Answers about belief

Why should I become Christian? Can I not just believe in the things I believe in?

God has given us freewill.  We can choose to obey him or choose to disobey.  You can believe the things you wish to believe in – yes.  This is your choice. There are however, very good reasons to believe in Jesus and do what he commands us.  Some of these good reasons are: Living forever [...]

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Should I get my baby baptized or wait until she is old enough to make the decision herself?

You should wait. The Bible links baptism with belief and repentance. For example: Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins (Acts 2:38) But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus [...]

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What happens if Jesus returns before I am baptised but I am on the path to getting baptised?

The simple answer is we don’t know. Consider this verse from Mark 16:16: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” It is clear what will happen to those who believe and are baptised. It is also clear what will happen to those who don’t believe, whether [...]

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Which church is to be followed?

It’s not so much a matter of which church is to be followed. It’s more a matter of following Jesus: believing what he believed, taught and lived. However, part of following Jesus means we will join together with other people who are also following Jesus (e.g. 1John 1:1-4; Heb. 10:23-25), and it’s when we join [...]

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How do we obtain salvation?

You ask how a carnal man can get saved — a question prompted by your reading of Romans 8:5-8.  God offers the gift of salvation to those who believe the Gospel repent and turn from their evil ways then are baptised into Jesus Christ obey God and Jesus and strive everyday to serve them, leaving [...]

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Are there examples in the Bible of people who believed but had no faith and people who believed and had faith?

In the Bible, ‘belief’ and ‘faith’ are the same thing (see the answer to ‘What is the difference between faith and belief?‘), so we can’t really say that someone believes but doesn’t have faith because belief is faith. Having said that, the Bible does make a distinction between a living faith and a dead faith: a living [...]

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How are we sure God exists?

The first thing to say is that the existence of God is different from the existence of, say, trees or chairs. The existence of a tree is usually so obvious that you don’t need to present arguments — almost nobody would dispute the existence of tree that was right in front of them. God is [...]

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Why did the Jews constantly and so easily fall away from God and serve the gods of other nations?

They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. Psalm 95:10 God uses these words to describe the behaviour of the nation of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. It shows us the primary reason why they fell away so easily and frequently. If they had [...]

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What is the difference between faith and belief?

There is no difference between ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ — they are the same thing. Although the words are different in English, the New Testament, for example, only has one family of words (from the root peithō (Strong’s #3982) in Greek) that are translated as both ‘faith’ and ‘belief’. Part of the reason why the Greek [...]

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What is faith?

In essence, faith is trusting someone or something. In Gen. 15 God tells Abram that he will give him a child and that Abram’s descendants will grow in number to become a nation: …the word of the Lord came to him: “…your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and [...]

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