Faith

FAITH PRIMER 01

by Vern Yamane
05/31/18
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FAITH 101   

DEFINITION OF FAITH
     What is faith? Everyone needs it. Everyone uses it. Trust, belief, confidence are the synonyms are often used in place of faith. When we go to the grocery store to buy fresh fruits, vegetables, beef, pork, chicken, fish and other ingredients to make our meals we trust or have confidence that the food and goods are safe for human consumption. Fear is faith's antonym. Fear and distrust replace faith when we doubt. A few years ago, there was a Tylenol scare. Some died after taking some Tylenol. Confidence in that company that made Tylenol was destroyed. The consumers had negative faith in that company. As we will see Christians and non Christians are similar in their exercise of faith and are dissimilar in the object of their faith..What follow is a basic definition of faith and some corresponding corollaries of faith

Heb 11:1, 6 (NIV) "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. {6} And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." 

THREE ELEMENTS OF FAITH
1.  FAITH MUST HAVE AN OBJECT -a focal point, which can be a statement, statements or a particular person.
2.  FAITH MUST HAVE AN ELEMENT OF HOPE-"what we hope for"
3.  FAITH MUST HAVE AN ELEMENT OF UNCERTAINTY -"what we do not see"

 THE FIRST ELEMENT OF FAITH IS IT'S FOCAL POINT.  This object can be a statement, statements or a person. We say I believe what I just read. I believe in Hell. I don’t believe in Hell. This is a belief in a statement. I believe in the laws of physics and chemistry. This is a belief in system of statements. I trust in John Doe. This is belief in the character in the person. If you believe, you must believe in something or someone.
Your faith is only as good as its object IE the character of the person or the trustworthiness of the statement. This object can be an organized coherent system of beliefs or an incomplete inconsistent series of statements.
I was surfing the internet one day and I came across a site on witchcraft. It was an attractive, well-organized site. I noticed that we shared something in common. We both had faith. We both hoped that what we believed was true. But there was a difference, our system of beliefs were completely opposite. Our object or focus of our faith was different.
     We are created to believe. God has created in us a vacuum in our innermost soul, which must be filled. If we don't believe in God we must believe in something or someone (Rom 1:20-23.)
Heb 12:2-4 (NIV) "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

SECONDLY FAITH MUST HAVE AN ELEMENT OF HOPE.
     What you put your trust or believe in must be something that you hope for. You must have a desire to believe. Why hope for something you do not desire? Hope is a desire to believe. The opposite of believing is unbelief, skepticism or distrust. If you mistrust your grocery store then you must grow your own fruits, and vegetables, raise your own livestock, slaughter your cattle, pigs, etc. If you don't believe the books written in physics and chemistry, you must conduct your own experiments to prove or disprove the statements in the books. If you don't believe in the public school educational system you must either send your child to private school or teach your children at home.  You want to believe because unbelief leaves you with alternatives that require you to do your own research.
THIRDLY beside believing in a person or body of truth, which you hope to be true, THERE MUST BE AN BE AN ELEMENT OF UNCERTAINTY.
If you are certain, your faith becomes fact. You are never quite certain that you will purchase good fresh produce, meat and poultry. You hope, you believe that the product you purchase is free of contamination. When you purchase your brand new car or appliance, you are never certain that your purchase will not fail the day after your warranty is void. What about the food in the restaurants or the office parties? Are you certain that the food was prepared properly? Life requires that we daily exercise a certain amount of faith.
Scientists and Christians have different goals in life but are similar in many ways. Both exercise faith that they will have the answer to their questions sometime in the future.. Both believe that there is an rational answer to everything they observe. For the scientists the rational answer is a set of laws and rules. For the Christian the rational answer is the God that made the laws and rules the scientist study.
Scientists like to think that there is no uncertainty in their lives. This is not so.
   Christians are no difference from scientists. We try to eliminate uncertainty. But unlike scientists we are honest and confess that uncertainty will always exist.  The thicker the layer of objectivity, the less the uncertainty. The thickness of this layer of this uncertainty varies from religion to religion, from scientific theory to scientific theory.  This layer is gradually changing with new discoveries. What was once thought to be clear cut on the surface is very intricately complicated in nature. 
     The Christian's faith is a reasonable faith. It is not one of intellectual suicide. But it does involve uncertainty. Isn't life uncertain? Those who wish to study this layer of objectivity can pick up books on this subject. This field of study is called apologetics.
     Even scientists in different field often say I don’t think we will understand xxxx in our lifetime. We hope we will understand sometime in the future.
In summary: FAITH must have 
----AN OBJECT 
-------AN ELEMENT OF HOPE (A DESIRE TO BELIEVE) and 
------------AN ELEMENT OF UNCERTAINTY 
    In Christianity, the object is the Bible and Jesus Christ. You must have a desire for the spiritual or the heavenly. Faith is uncertain, for fact requires no faith.

Heb 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."