What does it mean to believe?
I periodically have the privilege of presenting at our weekly Thursday morning Men’s Bible Study (aka MBS) and this time I tackled the topic of what it means to “believe” in a Biblical sense or to have faith. For the past several years we’ve been meeting by Zoom instead of in person by mutual agreement, since so many of us travel, live at a distance, and Zoom allows us to show up swiftly without driving and to record our sessions.
It turns out that the ancient Biblical concept of “belief” differs significantly in Biblical Greek ((pisteuó) from our modern concept in English. This difference makes a big difference in how we understand pivotal verses like John 3:16 which talk about what is needed to know, love, and trust our God from here into eternity:
For God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Compare this with the Greek word used for faith (pistis), which is virtually identical to that for belief. Both mean “to believe, entrust, have faith in, trust in”, a rich and deep concept that is leagues beyond giving mental or logical assent. We also talked about the difference between secular bipartite and Biblical tripartite views of human nature and extended our observations into what other Biblical words mean, like hope and love. The topic was large enough this time to use up my entire hour-long allotment, but it went by pretty fast. Click here to download and view a PDF of my PowerPoint presentation and/or click here to view a video recording of the presentation. Many of the concepts and realities discussed in this presentation are actively integrated into our Celebrate Salvation studies. Are we solidly grounded in our Biblical faith or inadvertently following the world’s much more shallow ways?
PS: The Zoom format has also proven to be an excellent venue for Celebrate Salvation groups. If you’re interested, have any questions about my recent talk or groups in general, or would like some support in getting a group going in your neighborhood or church, please feel free to contact me!
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