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- Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text promotes sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.
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- Here's your host, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Taking a question today about faith, and it actually has to do with our video that is entitled,
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- Atheism is a Faith? So here's that video, and then we'll get to our question here. Is atheism a faith?
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- Sure seems like it. They have their share of fanatics like most any religion, and you know what? They even have their own churches.
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- Seriously, guys? As for the question, the answer is no, it's not. Atheism is not a rebranding of faith, it's the absence of faith, and scripture affirms this.
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- In 2 Thessalonians 3, the Apostle Paul asked the church for prayer, and one of the things that he asked them to pray for is deliverance from wicked and evil men who are faithless.
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- In this context, that doesn't mean just atheists, but anyone who does not follow Christ, to whom faith is offensive.
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- Even polytheists are faithless, they worship gods of their own making because they do not have faith. You could surely say that an atheist worships, they worship themselves.
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- But if we're serious, a statement like, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist, is a misunderstanding of what faith really is.
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- Hebrews 11 .1 reads, Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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- So the biblical definition of faith is not a guess at something we can't see. It is knowing with absolute certainty the promises of God.
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- We can see in history that He's fulfilled His promises in the past, and He will do what He's promised for the future. So certain are we of His words that we are convicted to obey them.
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- Here's something that goes against the common understanding, to not have faith is to actually refuse to think. Psalm 92 .5
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- -6 reads, How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep. The stupid man cannot know, the fool cannot understand this.
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- When the subject of faith comes up, avoid semantic arguments and direct others to the truth. To live by faith is to know the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
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- And that's when we understand the text. Our question today comes from Marco in Texas, not
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- Marco Rubio. That would be Florida. Dear what? I was watching your video on faith and you say that atheists do not have faith and neither do polytheists.
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- I get the impression, though I don't think it's ever specifically stated, you think that Christianity is the only faith.
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- While I believe that it is only through Christ a person can be saved, Christianity doesn't have the monopoly on faith.
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- Aren't Islam and Hinduism also faiths, though they are the wrong faiths?
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- If there's something in your video that maybe I'm not understanding, please let me know. Thank you for all that you do. Marco, appreciate your email.
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- Yes, according to a worldly definition of faith, Islam and Hinduism are faiths.
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- Judaism, Mormonism, Christianity, these are all faiths according to the worldly definition.
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- But according to a biblical definition of faith, there is only one faith and it is the faith that Jesus gives.
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- Hebrews 12 to says that Jesus is the author of our faith and the perfecter of our faith.
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- And I also go back to the reference that was made in the video to second Thessalonians three to where Paul is asking the
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- Thessalonians to pray for him and his missionary brethren as they go out with the gospel, because there are those who are out there hostile toward the gospel because not all have faith is what
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- Paul says. They don't have faith. And the people that he was specifically talking about were polytheists.
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- They believed in multiple gods, yet they did not have faith, according to Paul's definition, because he's describing it according to the biblical definition.
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- Now, we do not see the word Christianity appear anywhere in the
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- New Testament. And the reason for that is because Christianity is a worldly term to describe people who are followers of Jesus.
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- But the faith is described in scripture as simply that the faith. First Corinthians 16, 13 stands strong in the faith.
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- You also have Paul warning the Corinthians later on in second Corinthians chapter 13 to examine themselves, to see whether they are in the faith.
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- Colossians 2, 7 says, be established in the faith, not be established in faith, but the faith.
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- And Jude at the beginning of his letter, he mentions that he is writing to contend for the faith.
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- So that is the way Christianity is described in the Bible as the faith. And the biblical definition of faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,
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- Hebrews 11, 1. And the only hope that we have is Christ, the author and perfecter of faith.
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- Thank you again for your question, Marco. If you have a question you'd like to submit, send it to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
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- For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .tt .com.
