p. 173 | FAITH | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 15, 1880

FAITH.

"But how am I to believe?" it is sometimes asked, "and what is it to believe; because it seems to me as if I had never doubted the truth of the Gospel?" That is, you never professed to disbelieve it—you never avowed yourself an unbeliever. But multitudes, who never professed to disbelieve, are without faith. They do not believe God. How then do they differ in His sight, from avowed unbelievers? You ask how are you to believe. Pray, are there two ways of believing? You know what it is to believe the word of a fellow-creature who has promised you some benefit; you have faith in his assurance, and expect the favor. Only change the object, and put God in the place of this fellow-creature, and faith means the same thing. Faith is the gift of God. It is only through Divine power that we believe the Gospel; but we speak not here of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, but of the nature of faith. To have faith in what another has said, and to believe what another has said, are equivalent expressions. Faith means believing, and believing means faith.

I once thought that faith was something more than believing, and perplexed myself not a little to know, among the various definitions of faith, whether I believed aright. But I am now convinced, that saving faith is the belief of saving truth; and I am more careful to know if it is "the truth" I believe, than how I believe it; for there are not two ways of believing.—Leaflet.