Website owner:  James Miller

  MEANING OF WORD "BELIEVE" AS USED BY JESUS                  8/03


   Jesus used the word "believe" a lot.  He said that whoever 
   believed in him would have eternal life.  What was the intended 
   meaning of the word in his usage of it?  He must have intended 
   it to mean more than simple intellectual assent, an acceptance 
   of a fact (i.e. a belief that he was who he claimed to be, 
   belief that he was God, a simple belief unaccompanied by 
   obedience to his teachings).  Why?  Because we know that even 
   the devils believe, as the apostle James tells us (James 2:19), 
   and we know they will not have eternal life.  In his usage of 
   the term he meant it to mean a faith and trust in him that 
   included obedience to his teachings, a faith in him that 
   included following in his way.  James tells us that faith 
   without works is dead.  And that is a simple statement of the 
   obvious.  Common sense tells us that.  One of the definitions 
   for the word "believe" given in Webster's New Collegiate 
   Dictionary is "To have a firm religious faith".   And it 
   defines "faith" as "Belief and trust in and loyalty to God".  
   These definitions give us the kind of meaning that Jesus 
   intended.