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RE: I don't think any of us is absolutely 100% sure of anything. That's why we call it faith.
What that describes is not the Bible's kind of faith, but rather, the power of positive thinking.
Bible faith contains the components of confidence and assurance.
†. Heb 11:1 . .What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we anticipate is going to happen.
Note the author's use of the words "confident assurance"
Assent to the truthfulness of facts and/or statements does not qualify as faith in those facts and statements when the elements of confidence and assurance are absent from one's assent.
†. 1Pet 3:15 . . Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
The New Testament Greek word for hope in Peter's mandate is elpis (el-pece') which means to anticipate (usually with pleasure); and to expect with confidence. Note the elements of anticipation, expectation, and confidence. So then, the kind of hope Peter was talking about is not a hope-so hope, but rather, a know-so hope. Hope that lacks anticipation, confidence, and assurance is no hope at all: it's just wishful thinking.
Anticipation can be defined as: looking forward to something fully expecting it to happen.
The million dollar question is: how does somebody obtain that kind of faith?
†. John 3:31 . .he has come from heaven. He tells what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! Those who believe him discover that God is real.
It's one thing to read God exists, and to be told God exists, and to believe God exists; but it's quite entirely another to discover that He's real. Lots of people will tell you they believe the Bible's God is real, but they have yet to discover for themselves that He's real.
Bible faith begins with belief, which is then reinforced by discovery; subsequently resulting in confidence and assurance. When Christians lack confidence and assurance in their beliefs it's simply because they have not yet made any significant spiritual discoveries on their own; and the single most important discovery they can possibly make is the experience of a personal communication from the Bible's God.
†. Rom 8:16 . .The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
While reading Mother Teresa / Come Be My Light by Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, and Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith by David Van Biema for a Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007 article in Time Magazine; it became very obvious to me that God's Spirit never once took the trouble to assure Teresa that she was right with the Bible's God and that there was a place all prepared and waiting for her in His home.
Teresa's public image bore no resemblance whatsoever to her private thoughts. Teresa secretly confided in spiritual advisors that she seriously doubted that her religion's God even existed. That poor woman operated the whole five decades in India on blind faith; which is a kind of faith totally void of the elements of confidence and assurance.
In the final weeks of her life, Teresa became severally distraught that, if there is a God, she was afraid He didn't like her and might, in fact, be quite disposed to condemn her. That poor woman suffered so much anxiety that in the final weeks of her life it finally drove her to agree to undergo an exorcism— performed in 1997 by Father Rosario Stroscio, arranged by the Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry D'Souza —if perchance demons were clouding her mind. I don't know about you, but in my opinion, an exemplary nun like Mother Teresa should not be receiving exorcisms, but rather, performing them.
Should agnostics pray for assurances from God? No. Forget it. Agnostics are, by definition, vacillating; and according to Jas 1:5-8, the Bible's God has no interest in vacillators.
†. Heb 11:6 . .Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists.
Note the locations of the words impossible and must.
C.L.I.F.F.
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