Questions About Faith

[EvilMIA]

So, I have some questions about faith and how we live it out. I think a lot of the time faith is changed into a warm fuzzy feeling, somewhat like how we deal with the idea of love. That’s not what I’ll be talking about. I’m asking about the kind of faith that can be applied, not just felt.
Here goes… What is faith? Is it trust and confidence in God strong enough to do things we couldn’t do without Him? And if we claim to have faith (even if it’s small as a mustard seed) why can’t we move mountains? (Mat 17:20; Mat 21:21; Luke 17:6) If we are the righteous ones and we should live by faith, how do we do that? Is faith the sole belief that if God wants to do something he can, and so there’s nothing to worry about? I know that there probably isn’t a step by step checklist that tells us how but, I just want to see if you guys have any ideas about this.

Another thing is… It has been a goal of mine to take what I believe and back it up with facts. Because, facts are things that you can’t get around. If a law goes against a theory, the theory has just been disproven and is therefore a lie or misconception, narrowing a lot of teachings down and excluding most.
On some points though, faith has to be there. There is no tangible proof for the existence of heaven so the question here would be: Is faith a belief only in things that can’t be proven?

Here is a list of the definitions of the word ‘faith’:

Faith:
noun
1.
confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another’s ability.
2.
belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3.
belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
4.
belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
5.
a system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.
6.
the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc.: Failure to appear would be breaking faith.
7.
the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one’s promise, oath, allegiance, etc.: He was the only one who proved his faith during our recent troubles.
8.
Christian Theology . the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved.

Sorry about all the questions. I am kind of getting down to the nitty gritty and detailed here but I just want to make it clear what I’m thinking so it’s easier to reply.

[SLJ]

The first thing that comes to my mind is the great faith chapter – Hebrews 11 – the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ who lived by faith and trusted God and acted on that faith and died in faith without seeing the promises fulfilled.

And then James tells us that “faith without works is dead”.

Just some thoughts,
Sonia

[Alex_Smith]

My initial reaction was: “1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another’s ability”, where the person is God. However, I quickly Googled “Faith” and skimmed acts17-11.com/faith.html which made me think about it more…

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

I guess we need to trust & have confidence in what God has provided evidence for (e.g. the physical incarnation, death & resurrection of Christ) and things He has only told us about (e.g. everyone worshipping Him in the New Creation).

I think “moving mountains by faith” is a metaphor to the impact faith can have, rather than a physical thing, otherwise the world must be completely devoid of faith (which doesn’t add up to me).

[JasonPratt]

In regard to the mountain moving:

1.) The context of the saying presupposes there can be a faith much smaller (analogically speaking) than a mustard seed.

2.) Jesus’ own chosen apostles had a faith much smaller (analogically speaking) than a mustard seed.

3.) Jesus promised that if we followed Him we would one day do works even greater than the ones He was doing during His ministry.

4.) The saying about the mountain was also delivered (at least once) in contextual comparison with the works of power being done by Jesus.

The context is what leads us to take the saying as having a more literal meaning than we might otherwise suppose, unless we suppose the accounts of Jesus’ miracles are only fabrications or narrative parables by the authors. Since on other grounds I am inclined to believe the miracles happened, and since I am inclined to believe the saying is historical because it fits the criteria of embarassment in several ways (the authorites passing on the tradition would be unlikely to invent a saying that would quickly prove an easy challenge to their legitimate authority), then I am consequently inclined to take the saying as meaning literal miraculous works of power.

However:

5.) Even in the canon the immediate apostles of Jesus do not do greater works (and in fact seem to do less), including on the scale of moving mountains into the sea.

6.) Nor have subsequent generations of Christians ever done such a thing. (Aside from some ill-established and legendary tales probably inspired by the need to ‘fulfill’ just such a saying, always presented for purposes of showing how great such-and-such a saint was.)

My first conclusion is not that we have no faith, but that however much faith we think we have should still be considered much less, analogically speaking, than the size of a mustard seed. Atomic or molecular or maybe cellular faith, but not the size of a mustard seed. It’s a warning about spiritual pride–which fits Synoptic contexts and stylism quite well, not incidentally!

My second conclusion, because the forms of the sayings are positive promises, is that Jesus is talking about what we shall be able to do in the new heavens and the new earth of the day of the Lord to come.

Neither conclusion invalidates the interpretation that Jesus was metaphorically describing the power of faith before then, of course, in the sense of faithful cooperation with God in the works He is working.

[nimblewill]

I’ve come to the conclusion in my own life that the Christ in me is quite separate from the me in me. I am divided. He is doing things through me that I may not even be aware of, although if I watch I can see Him doing them. I am a walking contradiction; both prodigal and older brother, both lost and saved, both Sheep and Goat.