What is a Believer?

The purpose of this paper is to delve into and discover what the Bible means when it refers to believers and unbelievers. I will start the discussion with the expression of two salient facts:

First it is important to understand that the words ‘believer’ and its counterpart ‘unbeliever’ only appear in the New Testament in most modern translations. (ASV, NRSV, NIV, NASB, KJV, Exceptions: NIV: 1 Kings 18:3,)This is significant in that although there were believers and unbelievers in the Old Testament, they were not called as such. So we see, that the concept and the words that we use are unique to the New Testament vocabulary.

Second, it is important to understand that the subtle distinction that many Americans or other English speaking peoples make between the words belief and faith is linguistically insignificant. What I mean by this is that in English, the verbal form of ‘to have faith’ is to believe. We have the words belief and faith that are used somewhat interchangeably at a casual level but when it comes to the subtleties of how they are used in our culture they are quite different: To believe in God or Jesus means to acknowledge or acquiesce to their existence, but to have faith is a somewhat higher calling. The one who claims to have faith is required to show that faith by action and lifestyle more than the believer. The distinction is subtle but very real.

The writers of the New Testament made no such distinction. There was only one word in its various forms for believer and only one word and its various forms for its antithesis, unbeliever: (the following analysis is from the NAS version of the Bible, but others are similar.) The assumption here is that the translators are assumed to be sincere scholars and used the English phrase that best suited their desire to communicate God’s word in truth to and English speaking audience. The Greek words are all derivatives on one another, but because of the English differences, they are translated differently, depending on the context of the phrase.

Anglicized Greek Word	Literal Translation	Translated as:
Pistis	Faith, Faithfulness	faith, faithfulness, pledge, proof
Pistos	Faithful, Reliable	believe, believer, believing, faithful, faithful one, faithfully, sure trustworthy, who believe
Pisteuo	To believe, to entrust	Believe, believer, believers, believes, believing, do, entrust, entrusted, entrusting has faith.
Pistoo	To make trustworthy or to establish.	Convinced of
Apisteo	To disbelieve, be faithless	Are faithless, disbelieve, disbelieved, not believe, refused to believe.
Apistia	unbelief	Unbelief, unbelieving
Apistos	Incredible, unbelieving	Incredible, unbeliever, unbelievers, unbelieving, unbelieving one

It is easy to see, that the Greek is very consistent and makes no distinction. All the words from which we derive our concept of faith and belief are derivatives of one another in a very clear way. I do not envy the translators, who trying to stay true to the intent of God’s word, had to make the translation real and faithful and at the same time had to work around the confusion of the slight distinction that we make between belief and faith.

It is interesting to note, but I will not provide the analysis here, that the more literal English translations of the Bible (KJV, ASV, NASB) have a markedly reduced use of the words believer and unbeliever than do the others. I have my opinion about why this is so, but will not express it here.

The extrapolation of this is that we must, as truth seekers, be willing to change our understanding of the English text to accommodate this information and embrace it wholehearted. I propose then, that the following is true:

Belief = faith.

Unbelief = lacking faith

Believer = one who has faith = “faither”

Unbeliever = one who does not have faith = “Unfaither”

Perhaps is it best shown in this diagram:

I have coined the word faither and unfaither here to drive home this distinction throughout the rest of this article. I will use these words to represent the concepts given us in God’s word and will use the word believer and unbeliever to represent the common worldly misconceptions. The diagram shows that some who call themselves believers are really unfaithers biblically.

In conclusion of this argument, I hold forth that it is the concept that must be embraced if we are to understand God’s true message to us. We must be willing to alter our understanding and unify our perception of the words belief and faith. To believe and to have faith must be the same. We must accept the insight that believers are those who have faith and unbelievers are those who do not.

The Nature of Faith

Our understanding, then, on who is a faither and an unfaither biblically, rests more on the definition of faith:

The most widely known definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

This definition, by itself allows for a very broad circle for someone who would claim to have faith, but as is typical of the Biblical texts, spiritual concepts are never confined to a single verse, but are refined by careful consideration of many passages, so of which never use the word we are trying to define.

Consider the following:

· Hebrews 11:4 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe (have faith) that he exists and the he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Belief is constrained a bit more tightly by adding the expectation from God that those who believe must earnestly seek him. Simply believing that he exists is not sufficient.

· The rest of Hebrews chapter eleven chronicles examples of faith from the Old Testament:

“By faith Noah … in holy fear, built an ark”

“By faith Abraham …obeyed and went”

“By faith Abraham … offered Isaac”

“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob”

“By faith Jacob … blessed each of Joseph’s sons”

“By faith Joseph … spoke about the Exodus”

Interwoven into these passages are statements like:

“By his faith he (Noah) condemned the world …”

“By faith Abraham … was enabled to become a father …”

Which imply that faith does seem to have a side where, because of a man’s faith, God works with no direct action on the part of the faither. On closer examination, it can be argued that Noah condemned the world by entering the ark, which was the culmination of his faith in building it and Abraham was enabled, but he acted on his faith by having relations with his wife, otherwise he would not have become a father, right?

In all these examples and the others that follow, faith was made complete by obedient action.

· In James 2:14-26, the writer hits this issue head on, by asking the question “What good is it my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?” and concludes his argument with, “As the body without the spirit it dead, so faith without deeds is dead” In the middle he addresses the unfaither who claims belief in God: “You believe there is one God? Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder.”

He offers further argument through the example of Abraham. “Do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?” he asks. He then states, “You see, that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.”

· Jesus asks, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” in Luke 6:46. In the next verse he draws the distinction: “Everyone who hears my words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:” Jesus expected faithers to act like it. If they did not exhibit this kind of true faith, they were building their hopes, their lives on a foundation of sand that will not stand in eternity.

It is clear from these passages and others like them, that biblical faith is made complete or mature only when there is action that is motivated by it. James actually implies that the idea that faith without the confirming action cannot save an individual. It is not pleasing to God.

It is important to note that the action that completes faith is not what is pleasing to God, but the faith (belief coupled with action that makes it faith) itself. This is the true meaning of the word in the New Testament culture.

We can easily see that a faither is one who actively lives out their intellectual acknowledgement about God and his expectations of that individual. Anyone can claim to be a believer, but do they have the faith to live it out?

It is equally challenging to understand that religious deeds and activity, that do not come from faith or from knowing God, do not necessarily demonstrate faith.

Jesus confronted this kind of thinking squarely in Matthew 7:21f. “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,” he said, “ but he who does the will of My father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from me you who practice lawlessness.’”

These folks clearly believed in Jesus, but they were not obedient, or faithful, to his will for them. They did lots of religious and good things, but they did not know God. They were in truth, unfaithers, not faithful to God; they did not know God and Jesus did not know them.

Paul addresses this issue in I Cor. 10:1-10 where he uses the nation of Israel, the believers who followed God and Moses out of Egypt, as an example. They had all the same experiences and participated in the same rituals and activities, but God was not pleased with them. The writer of Hebrews sheds light on this in chapter 3:16-18. He explains that these same people were not able to enter God’s rest because of their unbelief (unfaith). If we were able to ask these people if they believed, most of them would have claimed they did. They fell in the category of those who claim to believe, but they to not have Biblical faith.

It is my contention, that it is the broad category of claimed “believers” who do not have faith that account for most of the accusations of hypocrisy that are leveled against Christianity in general and at specific individuals. None of us are perfect, and even those who have true faith can be faulted, but not in the sweeping offhanded way is so prevalent in out society.

I lay out this challenge to all: study this issue diligently and reform your image of what faith is and what it takes to truly be pleasing to God. To do this, you must fight the tide of distinction that we, as a culture, hold between “Belief” and “Faith”. This is no easy task, but essential if we are to grow into a mature faith.

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Comments and thoughts should be sent to

fwfaller@immerland.com