Let’s answer your important question – Is Biblical faith simply believing something is true?
Is Faith Simply Believing?
Not ‘In Spite Of’
Some have said faith is believing in something we know isn’t true. But that isn’t faith; faith isn’t despite the evidence. God doesn’t expect us to believe something we know is false. However, He sometimes asks us to believe something we can’t humanly understand.
Is Faith Believing Something without Evidence?
Beyond Objective Truth
Others have said that faith is simply being convinced something is true. But is that faith? That suggested definition falls short of Biblical faith; it even eliminates it. When something is objectively true, we don’t need faith. I’m convinced 2 + 2 = 4, so I don’t need faith to believe it.
What Does the Bible Say about Faith and Believing?
Doubting Thomas
Jesus’ disciple Thomas wasn’t with the other ten disciples when Jesus first appeared to them alive after His resurrection. Thomas knew Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried. However, Jesus had appeared to the ten when Thomas wasn’t present. When Thomas joined them, they said, “We have seen the Lord!” (John 20:24).
Can a Belief Without Proof be True?
However, Thomas, who is remembered throughout Church history as ‘Doubting Thomas,’ insisted he wouldn’t ‘believe’ without proof:
“But he (Thomas) said to them, “Unless I see the nail prints in His hands, and put my finger in the nail prints, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25).
Thomas Accommodated
Jesus accommodated Thomas’s lack of faith (doubt) and appeared to him eight days later:
“After eight days, His disciples were again inside with the doors shut, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you” (John 20:26).
Do Not be Faithless
Jesus couldn’t return to heaven, leaving one of His disciples doubting His bodily resurrection, so He provided proof:
“Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Put your hand here and place it in My side. Do not be faithless, but believing” (John 20:27).
Infallible Proof
Jesus wanted Thomas to believe, so He answered Thomas’s doubts. After meeting the resurrected Jesus, Thomas believed the undeniable proof:
“Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).
Though Jesus removed Thomas’s doubts, his type of faith wasn’t what Jesus looked for. And it wasn’t the faith that future Christians would need to have in Jesus as their Savior:
“When He (Jesus) had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty (God the Father) on high” (Hebrews 1:3; see also Acts 1:9-11).
Believers Specially Blessed
After Jesus ascended, He wasn’t here to provide the physical, undeniable proof as He did for Thomas. We who believe during this age won’t have the ‘many infallible proofs’ that the first-century witnesses had. We haven’t seen God, Jesus, or heaven. Yet the Bible asks us to believe in each without tangible proof.
John 20:29
There’s a gap in the evidence that requires (Biblical) faith. It’s not believing 2 + 2 = 4. And Jesus specially blesses those who have faith without having seen:
“Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have yet believed” (John 20:29).
Again, Jesus gave a special blessing to Christians who believed without irrefutable proof. Every Christian who has believed in Jesus after His ascension has the faith Jesus approved and sought.
Is Biblical Faith Simply Believing Something is True?
Eyewitness Testimony
Our faith during this age is based on hearing and accepting the testimony of eyewitnesses. They notarized Jesus’ sinless life, substitutionary death, and resurrection appearances and testified as recorded in the Bible. Jesus did provide that physical evidence to them, and the Apostle Paul said Jesus physically appeared to over five hundred witnesses before ascending back to heaven:
“Then He (Jesus) was seen by over five hundred brothers at once, of whom the greater part remain (alive) to this present time (55 AD), though some have passed away. Then He was seen by James and then by all the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:6-7).
According to Luke, after Jesus’ resurrection and before He ascended, He presented many undeniable proofs to witnesses:
“He presented Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, appearing to them for forty days, and speaking concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).
It Involves Volition
It’s not simple persuasion that something is true. Jesus provided the same evidence that led some people to believe and others to refuse. Biblical faith believes despite missing or incomplete evidence.
It has an element of volition. People must be open and choose to believe; they don’t believe against their will. The people in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth saw the same miracles that brought others to faith. However, ‘they took offense at Him’ instead of believing (Mark 6:1-5). Mark tells us Jesus’ response:
“He was amazed because of their unbelief” (Mark 6:6).
By faith, God’s children believe His testimony that He created the world and humanity, as He tells us, even when the unbelieving world disagrees. By faith, Christians believe Jesus is the only way to heaven even when society, and ‘science falsely so-called (1 Timothy 6:20-21),’ tells us there are many gods and other paths. Yet others won’t believe the same evidence.
Conclusion About Biblical Faith
It’s not despite the evidence.
It’s not persuasion because of undeniable proof.
Yet it’s beyond objective truth.
It’s not just believing 2 + 2 = 4.
Jesus accommodated ‘Doubting Thomas’ by giving him infallible proof.
Jesus specially blessed those who believe in Him without infallible proof.
The Bible writers were eyewitnesses with infallible proof of Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection.
Biblical faith involves volition; no one believes against their will.
Biblical faith has an element of mystery.
Believe in the name of Jesus today. Please watch the short Great News video on this page for clear help on how to be saved and receive eternal life.
