Belief? Or Faith?

Belief and faith.

We tend to use those words synonymously, interchangeably, but they aren’t, really. There are some very profound, though for some of us, rather subtle, perhaps even indecipherable differences between the two words.

Many Christians believe. In fact, Christians often refer to one another as “Believers”, complete with the capital letter. The Credo is a recital of what Christians believe; if we need to know what we as Christians are supposed to believe, it says so, right there. It states the beliefs that define us as Christians.

These are the words of the Apostles’ Creed, as found in the United Methodist hymnal, an “Affirmation of Faith” that I recited weekly as a child, and somewhat less regularly in later years:

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

So Christians believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (and certain orthodox characteristics they possess), the tripartite deity first defined at Nicaea in the 4th century after the birth of Christ. This belief is what defines us as Christians. And to some, this is also faith.

But is belief the same as faith?

We believe these things because we are taught these things. We take them as true because we were told that they are true. That is sufficient for most of us; it sets the boundaries, it delineates our theology, it allows us to point to something as a statement of what we believe, so we don’t have to think about it, we merely have to read, and accept, and all is well.

But isn’t faith a little harder for us? Isn’t faith a little less well defined? a little less specific? A little…riskier?

Faith, at least as I think of it, is more active. It requires us to not only accept what is, what we believe, but also what might happen. It is more than a consideration of what was, and what is, but what could be, and, which is often the most difficult thing, what should be. And note, please, that I said “what could be” and “what should be”, not “what will be”. It’s faith, not certainty.

You may have already come to understand that prophecy, though a central tenet of Judeo-Christian literature and theology, is not something in which I put a great deal of confidence. That may make you feel a little uncomfortable, and for that I apologize. It’s not that I doubt the word of Moses, or Elijah, or Daniel, it’s just that not every prediction is accurate, truthful, nor even particularly intelligible. If they were, then bookies would never make money, and Las Vegas would fall to pieces.

Oh, sure, the New Testament cites many in the Old Testament that were fulfilled by Christ, but remember that those who compiled the Bible in the early centuries of the Christian Era had the gift of hindsight, and perhaps only chose those texts that got it right. We, stuck as we are in the midst of time, cannot be certain. If, as Jesus said, “a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country”, then we, lacking Christ’s omniscience, surrounded by everyday prophets from Jimmy the Greek to the bevy of stock analysts clamoring for our investment cash, can perhaps be forgiven if we can’t quite tell the false from the true prophets, and the true prophecies from the false ones and are hesitant to honor any of them…until after the fact.

That is where belief differs from faith. Belief is. Belief, though often lacking absolute confirmation by hard data, is well-defined in other ways. It is based upon previous experience, or the writings of others, or the teachings of our fathers. Faith is something more…something in a future tense.

We have faith that certain things will happen, or, more vaguely, that God and Good will triumph over Man (or Satan, if you prefer) and Evil. We cannot be sure, and we don’t need to be sure. We only have to have faith that it could be, that it might be, and do what we can to help it to be. We may read scripture and believe, but in faith we dream, we try, we hope, we…do.

Belief may point our way, but faith sustains us along the way.