They posited belief is something akin to being confronted with truth similar to 1+1=2. In in so doing a belief in such a thing requires no faith. Quite right, these are simply facts and it is not an act of your will to "believe" them.
Faith being the opposite, would be believing in something inspite of not seeing the facts. One quick caveat here, when you enter academic discussion, there is no room for interpretation. You must accept the meaning and intent offered by the author, and it needs to be instantly revelatory, meaning, I can't read a meaning into it. SO, logically, if belief is being confronted with facts, then faith is being confronted without facts, or said another way, without evidence. The author of this original post that I'm commenting on, probably did not mean it this way, but unfortunately this is how perverted our thought can be when we assume that it is us who is at the center of our belief in God. Notice my choice of words.
Logically, as I feel the spirit can be explained, ask yourself, can you be confronted with a indisputable truth and deny it? Yes. But you knowingly lie.
True is true and once you learn it, you can't unlearn it. You can forget, you can stray, you can choose not to follow, but you can't unknow or unlearn what is inherently true. SO, literally, when you're confronted with the truth of God, which, Jesus claims to be, you must either be blinded to it, or recognize it.
This certainly explains why so many people can hear the gospel, but it doesn't change them, their lives aren't impacted permanently.
The defect in the assumption that belief in God is not faith, is flawed because it assumes that with Gods permission and authority you can encounter his truth, leading to belief, but only be relegated to faith; belief without facts or evidence. This is NOT what we're called to.
Faith is BELIEF in things unseen. But you absolutely KNOW they are there. We've been lied to...we've been taught that our eyes tell the truth, or our ears tell the truth, or our hands tell the truth!
YOU KNOW THEY LIE!
Ever seen a mirage? Ever seen someone act godly, only to later defect from the faith? Ever heard someone compliment you to your face, only to find treachery later of them talking behind your back? These are your eyes showing you a truth, that they lie. Your eyes can only give you relative truth and not absolute truth. Because you can't know, what you don't see. By this measure, anything beyond your senses, cannot be true, or untrue, it's beyond reason. This fellows, INCLUDES GOD. That's remarkable! Yet we know, do we not, that God exists?
I tell you that it's not because of the Bible, it's because the Father in Heaven has MADE IT KNOWN TO YOU.
Faith, is belief in things unseen, yet hoped for.
Said another way, I know that God is real, in spite that my relative capability to understand...instead of;
I hope God is real in spite of my relative capability to understand!
I could devote 10 pages to this, but you wouldn't read it, and neither would I. I'm just trying to boil it down to practical.
Peace and love, read your Bibles, get into the old testament...remember the New Testament ain't new!
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