What is faith?

Hebrews 11
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

arunangelo said:

What is faith (In God)?
Since God is love, to have faith in God, is to have complete trust in the unconditional love Jesus expressed for us on the cross. It is also to believe that through love, we can conquer every evil in the world. Since, love is a force; it is always expressed through actions. Therefore, when we have faith in God, we will forgo our own interest, in order to serve those who have hurt and betrayed us. If we claim to have faith, but do not put it into action. our faith is not alive (James 2:17). On the other hand, if we put our faith into action, it will set our heart on fire; and make our faith grow. It will then propel us to go out of our way and spend every moment of our life to serve God by serving others, including our enemies. In this effort we will count no cost, expect no reward and accept any discomfort or peril that comes our way. Then, even if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, it will grow mighty enough to move mountains (Luke 17:6).

To have faith in God, is also to know, that His love is the only solution to the problems in our life. We will, therefore, not resort to lawsuits or violence to solve our problem. Instead, we will use pure love to solve our problems. We will, therefore, help those who hurt us, give them more than what they are ask for, pray for them and not retaliate against them.

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"Faith" is synonymous with "trust", "loyalty", "reliability", and "dependability", and is in regard to acting in a way that expresses our trust in God to keep His promises and to guide us in how to rightly live through His law.

CharismaticLady said:

Hebrews 11
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

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Your second reference is the answer to debates with evolutionists and atheists about how the universe came into existence. We base our faith on God's Word that He created it all in seven days. Because evolutionists and atheists don't have the same perception of faith that converted Christian have, they see that just having faith in what God said about the creation of the universe is ridiculous. This is in keeping with what Paul said about the Jews seeing faith in Christ as an offence, and to the Greeks, foolishness. This is why secular scientists who believe in evolution, and atheists who deny the existence of God believe that faith in what the Bible says, is ridiculous and foolish. They have a "Greek" mind-set about these things.

But we must be careful to base our faith on the written Scriptures. They are God's complete communication to mankind, and are totally true. The Scripture says, "Let God be true, and every man (by comparison) a liar." and, "God cannot lie." God's Word is not true just because we believe that it is true. That comes from pagan philosophy that says that only the things we believe to be true are actually true. God's Word is objectively true in itself, whether we believe it to be true or not. Therefore, faith in God's Word is faith in the truth that is there and was always true before we started to believe and trust in it.

We must be careful that we base our faith in the God of the Bible, and the Jesus of the gospels. Some make the mistake of basing their faith in a God made up of their own imagination, and a Jesus they have constructed for themselves, maybe based on art pictures, or false teaching about Him. The Scripture says that many false Christs will arise in the last days.

arunangelo said:

What is faith (In God)?
Since God is love, to have faith in God, is to have complete trust in the unconditional love Jesus expressed for us on the cross. It is also to believe that through love, we can conquer every evil in the world. Since, love is a force; it is always expressed through actions. Therefore, when we have faith in God, we will forgo our own interest, in order to serve those who have hurt and betrayed us. If we claim to have faith, but do not put it into action. our faith is not alive (James 2:17). On the other hand, if we put our faith into action, it will set our heart on fire; and make our faith grow. It will then propel us to go out of our way and spend every moment of our life to serve God by serving others, including our enemies. In this effort we will count no cost, expect no reward and accept any discomfort or peril that comes our way. Then, even if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, it will grow mighty enough to move mountains (Luke 17:6).

To have faith in God, is also to know, that His love is the only solution to the problems in our life. We will, therefore, not resort to lawsuits or violence to solve our problem. Instead, we will use pure love to solve our problems. We will, therefore, help those who hurt us, give them more than what they are ask for, pray for them and not retaliate against them.

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As it says in Romans 12:3, God gives each one of us a measure of faith.

Question: "What is faith in God?"

Answer: Faith in God is trust in Him, based on a true understanding of who He is, as revealed in the Bible. Faith in God involves an intellectual assent to the facts concerning God and a life-changing reliance on those facts.

Faith in God has several components. The first is believing that He actually exists. However, simply believing that God exists is not enough. As James 2:19 explains, the demons believe in God’s existence as well.

After acknowledging that God exists, the second element of faith in God is commitment. Faith that does not result action is a dead faith, not true faith (James 1:26).

However, even a faith in God that motivates us to action is not enough. For faith in God to be genuine, we must accept Him as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. We are not allowed to accept the attributes of God that we prefer and jettison the ones we don’t. If we do not accept God as He is, then we are putting our faith in a false god of our own making. Much “religion” does exactly this, but any religion not based on the Bible is a designer religion with a designer god. For faith in God to be genuine, it must be based on the genuine God. For example, the God of the Bible is triune, so true faith in God must accept the deity and personality of the Son and the Holy Spirit as well as the Father.

There is much confusion today over the nature of faith. It is reported that, when asked to define faith, a little boy in Sunday school responded, “Believing what you know isn’t true.” Many of the “new atheists” place faith over against science and evidence. They say that Christians have faith that God exists but that atheists have empirical evidence for science. Christians have faith, but scientists have knowledge. This comparison misunderstands the nature of faith in God.

Faith in God is not a blind leap without any evidence or, even worse, contrary to the evidence. Faith is simply trust. The Christian trusts in God. The scientific atheist has faith in science. If an atheist uses the scientific method to discover a medicine and then takes that medicine, he is exercising faith. He trusts his data, and he trusts that the medicine will cure him, not poison him. Some people may take the medicine with no thought whatsoever as to how it was developed or as to who prepared it. Others may only take the medicine after thoroughly investigating every aspect of the research. One person may take it with great confidence while another person takes it tentatively. In the final analysis, anyone who takes the medicine is exercising faith in the medicine. Ultimately, it is not the strength of the faith that determines if the medicine will work, but the efficacy of the medicine. Great faith in bad medicine will not cure a person. It is the object of faith, not the strength of faith that makes the difference. Uncertainty about a good medicine will not hinder its efficacy, as long as it is taken as prescribed. Faith is not the opposite of doubt; in fact, doubt can exist even in the heart of faith (see Mark 9:24). A person can exercise faith (trust and commitment) while at the same time being unsure about the thing or person he has committed himself to. Someone once defined doubt as “faith seeking understanding.”

Some people may simply trust God because it seems intuitive. They may have been raised in a Christian home and taught the Bible from their earliest remembrance. They have seen God work in the lives of other people, and they simply trust Him. Others may only have come to faith after a thorough examination of the evidence for God. Whether the decision to trust the God of the Bible is intuitive or deliberative, it is the mark of genuine faith.

The atheist likewise may come to his atheism by intuition or after careful deliberation. In the end, he has faith that God does not exist because he trusts either his instincts or his investigation and commits himself to live in a way that is consistent with his beliefs. Contrary to the claims of the new atheists, everyone has some kind of faith—everyone trusts something. It is impossible to live without trusting in something, even if it is only in the reliability of our five senses. The object of our faith is what makes all the difference.

www.gotquestions.org/faith-in-God.html

It is relatively simple to prove that the Bible is totally true and that God is who He says He is.
"I [Jesus]have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe" (John 14:29).
"'Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming And the events that are going to take place" (Isaiah 44:7).
"Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy." (Daniel 2:45).

What God has done is to tell beforehand what was going to happen, and then He made sure that the events came to pass as He said He would. He did it this way so that when what He foretold came to pass, it would be made clear that He is the Living God and there is no other like Him.

Jesus predicted future events and said that when they come to pass, they would believe in Him.

The prophecy of Daniel about the emergence of the different empires - Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman, came to pass as he said they would. And it is interesting that the two legs of the image in his vision stood for the Roman Empire. How could he know that at one stage in the Roman Empire that it would be split into two sections - the western ruled with Constantine's caretaker leader from Rome, and the eastern ruled from Constantinople by Constantine himself?

The detail of the prophecies and their fulfilment hundreds of years later is remarkable. The Bible is the only religious book that is prophetic in that way, where prophecies were giving in detail, and then fulfilled in exactly the same detail.

arunangelo said:

What is faith (In God)?...

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I would say it comes from word faithfulness, which means loyalty. People should be loyal to God, as I think this shows:

But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
Hebrews 10:38