Help needed! What is Faith?

[SonOfSophroniscus]

That's what I was thinking brother. Yet I cannot help but think that a person who has rejected the Christian faith [but was always rational, one of the 'free thinkers'] bangs his head, and becomes a fervent Christian for the rest of his life because of this accident whilst conforming to your criteria, can be considered to have Faith.

Faith is not obedience. Faith is accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace. This is true faith by which a believer receives the righteousness of Christ, and in which he continues his whole life. Faith necessarily results in obedience, but it is not obedience. To confuse faith and obedience, especially in the act of justification, is a deadly confusion of law and gospel.

 

[SonOfSophroniscus]

I heard this before, that Faith is evidence of things that are not seen. Yet if a person is not possessed of faith, it follows that this is evidence of the things that are. But this is absurd, we need no evidence for the things of which God has created. Even if we did, it would seem that all people who believe God created the earth as it is would have faith and not have faith.

I think faith is what Hebrews 11:1 say it is but on same time to have knowledge about things Proverbs 2:3 - 5, John 17:3 talks about to know someone.The greek words mean to have knowledge about that person (know this person deep)

 

[BigNorsk]

I would probably define faith as a belief strong enough that you trust it.

Marv

 

[IamAdopted]

"A confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, and idea, or a thing. A belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. Theology: a secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God's will."
The saving faith and the faith to believe in God comes only from God!

"It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." - [Ephesians 2:8]

Faith is a "gift" of God. But how do we get the gift?

"Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." [Romans 10:17]

We receive the "gift" of faith as we listen to the words of Christ, which is simply reading and studying the Bible, and listening to sermons about Christ. Christ is the Living Word of God, and our faith comes from the studying and understanding of the Bible.

 

[phoenixgw]

I recall reading in a book called The Kneeling Christian (Zondervan - author unknown) of how an American missionary in China struggled with the idea of communicating faith to his audience.

To illustrate faith, the missionary placed a full glass of water on a table and began to forcefully bang on the table with his fist. Water splashed all over the place as the table shook.

After this disturbing display, the missionary held up the glass for all to see, which contained a small amount of water. Pointing to the water in the glass, the missionary said, "That is faith."

"In this (hope) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Peter 1:6,7 NIV).

To illustrate the concepts of faith & hope together, one might picture the horizon that we sail for (faith), with hope being what lies beyond the horizon.

I will leave it to the reader to ponder where love fits into all of this.

 

[Paleoconservatarian]

Incorrect. And I will show you precisely why if you are prepared to answer questions.

This thread is about the definition of faith.

Please describe how you go about doing this faith. What do you do? Trust that some things about Jesus are in fact true? How do you go about this "accepting?" How do you go about this "receiving?" How doyou about this "resting?" These words are meaningless "sounds good" words unless you qualify your response.

But don't you see, the point is not that you do anything to get the benefits of Christ. Faith believes the promise, that remission of sin and everlasting righteousness are freely given by God, merely of His grace, and only for the sake of Christ's merits. You don't go about doing faith. Faith is a sure knowledge and a wholehearted trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And even these are not your doing, but they are given by the Holy Spirit.

It is natural for man to want to do something, of himself, in order to receive eternal life. But that isn't the way God works. Our salvation only by the grace of God, received only through faith and not any of our effort. Of course we aren't satisfied with the answer, "accept, rest, receive," because we're proud sinners. But we can't climb up to God to take His gifts. He must come down to us to bestow them.

 

[Paleoconservatarian]

That's what I was thinking brother. Yet I cannot help but think that a person who has rejected the Christian faith [but was always rational, one of the 'free thinkers'] bangs his head, and becomes a fervent Christian for the rest of his life because of this accident whilst conforming to your criteria, can be considered to have Faith.

Why is this a problem?

 

[Optimax]

Scriptural faith is believing what God said and acting on it or acting like it is true.

 

[childofGod31]

Faith is - believing that something is true even though you don't have any proof that it is so.

Faith is a feeling, like "confidence" is a feeling, like
"premonition" is a feeling.

"faithful" means loyal. In this case, loyal to God, will stand by him no matter what. Will not reject Christ, even at a price of death. Will believe God's promises even though things seem dark. Believing that God will do what He promised even though it doesn't appear as though it's going to be ok.

 

[Beasley]

One thing not always observed about the word 'faith' as it is used in the Bible is that sometimes it is a noun and sometimes it is a verb in the Greek.

Faith as a verb is the exercise of a means of perception, as are rationalism and empiricism. Both of which are dependent on mans ability, either to think or to experience. Both are variable individual to individual. On the other hand, faith is dependent on the merit of the object and is inherent in all humans. Faith is one of the most elementary ways humans learn. The parent tells the child that grass is green and the child believes grass is green because it trusts the parent. For example, almost all higher math is learned on faith based on the academic integrity of a teacher or academic authority. Faith is only as valid as the integrity of the object.

I know a woman that worships statues of elephants, but they are not able to deliver any accurate truth by which to live.

Faith as a verb, as an act, in the Bible is most often equated with other non-meritorious human functions such as eating, drinking, seeing and hearing. There is no merit in the ability to perceive through hearing or seeing. It is a God given function, which when exercised provides some benefit to the subject. It is the same with eating or drinking. A person is not 'good' because they eat. Their body metabolizes food, providing them with the energy necessary to function.

The believer studies or takes in the Word and it (along with the Spirit) is the energy source for spiritual function.

"16Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;" Jer. 15

In the Bible God presents a body of precepts that if executed produce results. He is able to deliver on what he promises, statues of elephants are not. When the believer learns and uses the promises of God and sees that they work and experiences the results his faith in God's ability to deliver is reinforced and he develops more and more confidence in God's system of thinking. This confidence is hope and 'hope does not disappoint'. The word is 'elpis' or confident expectation.

3seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet 1

Faith when used as a noun is most often that body of precepts one claims to believe. For example, in James 2 a body of precepts without works is dead or useless. James 2 is one of the most abused passages in Scripture because people fail to realize that it is a noun and not a verb.

 

[SonOfSophroniscus]

Is that was faith is?

Mk 4:23
If any man have ears to hear , let him hear.

KJV

 

[TruthMiner]

In the original Greek, there are not 3 words like we have in English:

Faith - noun
Belief - noun
Believe - verb

There are only TWO, a noun and a verb, pistis and pisteuo.

A common problem with English speaking people is distinguishing between faith and belief and in English the word "faith" has a different spin on it than belief. In the original Greek of the Bible THERE IS NO SUCH DISTINCTION.

In the Bible:

Faith is an obedient response to truth.
Belief is an obedient response to truth
Believing is obediently responding to the truth.

Our Truth is not a concept or set of concepts. Our Truth is a person - the Christ.

Jesus Christ, the person himself, is God's Word to us and dwells in us.

Christian Faith is an obedient response to Christ our Truth from God.

Faithfulness is maintaining that relationship.

 

[Sojourner<><]

I think faith is almost unbelievably simple. It's trust that requires an object to focus on. The object of faith is evidence of something that has been tried and proven for a believer, whether that is God's character or God's promises. It's dynamic, it's practical and it comes very naturally to us.

 

[TruthMiner]

I think faith is almost unbelievably simple. It's trust that requires an object to focus on. The object of faith is evidence of something that has been tried and proven for a believer, whether that is God's character or God's promises. It's dynamic, it's practical and it comes very naturally to us.

What is your object?

And how do you go about doing that trusting?

 

[Sojourner<><]

What is your object?

And how do you go about doing that trusting?

It depends on the situation. When I get into my car I have faith that it's going to get me to where I need to go, but I wouldn't have any faith in that car unless I had the experience to know that it is trustworthy. Same goes for my salvation: I have enough experience at the foot of the cross to know Christ died for my sins.

 

[billwald]

>Faith is - believing that something is true even though you don't have any proof that it is so.

In other words, metaphysical, anecdotal. Belief and faith are from the same root. "Believed in because of faith" is a tautology because it means the same as "had faith in because of belief," whatever they both mean.

 

[billwald]

>It's trust that requires an object to focus on.

Please describe a trust that doesn't require an object to focus on.

 

[SonOfSophroniscus]

As luck would have it, I was thinking about this the other day - The process of placing faith in a thing simply because of experience when there is no rational justification for doing so. If you explained to a person that this was completely irrational, they would most likely argue that no, it's not unjustified because placing faith in experience has worked up till now. Which is eminently circular.

It depends on the situation. When I get into my car I have faith that it's going to get me to where I need to go, but I wouldn't have any faith in that car unless I had the experience to know that it is trustworthy. Same goes for my salvation: I have enough experience at the foot of the cross to know Christ died for my sins.

 

[SonOfSophroniscus]

This is yet another fine answer, let us see if you know what faith is, and thus are able to tell whether a thing possesses it or not.

Faith is an obedient response to truth.
Belief is an obedient response to truth
Believing is obediently responding to the truth.

Of course, we believe true things because they are necessarily true. Yet as I earlier remarked, the thing in the universe with possession of every possible truth is God. Now, if we were to approach a thing and ask to whom it was servile, the more things to which it is obedient necessarily increases its servility. By this, it would seem that an all-powerful being is the most servile in the universe (which he created). This cannot be right :o

Our Truth is not a concept or set of concepts. Our Truth is a person - the Christ.

This is a funny thing, because the things told to us by Jesus also come from Christ. If Jesus said something, you would most certainly ask what makes it true. "Jesus Christ", he might say, and you might say "Well, why does that make it true?", to which he would say "Well, I am the truth", which is claimed to be true in virtue of Jesus Christ being the truth, which is eminently circular and vacuous. And yet I still think you are playing joker's tricks upon me, TruthMiner.

Jesus Christ, the person himself, is God's Word to us and dwells in us.

Unless that person knows nothing of Jesus Christ, meaning he would know nothing of truth, or that 2+2=4, the moon is the earth's satellite, and so on.

 

[Sojourner<><]

As luck would have it, I was thinking about this the other day - The process of placing faith in a thing simply because of experience when there is no rational justification for doing so. If you explained to a person that this was completely irrational, they would most likely argue that no, it's not unjustified because placing faith in experience has worked up till now. Which is eminently circular.

Are you sure? If I sat down in a particular chair a hunred different times but I never developed any trust that the chair could hold my weight, wouldn't that be irrational?