Posted on 01/31/2014 2:06:06 PM PST by James R. Aist
Several years ago I heard someone make the statement that "To help someone accept Christ, just show them that they already use faith in their everyday life, and explain to them that all they have to do is use the same faith to believe in Jesus." Well, I didn't know why at first, but that statement just didn't seem to ring true, especially in light of what the Bible actually says about faith. So, I began to search it out more carefully, and that's how I came to realize that there are actually two kinds of faith, and that they are really very different.
(Excerpt) Read more at ipost.christianpost.com ...
So I can say from my own experience that the Ford Falcon we drove for 12+ years was anything but 'fix or repair daily'.A very trustworthy car if ever there was one.
I know this has precious little to do with theology but it was an opportunity to say...you're dead wrong! LOL!
Now that is something that doesn't happen everyday!
I vowed to NEVER buy another American made car after the Pontiac Fiero GT (1985) I bought brand new all by myself with no co-signing from Dad had the A/C condenser unit go bad ONE WEEK after the warranty expired. Been buying Japanese ever since!
Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah
From Matthew chapter 16
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
I have already considered, and rejected, the interpretation that you prefer. The NIV reads, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.” The reason I rejected your interpretation is that it would be redundant for Paul to say that we are saved by grace and then say— parenthetically, in effect—AND that grace is not from ourselves, because grace is, by definition, not from ourselves. Grace is, of course, from God, and saving faith is also from God: Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17). As I see it, these two English translations may convey different meanings.
Thanks for the reminder!
Believed? Christians never stop believing God.
Catholics, mormons, and muslims, JW, etc are using natural/worldly faith as they are believing in man/human beings. That's why they are deceived. They are NOT spirit filled so they do not have the supernatural faith of God. And, thus, they cannot understand the inspired Word of God.
"The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit."
Catholicsm, mormonism, muslim, JW, etc teachings are NOT from God for they are man made teachings, They are NOT supernatural but natural/worldly from man who is evil. They fight against Truth and refuse to believe Truth and do not even recognize It when they hear or read It. The two thieves on their cross, one recognized Truth/Jesus and one did not.
Catholicism rests on man alone. No one can serve two masters. 'man made believers ignore God's Word and seek 'man's word' instead. They chose death and destruction instead of Jesus who is LIFE.
Natural faith is what man sees, hears, feels and touch. All are born with that faith/worldly; and only those born again of the spirit have the faith of God which is supernatural faith so His Church can do the things Jesus did and even greater works.
Faith is most certainly a gift from God.
First, let’s dispense with the absolutist notion that at no time does God ever intercede to give faith. This passage clearly and explicitly states that he does:
1 Corinthians 12:7-11 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: [8] for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, [9] to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, [10] to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. [11] But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
So it is inescapable that faith is given to some in the church in special measure by a direct act of the Holy Spirit. It may be countered that this is not saving faith per se, but that is not the point of proof here. This passage demonstrates beyond doubt that the Holy Spirit can and does alter the faith of some individuals. So there is no absolute barrier to God doing the same thing in other contexts.
But what about saving faith? Apparently He also grants that as well:
John 6:64-66 “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”
No doubt you will point out to me that in the phrase “coming to Christ” there is no use of the word “faith,” “pistos” in Greek. True. But in this passage Jesus directly equates coming or not coming to Him with believing or not believing in Him. He specifically states that those who don’t believe in Him are in that condition because the Father has not granted that they come to him. And what is the Greek root for “believe?” “Pistos.” Faith.
As for Ephesians 2:8-9, we agree there is a gender mismatch between the neuter “that (touto)” in “that not of yourselves,” and the earlier noun “pistos,” “faith,” which is feminine. Well and good. Were you aware that “charis (grace)” is also feminine, and “sodzo (save)” is masculine, resulting in all three terms being mismatched with the pronoun “that?” So where does that leave “touto (that)?” If faith is not the referent, nor salvation, nor grace, what is? Based on your theory of gender mismatch, it can’t refer to any of the preceding components of salvation.
But there is a relatively easy explanation. Paul uses a device here he has used elsewhere: he uses a neuter pronoun to package an entire concept, a metaclass, if you will, the individual components of which take a gender appropriate to their subheading in his “outline.”
Thus, if this is correct, he is referring to all the constituent parts as a gift or as the components of a gift. As faith is one of those constituents, it is a fair exegesis to understand Paul is saying that grace, the basis, faith, the means, and salvation, the result, are all the gift of God, so that a saved man has nothing to boast about. Nothing. And that, after all, is his point, isn’t it? Why would he mention anything that didn’t buttress his main conclusion?
But if that is not enough for you, there is more.
Php 1:29 “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, ...”
Do you know what word that is hiding under “to believe?” Yes, it is the verbal form of “pistos,” faith. And how did these believers come into this action of “faith?” It was granted to them. And as we learned from John 6:65, the Grantor is none other than the Father Himself, of who James says:
Jas 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
You’re welcome.
After that particular passage and into the next chapter are examples of small faith and and how the diciples learned about little faith and small faith.
I describe it as learning to act on belief verse doubt.
This has been a huge lesson for me lately and that is why I appreciate you posting this blog even though the practice comes under attack here at times.
The tradition of atheism defines faith as belief without evidence.
As a matter of fact the most common atheist argument holds that that belief without evidence is wrong. So they choose atheism/agnosticism, believing it to be a better alternative.
The only reason I can see for atheists to change the traditional definition of faith is that they have a sense that their most important argument has been defeated.
However you may view "the tradition of atheism" (whatever that is), I can tell you that I've had discussions with many dozens of hyper-religious people, and they do not see their beliefs as being "without evidence". In fact, the more religious the person, usually the more evidentiary the discussion becomes. It's actually the religious moderates or the halfway believers who get more into themes and ambiguousness, whereas highly religious people will spout out tons of evidence.
Now, none of it is actually GOOD evidence, or evidence that stands up to even cursory scrutiny.
But if I'm sitting across from a hardcore theist, and he spends the first 20 minutes of our discussion talking about how faith in the Burning Bush and faith in the value of pi are the same thing, it's really a waste of time. Dump the silly discussion of a single word and move on to more relevant things.
And why not? How about getting on an airplane, even if you don’t unferstand aerodynamics?
Faith is a reasonable response to evidence.
God already knows who He can count on. Those souls were predestined before the foundation of this flesh age. Yet, God gives all His souls the opportunity to take this flesh journey without the memory of the age of the first rebellion. Flesh really does dull the senses of so many. But only the Creator can judge with perfection the heart/mind of each of His souls.
I do not consider myself called or capable of explaining to unbelievers what it means to have faith in something I cannot produce a graphic or photo. What does gravity look like? What does oxygen look like? Is it but a 'theory' they exist?
All souls/spirit intellect return to the Maker that sent them. The flesh body and intellect returns to the dirt from which it came. Some flesh intellect cannot/will not have the eyes to see or the ears to hear until their soul/spirit intellect returns to the Maker that sent them. Judgment of each and every individual soul/spirit intellect does not come until after every individual soul/spirit intellect gets a perfect education. Nobody goes to hell unwillingly.
It’s not faith. Commercial air fatalities are about 2 per every 100 million travelers. That’s approaching certainty (that you will arrive alive). No faith needed.
No, their existence is not in dispute. There are theories to explain their nature and mechanics. Faith is not part of the discussion about gravity or oxygen. They are certainties.
To me there is no dispute the Creator exists. And I do not 'feel' more special than the rest of His creation because I have no cause to dispute His existence. I believe each have a God given right to believe whatever they decide to believe. And IF and When the Creator needs some assistance from any of us, He knows first hand out to get our attention. Why, because He knows the other 90% of the brain/intellect that the overwhelming majority of we children never gain the keys to access. Well at least in a flesh body.
Love is not an emotion that can be coerced, forced, bought or sold. One either has the ability or they do not. I would liken 'faith' in things not seen as the ability to love a child, parent, spouse, country, and last but not least the Creator.
I purposefully left out love of self, specifically because of the methodology of liberalism to pervert what it literally means to love oneself. Love of oneself is on prominent display in the narcissistic spoiled brat mentality of self aggrandizement at all class/intellect levels.
The folly of the unbelievers is ignoring the consequences of allowing a flesh body majority replacing God with themselves in deciding what are and are not rights they can give or take. A free peoples do not accept taxation/mandates without representation. God only asked for 10% of the profits, and we have hired the mentality of flesh minds to enslave US into bondage.
Empirical certainties and your religious beliefs are two completely different things. That’s why I was making the case that using “faith” to describe both is faulty.
Who gets to decide what are empirical certainties?
So if for instance someone builds a spacecraft built on the Einstein theory of gravity, their spacecraft will likely succeed, whereas when someone builds a spacecraft based on the pixie dust and prayer theory of gravity, their spacecraft will likely never leave the ground. From then on you'll see intelligent people follow the Einstein model, and everyone else will fail.
And it happens regardless of what you believe about flying. There are people who refuse to believe air travel is safe.
Just like, in spite of historical evidence that Jesus was who he said, people refuse to believe.
Like I said, we’re having an evidentiary discussion, where you are presenting evidence (not good evidence, but evidence nonetheless). Faith hasn’t even come up, which was my point all along.
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