7.8.2026

I had a conversation with a young atheist a while back that reminded me of our need to be able to understand and to clearly express what we believe. He gave me his reasons for not believing and mostly I said, “You haven’t really read the Bible. You’re just repeating what you heard someone else say.” (He’s a lazy atheist – he won’t do the work himself). 

In the middle of his arguments about science and faith being incompatible, about why would a good God allow suffering, and about why an all-powerful god needs to be worshiped, I suggested we start at the very beginning and talk about what he called “blind faith.” He ridiculed faith, asking how can someone just believe in something without any evidence. 

So, I’m writing this because I want us to have a good clear and biblical understanding of faith. 

Let’s start in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word most often translated as belief or faith is aman. Let's look at a few examples where it's used:

At the end of the story of God parting the Red Sea, after God has safely brought them through the waters and rescued them from Pharaoh’s chariots, we read: “So the people feared the Lord and believed (aman) in the Lord and in his servant Moses.” Exodus 14:31. Does that mean that the people didn’t believe in the Lord up to this point? Remember, these are the people who experienced the Lord raining down the ten plagues on the Egyptians, but sparing them! These people who saw Pharaoh humbled and who followed Moses out of Egypt didn’t believe in God before the Red Sea split? 

A few chapters later, we find the word again at the conclusion of the story of Israel’s battle with the Amalekites. During the battle, as long as Moses held up his arms, the Israelites prevailed, but when he dropped his arms, the Amalekites prevailed. As the battle went on, Moses' arms tired, so Aaron and Hur held up his arms so “his hands were steady (aman) until the sun set.” There’s that word again! In 14:31 aman was translated "believed" but here it is “steady” or “unwavering.”  

And now we start getting to the heart of what “faith” is. Faith is more than just belief in God’s existence in the Old Testament, and it’s more than belief that Jesus is the Son of God in the New Testament. Faith is the behavior that stems from that belief –  a trust so complete that it expresses itself in action. 

The word appears in Deuteronomy 1:32, where Moses reminded the people of their faithlessness when the spies returned from Canaan with tales of “giants in the land.” Moses told the people, “But even after all [God] did, you refused to trust (aman) the LORD your God” (NLT).  For this verse, most versions translate aman as “trust” or "believe." But Moses was not called for a blind trust. Moses reminded the people of all they had witnessed:

I said to you, ‘Have no dread or fear of them. The Lord your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes, and in the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you travelled until you reached this place. But in spite of this, you have no trust (aman) in the Lord your God, who goes before you on the way to seek out a place for you to camp, in fire by night, and in the cloud by day, to show you the route you should take.

Here Moses is calling for a “faith” that is grounded in experience, but the people are unable to be steady, loyal, and faithful. Why not? They had the evidence. For a year and a half or so, from the time God first sent the plagues on Egypt until they stood on the threshold of Canaan, they saw God at work on a daily basis! What got in the way? 

Fear. 

I can see why they were afraid! They were standing at the border of a land that was filled with giants. Of course they were afraid. God is asking them to move forward anyway. 

Same thing at the Red Sea. Exodus 14:10, the people were terrified at the sight of the Egyptians bearing down on them, but Moses told them, “Do not be afraid, stand still and see the deliverance. . .”

And that is aman, faith: steadfast trust and loyalty, grounded in experience, even when every part of you screams “run!” 

And this is the same meaning of faith in the New Testament! Faith is not just belief in the existence of God or belief in Jesus as the Son of God. That’s where it begins, of course. But faith is so much more than that. 

It is a faith that leads to faithfulness. The Greek word for faith, pistis, speaks of the allegiance the soldiers would pledge to the emperor. It was the validity of oaths and contracts. In rhetoric and philosophy, it was the means of persuasion—proofs or arguments used to convince an audience. In families, it was mutual trust and loyalty, and the pursuit of shared interests. 

Both in the New and Old Testaments, faith was more than just belief. It was a life of loyalty and faithfulness that resulted from the initial belief of an individual. It was not just blind trust but was the absolute conviction that causes us to pledge our complete lives to God. It is belief, yes, but it is belief that yields an entire life of faithfulness, loyalty and allegiance. 

Which makes me wonder if that might  be one reason this young man is an atheist. Along with never having read the Bible for himself, maybe he hasn’t seen faith in its true and biblical sense put into practice. 

Have you? 

Blessings,
Pastor Terry