Do you have FAITH in God?

Faith is the foundation of Christian life. It is the fundamental virtue of Abraham, the forefather of Israel and the Christian Church. “Abraham believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15.6).

Jesus begins his ministry with the same command for faith.

Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15).

All through his life Jesus was calling for faith; faith in himself, faith in God his Father, faith in the Gospel, faith in the Kingdom of God. The fundamental condition of the Christian life is faith, for with faith come hope and love and every good work and every good gift and power of the Holy Spirit. This is the doctrine of Christ, the apostles, and the Church.

In the Scriptures faith is classically defined as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11.1).

There are basically two aspects to faith; one might even say two meanings of faith. The first is faith “in” someone or something, faith as the recognition of these persons or things as real, true, genuine, and valuable; for example, faith in God, in Christ, in the Holy Trinity, in the Church. The second is faith in the sense of trust or reliance. In this sense, for example, one would not merely believe in God, in his existence, goodness, and truth; but one would believe God, trust his word, rely upon his presence, depend securely and with conviction upon his promises. For Christians both types of faith are necessary. One must believe in certain things with mind, heart, and soul; and then live by them in the course of everyday life.

Faith is sometimes opposed to reason, and belief to knowledge. According to Orthodoxy, faith and reason, belief and knowledge, are indeed two different things. They are two different things, however, which always belong together and which may never be opposed to each other or separated from each other.

In the first place one cannot believe anything which he does not already somehow know. A person cannot possibly believe in something he knows nothing about. Secondly, what one believes in and trusts must be reasonable. If asked to believe in the divinity of a cow, or to place one’s trust in a wooden idol, one would refuse on the basis that it is not reasonable to do so. Thus, faith must have its reasons, it must be built upon knowledge, it must never be blind. Thirdly, knowledge itself is often built upon faith. One cannot come to knowledge through absolute skepticism. If anything is known at all, it is because there exists a certain faith in man’s knowing possibilities and a real trust that the objects of knowledge are really “showing themselves” and that the mind and the senses are not acting deceitfully. Also, in relation to almost all written words, particularly those which relate to history, the reader is called to an act of faith. He must believe that the author is telling the truth; and, therefore, he must have certain knowledge and certain reasons for giving his trust.

Very often it is only when one does give his trust and does believe something that one is able to “go further,” so to speak, and to come finally to knowledge of his own and to the understanding of things he would never have understood before. It is true to say that certain things always remain obscure and meaningless unless they are viewed in the light of faith which then provides a way of explaining and understanding their existence and meaning. Thus, for example, the phenomena of suffering and death would be understood differently by one who believes in Christ than by one who believes in some other religion or philosophy or in none at all.

Faith is always personal. Each person must believe for himself. No one can believe for another. Many people may believe and trust the same things because of a unity of their knowledge, reason, experience and convictions. There can be a community of faith and a unity of faith. But this community and unity necessarily begins and rests upon the confession of personal faith.

For this reason the Symbol of Faith in the Orthodox Church—not only at baptisms and official rituals of joining the Church, but also in common prayers and in the Divine Liturgy—always remains in the first person. If we can pray, offer, sing, praise, ask, bless, rejoice, and commend ourselves and each other to God in the Church and as the Church, it is only because each one of us can say honestly, sincerely, and with prayerful conviction: “Lord, I believe . . .”—adding, as one must, the words of the man in the gospel—“. . . help thou my unbelief” (Mk 9.24).

In order for our faith to be genuine, we must express it in everyday life. We must act according to our faith and prove it by the goodness and power of God acting in our lives. This does not mean that we “tempt God” or “put God to the test” by doing foolish and unnecessary things just for the sake of seeing if God will participate in our foolishness. But it does mean that if we live by faith in our pursuit of righteousness, we can demonstrate the fact that God will be with us, helping and guiding us in every way.

For faith to grow and become stronger, it must be used. Each person should live according to the measure of faith which he has, however small, weak and imperfect it might be. By acting according to one’s faith, trust in God and the certitude of God’s presence is given, and with the help of God many things which were never before imagined become possible.

Do you believe?

If you’re going to make a statement as above shouldn’t you first prove that JC existed! So without using the bible as a source please provide proof of JC existence. Secondly which god do you want to discuss I take it you’re alluding to El Shaddai the god of Abraham?

Faith if the opposite of knowledge.
The opposite of knowledge is ignorance.

Sure....no problem

Read the entire works of Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.

Done

originally posted by: redchad
If you’re going to make a statement as above shouldn’t you first prove that JC existed! So without using the bible as a source please provide proof of JC existence. Secondly which god do you want to discuss I take it you’re alluding to El Shaddai the god of Abraham?

originally posted by: ltrz2025
Faith if the opposite of knowledge.
The opposite of knowledge is ignorance.

Faith is not the opposite of knowledge. Faith, by definition, is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
The opposite of faith is doubt, denial, and uncertainty.



"But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." ...James 1:6

originally posted by: redchad
Secondly which god do you want to discuss I take it you’re alluding to El Shaddai the god of Abraham?

The fundamental faith of the Christian Church is in the one true and living God.

“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one God; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be placed upon your heart, and you shall teach them to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise . . .” (Deut 6.4–8).

These words from the Law of Moses are quoted by Christ as the first and greatest commandment (Mk 12.29). They follow upon the listing of the Ten Commandments which begin, “I am the Lord your God . . . you shall have no other gods besides me” (Deut 5.6–7).

The one Lord and God of Israel revealed to man the mystery of his name.

And Moses said “. . . if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

God also said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you: this is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations’” (Ex 3.13–15).

God’s name is Yahweh which means I AM WHO I AM; or I AM WHAT I AM; or I AM WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE; or simply I AM. He is the true and living God, the only God. He is faithful and true to his people. He reveals to them His divine and holy Word. He gives to them his divine and holy Spirit. He is called Adonai: the Lord; and his holy name of Yahweh is never mentioned by the people because of its awesome sacredness. Only the high priest, and only once a year, and only in the holy of holies of the Jerusalem Temple dared to utter the divine name of Yahweh. On all other occasions Yahweh is addressed as the Almighty Lord, as the Most High God, as the Lord God of Hosts.

According to the Scriptures and the experience of the saints of both the old and new testaments, Yahweh is absolutely holy. This means literally that He is absolutely different and unlike anything or anyone else that exists (Holy literally means totally separated, different, other).

Done

Yes. My fav is when people judge fish by their ability to climb trees. Mmm. Seafood. Too bad the Navy killed the mermaids, eh? Oh no - wrong thread.

originally posted by: ColeYounger

Faith is not the opposite of knowledge. Faith, by definition, is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
The opposite of faith is doubt, denial, and uncertainty.

If you need to "trust" someone, it's because you lack information, evidence, to know FOR SURE that a person is being honest or truthful. If you have knowledge that the person is honest and truthful, then you don't need to "trust", you don't need faith.

Doubt is skepticism, questioning, which is what leads to research, to find evidence, which is what leads to knowledge, confirmation, etc.

Therefore, my statement remains:

- Faith is the opposite of knowledge. Because if you have knowledge, you don't need faith.

- You only choose to have "faith" in God, because deep down you don't know for sure if God exists.

- If you know that God exists, you don't need faith, you just know. (this is my personal case)

Peace

a reply to: DeathSlayer

There are basically two aspects to faith; one might even say two meanings of faith. The first is faith “in” someone or something, faith as the recognition of these persons or things as real, true, genuine, and valuable; for example, faith in God, in Christ, in the Holy Trinity, in the Church. The second is faith in the sense of trust or reliance. In this sense, for example, one would not merely believe in God, in his existence, goodness, and truth; but one would believe God, trust his word, rely upon his presence, depend securely and with conviction upon his promises. For Christians both types of faith are necessary. One must believe in certain things with mind, heart, and soul; and then live by them in the course of everyday life.

There is another way of describing the same distinction, in terms of John's prepositions.

The two main ones are believing THAT (i.e accepting that a statement is true] and believing IN (i.e. putting trust in a person).

I believe the second one is the key, the real point. Believing THAT God has done something is mainly an aid towards trusting in God. But historically the church likes to focus on believing THAT doctrinal statements are true, because it is easier to teach and monitor.

originally posted by: ColeYounger

Faith is not the opposite of knowledge. Faith, by definition, is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
The opposite of faith is doubt, denial, and uncertainty.

I think the other member has a point in that faith is a substitute for ordinary knowledge. "The conviction of things unseen"- Hebrews ch11 v1 You don't need faith for the things you can see, only for the things you can't see. "Opposite" was the wrong word, but there is a difference.

Faith in God? As in the creator? Yes I do.

Faith in the book about him? No I don't. The book is plagerised from several older works and mistranslated many times.

There was no Jesus simply because 2000 years ago the letter J had not been invented.

A person sometime in history that may heve been the personification of God? Possibly. But he was not the son of Zeus, the literal translation of the word Jesus.

I also think the book of Revelations is a distorted account of the fall of last civilization before this one and not what is to come.

originally posted by: ColeYounger

originally posted by: ltrz2025
Faith if the opposite of knowledge.
The opposite of knowledge is ignorance.

Faith is not the opposite of knowledge. Faith, by definition, is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something

WITHOUT ANY PROOF WHATSOEVER

There. Fixed that for you.

a reply to: DeathSlayer

I need no "Faith" when I have God. Dont need more than the "Source" itself. All things are possible. And with that....I feel pretty comforted. My "faith" as it were being strong, Im blessed and try to walk in the light.

Blessings bestowed to me a sinner. And you.

God Bless

originally posted by: DISRAELI

originally posted by: ColeYounger

Faith is not the opposite of knowledge. Faith, by definition, is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
The opposite of faith is doubt, denial, and uncertainty.

I think the other member has a point in that faith is a substitute for ordinary knowledge. "The conviction of things unseen"- Hebrews ch11 v1 You don't need faith for the things you can see, only for the things you can't see. "Opposite" was the wrong word, but there is a difference.

You're wrong, dear sir. Knowledge and Faith are opposites.

If you have knowledge, you don't need faith. If you have faith, is because you don't have knowledge. These words cancel each other by their attributes. Therefore, they are opposites.

For example, if something is wet, it cannot be dry. If something is dry, it cannot be wet. Wet and Dry are opposites.

Hope it helped.

I have FAITH... Insofar that I know there are things i will never know for certain.

faith can make them omnipotent...

a reply to: ltrz2025
We might regard them as alternatives, rather than opposites.

Let's take a different example; Salvation by faith and salvation by works.
You might say salvation by works is the opposite of salvation by faith.
Cole Younger might say that not being saved at all is the opposite of salvation by faith.
I'm trying to mediate between the two of you so that we might understand one another instead of biting each other's hands off.

a reply to: ltrz2025

By your wet and dry examples, time does not exist. One can in fact dry something that is wet and wet something that is dry.

Should someone examine the items at different times, they could conclued both are in fact wet or both dry depending on when they checked.

a reply to: redchad

It's called faith.

a reply to: ltrz2025

Define dry. Define wet.

How many molecules of water makes a dry thing wet, and how many molecules of water must cease to be present before a thing is dry? Are they really opposites as many otherwise dry powders have moisture content.

Yes... and also in his HOLY SON JESUS CHRIST.....