Subject: Saved by belief or belief and baptism? |
Bible Note: Belief is synonymous with faith. The only difference between the words "faith" and "believe" is that "faith" is a noun and "believe" is a verb. To imagine that faith ("belief or trust") and believe ("have religious faith") have different meanings is to err. 'Belief in the N.T. denotes more than intellectual assent to a fact. The word [belief] (Gk. pistis, noun; pisteuo, verb) means *adherence to, committal to, faith in, reliance upon, trust in* a person or an object, and this involves not only the consent of the mind, but an act of the heart and will of the subject. "Whosoever believeth in him" is equivalent to "whosoever trusts in or commits himself to him [Christ]." Belief, then is synonymous with faith, which in the N.T. consists of believing and receiving what God has revealed' (New Scofield Reference Bible, Oxford, 1967). |