"believe on faith"

Getting to know more about a specific belief

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tam
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"believe on faith"

Post #1

Post by tam »

Peace to you all!

In an ongoing conversation and various other places, this description... Christians "believe on faith"... has been brought up. I must admit that I do not understand this idea at all. So perhaps I am misunderstanding what people mean when they say this.


Atheists, agnostics, people of any faith or non-faith, please feel free to weigh in. I am not interested in whether or not you agree with 'believing on faith', nor do I wish to debate the matter (at least not on this thread). I am just interested in the explanation of what people believe it means.


Peace again, and thank you!

jgh7

Re: "believe on faith"

Post #11

Post by jgh7 »

[Replying to post 1 by tam]

It has often seemed to me that the two can be used interchangeably which would make the saying a tautology I suppose.

But I recently came back from a seminar that differentiated faith and belief. I'm not saying this the correct answer to your question, but here's my preferred way of interpreting it:

Belief is from your own reasoning. Faith is a gift from God. So believing on faith to me means to let your reasoning lead you to trust that God will be the one to give you faith. Ultimately, rely on Him.

Faith is actually a gift of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:9. You may see a miracle and believe upon seeing that miracle. This comes from your reasoning and I'm not going to knock that. But the even stronger connection is faith which is a gift of God.

That's how I make sense of the statement. Nonetheless it's still natural for people to use the two interchangeably.

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Re: "believe on faith"

Post #12

Post by ttruscott »

tam wrote: Peace to you all!
An old topic which I seemed ot have missed.

When I think about believing on faith I am thinking about all that has happened to me, the disasters, the miracles, the thoughts I've had about life and the new thoughts about the bible and Christ,

recognizing the multitude of different interpretations that can be made about the truth of my experiences and the whys and the wherefores of each event

which I separate into my understanding (ie choose to beleive) that GOD is Real, GOD is blessing me in Christ and GOD is teaching me...not by proof but by faith, my commitment to the hope that this interpretation of all my experiences is the truth and all will end good.

I do not live by sight, but by faith.
PCE Theology as I see it...

We had an existence with a free will in Sheol before the creation of the physical universe. Here we chose to be able to become holy or to be eternally evil in YHWH's sight. Then the physical universe was created and all sinners were sent to earth.

This theology debunks the need to base Christianity upon the blasphemy of creating us in Adam's sin.

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Askong God Through Faith

Post #13

Post by Yusef »

Yusef wrote:
Yusef wrote:
tam wrote: Peace to you all!
...
See!! How much Faith is important!!

One asked our Imam, the sixth, Ja'far Al-Sadigh[pbuh]:
We see Non-Shi'a muslims that have very well behaviors/deeds/praying/any acting of religious..
And see us Shi'as people that aren't serious in religious behaviors!!
Then the Imam[pbuh] answered: "those Shi'as are better because of their Faith! As everywhere of Qur'an God HaS Given Faith before Deed!
there were 40 high-rank spiritual men among Bani-Israel and each one of them didn't pray along God 40nights but in the 41st day his asking would be AcceptED By God! But one of them whom had much more 40night but God Didn't AcceptED his praying...
He asked Prophet Jesus[pbuh], the Prophet asked Gabriel[pbuh], Gabriel brought his answere from God; O' Jesus' God SendS you AsSalam[peace] and SayS tell my servant that even if you worship me until your fingers and neck fall down[means so much worshipping and be so weak] but you don't come to me through my way , I won't accept your asking/praying!
Then the Prophet asked the spiritual: Do you doubt about me!!!?
He answered: actually Yes! And please ask God to Clear my heart from any doubt about you!
Then he returned back like those 39 others!
WE 12 IMAMS, OUR STORY IS LIKE THAT
Again The Connection/Keywords of crossword!
What about these 40 holy persons at The Last Time!? :study:

I quoted here:
The Book of Revelation of Yuhanna
viewtopic.php?p=946873#946873
Gospel of John
16:23 In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
I assume your beliefs are the better! Well, be soldier of God and convert me. By your own reasonings also tell me my wrong beliefs and why..>> :study:

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Re: "believe on faith"

Post #14

Post by Deeogee »

[Replying to tam in post #1]

Christianity is a system of faith, and in that arrangement the individual who is converted to Christ undergoes that change by his personal belief. God's scheme of human redemption makes salvation contingent upon one's response to His plan.

Page #22

There are a number of words in the New Testament which belong to the same family and are translated faith or belief. It would help tremendously in the understanding of the subject to examine and define these words and observe how they are used in these passages of the word of God. The root word for faith is peitho, and it means "to persuade, or to be persuaded; to confide in, trust." This word is used 55 times in the New Testament. Here are some of the uses: (1) Trust. "He trusted in God" (Matthew 27:43). This is our word for faith. (2) Persuade. "... and am persuaded of the Lord Jesus" (Romans 14:14). (3)Confidence. "We have confidence in the Lord" (II Thessalonians 3:4). (4) Obey. Some seven times this word is translated obey. "As many as obeyed him ..." (Acts 5:36). "Obey them that have the rule over you" (Hebrews 13:17). "That they should not obey the truth" (Galatians 3:1; Romans 2:8; Galatians 5:7; Acts 5:37; James 3:3).

The word obey in these passages is from peitho, the root word for faith. "As many as obeyed him ... as many as were convinced and persuaded by him." The word pistis is a cognate (that is, related by birth; belonging to the same family of words) of peitho, used 244 times in the New Testament, and following is the definition of this word faith by the standard, reputable scholars of the New Testament language.


How the Lexicons Define Faith
Pistis (faith): "Used especially of the faith by which a man embraces Jesus, i.e., a conviction full of joyful trust, that Jesus is the Messiah, the divinely appointed Author of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God, conjoined with obedience to Christ. In faith to give one's self up to" (-Henry William Thayer).

"Acknowledge Jesus as Savior and devote themselves to Him. To believe and embrace what God has made known either through Christ or concerning Christ ... Believe my word and their testimony that they are good and and must be followed. Believe in the Son and accept what His name proclaims Him to be (John 3:23). Recognition and acceptance of Christ's teaching. ...Full confidence ..." (-Arndt & Gingrich).

Read more here.
http://missionprinting.us/html_pubs/denom_preacher.html
You purified your souls in obeying the truth...being born again. (1Peter 1:22,23)

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Re: "believe on faith"

Post #15

Post by nobspeople »

tam wrote: Wed May 04, 2016 2:06 am Peace to you all!

In an ongoing conversation and various other places, this description... Christians "believe on faith"... has been brought up. I must admit that I do not understand this idea at all. So perhaps I am misunderstanding what people mean when they say this.


Atheists, agnostics, people of any faith or non-faith, please feel free to weigh in. I am not interested in whether or not you agree with 'believing on faith', nor do I wish to debate the matter (at least not on this thread). I am just interested in the explanation of what people believe it means.


Peace again, and thank you!
Seems to me 'believing on faith' would mean more one of two things:
1) about believing something normally unbelievable and or
2) about believing something the opposite of what common sense, and sometimes facts, say.

If someone believes in a literal burning bush that speaks and isn't consumed, that would fit both above categories, for example.
Have a great, potentially godless, day!

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Re: "believe on faith"

Post #16

Post by TRANSPONDER »

The problem seems to be that various definitions of 'Faith' are used and that confuses the matter.

In the context of valid and invalid faith, the basis is on what can be backed up by reliable facts. I have never actually seen the Taj Mahal, but the evidnce for such a place is so persuasive that Faith that the place exists is justified and the burden of proof is heavy on someone to provide evidence that it doesn't exist, if they denied it.

Conveniently, I call such a 'faith' belief (and a justified belief, too).

Similarly, the historicity of George Washington or Julius Caesar is supported by a lot of evidence. Anyone who thought they were invented would have to do a lot of work to prove that case.

If I may take a couple of debated matters, the flat earth and moon -landing arguments. The evidence does weigh in for an actual moon - landing and for a round earth. This makes for justified 'faith' or Belief. Those who believe in the other side are really having to dismiss or deny the supportive evidence and that's where 'Faith' takes on the character of non -justified belief, and 'Faith' is the term I use for that, in order tb flag up that distinction.

in the forum context, the evidence For evolution is compelling and those who deny it have to dismiss or deny that evidence. Thus, I believe that evolution -theory s valid and that Creationism is based on Faith. Similarly I believe that the evidence for a god is not persuasive And, while I don't know for sure that there is no god of any kind (making me agnostic), the evidence compels me to give credit to the theory that there are no gods, give or take a wide range of meanings that term can cover.

Since the Rules say, make a case, not just assertions, I'd cite the many extinctions needed (o evidence) to give mammals a chance, and without mammals, no humans. A god with an intention to make humans would have done it like it says in Genesis.

Of course, that's a creator - god with an interest in humans. A deist - god or just a divine Creator - being with no particular interest in humans is a lot more arguable and theist faith in That meaning of 'God' is one of their more valid arguments.

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