Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Faith and belief

Christians are called to have faith in Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament, however, is big on not putting our faith in anything other than God.

Thus, someone who has faith in Jesus Christ but does not believe that Jesus Christ is God is risking violating a central principle of the Old Testament.

Moreover, faith in Jesus requires submission to Jesus. But Jesus wants his followers to obey the central principles of the Old Testament.

Thus, for someone aware of these observations, it is not possible to have faith in Jesus Christ without believing that he is God. This is a serious problem for accounts of faith that claim that a Christian need not have any doctrinal beliefs.

4 comments:

Walter Van den Acker said...

Alex

"Christians are called to have faith in Jesus Christ" is a doctrinal belief. Accounts of faith that claim that a Christian need not have any doctrinal beliefs would not hold that Christians are called to have faith in Jesus Christ.
I personally know people who call themselves Christian because they see Jesus as the (morally) best possible example of what a fallible human being can be. They have "faith" in the good things Jesus taught and did, but they acknowledge the he was a fallible human being. The fact that Jesus was an imperfect human being makes him more admirable because it gives them "faith" that an imperfect, fallible human being can, on his own, become such an example of morality.

Alexander R Pruss said...

As far as I know, the best philosophical defenders of beliefless Christian faith still want to say that Christian faith involves outward and emotional behavior of the sort the New Testament calls for.

Walter Van den Acker said...

Alex

"Christian faith involves outward and emotional behavior of the sort the New Testament calls for." Nothing I said contradicts that.

James Goetz said...

I am a Trinitarian, but I find fault in your post. For example, 2 Chronicles 20:20 says to have faith in God's prophets: "... Have faith in the LORD your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.'" (NIV)