29 October 2019

A Few More Thoughts About Faith

Faith
B1 Defined
C1 I define faith as believing God.
C2 Bible verses
D1 Jonah 3:5 CSB Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.
D2 Romans 4:3 CSB For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)
D3 Romans 11:30 WEL For just as in times past you refused to believe God, yet now you have received mercy through their disobedience.
D4 Psalm 78:20-22 NLT Yes, he can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he can't give his people bread and meat." 21 When the LORD heard them, he was furious. The fire of his wrath burned against Jacob. Yes, his anger rose against Israel, 22 for they did not believe God or trust him to care for them.
D5 John 3:18 WEL The one who believes in him is not judged, but the one who does not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
B2 Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter. What faith is. Examples of brothers and sisters in faith. They show their faith by what they do. We do what we really believe. It is not just what we say we believe.

Classes of faith (from my feeble mind)
B1 Blind faith
C1 Blind faith is the faith where there is no reason to believe something other than what someone says of writes. An example might be I might someone whom I have never met before. This person tells me that they have 3 earned doctorate degrees. This person tells me something he/she has learned. I believe this person explicitly. I have never met them before. I do not know if they have any degrees. They give no reasons or logic to support their statement. I just believe it. This is blind faith. We all must have a little skepticism to test what someone claims.
C2 The common example: Too many still mention God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. They claim this was blind faith.
C3 But
D1 Abraham had many times believed God. Always it was the best choice to make.
E1 Genesis 12 Leave Haran:
F1 Genesis 12:1-4 NIV The LORD had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. 2 "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
F2 The rest of the chapter and following chapters show how God blessed Abraham.
E2 Genesis 15 Prediction of a son who will be the heir:
F1 Genesis 15:1-6 NIV After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." 2 But Abram said, "Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." 4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
F2 Prediction of a son in about one year: Genesis 18:10 NIV Then one of them said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son." Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.
F3 Prediction fulfilled: Genesis 21:1-3 NIV Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.
E3 Genesis 18 Prediction of judgment:
F1 Genesis 18:1, 20-23 NIV The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. ... 20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know." 22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
F2 Prediction fulfilled: Genesis 19:28-29 NIV He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. 29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
E4 Genesis The test:
F1 Genesis 22:1-2, 8, 10, 13 NIV Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love--Isaac--and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you." ... 8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. ... 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ... 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
F2 Isaac was delivered by a substitute.
D2 So it was reasonable for Abrahma to believe God in Genesis 22. Abraham had had many dealings with God. God proved faithful. What God predicted about Isaac being the heir came true. If Isaac was to die, then God would prove to be a liar or too weak. Isaac lived. Further, we know from Hebrews 11 that Abraham couldn’t understand this command but thought that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Hebrews 11:17-19 NIV By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
C4 Some articles:
B2 Reasonable faith—is a faith that the person mentioned about might have some proof of their degrees or perhaps, we have met them before. Still, we need a little skepticism to see if they really have these degrees and need more than a little, simple support for their statements. We simply must have some evidence.
C1 Personally, I look to Jesus as the foundation.
D1 It is reasonable that He existed. See here (also read the comments as there is much more information there) and here (PDF) for examples.
D2 It is reasonable that what is written about Him is true. See here and here and here (book) for examples.
D3 It is reasonable that what He said was true.
D4 It is reasonable that He is the Messiah. See here and here for examples.
C2 The Gospel chain of custody as presented by J. Warner Wallace. It is also here.
C3 Some examples of how others twist meaning into Jesus’s words.
D1 This is from a rebuttal to a debate by atheist Richard Carrier in the David Marshall v. Richard Carrier debate.
D2 Words of the Lord Jesus:
E1 Matthew 26:60-61 NLT But even though they found many who agreed to give false witness, they could not use anyone's testimony. Finally, two men came forward 61 who declared, "This man said, 'I am able to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days.
E2 John 2:19-21 NLT "All right," Jesus replied. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 "What!" they exclaimed. "It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?" 21 But when Jesus said "this temple," he meant his own body.
C4 Some other sources (I don’t necessary agree with all they teach. Always be a Berean).
D2 The Evidence for Christianity by William Lane Craig

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