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Hebrews 11:1

J

jwh

New Member
Could you break this down for me?

Hebrews 11:1 (King James Version)

Hebrews 11
1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.


Here is a a personal issue with me & you guys seem to have access to several meanings over words in The Scriptures. I feel God is showing me that a greater faith is trusting in Him, even not knowing what the outcome will be, or even what exactly the faith is for. I can understand that "evidence of things not seen" could actually imply that, as in I could say & know.... "I have evidence in things I dont see, or even know about"
But the word "hoped" leads me to believe I have to have an object or a desire to apply that faith to, or so to speak, trigger that faith mechanism.

Any comments or help appreciated.
 
Faith stands alone and exists. It is not a mixture of hope with personality parts, or religious dogma. It is a thing like love is a thing. However love and faith can not be explained as consisting of certain smaller items. It is an evidential trait that general mankind has close to God and created in the image of God who gave us all a measure of it. Faith can be closer understood as an essence accompanying the Word as in the first chapter of John. And in this definition of the Word, (I do not mean scripture or the Bible, which did not exist in "the beginning") God spoke all things into existence. Being pregnant (for want of a better word, also used by Cho, the Korean pastor) in faith and then birth in spoken word, a miracle is. We being children of God please God as children please their father with father-like traits. With faith we please God. Faith is not credited to any other category of living beings, spiritual or otherwise. This is one reason Satan failed and fails in his attempt to ascend and be like God. He was found lacking, but Satan still would like to control or hide faith as it exists. Want to please God? Rationalize faith less and exercise it more. How do you know you have it? Very little or nothing in your environment will cause it to glow or show itself. Be filled with the Holy Spirit and the resulting power will activate your faith at times. My explanation of faith strives to touch your hearing heart and your faith and therefore I pray the Holy Spirit warms this to your heart.
 
I'm not sure weather or not I'm at variance with Welltan, I'm going to start from scratch here.

Hope is a good place to start, Hope deals with something you expect or anticipate, its related to confidince. Hope in the bible is nothing like "I hope it doesen't rain tomorrow (when you don't know)" and more like "I hope I get paid Friday (when you've worked hard and been at a job for 20 years and never missed a check)". We normally use it in the first sense, but the concept scripture is using is the second one. Typically it deals with hope in our salvation. That groundwork laid you're right on that there has to be something you apply you're faith too.

Pistis, the Romanization of faith. Look at Epistemology for an idea of what it relates too. It deals with the highest level of certainty given by the highest level of reasonable evidence available. Typically the Bible talks about faith in God (that he is) faith in Christ (that he is God) and faith in the resurrection (or we are the most pathetic of all mankind). Faith may be applied to anything, though it is bad when it's applied to something which is not worthy of its conviction (The Bible condemns faith in the wisdom of men), and people have tried to apply it to nothing, though that crosses the line from the faith the Bible talks about to Fiedism. By definition it must have an object (person or event) and a reason.

To my experience the reasonable evidence varies wildly from person to person, some people first believe because they saw miracles, some because of the reasonableness of Christ, some from seeing Gods love, on and on. I believe ultimately only God gives such evidences, they are the foundation and reasonable basis of our faith, and we get more as we grow in him (he increases our faith). The certainty is on our end, we are given by God reasons to trust him, we are not allowed to doubt him when things look bad to us or at the slightest hint of an argument.

So, the definitions layed out so you can see the reason for my interpretation, to the passage itself.

Now:
Indicates bridging from one concept to the next, the contest of the previous passages are directly tied.

Faith is:
In this case either faith in God or faith in the Gospel, per chapters 4 and 6.

The substance of:
The basis for, the assurance of, ect.

Things hoped for:
Specifically that " we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. " the things hoped for here is salvation and heaven. See previous verse

The evidince:
More specifically, the conviction and proof of,

of things not seen:
Very straightforward. Despite Soren Kirkegaard this means what it says, not 'things that can't proven'

All that out of the way its very straightforeward. Being true to what God has shown us gives us assurance of salvation, and gives us proof of things we can't personally see. Mind that things not seen include say, the Crucifixion, which none of us here saw personally. Heb 11:3 "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God" is the first thing it refers too. A lot of people assume that the 'things not seen' mean spirits or ghosts and demons and such, but there isn't really any indication of that, its definitely talking about events.

I hope that is helpful.
 
While I don't disagree with any of what has been written above, jwh - I much prefer a simpler definition:

Faith is believing the promises of God.

Faith is believing He Is Who He says He Is.


For years after I started to study the Bible it would bother me when people would say things like "it takes faith to believe that the Bible is true", or "faith" to believe that creation requires a Creator - as opposed to believing utter inanity like spontaneous generation of self-replicating life.

No, it doesn't. When the Bible talks about the fact that the creation is proof of the hand of the Creator, and that only a "fool" can convince himself otherwise -- it is correct. Thomas needed proof, and asked to put his hand in the Lord's side. The proof that God exists, and that He Wrote the Bible is there for anyone who cares to look. I am the type of skeptic who can testify to this firsthand.

Greek gods are very different from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are "capricious", untrustworthy, and sometimes malicious. Satan -- by any of his various names -- attempts to use fear for his purpose in the same way that YHVH uses faith.

But God is a "keeper of Covenant". He made a number of promises to us in His Word: blessings, curses, redemption, forgiveness, life. While we can look at the past, and the testimony of others as to how He keeps His Word -- even prophecy fulfilled is not PROOF that He has done, and will do, for US what He says He will.

THAT kind of faith is the "substance of things hoped for" - that He will keep His promise to each of us. It is the evidence of things not YET seen. Our God is a keeper of His Word. You can bet your life on it. In that Truth you may have faith.


Blessings,
Mark
 
ding ding ding, we have a winner

actually, there are no "loosers" when we discuss our wonderful & powerful Lord!!!!

the simple explanation did it though, i was complicating & pondering too much on such a simple thing

yes, he does keep His promises

& i understand that He often shows his "proofs" to me, of course, i HAVE evidence when he does that, & when I dont see the evidence, i still know without a shadow He keeps his promises
 
J,

I agree with all of the above. I have a teaching entitled, 'Faith is Truth'. This teaching came several years ago as a result of my desire to understand faith, so I bought and read a book by Lester Summerall, who was raised up by Smith Wigglesworth, (the modern apostle of faith who healed scores of people and resurrected 14 people by some counts). It was 2 o'clock one morning when I finished the book several years ago while sitting in the great room of my house in Overland Park, KS. I put the book down and closed my eyes. I cried out to God in frustration and told Him that I did not understand faith any better than when I first started the book. I asked Him, "What is FAITH?" He told me to look it up in the concordance. I took out the Strongs, and I looked up the word faith. It turns out that the word faith occurs twice in the Old Testament and 243 times in the New Testament, (KJV). From this I immediately deduced that faith is a New Testament word. God told me to look up the word in the Hebrew dictionary and I did. It turns out that one of the Hebrew words that is translated as faith in the Old Testament is the word emuwn, (pronounced ay-moon, Strongs 529, also 530 is a variation), which can mean TRUTH. This gives us access then to understand a series of scriptures that lead to a simple equation as follows...

If FAITH = TRUTH and Jesus said, I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life, (John 14:6) then...

FAITH = TRUTH = JESUS and Jesus said, in effect that He is God, (that is why they killed Him, because they said He had committed blasphemy - Matt. 26:62-66) then...

FAITH = TRUTH = JESUS = GOD and the Bible says in I John 4:8 and 16 that God is love, then the final equation for faith is thus...

FAITH = TRUTH = JESUS = GOD = LOVE.

Knowing this equation breaks down faith to the truth of God and His essence, which is love. If we love God, then we will believe Him without question and OBEY Him QUICKLY without excuse, (John 14:15). Therefore true, Godly love is expressed in our faith of believing God and doing what He tells us to do. This faith, as expressed in Jesus as the Christ, gives us HOPE of eternal life and is SUBSTANTIATED with miracles and power. I believe that John understood and walked in this concept better than any of the apostles, though they taught is as well. These miracles support our hope for eternity that is in Jesus. No other religion on the planet has such power to support their beliefs, PERIOD. It is this faith in Christ and our hope of glory in Him that is given support by miracles from God, so that if people do not believe the words that we preach they should at least believe the miracles, (John 10:22-39). That is why people often hate me and come against the Word that I preach, because God ALWAYS and without exception backs it up with MIRACLES and POWER. This is how He has always worked and still works, (except in the case of John the Baptist - see Mark 16:15-20). Suffering persecution for preaching the truth is part of our job. When I posted the truth about healing on this web site, one person said that my teaching was from the devil. I get that a lot. They said Jesus had a demon, so I am in good company. However, when Jair received the truth about healing that I preach and obeyed it, God confirmed the Word with his healing. When we fear God, believe and obey Him quickly, then it opens the door for Him to reveal His secrets to us, (Psalm 25:14). God’s revelatory knowledge, (which is in one sense the same as His glory, see my teaching, KNOWLEDGE - The Key to Perfection) opens the door to perfection in Christ. This is how the church will grow up into Him and He will come back for us, (Eph. 4:9-16).

Colossians 1:24-29 - (NKJV)

24I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 25of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

Be blessed,

Ray
 
Yes, I believe in miracles also and have seen healing. Many christians live their whole life and never see any active faith or experience any event involving their own faith. The mind has a hard time grasping the concept. It is interesting though that when a family member is gravely ill, christians will pray for healing fervently no matter what denomination they are. Love and faith, such marvelous things. I am not sure I ever could completely understand either of them (or want to), but living is more blessed with both.
 
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