{"id":16202,"date":"2021-10-20T17:02:04","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T17:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=16202"},"modified":"2022-02-15T23:16:20","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T23:16:20","slug":"biblical-faith-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=16202","title":{"rendered":"Biblical Faith\u2014No. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0<\/p><p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">[<strong>Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <b>Brief Articles 1\u00a0<\/b>page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">The noun, <em>faith<\/em>, and the corresponding verb, <em>believe<\/em>, are words of great significance in the New Testament. One\u2019s faith in God (the Father), in Jesus Christ (His only begotten Son), and in the Holy Spirit (the revealer of Deity\u2019s will), is the beginning point of man\u2019s redemption from sin and of eternal salvation, as many passages state:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u201cAnd without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him\u201d (Heb. 11:6).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u201cFor God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life\u201d (John 3:16).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u201cMany other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name\u201d (John 20:30\u201331).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u201cFor I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek\u201d (Rom. 1:16).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">As with many Biblical terms, men have misdefined and misapplied <em>faith<\/em> and <em>belief<\/em>. Men generally misidentify Biblical faith with mere opinion, often based on some desired outcome. Such \u201cfaith\u201d has no basis, except that one wants it to be so. By this definition, <em>faith<\/em> is little more than the baseless mysticism of a fairyland. Professed \u201cbelievers\u201d who hold this view of <em>faith<\/em> invite unbelievers\u2019 contempt for the Christ and His Gospel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">The Bible does not contrast faith with empirical knowledge (i.e., knowledge gained through our senses). Rather, Biblical faith is based upon evidence provided for our senses. Note:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u201cSo belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ\u201d (Rom. 10:17). Faith is based upon evidence received from hearing, not guesswork born of desire.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u201cProve all things; hold fast that which is good\u201d (1 The. 5: 21). We are to accept\/believe only that which the tested evidence demands.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Numerous other passages (e.g., John 20:30\u201331; Acts 2:22, 36; Heb. 2:2\u20133; et al.) so indicate. The nearest thing we have to a \u201cdefinition\u201d of <em>faith<\/em> in the Bible is the following: \u201cNow faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen\u201d (Heb. 11:1). There is \u201csubstance\u201d to Biblical faith because it rests upon \u201cevidence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for, and it appeared in the <em>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>Denton, TX, August 10, 2007.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong> From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1\u00a0page.] The noun, faith, and the corresponding verb, believe, are words of great significance in the New Testament. One\u2019s faith in God (the Father), in Jesus Christ (His only begotten Son), and&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=16202\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Biblical Faith\u2014No. 1<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,36,639,196,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-belief","category-faith","category-hope","category-redemption","category-salvation","wpcat-300-id","wpcat-36-id","wpcat-639-id","wpcat-196-id","wpcat-72-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16202"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16225,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16202\/revisions\/16225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}