If the Bible is the "TRUTH" why do we need "FAITH"?

Question

I know it seems like im giving Bible folks a hard time, really i'm not trying to. I keep seeing these bible quotes from people claiming it as fact, truth, the true word of god, It seems that the "Faithful" shoulndt need faith if they have "Truth" Id love peoples thoughts. Respectfully,If we can keep the bible quotes to a minimum, thats not what im hoping for in an answer, and it wont help my understanding. I wanna know what you think, not what the bible says.

to his glory ... u said
If you don't want to know what the bible says then why do you ask a question about it?

I ASKED:
I want to know what YOU think, NOT WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS, your really helping prove my point. Faith doesnt seem to give you to much room to think.

To me Truth and Fact are the same thing. A fact is a fact, it is real and undisputable, therefore not requiring faith. Truth = Fact Mabye im wrong.

Answer 1

Good question! It is hard after 20+ years of living by "Thus saith the Lord" to not use a Bible quote:)....but I will try....Oops! I just used one.

A little about myself. I used to lean more towards the agnostic side, not quite knowing what to believe, and angry with God because of certain physical handicaps that I have. Some of this came about because of not really knowing what the Bible said, and listening to others tell me what it said without checking it out. Without proving it for myself.

When I was exposed to the truth, the REAL truth, and not the lies I had been told for years and years in the Methodist and other protestant groups, I refused to belive it. It totally conflicted with what I had always heard, always been taught, with my traditions. I decided that I was going to prove this new knowledge wrong. Took me about 6 months of intensive study, and by the time I was done....I was totally converted to the point of view that I subscribe to today, which is the one I was trying so hard to disprove.

Truth builds faith.

If you just go thru life on what people say (the old "they say" thing) without a sincere, determined effort to check it out, then real, truly deep faith is impossible. ( Keep in mind, we are discussing faith not fanaticism, fanaticism needs and accepts no proof for it's "faith"). Because you will always have questions....not that I do not have questions! But by questions I mean that you will never have confidence (faith) in your basic body of knowledge if you have not proven it for yourself.

Question all you believe! Prove all truths.

If I had not proved for myself that the Bible story flow, the main thrust of what God is trying to get accross to us, is the same from Genesis to Revelations, then I would have a really difficult struggle, as many do today, understanding the Bible.
That study has given me great faith that the Bible as we have it is true. Because I proved it.

How did I prove it? I read my Bible, I checked out the meaning of some of the more difficult words. I studied history, chruch and secular, so I could see how the traditions of men crept in and hijacked the Church off it's foundation of the Prophets and Apostles with Christ as the Chief Cornerstone. It took work. But I wanted to know.

If you really want to understand how truth and faith work together, you need to go prove what is true.

I will post 2 links to get you started. It is better for me to show you where to fish than to fish for you. I caution you, even on these sites you need to be careful to prove all things.

Edit: On the contrary! Faith and Truth require you to think!

Answer 2

Wow thank goodness somebody cleared up that 40 days and 40 nights thing. That is way more believable than 100 days huh? Their is some proof that several people in the bible existed (found in other documents from the time period of the first century AD) but there is a huge difference between proving I lived in the year 2009 and proving that I single handedly stopped the desacration of lady liberty by 5000 Klan biker rapists. Considering the fact that their is reams of documents from other cultures (Mesopotamia, babylon, crete, egyptian, etc...) that have stories about saviors that were 1. born of a virgin, 2. tempted in the wilderness by an evil being, 3. divine being who was both the son of god and god himself, 4. killed and rose from the dead 3 days later blah blah blah and these stories existed anywhere from 100 to 1000 years before "jesus" landed on the wacky and wild israeli philosopher scene, I think you will have to decide whether or not you want to use reason (the ability to use logic and evidence to reach a conclusion) or faith (the belief of something without substantive evidence or in spite of contrary evidence) It never ceases to amaze me when someone uses the term "he/she is a person of faith" as if it was a good thing.

Answer 3

You obviously do not believe the Bible is the TRUTH yourself. You asked the question starting with "IF".

I can believe I can fly. The truth says, "I can't". Unless I'm willing to change my beliefs. I'm still going to believe I can fly.
The only way that my beliefs will change is... Example, Experimentation, and/or Thought based on true information.

Either I see you try to fly and you crash. I go out and crash. OR You say, "Dude, it's physically impossible for you to fly. You have no wings to sustain flight."

So in the case of the Bible, someone says, "You're going to Hell." You say, "I don't believe in the Bible..." Well, you are showing greater faith because if it's a lie. You're not going to go to Hell. Those that believe and have experienced God...

What non believers do not understand in their finite minds is that there is an INFINITE mind out there. The reason is they have not been exposed to it. If they had, they'd understand.

Much like gravity, He exists. You can go jump off a skyscraper and live to tell about it. That is until you reach the ground.

The most simple way to explain faith. Do you believe that a chair can remain a chair after you've sat in it? If you do... Sit in it. You just practiced faith.

Answer 4

This is because the "truth" of the bible needs "faith" to be able to accept it. You must realize that although the Christians believe that the bible is "truth", it was still written by man. The other religions of this earth also believe that their holy books are the "truth" and those books do not always agree with the teachings of the bible. So, which to believe? This requires faith.

Answer 5

It is because people aren't willing to see the truth as fact, and as you have heard many times before, if something isn't considered fact but you believe it to be true, then you have faith in it. I have faith that the Bible is true. People on here make the Bible sound like it was written by morons. It wasn't written by morons, it was written by God through man. Everyone can choose to believe that if they want to. However, we have to choose to believe that things like evolution is fact without questioning it. I don't see how that is fair, especially since there are a lot of holes in evolution. The Bible has been studied and most of it has been archaeologically proven. There are places in the Bible that were thought to be fictional places and then they were discovered by archaeologists and found to be real. Each portion of the Bible is being proven slowly but surely. So it should be considered fact, but it's not, so I have faith that it is the real deal. I hope that helps. God bless.

Answer 6

Because the bible is not the truth...it is a man made book. It is not infalliable. It has many contridication within it. Not to say that all of it is false, there is truth in it. It is up to you to dicipher which is true and false. People have faith when things are down for them or they want to hope for the better. I agree with your quote on if the faithful know the truth then why have faith...that's b/c they don't know. Just like the rest of us.

Answer 7

I can only give you my perspective, "Faith " can be viewed as accepting what the Bible tells you, because you can not ask the author directly. Different denominations view scriptures differently. This can be extremely confusing. "Truth" is also accepting what the Bible tells you. "Faith" can also be used to describe the hope and belief that what the Bible tell you will happen and give you comfort in a low time for you. I am a believer in the Lord. I have found thru reading my bible, God reveals the meaning of scripture to us individually depending on our need at the time. I am also a health care provider and I have seen miralces happen. I have seen patients be told they have an incurable illness and the person is a strong believer. They go thru all of the treatment and become well. I have also seen tumors disappear, that were just there days or weeks before without treatment. I have also prayed for solutions to problems, I have had a solution in mind. Sometimes I do not get the solution I had in mind, but one that was soooooooooo much better than mine. "Faith" is hope in what you read in the Bible to take place and guide and comfort you. Another way to look at "Faith" is an analogy, If I listen and believe what is written it will come true. I hold on to these quotes as a comfort in "stormy weather"(difficult times) and I can live and face each day because these things have been told to me thru the Bible. "Bad thing" do happen to believers just as they do to non-believers. It is my "faith" in WHAT I have READ,(this does include quotes)in knowing the "truth" in BELIEVING these things happened or will happen if I trust and believe that all thing are possible thru Christ Jesus. This is just my view, I hope it will shed some light on your question or at least aid your search in the meaning of these two words. I believe it is as individual to you as it is to me. My favorite quote is "God will never put anymore on you, than you can handle", my difficulties have been many and getting thru each event has made me a much stronger, confident, compassionate individual. I also believe, just as "The Footprints in The Sand" describes, at times I have been picked up, carried, and had loving arms wrapped around me when I felt I could no longer take another step. I weathered each event and came out a better individual for having gone thru it. I learn something each time this happens.

Answer 8

Okay, I have tons of people on Y!A saying that the Bible is just a story book and stuff like that. It takes faith for me not to doubt that its God's word. And I need faith to believe in something I can't see or explain. I'm the same as an evolutionist in many ways, or an atheist. We both believe in something we can't prove, but we really believe it (faith). And I totally agree with you on the Bible quotes thing.

Answer 9

Maybe because they don't BELIEVE, deep down, that the Bible IS "the Truth" (it has a LOT of whacked out stuff in it!). So they cling to faith.

I consider myself lucky, since I'm an atheist, so I can study the Bible (occasionally) as history and literature,not as "fact".

Answer 10

You have a very valid point. The problem here is that too many people hold onto certain ideas and beliefs instead of having faith. I am known to quote a bible verse or two, but I assure you, it is to promote understanding, and I do not assume that any document is completely the truth.