What Is Belief? : Part Two

In the previous posting we addressed the meaning of the words faith and belief (faith/belief) as they appear in the English Bible. Here, we will continue our study of Paul’s understanding of the meaning of “belief/faith. His concept of faith/belief is found in 2 Tim 1:12. Here, we find an important insight into Paul’s understanding of faith. “I know” says Paul, “in whom “I have believed” and “have been persuaded” that he is able to keep that which “I have committed to him” unto that day.” In this verse knowledge or knowing, persuasion, and commitment are the particulars of Paul’s understanding of the biblical concept of belief/faith. This would be especially the case of the Hellenistic Jews outside the land of Israel, the early Christians, and the writers of the New Testament. Faith or belief causes the believer to have insight; (faith must have content), and has consequently come to a “certitude of mind.” There is no room for serious doubt in the knowledge of his/her beliefs.

Faith Consists of Knowledge

Faith or belief must have content. The expression, “I believe,” is an incomplete sentence as it stands. There must be a direct object stated or implied by the context in order for it to make sense or communicate a coherent idea. There are numerous ways one comes to knowledge. As presented in the previous article on the meaning of faith, one may come to know a given thing through “sensual experience;” i.e., sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. Through these physical senses one acquires the data of his or her physical world, this is called empirical data. This, however, is only one way of knowing. One may also come to know through “discursive reason;” i.e., through logical processes of thought, both simple and complex logic, Aristotelian logic in particular, using deductive and inductive reason with cause and effect applications.

By way of example, I have never experienced the existence of my grandfather on my father’s side; however, I can know that he existed. His name was Maurice W. Lusk, Sr. He was a conductor on a passenger train for the N&W Railroad in Virginia and West Virginia. He died as a result of a train wreck when my father, Maurice, Jr., was 12 years old. I was not born until my father was 19 years old. My grandfather had been dead 7 years before I was born; I could not have known him experientially. I can say, however, I know that my grandfather existed. This is because one can know of a certainty things that cannot be known experientially or empirically. I can know through discursive reason (i.e. going from one piece of data or information to another in a discursive fashion), the cause and effect principle leads to the conclusion that my grandfather must, of necessity, have existed. He was the cause of my father’s existence and my father was the cause of my existence; the cause and effect application is evident in the conclusion drawn.

I can also know of my grandfather’s existence through the testimony of my father, who experienced my grandfather empirically. In fact, it is through the “acceptance of testimony,” that historians have accumulated the great body of what is considered to be, “the” facts” of history.

One reputable scholar, reading the Greek text of Romans 10:17, says that one of the primary means by which faith saves is through the acceptance of testimony. He reads the Rom 10:17 text as follows, “faith comes by hearing; i.e. through the physical sense of sound or the sense of hearing what is being said. In the case of the scholar’s interpretation of Romans 10:17, “hearing the words of Christ.” This reading warrants the conclusion that the acceptance of testimony is essential to faith and faith is essential to salvation, This most important aspect of the role of knowledge is mentioned by Paul in Romans 10:8-10, where Paul says (quoting Deut 30:14), “. . . the word is near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we preach, that if you confess with the mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from death you will be saved.” Of course there is more to the scheme of redemption or salvation than under consideration here. There is knowledge or revelation from God, and persuasion or conviction that the revelation is true and empowered to save, the one desiring to received the promise of eternal life must be persuaded that the testimony is true.

(a 3rd Article will follow)