What is Faith?

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Maria
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What is Faith?

Post by Maria »

The Holy Faith has been ridiculed from the time of the Apostles.

In the Roman times, those following Christ were even called atheists because Christians would worship neither the Roman Emperors, nor the pantheon of gods found in Roman Temples.

Today, the new atheists (as distinguished from atheists during Christ's time) ridicule the Holy Faith calling it illogical and unreasonable, yet Christ tells us that by Faith, we can move mountains, stop the lions, and even escape sharp swords or certain death.

There have been news stories of Christians falling several hundred feet during construction of nuclear cooling towers into certain death, but they were not impaled by the maze of rebar, instead they landed like a feather pillow between the tightly-spaced rebar without injury. They commented that angels protected them and guided their landing. How can this be explained logically?

So, what is Faith, and how do we come to have the Holy Faith?

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

Justice
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Re: What is Faith?

Post by Justice »

Maria wrote:

The Holy Faith has been ridiculed from the time of the Apostles.

In the Roman times, those following Christ were even called atheists because Christians would worship neither the Roman Emperors, nor the pantheon of gods found in Roman Temples.

Today, the new atheists (as distinguished from atheists during Christ's time) ridicule the Holy Faith calling it illogical and unreasonable, yet Christ tells us that by Faith, we can move mountains, stop the lions, and even escape sharp swords or certain death.

There have been news stories of Christians falling several hundred feet during construction of nuclear cooling towers into certain death, but they were not impaled by the maze of rebar, instead they landed like a feather pillow between the tightly-spaced rebar without injury. They commented that angels protected them and guided their landing. How can this be explained logically?

So, what is Faith, and how do we come to have the Holy Faith?

Faith by definition means to believe in something whether it be a higher power, yourself, or someone else. But the faith the Jesus Christ, the savior of the world is different than any other faith as it was given to us by the son of God himself. To have the Holy Faith can be tough and challenging because we as humans struggle with temptation and sin daily. But we can resist them by praying to the one true God: the Holy Trinity and by God's compassion, we can truly keep the faith.

Agios_Irineos
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Re: What is Faith?

Post by Agios_Irineos »

The tendency to view faith and logic/reason as polar opposites one of the other is an insidiously western approach. (In my protestant days, I used to do exactly that with the slogan "Faith is the willingness to place belief above logic.") Let us consider this question from an Eastern perspective, though. Faith is not an esoteric set of beliefs, syllogistically arranged to simulate logic. No, faith is what we experience in the revelation the True God: the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We need no scholastic proofs, because we have encountered God in that mysteries of the Church, in the partaking of his Grace and his revelation to mankind. Faith is nothing less than the lived experience of an Orthodox Christian.

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