Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
It's nothing about LSM "umbrellas" or your twisting of the Greek word "pisteuo," which means "to believe, to be persuaded of, to place confidence in, to trust, to have reliance upon, and not mere credence." (Vine.) In this regard, to believe the good news is to obey the message from God to believe in Jesus' sacrifice for our sins.
|
credence means "acceptance as valid" so
not mere credence means that pisteou goes beyond intellectual acknowledgment of something existing or being valid.
The key is the word "trust". My "Strong's Red Letter Edition" concordance gives a similar definition of "pisteuo" (4100):
Pisteuo means not just to believe, but also to be persuaded of; and hence, to
place confidence in, to trust and signifies, in this sense of the word, reliance upon, not mere credence, hence it is translated "commit unto", "commit to one's trust", "
be committed unto".
In English, when we say believe, it can be used in the sense of trust e.g. "I believe in you!", this is the closer meaning to pisteuo than "I believe in Santa" which is intellectual acknowledgment of existence. Actually, Pisteuo even goes farther than trust according to Strong's and can be meant as "commit oneself to"
So the bible never says that we are to pisteuo Jesus' sacrifice. Instead the wording is believe "into" (eis in Greek) Jesus, which many bible scholars and teachers including Witness Lee acknowledge!
In other words we're supposed to commit ourselves, or "trust" our way into Jesus. This startling sounds like how the Israelites were expected by God to "commit themselves unto" Him or "trust" their way into the promised land! Christians are promised salvation unto eternal life, but they have to receive this gift through faith by trusting their way into Jesus in the same way that the children of Israel where expected to trust their way into their promised inheritance.
Jesus say he was the "way" the truth and the life. He also said there was a narrow "way" that leads to life and few find it. Scripture also says we are to "walk by faith" and not by sight just as the Israelites were expected to when they saw the giants. The Christian life was alluded by Paul in many places as a "race" that had to be finished becoming consistent with Matthew 24:13 which says only those who "endure to the end will be saved", just as the Israelites were expected to endure their way into the good land.
Believing and receiving salvation isn't a one time event but it's a race we run and have to finish. Many of the seeds in the parable of the sower which did not land on the good earth grew and perished , meaning they died and did not reach "eternal life". The way to run the Christian race is by making sure our hearts become the good earth through repentance by which God creates in us a clean heart (Psa 51), so that we can bear the fruits of Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control.
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may
fall by the same sort of disobedience. - Hebrews 4:11
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever
does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. - John 3:36
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. - Matthew 7:21
http://nodustybunnies.blogspot.com/2...-save-you.html