How do you know your faith is true?

[hazcompat]

Would you care to elaborate?

CCC
684 Through his grace, the Holy Spirit is the first to awaken faith in us and to communicate to us the new life, which is to "know the Father and the one whom he has sent, Jesus Christ."4 But the Spirit is the last of the persons of the Holy Trinity to be revealed. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, the Theologian, explains this progression in terms of the pedagogy of divine “condescension”:

686 The Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the plan for our salvation. But in these “end times,” ushered in by the Son’s redeeming Incarnation, the Spirit is revealed and given, recognized and welcomed as a person. Now can this divine plan, accomplished in Christ, the firstborn and head of the new creation, be embodied in mankind by the outpouring of the Spirit: as the Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Peace

 

[Aelred_Minor]

You asked, “Don’t you know whether you believe or not?”

Correct. You know whether or not you believe in God. Or whether or not you believe in the Catholic faith for instance, in the Church’s interpretation of history and so forth. But to a non believer or to a believer of another faith, that’s not proof your faith beliefs are true. Nor mine or anyone else’s for that matter. Our beliefs may be true for us and some might believe they know the truth. But faith as another poster said can not be scientifically proven. That was my only point. Faith and believing is not synonymous with truly knowing with 100% certainty. Otherwise it wouldn’t be called faith. I hope that helps how I meant to address your point. God bless you on your faith journey and His peace always.

It depends on what kind of faith you are talking about. Human faith, meaning faith in the ordinary testimony of other human beings, can never be held with 100% certainty. Examples of human faith would be belief in conclusions of science you haven’t worked out yourself or belief in the existence of a country you’ve never been to, or belief that your old mother isn’t going to poison you when you visit and she prepares a meal for you. These things can be known with a high degree of relative certainty, but it will never be absolute. One could even have human faith in God, through an acceptance of philosophical proofs for God’s existance that one does not fully understand oneself, for example.

Divine faith, on the other hand, is trust in God Himself, not in mere human beings. What is believed by divine faith is known with 100% certainty. That doesn’t mean we will understand everything entirely or that we will never be troubled by temptations to doubt, but we can give absolute, not just partial, intellectual assent the things we believe with divine faith. This kind of absolute faith is, of course, impossible to obtain through natural means. It’s only possible as a supernatural gift from God.

 

[Granpa_Lemon]

What is Truth?
-Pontius Pilate

 

[hazcompat]

What is Truth?
-Pontius Pilate

Jesus

 

[Safia]

Oops. Wrong thread…Please ignore.

 

[Granpa_Lemon]

Jesus

Yeah…I like Jesus, but, ya know…
According to the Bible, Jesus was supposed to begin God’s kingdon here on earth in HIS OWN lifetime here on earth.
What happened?
He was killed, he allegedly rose from the dead and went away somewhere to come back again another day. Where does he say this? People only suppose that he’s coming back to finish the job, but, how do we know this? He doesn’t mention it anywhere. Even if he does come back…what happens then? He will smite Satan, he will raise the dead and judge EVERYONE who ever lived (100,000,000,000) people or so? Then we will fashion new bodies for them, and the just will live on earth happily ever after in peace and justice?
If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I’m looking to sell cheaply.

 

[WesleyF]

Yeah…I like Jesus, but, ya know…
According to the Bible, Jesus was supposed to begin God’s kingdon here on earth in HIS OWN lifetime here on earth.
What happened?

I believe this was already answered for you here - forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=8748542&postcount=3

 

[AmbroseSJ]

Faith and believing is not synonymous with truly knowing with 100% certainty. Otherwise it wouldn’t be called faith. I hope that helps how I meant to address your point. God bless you on your faith journey and His peace always.

That’s not right. Faith is built on reason and is a way of knowing with CERTITUDE (100% certainty) For example, God can not be proven scientifically, but because of my Faith, I am 100% certain that God exists. It is still called Faith. If there is any doubt, then there is disbelief and hence very weak Faith or no Faith. But we must also recognize that there are two kinds of faith. Human faith and the Theological Virtue of Faith, which comes from God alone. Human faith rests on the authority of the person making the claim. Theological Faith rests on the authority of God, who makes the claim.

Can Theological Faith be lost? Yes. Just as in the parable of the Talents, the man with the least amount lost what little he had, and the man with the most Talents got that much more. Faith is kept alive with (profits from) Charity.

IOW, just because you lose Faith, but once had it, DOESN’T mean that you were deceived in the first place and then came to your senses, on the contrary. Like the man in the parable, if Faith is buried it will be taken away.

Theological Faith is a* valuable* gift from God which should never be taken for granted, squandered, tested, or ignored.

 

[hazcompat]

Yeah…I like Jesus, but, ya know…
According to the Bible, Jesus was supposed to begin God’s kingdon here on earth in HIS OWN lifetime here on earth.
What happened?
He was killed, he allegedly rose from the dead and went away somewhere to come back again another day. Where does he say this? People only suppose that he’s coming back to finish the job, but, how do we know this? He doesn’t mention it anywhere. Even if he does come back…what happens then? He will smite Satan, he will raise the dead and judge EVERYONE who ever lived (100,000,000,000) people or so? Then we will fashion new bodies for them, and the just will live on earth happily ever after in peace and justice?
If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I’m looking to sell cheaply.

The Kingdom is within you.

peace

 

[Khalid]

That’s not right. Faith is built on reason and is a way of knowing with CERTITUDE (100% certainty) For example, God can not be proven scientifically, but because of my Faith, I am 100% certain that God exists. It is still called Faith. If there is any doubt, then there is disbelief and hence very weak Faith or no Faith. But we must also recognize that there are two kinds of faith. Human faith and the Theological Virtue of Faith, which comes from God alone. Human faith rests on the authority of the person making the claim. Theological Faith rests on the authority of God, who makes the claim.

Can Theological Faith be lost? Yes. Just as in the parable of the Talents, the man with the least amount lost what little he had, and the man with the most Talents got that much more. Faith is kept alive with (profits from) Charity.

IOW, just because you lose Faith, but once had it, DOESN’T mean that you were deceived in the first place and then came to your senses, on the contrary. Like the man in the parable, if Faith is buried it will be taken away.

Theological Faith is a* valuable* gift from God which should never be taken for granted, squandered, tested, or ignored.

God absolutely can be proven scientifically (philosophically, and some would argue empirically by means of the argument to teleology): the Bible acknowledges this at Rom 1:20 and when it is proclaimed, “even the demons in Hell know that God exists and is one God, but it avails them not”. However, Christianity, the religion, can not. God’s revelations can not; his promises can not; his covenants can not. One can know that God exists without having faith in him: that is, relying on his revelations and his Church, and living accordingly, with “the assurance of things unseen”.

One can prove that God exists, but one must have faith in God’s promises, i.e. his Religion.

 

[AmbroseSJ]

One can prove that God exists, but one must have faith in God’s promises, i.e. his Religion.

It pains me Khalid, to disagree, because I generally value your opinions. However, although God’s existence can be proven to someone who is disposed to accept whatever line of reasoning you may base your proof on, it is not proof that stands on its own, irrefutably.

IOW, to many people a certain line of reasoning is so overwhelmingly probable, that it is virtually proof. However, there are many people who absolutely do NOT see the probability, and can argue with each premise, step by step.

Therefore belief in God DOES actually come from God! It is the theological virtue of Faith (as opposed to human faith.)

However, as you know, belief in God is just a beginning; but a very good beginning.

It would be wrong to suppose that your belief in God is based on any scientific, philosophical or otherwise “proofs.” Why? Because if a chink is ever found in any of these “proofs” your Faith becomes groundless and worse, may be lost. This is the reason for so many people losing their Faith. They thought it was “proven.” Then one day they confront a line of arguing or reasoning (or just life experiences) that seems to undo their “proof.” The rest you can imagine.

Faith even in God, basic as it is, is still Faith. It should be recognized as Faith, and cherished as a gift from God (which it is.) Remember that the certainty comes from Faith not from proofs.

 

[DFWChristian]

Great question. I know my faith is true because of the credibility of the Bible. People who don’t know God’s word do have a more difficult time with their faith. When you study the Bible and realize it is a supernatural book, and when you truly understand it, you know without doubt you are saved. That’s why reading the Bible is so important. When the Bible tells you in Micah that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and it was written 700 years before the fact, once you truly understand that man is not the author, but God is, you will see your faith increase to the point that you will constantly want to spend time with the Lord. The Micah verse is just one example of hundreds that demonstrate the Bible is the word of God. Don’t worry about church history or tradition- worry about learning the Bible and you will turn into a Tim Tebow.

Have a blessed day in the Lord.

Hi,

What does Scripture say about how you know whether your faith is true and not spurious? Sola fide claims that one can be assured of salvation through faith alone. But how does one know that one has a true faith and not a false one. How can one be sure that they believe in the first place? How does one even know what faith itself is? It seems a lot of people assume they know what they believe in and that they actually believe it in truth, when so many people claim to be saved, and then some tragedy occurs and they fall away from the faith. They were certain they had the faith before and others thought they did as well, but then they come back with the claim that they didn’t really have faith in the first place. So how do you know what faith is, how do you know what you believe, and how do you know you truly believe what you say you believe, if you can fall away from what you consistently claimed to believe in before?

Joshua