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NASB | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
Subject: What does the word"believe"involve |
Bible Note: Lionstrong, You make some rather authoritive sounding statements here. I can not help but to wonder what dictionary or source you ground your confidence in? As I look at "A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature" third edition, also more commonly known as BDAG I see a variety of five definitions to the word pisteuo. The overwhelming majority of New Testament instances are judged by them to be within the first three possibilities and I shall reproduce them here for you. 1. To consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one's trust, believe. 2. To entrust oneself to an entity in complete confidence, blieve (in) trust. 3. Entrust Do you see how in each of these they involve not only mental accent but they also involve trusting in something? Now perhaps EdB put a little extra flourish on how he described it, but what he was drawing out is this element of trust that is involved in the word. B.B. Warfield has an article in his book on theology that traces the scriptural notion through its Hebrew predecessors and on into the greek so that its idea can be traced throughout scripture and, while I admitedly have only found time to skim the discussion, it did draw out this idea of trust that is tied up to the verb. At the end it seems to be not just what you hold to be true, but what is it that you are placing your confidence in for that coming day of judgement. So I just wonder what source leads you to the conclusion that, "To believe means to mentallcy accent to an understood statement. It is to agree, to accept that a proposition, a message, a statement is true. It's as simple as that..." Keep in mind we are speaking of the greek word pisteuo and not our english word "believe." Now, with regard to "easy believism." This is truely an abhorrent doctrine, but I would have you understand what it is about. Easy Believism is not a derrogitory term that people throw at the doctrine of Justification by faith alone. I wholey believe we are saved by faith alone without works based on the merits of the finished word of Christ. However, I deny that faith will ever be alone, but faith comes hand in hand with repentence and other graces from God, though admitedly faith being the one of them which unites us to the death, burial, and ressurection of our Lord. This then is the heart of easy believism, the teaching that faith may dwell in a heart that is devoid of all other graces, most significantly repentence. And we should know that this is not true when we have a passage such as James chapter two, beggining with verse 14. Jas 2:14-17 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. Linger on this passage with me and let me make some observations. 1. He asks a pointed question about a faith which is not accompanied by works. "Can that faith save him?" A very direct question! 2. His answer is to compare that faith with somebody who simply verbally blesses a man who is hungry and without clothing, and he asks, what good is that? His point being that it is no good whatsoever. 3. He concludes that in the same way, the faith without works is dead. In other words, James says that such a faith indeed can not save them. Now the point is not that a man is saved by these works, but rather that a saving faith will never be found apart from other graces such as repentence unto a changed life. A chief aspect of that changed life being love. So let us throw in our lot with scripture and reject this notion of "easy believism." I do not say that we ever reject a simple trust in Christ as the source of salvation, but rather let us reject the notion that this simple faith will ever be found alone in a believer. Because when we believe, we receive the spirit, and those who have the spirit will indeed be changed from one glory to another. To quote our beloved John, whom you as well as I seem to be fond of, "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." 1 John 3:9 ESV. In Christ, Beja |