. But beyond that mere assent to these principles, they dont know what they mean when they say they have faith. They have a credence, rather than a faith (M-W.com).
Even some born-again believers have trouble identifying what faith really means.
So what is faith then? If it is not a baseless belief, a desire or a wish, the power of positive thinking, or a credence, what is it?
The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible says faith is not merely assent to a statement, but assent united with trust in the one who made the statement. It is the difference between these two statements, I believe you, and I believe in you. Belief is the assent illustrated in the first statement. It is a statement of assent to the veracity of the person. You believe that he/she is telling the truth.
Faith is more than that; it is the assent and trust illustrated in the second statement.
It is a statement not only of assent to the veracity of the person, but in the ability of the person to perform the promised action. You believe that they are able to do what they said. To believe someone, you only have to accept that their character will cause them to tell the truth.
To have faith in someone, you have to accept that, plus that their character will cause them to complete their promise. The first is a present-tense action, the second is a present tense action and a future tense action. Faith requires not only a statement, but a promise of future action. It is an expectation as well as a conviction. For the Christian, it is absolute confidence in the truthfulness of every statement which comes from God. (Davis, pp180-181).
Essig defines Christian faith as the unqualified assent to the truths of God, either revealed or concealed. This reiterates the concept that true faith must be based on a person (or being) whose character is worthy of trust. Faith is an issue then, not only of the will, or desire, but of the character of the one in whom ones faith is placed. The pagan woman, whose religion is based on oral tradition and individual feelings, is hoping on the character of gods and goddesses whose character is unknown, and thus true faith is impossible. Her faith is placed in beings who, if they exist, have characters which are a matter of hearsay and conjecture. Her gods and goddesses have been fashioned on oral tradition and individual thought and feeling, and not on actual observations of their character or even on ancient texts. No one has ever seen her gods, no one has ever experienced her gods, no one has ever heard the voice of her gods (Jeremiah 10), and most importantly, no one has ever received a promise or seen the fulfillment of a promise from any god, (Isaiah 36).
What she has is pretension, the desire to believe in something that is untested or untestable.
Christians find their security in God as revealed in the Bible, in nature and in Jesus Christ (Baker). This is very different from the pagans faith, in that it is based on observable character, not on hopefulness and conjecture.
We can read for ourselves what God has promised, and how he has behaved in the past. We can hear and read testimonies from people who have experienced Gods character, and we can see in nature Gods character revealed. Actually experience God in the here-and-now through the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5, 14:7, 15:13, 2 Corinthians 6:6, etc.).
Therefore, our faith is true faith. It is assent to the truthfulness of God, and to the trustworthiness of a being whose character can be experienced and observed.
Works Cited
Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, Mass., 1989.
Merriam-Webster Online, Merriam-Webster Inc., http://www.m-w.com/, 2002.
Loh, Erwin, Christian Forums, www.christianforums.com, Sydney, 2002.
Creative Living, Discover The Secrets To Creating Success And Happiness, http://www.creativelivinginc.com/, New York, 2001.
Davis, John D., The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1944.
Essig, Montgomery F., The Comprehensive Analysis of the Bible, Southwestern Company, Nashville, 1922.
Bakers Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, http://bible.crosswalk.com/Dictionaries/BakersEvangelicalDictionary/bed.cgi, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, 1996.
All scripture references are from Gods Word, World Publishing Inc., Cleveland, 1995. Used by permission.
