The Doctrine of Belief

A.C. Winter

Description

Discover what Biblical believing really means and why it is essential to salvation.
The Doctine of Belief proposes a practical definition of believing in God.
A.C. Winter describes what God expects from us to fulfill this mandate for salvation. He also explains how believing in God is the key to sanctification and experiencing an abundant life.
• Get answers to questions such as:
• What is the definition of faith?
• How are faith and believing related?
• What happens to someone who refuses to believe in the Lord?
• How is the belief of demons different than ours?
The author also explores how even good events can drive us away from God if they result in us focusing more on ourselves. He considers the best way for us to respond to good fortune as well as setbacks, so we don’t miss out on the lessons God wants us to learn or the blessings God wants us to have.
Believing is the key to receiving the faith that helps us understand the righteousness of God. It’s also the key to applying God’s righteousness to our lives, which is sanctification, and to gaining the fullness of Christ, which is the abundant life. So, what does it mean to believe?
Steeped with wisdom from the Bible, you’ll treasure this proposal to the church that reveals how to practice believing in God.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Biblical Commentary
• Philosophie et théologie
• Abundance
• Salvation
• Faith
• Trust
• Salut (religion)
• Sanctification
• Life

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664276888
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE DOCTRINE OF BELIEF
A PROPOSAL TO THE CHURCH ON HOW TO PRACTICE BELIEVING IN GOD
A.C.Winter


Copyright © 2022 A.C.Winter.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Unless marked otherwise, all Scripture quotations are taken from The New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
 
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7689-5 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7690-1 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7688-8 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022916063
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 09/01/2022
CONTENTS
Introduction
 
Chapter 1 Abraham
Chapter 2 Believing Defined
Chapter 3 Faith Defined
Chapter 4 How Faith and Believing Relate
Chapter 5 God’s Work, Our Responsibility
Chapter 6 God’s Sovereignty versus Freedom of Choice
Chapter 7 What Happens to a Person Who Refuses to Believe?
Chapter 8 Demons: How Is Their Belief Different from Ours?
Chapter 9 The Centurion
Chapter 10 James
Chapter 11 Believing and the Abundant Life
 
Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
Our lives are filled with events that require responses from us. These responses start inside of us—our thoughts and feelings—and are affected by our relationships with God. When these events are difficult, they can either become problems for us or opportunities to grow closer to God. Even good events can drive us away from God if we become more self-focused and self-sufficient in the good times. How does God want us to respond to these events? What is the best way for us to respond so that we don’t miss the blessing or the lesson? The answer is to believe in the God who is infinitely involved in these events. In fact, God is using these events to accomplish some great purpose. So, how are we to respond? What does believing in God mean? How do we start if we do not know God?
I have been in churches all my life, listening to many sermons and teachings, and one of the main difficulties in communicating truth is our vocabulary. We use terms that we do not understand, which presents a confusing Gospel message. The Holy Spirit has intervened to aid in the understanding of the truth, but I would like to clarify the message by more accurately defining the meaning of believing in God. Since faith and trust are often used as synonyms for believing, we will define these concepts as well.
Most churchgoing people label themselves to identify a particular doctrinal position they hold to and the group they belong to. We call ourselves Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, and Episcopalians. The label Christian was originally a derogatory name (“little Christs”) until it was adopted by the church in Antioch. 1 Other early Christian names include the Way, 2 brethren, disciples, saints, the elect, beloved, the faithful, children, and believers. But all who are part of the bride of Christ 3 must be believers.
What does it mean to be a believer ? How do we believe? If we don’t understand what we are trying to do, how can we obey the command to believe? If we have a wrong understanding, we can confuse ourselves and—even worse—confuse others. Since we are commanded to believe, we need to get it right, especially when believing is the path to righteousness. 4
Abraham did something—he believed. God declared him righteous, and that declaration was related to Abraham’s action. What did he do—and when did he do it? How did Abraham’s action result in Abraham’s relationship with God? We want to answer these questions so that we can be like Abraham, the “father of our faith.” 5 Abraham’s faith grew because Abraham believed in God.
In Romans, the great statement of the doctrine of salvation, the apostle Paul expresses his desire to meet the Roman church so that he can give to them and receive from them spiritual gifts. These spiritual gifts would make them stronger so that their faith would continue to be proclaimed throughout the world. This faith that Paul wanted to strengthen in the Roman church is first experienced in the Gospel. And so, Paul states that he is not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Paul goes on to say that the revelation of the righteousness of God comes to those who believe. 6 The righteousness of God encompasses God’s entire being—not just His actions. God’s person, power, purposes, and priorities are perfect. God needs to give us understanding for us to begin to grasp His righteousness. This faith must come from God.
The understanding of the righteousness of God and salvation are given to those who believe. Salvation comes when we first believe in the faith God has revealed to all people. The understanding of the righteousness of God is received by the Christian like repeated doses of faith upon faith. Apparently, there are separate infusions of faith from the beginning, salvation, all the way to glorification, encompassing the whole process of sanctification in between. This “faith upon faith” is the same word picture that John gives us where we receive grace upon grace. 7 Both are dependent upon the Christian believing. Notice that the tense of the verb “believes” in Romans 1:16 is not past and finished. It is active. It is present and continuing. Believing is the key that opens the door to receiving salvation.
Believing is the key to receiving the faith that helps us understand the righteousness of God. Believing is the key for applying God’s righteousness to our lives, which is sanctification. Believing is the key to gaining the fullness of Christ, which is the abundant life. So, what does it mean to believe?
This short book will define what “believing in God” means in the biblical sense and not in a dictionary definition sense. We will examine how the Bible uses the word believe and what God wants us to do when He tells us to believe. We will also offer practical steps—a working model—for what believing in God looks like in our lives so that we know what we are to do as we obey the command to believe. 8 We will also answer how believing and faith are related and in doing so make clear what our job as people/believers is and what God does for us. We will also show how Christians are supposed to believe compared to how demons believe. We are defining the “doctrine of belief” and not the common usage of the verb “to believe.”
In our secular society, people use the verb believe as a synonym for think . Many even weaken the verb believe by using it when they think something is true, but they have no evidence to support their thought. This is not how the Bible uses the word believe. We will explain what the Bible teaches us about believing and explore how biblical characters believed or failed in their believing. We will also give personal testimonies demonstrating believing in God so we can apply this concept to our lives.
To get started, we will define the verb believe , the noun faith, and the word trust, which is a noun and verb, as we will be using them in this book. We will defend the definitions of these words; if you have a different understanding, please read on.
Believe: The necessary actions one takes to biblically respond to God. There are three components:
1. Acknowledge God’s involvement, significance, and sufficiency in all of life’s situations.
2. Thank God for what He is doing in the present situation.
3. Submit to God and His Word in the present situation.
Faith: A gift from God that has two components:
1. Understanding—evidence, substance, spiritual insight.
2. Confident assurance, conviction.
Trust: There are two ways this word is used:
1. Verb: Placing one’s confidence in an object. A decision one makes to rely on something greater.
2. Noun: A feeling of confidence in an object. Confident assurance.
God gives people faith so we can respond to Him by believing. We need to make a clear distinction between faith and believing so that we communicate whether we are talking about the gift God gives us or how we respond to that gift. Furthermore, we need to identify whether we mean the decision or the feeling when we use the word trust . Half of the time, when we use the word trust, we are referring to the confident assurance (noun) that comes from God, which is part of faith. The rest of the time, we refer to the decision to trust (verb), and that is part of believing. In believing, we decide to place our confidence in God and His Word. When we place our confidence in God, the true Believer will gladly submit to Him.
Another source of confusion is that we use faith and belief interchangeably. This is understandable since both represent what is true for the believer in Christ. We are defining wha