New Definition For Faith

[The Morphing Christian]

What do you think of my new definition of faith? My goal here isn't to replace the original definition of faith but rather compliment it.

Probably the most quoted definition of faith from the bible is from Hebrews 11:1 where Paul says in (KJV) 11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And the (NASB) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Here is my new definition for faith.

This is what I came up with in trying to keep the original format.

Now faith is the assurance that we can overcome, because our imagination can go anywhere, despite our circumstances.

Thoughts?

 

[Dave L]

What do you think of my new definition of faith? My goal here isn't to replace the original definition of faith but rather compliment it.

Probably the most quoted definition of faith from the bible is from Hebrews 11:1 where Paul says in (KJV) 11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And the (NASB) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Here is my new definition for faith.

This is what I came up with in trying to keep the original format.

Now faith is the assurance that we can overcome, because our imagination can go anywhere, despite our circumstances.

Thoughts?

I view faith/faithfulness as a gift from God that bears witness with our spirit that our prayers are answered before we see them fulfilled. No faith means we should rethink our prayer and perhaps try again. Also this faith aligns us with the future God planned for us.

 

[com7fy8]

This is what I came up with in trying to keep the original format.

Now faith is the assurance that we can overcome, because our imagination can go anywhere, despite our circumstances.

Thoughts?

It is not only where our imagination can go. This can mean, I don't mean that you mean this, that idea of you can do whatever you want > positive thinking which is your own production.

But with God > where does He have us going, in our imagination?

"faith working through love" (in Galatians 5:6)

I notice how James says we need faith which has works > James chapter two. Please notice how James, here, also has given examples of works which he means. These are works of personal loving.

In my imagination, Morphing Christian, I can go into fighting people who are a problem for me, putting them down, looking down on them . . . controlling them. But then the correction comes, to have me seeking God to change me to personally love and care for problem people, in prayer with hope for them > love "hopes all things" (in 1 Corinthians 13:7).

 

[Ttalkkugjil]

Faith's mind's conviction concerning things hoped for. It's mind's firmness, a persuasion concerning the things which God has promised us for the purpose of having us hope upon them.

Faith's heart's conviction regarding those things which we can't see, which it's impossible for us.

Faith concerns things which are future, though they may have their beginning in this life. It's gifts' hope. It keeps its form, even when it's weak. It's opposed to doubt. It stands in afflictions.

Faith overcomes weakness, for it's amid tribulation that it proves itself heart's strength.

It was on the ground of their possessing faith that OT leaders received God's commendation, their deeds being recorded for the NT ages' benefit.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Here is my new definition for faith.

This is what I came up with in trying to keep the original format.

Now faith is the assurance that we can overcome, because our imagination can go anywhere, despite our circumstances.

Thoughts?

This looks like self-dependence and not God-dependence.
Faith is trusting and relying on God for all of life, for everything, all the time, every day.
Imagination(s) and dreams and hopes and strengths and ideas all have to be brought subject to Jesus/ and-or 'crucified' with all the affections and lusts, as written,
so that is is "no longer we who live, but Christ Who lives in us, because He loves us and gave Himself (was crucified and raised from the dead never to die again) for us.

 

[BPerry]

To me faith is what draws us to Christ, once we have experienced a relationship with Him, we move from faith to an absolute knowledge of Christ and he becomes real in our lives.

 

[Mathetes66]

"What do you think of my new definition of faith? My goal here isn't to replace the original definition of faith but rather compliment it...Heb 11:1 (KJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen...(NASB) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Here is my new definition for faith.
This is what I came up with in trying to keep the original format. Now faith is the assurance that we can overcome, because our imagination can go anywhere, despite our circumstances. Thoughts?"

Well, to be honest in love, let us examine what you have said. First of all you said that here is MY NEW DEFINITION of faith. You then contrast that with the ORIGINAL DEFINITION of faith in the Scriptures.

You state your goal is not to replace the original yet you make a new definition in place of the original. That is confusing. & contradictory. God is not the author of confusion (I Cor 14:33).

God repeats in various verses in Scripture not to add to nor take away from His Word.

Deut 4:2 You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you.

Deut 12:32 See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

Prov 30:6 Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you & prove you a liar.

Jeremiah 26:2 "This is what the LORD says: Stand in the courtyard of the LORD's house and speak all the words I have commanded you to speak to all the cities of Judah who come to worship there. Do not omit a word.

Eve is an example of this, both adding to & subtracting from what God said & then lying about what God said. This is what she said.

Genesis 3:2,3 The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, 3but of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’”

This is the original, what God said:

Genesis 2:16,17 And the LORD God commanded him, “You may eat freely from every tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good & evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

Notice Eve takes away from God's command by leaving out the word, 'freely' eat.

Notice she changes God's command: she does not mention the tree of the knowledge of good & evil specifically by name as God did but only mentions it as a tree in the middle of the garden.

Notice Eve changes God's commandment & lies about what God said:

God has said, ‘You must not eat of it OR TOUCH IT or you will die.’”

She also AGAIN leaves out what God actually said: you will SURELY die.

It is a double emphatic with the word 'surely'. It literally means, 'in dying you will die.'

It showed both the immediate death spiritually at the moment, the day they actually ate it and later the physical death of dying, both of which we all experience.

"This is what I came up with in trying to keep the original format. Now faith is the assurance that we can overcome, because our imagination can go anywhere, despite our circumstances."

Here you state you were trying to keep the original format but you actually lied (to yourself), you didn't keep the original format because you changed the original format.

We all have done that. I think of King Saul as an example in Scripture of doing the same thing.

This is God's command:

I Samuel 15:1-3 Then Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over His people Israel. Now therefore, listen to the words of the LORD. 2This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they hindered them on their way up from Egypt. 3Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destructiona all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

This is Saul's own interpretation of God's command, resulting in disobedience & the taking away of him from being king:

I Samuel 15:7-23 Then Saul struck down the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8He captured Agag king of Amalek alive, but devoted all the others to destruction with the sword.

9Saul and his troops spared Agag, along with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calvesb and lambs, and the best of everything else. They were unwilling to destroy them, but they devoted to destruction all that was despised and worthless.

10Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, 11“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.”And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all that night.

12Early in the morning Samuel got up to confront Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel, and behold, he has set up a monument for himself and has turned and gone down to Gilgal.”

13When Samuel reached him, Saul said to him, “May the LORD bless you. I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.” 14But Samuel replied, “Then what is this bleating of sheep and lowing of cattle that I hear?”

15Saul answered, “The troops brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but the rest we devoted to destruction.”

16“Stop!” exclaimed Samuel. “Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied.

17And Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, have you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel 18and sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and devote to destruction the sinful Amalekites. Fight against them until you have wiped them out.’

19So why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you rush upon the plunder and do evil in the sight of the LORD?”

20“But I did obey the LORD,” Saul replied. “I went on the mission that the LORD gave me. I brought back Agag king of Amalek and devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of the things devoted to destruction, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”

22But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice & attentiveness is better than the fat of rams. 23For rebellion is like the sin of divination & arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”

So let us examine your own new definition of faith & compare it to God's definition of faith.


Now faith is the assurance that we can overcome, because our imagination can go anywhere, despite our circumstances."

First of all, you have isolated a verse of Scripture out of its own context & making a new pretext, that isn't in the text.

The context of Hebrews 11 is about the hope of all those in the past, concerning their faith, that it is a 'hope' of their promised true home that God has prepared for those who trust in His promises.

Their faith & ours is looking forward to a hope of a true home, that God promised He would prepare for us. Our true home is not on this earth. That is WHY they 'endured' various things.

So by your deleting 'of things hoped for' & replacing it with 'we can overcome' you have inserted a foreign idea into the actual text, contrary to what God is showing throughout the context.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.

Here is a list of many translations & all but two translate the Greek word, 'elpidzo' as things 'hoped for'. One says 'things waited for' which is essentially the same.

Second, you state the last part of your definition of faith is:
'because our imagination can go anywhere, despite our circumstances.'

God states in His Word: the 'el'-eng-khos' (Greek word) of things not seen.

It is not about our imagination going anywhere, making any speculation that WE MIGHT want to, despite what we are going through.

The Greek word above is only used twice in Scripture: here & in 2 Timothy 3:16.

It is defined as 'a proof or a persuasion; that by which a thing is proved or tested; that by which invisible things are proved & we are convinced of their reality because God said or promised it to be true & reality.

In 2 Tim 3:16, Scripture (what God actually said or promised) is the REPROOF of our imagination or speculations that are NOT true or reality.

God said it is true. Faith is believing it is true & reality despite not seeing it or being able to see it fulfilled in our earthly lifetime.

I believe in the 'resurrection of the body' as it says in Scripture & the Creeds of the faith. Have I seen that? No. But faith is the substance or basis of being sure of what we hope for, because God said it was going to happen in the future & promised it would happen.

My conviction or proof or evidence or reproof when I doubt what God says is true & reality, is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead & demonstrated it is true. I haven't seen it happen to me YET, but faith knows that is true & reality without it being seen.

You are on a shakey foundation or substance with your own new definition that is contrary, in my opinion, to what God has said is what faith is, as defined in the context of Hebrews chapter 11.

Thanks for asking for other Christian's thoughts on this. I hope all this was helpful & informative.

 

[Sketcher]

Too confining.

Out of curiosity, why try to "redefine" faith?

 

[Soyeong]

What do you think of my new definition of faith? My goal here isn't to replace the original definition of faith but rather compliment it.

Probably the most quoted definition of faith from the bible is from Hebrews 11:1 where Paul says in (KJV) 11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And the (NASB) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Here is my new definition for faith.

This is what I came up with in trying to keep the original format.

Now faith is the assurance that we can overcome, because our imagination can go anywhere, despite our circumstances.

Thoughts?

Faith is the will to keep our minds focused on what reason has discovered to it, not based on what we can imagine. For example, if you were going camping with a friend and they told you that they would bring all of the food and water for the week, then putting faith in your friend would be acting like what they said is a as good as done even though the future is not seen. Even when things might start to look like they don't do what they said, faith is the will to keep our minds focused on the good reasons that we had for considering our friend to be reliable, and this is the substance of things hoped for.