Defining the Christian Faith
Introduction
When defining the Christian Faith, one must focus on three aspects of that faith: 1) the cognitive, 2) the relational, and 3) the behavioral. The Christian Faith is based upon a cognitive process—i.e., a determination in the mind to accept the doctrines of the Christian Church, which primarily teach that Jesus Christ is God and that the salvation comes by way of Christ and His Church. Next, the Faith is based upon the trust that the individual has in God according to the doctrines he has received: believing what he believes, he trusts God to save him. This is what is meant by “Now faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith has a very real relational aspect to it because it does involve leaping from where one is now to where one hopes and wants to be—which is with God. Lastly, the Faith is also based on the behavioral process that follows—i.e., the believer now must make an act of faith, a demonstration of his belief that shows he is not merely paying lip service by recognizing the doctrines as true while ignoring their application in his life but is rather conforming his life to his belief system, that is, to the doctrines of the Church, in so far as he has developed his trust in or relationship with God. The behavioral aspect is what is alluded to in 1 John 3:18: “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” The cognitive precedes the relational which precedes the behavioral, and yet all three flow into and out of one another so that they are mutually reinforcing. This paper will show how to know what the Christian Faith is one must first understand the cognitive aspects, then the relational aspects, and finally the behavioral aspects of the Faith.
The Cognitive Aspect of the Christian Faith
The cognitive aspect of the Christian Faith is based on the application of one’s reason to the revelations and teachings of the Christian Church in a process of discernment to see whether the claims of Church are credible or not. This is why the scholastics say that faith is based on reason.[footnoteRef:2] The mind has to consent to the truths that the Church teaches before an act of faith can be made or before faith can be professed. Faith is therefore, in the beginning, a rational assent of the mind to the facts laid before it, which teach, namely, that: 1) Jesus Christ is the Son of God; 2) He died on the Cross in reparation for the sins of world; 3) His sacrifice atoned for the sins of...
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