The missus said something that occured to me...
To believe in God is not the same as believing God.
To believe in the Bible is not the same as believing the Bible.
To believe in Christ is not the same as believing Christ.
There is a subtle difference.
8 comments:
Excellent observation.
So true. The belief that the Bible speaks of is not intellectual ascent, or belief in something...but rather trust in someone...the person of Christ. We know that the devil himself is a believer.
Nice one!
Steve M.
We know that the devil himself is a believer
That is a nice one too bro!!!
LPC
Lito, your wife is clearly a formidable theologian!
Thanks Pr. Acroamaticus.
She does gives me a jab from time to time and it hurts - I said ouch when she said these.
Our wives are our fiercest critics but they do help us that way.
I heard a pastor said one time that when he hears a preacher bragging about his victorious Christian life, he treatens them by asking to interview the wife!
LPC
One can preach a sermon from the bible and it not be a Christian sermon.
One can follow the "Christian Ethic" and deny Christ (Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, etc).
Back in my Calvinist days I spent a lot of time agonizing over that very distinction. After comparing many verses I concluded that while the Bible sometimes uses the terms 'believing' and 'believing in' interchangeably, it basically teaches that believing in God means believing He is true, while believing God means believing what He says is true (usually with reference to a particular utterance).
Good point!
And that subtle difference can be Heaven or Hell.
Guys,
As we say down under...
"marvelous",
Those are absolutely good additional insights.
Thanks for saying them.
Christianity has ethics but it is not about ethics.
To believe God is to believe his promises are true in fact that should be the way it should be taken for believing **in** God, no?
Right it is as far as heaven is from hell.
LPC
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