What is Faith?

[arunangelo]

What is faith (In God)?
Since God is love, to have faith in God, is to have complete trust in the unconditional love Jesus expressed for us on the cross. It is also to believe that through love, we can conquer every evil in the world. Since, love is a force; it is always expressed through actions. Therefore, when we have faith in God, we will forgo our own interest, in order to serve those who have hurt and betrayed us. If we claim to have faith, but do not put it into action. our faith is not alive (James 2:17). On the other hand, if we put our faith into action, it will set our heart on fire; and make our faith grow. It will then propel us to go out of our way and spend every moment of our life to serve God by serving others, including our enemies. In this effort we will count no cost, expect no reward and accept any discomfort or peril that comes our way. Then, even if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, it will grow mighty enough to move mountains (Luke 17:6).
To have faith in God, is also to know, that His love is the only solution to the problems in our life. We will, therefore, not resort to lawsuits or violence to solve our problem. Instead, we will use pure love to solve our problems. We will, therefore, help those who hurt us, give them more than what they are ask for, pray for them and not retaliate against them.

[arunangelo]

[Replying to post 10 by onewithhim]
God's love is unconditional. He offers salvation to all. Some do not get saved because they refuse to accept His free gift of salvation.

[Diagoras]

Our universe is an expression of Jehovah God's love.

Here’s a taste of parts of the universe which don’t seem so... lovely. It doesn’t even list Io.

Our five senses are an expression of His love. We could be seeing the world in only shades of gray or every thing could taste like mashed potatoes yet we would still be able to live. However, we can see color and smell and taste all kind of flavors and smells. Jehovah doesn't just want us to have a life but a happy life.

Does his love not extend to these people, then? And this ‘happy life’ doesn’t fit with the evidence.

I’m sceptical of this ‘love’ if it bestows its gifts in such a way as we see around us.

[brunumb]

[Replying to post 13 by onewithhim]

Two points that I disagree with: "God is love" is not grammatically incorrect, because He IS the embodiment of love.

All you have done is compound the error. God is not the embodiment of anything. God is.... God. Love is an emotion. You can associate that emotion with God by saying God is a loving being, but you can't say God is love. That is simply nonsense.

He cannot do a single thing that is hateful to His human creation or anything else. Even His destruction of the wicked is based on love, because if the incorrigible wicked people are not obliterated, the people who are righteous God-loving people would not be able to live in true peace and security.

Killing any human being or ordering their killing is a hateful act no matter how much one tries to sugar-coat it. Yahweh demonstrated his hateful side many times in the OT. As an omnipotent being he has many options available to him that do not involve the vicious and bloody destruction of human beings.

Secondly, if you were familiar with the reasons that the world is in such a mess, you would understand that God has let Satan try to prove that he, Satan, is a better ruler, and that dragon has a limited time to do his best to show up God.

This is no more than a feeble rationalisation for the evil in the world. A loving God would surely not play such wicked games with human beings. Would you let a child rapist have free reign in a city just to prove a point? God does not have to let Satan do anything, and certainly not inflict misery and suffering on mere human beings.

The Bible gives us an approximate time-frame to expect the end of this crazy system of things and the beginning of everlasting peace and security (which the nations cannot give us).

Just because the Bible suggests there will be an end does not mean that it was right to have happened in the first place.

[brunumb]

[Replying to post 3 by brunumb]

Love is a Spirit; and the name of this Spirit is God. Love is not emotion or feeling. It is the spirit that propels us to sacrifice our own interest and unconditional seek the good of others.

You may try to redefine love to suit your purpose but the fact remains that love is an emotion and God is not love.

[brunumb]

[Replying to post 10 by onewithhim]
God's love is unconditional. He offers salvation to all. Some do not get saved because they refuse to accept His free gift of salvation.

As I pointed out earlier, God's love is conditional. If you don't believe you don't get salvation. That is what makes it conditional. To add insult to injury, belief is not a matter of choice. Your brain is either convinced that something is true or it is not convinced. You cannot simply choose to believe something is true if you are convinced that it is not true. Pretending to believe might satisfy Christians but I hardly think that a genuine God would be satisfied.

[Checkpoint]

[Replying to post 10 by onewithhim]
God's love is unconditional. He offers salvation to all. Some do not get saved because they refuse to accept His free gift of salvation.

As I pointed out earlier, God's love is conditional. If you don't believe you don't get salvation. That is what makes it conditional. To add insult to injury, belief is not a matter of choice. Your brain is either convinced that something is true or it is not convinced. You cannot simply choose to believe something is true if you are convinced that it is not true. Pretending to believe might satisfy Christians but I hardly think that a genuine God would be satisfied.

What is the specific point you are making?

[brunumb]

[Replying to post 26 by Checkpoint]

What is the specific point you are making?

Simply a rebuttal of arunangelo's claims.

[2timothy316]

It wasn't his faith that was to be tested.

Throughout the book of Job, you wonder whether Job will stand firm in his faith or abandon it. In the end, Job remains faithful to God, and God remains faithful to Job.

When you say, abandon his faith, if Job did abandon his faith, what exactly would have Job abandoned? How was Job's faith under test? Faith in what? I'm having trouble putting your post here viewtopic.php?p=1001316#1001316 together what you're saying in the post above.

Also I gave scriptural evidence that Satan wanted to attack Job's respect of God and that this is the main issue of the book of Job. While faith is important, the Bible even says it is impossible to please God well without it. (Heb 11:6) There are some instances in the Bible where a person's integrity was better than their faith. Elijah comes to mind. While he had the integrity to stand up for true worship and to kill all of the prophets of Baal he did not have the faith that Jehovah God would protect him when Jezebel sent people to kill him. Thus he fled and went into depression while Jezebel tried to hunt him down.

[Sojournerofthearth]

[Replying to post 6 by Tcg]

If faith were a "rock-solid assurance", it wouldn't be called faith. Rock-solid assurance would be called knowledge, not faith.

But there are rock solid assurances with Faith. For instance, Abraham was called the Father of the Faithful because of his willingness to Sacrifice Isaac. But that wasn't just an idea that God demanded a Human Sacrifice. Abraham had asked God for a son, an heir. Sarah gave him her handmade but God said the line would pass through Sarah. He did not fulfill that promise until it was beyond any possible expectation. So the gift of His son was a miracle in itself. With that miracle were promises made, that Abraham's line would go through Isaac. Isaac's conception was impossible. Abraham had been given many "evidences of the unseen." It wasn't a faith in imaginary wishes or empty promises... it was based on facts he had already seen. It was based on fulfilled promises. It was trusting that the God who had provided clear evidence of the fulfilling of His word, would continue to do what He had already promised. He knew God wasn't a monster. He knew Isaac had a place in God's plan. He KNEW. All he had to do at that point was do the next right thing based on what he had already seen. Not that it isn't a scary thing, because everyone wants to know what they're putting their feet down on will hold them securely, but Abraham took God at His word.

Faith is based on KNOWING.

Soj

[2timothy316]

[Replying to post 22 by Diagoras]

Do you not know what Jehovah's Kingdom will bring?
(Rev 21:3-5)