I personally think some of the comments on this site can get pretty ridiculous at times, more importantly, they can utterly obliterate an otherwise important message. However, you know what is said about opinions and how they are like a particular body part (everybody’s got one, and they all stink). The thing I have seen that truly ruins credibility is when atheists/agnostics/whatever pontificate about the Bible, yet they don’t believe in it in the first place.
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complete trust or confidence in someone or something
strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.
You're attempting to define Faith as belief, and this doesn't seem circular to you.
You would do much better to admit the topic is foreign to you.
This is both difficult, and worth the answer to try to address!
I like starting with the lives of not only Abraham but also Isaac and Jacob are recorded to SHOW us what Faith is. Since that's so very clearly true, I try to avoid being flippant with an answer. It's SO easy to give the wrong impression that sells the subject short, and God isn't fooled by any of that.
In the context of Christianity, "Faith" is an enduring concept. It's alive and it grows. It cannot be contained. This adds a great deal of complexity to the task of trying to define "it," because it's neither static nor necessarily the same from one person to another.
We're told it can have a finite and tiny beginning, being compared to a mustard seed. And yet there we see a great Truth hidden in God's Word, that seeds reproduce "after their own kind." It's supposed to multiply! And that's supposed to take time.
Compare to why God picked Moses: he took the time to actually observe what could have been a very mundane thing, and only 5-10 minutes later did it become apparent that this was miraculous.
Faith is like that :)
Because I am not that much of an idiot.
“Faith” has been hijacked by Atheists over the past few decades and has been redefined to mean “blind faith.”
Biblical faith is anything but blind.
Biblical faith was always based on evidence.
Christianity is a look before you leap kind of faith, not a leap before you look kind.
That which has evidence requires no faith. You are just aware of the evidence.
~ Hebrews 11:1
That is retarded.
1828 definition
Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting on his authority and veracity, without other evidence; the judgment that what another states or testifies is the truth. I have strong faith or no faith in the testimony of a witness, or in what a historian narrates.
The assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition advanced by another; belief, or probable evidence of any kind.
In theology, the assent of the mind or understanding to the truth of what God has revealed. Simple belief of the scriptures, of the being and perfections of God, and of the existence, character and doctrines of Christ, founded on the testimony of the sacred writers, is called historical or speculative faith; a faith little distinguished from the belief of the existence and achievements of Alexander or of Cesar.
Evangelical, justifying, or saving faith is the assent of the mind to the truth of divine revelation, on the authority of God's testimony, accompanied with a cordial assent of the will or approbation of the heart; an entire confidence or trust in God's character and declarations, and in the character and doctrines of Christ, with an unreserved surrender of the will to his guidance, and dependence on his merits for salvation. In other words, that firm belief of God's testimony, and of the truth of the gospel, which influences the will, and leads to an entire reliance on Christ for salvation.
~ Hebrews 11:1