Faith

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 NASB

Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. Hebrews 11:1 HCSB

Ἔστιν δὲ πίστις ἐλπιζομένων ὑπόστασις, πραγμάτων ἔλεγχος οὐ βλεπομένων. Hebrews 11:1 NA 27 


It is always best to let the bible define the terms that are used in it and in the case of faith Hebrews provides a clear definition.

Faith is the reality: ὑπόστασις, (hupostasis, G5287) In general, that which underlies the apparent, hence, reality, essence, substance; that which is the basis of something, hence, assurance guarantee, confidence. The proof: ἐλεγχος (elegchos, G1650) Conviction. Metonymically, meaning certain persuasion (Heb. 11:1).

I believe that the world is round. I have read about it being round, I have seen pictures of it being round, I even have a very old and out of date globe (it has a country called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on it). In my travels I have flown half way around it and visited other countries, but I have never flown out into space far enough to personally see that the earth is round. Until I am able to do that I will just have to take it as a matter of faith that the earth is round.

One thousand years ago it would have been a leap of faith to believe that the world is round, because there was very little evidence to support that belief. Now there is tons of evidence to support that belief. Although there are some who do not share this faith, such as the Flat Earth Society. My point in bringing them up is that a firm belief in something does not make it true, just as a firm disbelief in something does not make it untrue. Faith is just our trust in the trueness of something and the only value is in the object of that faith, not in the act of believing.

I have been told the perception is reality, I am not sure that I completely agree with that. I would agree, however, that perception is how we interact with reality. My hope is in Jesus Christ and His claim to be the Son of God. This hope is not me wishing something is true, but this hope is based on evidence that I have seen that indicate that Christ's claims are true. The amount of evidence needed for each person is different, some need more than others, and some will never believe no matter how much evidence is presented to them. But no matter how much evidence that I have Jesus will not walk up to me in a physical body, show me some scars from the crucifixion and do a few miracles for me. So at some point I have to say based upon the evidence that I do have I chose to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and I believe in Him for eternal life. Faith is the convincing beyond a reasonable doubt and faith allows me to believe the evidence that I cannot see.

Why does God chose to work through faith? Why not just show Himself plainly to us in a way that removes all doubt? I suspect that it has to do free will. God gives us enough evidence to believe in Him while leaving just enough lacking so that anyone who does not want to believe in Him can chose not to. In the words of C. S. Lewis "God cannot ravish, He can only woo".


 

Second Peter Two Five through Nine

The side trip begins. The study of knowledge words brought me to this passage, and while it does contain both of the last two knowledge words (γνωσις and επιγνωσις) that we will be looking at in this study it also contains a path that leads from γνωσις (knowledge) to επιγνωσις (full knowledge). And so the study begins 2 Peter 1:5-9.

For this very reason

    Verse five begins with a look back to verses three and four, so before we can understand verses five through nine we must take a look at the reason supplied in the previous verses.

    The first thing that we see is that God the Son by means of His "divine power" has given us everything needed for life and godliness. The word translated "pertaining to" is προς (pros) (G4314) and brings with it the idea of movement toward something. Christ has given us, as believers, life; but He has also given us the means to live life. That includes physical needs such as food, clothing, health needs and the like. That also includes sustaining power, such as the ability to stand in times of testing. Godliness describes our lives activities. Verses five through seven are the expansion upon "life and godliness" that is mentioned here. The last part of verse three explains the method of delivery for His (Christ) divine power. The word for power used here is δυνάμεως (dynameos) (G1411) and it relates to ability to accomplish something. Another way of thinking about this is that Jesus has the ability to live a sinless life and overcome and because of that He supplies us with that ability. The conduit of the ability supplied is the "true knowledge" of God the Father. True knowledge will be discussed later in this development. Christ came to do the will of the Father, and to reveal the Father to us. In John 14:7 and following we learn that to know Christ is to know the Father.

    In verse four we see that God the Father has given us promises by means of His own "glory and excellence". (Vs. 3) The reason for this is that we may become "partakers" of Gods nature. The word translated as "partakers" is κοινωνοι (koinonoi) (G2844) and encompasses the idea of companionship. Finally we see that we are able to become companions of the divine nature because we have escaped the world's corruption that comes from its lust.

    Now that we have established the reason brought up in the first part of verse five we see a series of interconnected aspects of the Christian way of life. Faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love; each of these represent parts of the Christian way of life. Each of these lead to the development of the next, but at the same time they are all aspects of each other and the development in one area develops all areas at the same time. For example faith grows as our knowledge of God increases, knowledge increases through perseverance in study and so on. For the purpose of the study we shall consider each aspect in the order it was written in the verses.

Before we begin to consider each term we need to understand the phrase "applying all diligence". σπουδὴν πᾶσαν παρεισενέγκαντες, (spouden, G4710, pasan, G3956, pareisenenkantes, G3923) The phrase means to do your best. (LN 68.64) In the HCSB it is rendered as "make every effort to". Our primary concern in life should be the development of these areas of our Christian walk; in doing so we will develop our nature to conform to God's divine nature.

In the Land of Believers

"In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church" this is the title of a book that I came across in an article from Christianity Today. The premise of the book is that an atheist went "undercover" for two years at Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church.

I have not read the book, but I may. I find it intriguing that an atheist would feel the need to "go undercover" in order to find out about Christians. If I wanted to find out about atheist I would go to a meeting of the Free Thinkers Society or some such group as that and just set in. I do not believe that I would need to hide who I am or what I believe. I also think that if I was not honest about myself then I would never be able to understand them. I would not be able to accurately question them if I was pretending to be one of them. I do, however understand that she may have thought that they would have put on a "religious show" for her had she told them that she was an atheist. She was there for two years, though and any show would have fallen flat rather quickly.

The most interesting question though is this: Are Christians so out of touch with the rest of the world that we have no impact?

A slight side trip

Life happens.  It has been awhile sense I have posted from the study that I am doing on knowledge words and there are two reasons for this; one life happens and lately it has been happening a lot.  Two, the study has taken me to 2 Peter 1:5-9.  There are lessons in this passage that I have not been too keen on learning.  It is really overwhelming to try to understand, but I am working through that understanding, very slowly, and soon the post will resume.