“Faith and belief have nothing in common; they are as different as darkness and light.”

- Christian D. Larson

Do you have faith or belief? What is the difference between Faith and Belief? Which is required to be granted eternal life according to the Bible? The Bible will show that merely believing is not what God requires of us to get to heaven. We must have Faith.

Reason 1 (Defining terms)

First off, we must define our terms. According to the Cambridge dictionary the definition of faith is; “great trust or confidence in something or someone.” And the definition of belief is; “the feeling of being certain that something exists or is true.” In other words, belief is the intellectual agreement that something is true, and faith requires one to believe but then goes further to put one’s trust or confidence in it.

Now that we have the definition of the English words let’s look at the Greek words used in the New Testament for Believe and Faith. The word for believe is pisteuó which means; “to believe, to have faith, to trust.” This word appears 244 times in the New Testament, and every time it is translated to a form of believe. So, when the Bible says believe does it mean believe as in the English word?
98 of the 244 times pisteuó is used in the New Testament is in the Gospel of John. John never uses pistis or any other form of the word faith.

Why is this? According to an article titled “What does John say about Faith” the writer explains That John did not mean believe as in what we think of it today, he put it this way; “‘Believe’ meant the active acceptance of the message about Jesus.” So, ‘believe’ didn’t simply mean accept the facts but rather put your trust in and accept the message. In another article titled “Pistis, Pisteos and Pisteuó – A Greek Word Study” the author writes “Instead it (Pisteou) means an actual trusting within a personal relationship to the point of confidence and action based off of that relationship.”

Believe meant Faith. As in the English definitions of the words in the Greek context. Pisteou could have been translated to faith or trust (and should have) in many parts of the New Testament. Belief in the
Bible is not the same as how we define belief today.

Reason 2 (knowledge vs action)

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

- Ephesians 2:8-9

We are saved by faith. This is a clear teaching throughout the entirety of the Bible. King Saul believed in
God yet did not show faithfulness towards God. He knew of God but didn’t know God. His downfall was because he did not trust or HAVE FAITH in God.

On the other hand, David believed and had faith. He stumbled many times worse than Saul in many ways, but he trusted in God and had FAITH. The difference between Saul and David is simple, one had faith the other merely believed.

Simply knowing the facts but not applying them to your life is no good. Believing that you will get stronger if you workout does nothing if you never workout. Simply knowing something is good, brings no benefit if you never apply it to your life.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

- Matthew 13:44

This parable demonstrates the difference between belief and faith. The man believed the treasure was on the field, but belief does not drive action. He had to take a step of faith to sell everything he had to buy the field. Another example is we all believe that a parachute opens when you pull the trigger. But not all of us have enough faith to test it by jumping out of a plane.

Reason 3 (Belief does not equal faith)

If we only had to believe in order to be saved there would become many contradictions within the
Bible.

“You believe that God is one, Good; even the demons believe and they shudder.”

- James 2:19

If merely accepting the facts that Jesus is God and that he died for our sins got you a place in heaven, then what about the demons? Demons don’t just believe they know. Yet demons aren’t saved.

“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

- Philippians 2:10-11

Everyone one day will bow and believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. Does this mean everyone is going to heaven? No, this would go against the entirety of the Bible.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

- Matthew 7:21-23

Jesus is going to tell believers that he never knew them? Even after they do works in his name. They call him Lord, believe, do good works in his name and are rejected by God. Belief alone does not get you into heaven.

Christians are commanded to love God with all their heart, mind, and strength. We can believe in him with our minds and do good works with our strength and still be rejected by God because we did not
love him with our heart.

Refutation

People on the opposing view might point out that Christianity is not a work-based religion and there are many verses that say all we need to do to be saved is believe. They assume that faith is a work. The same people agree that you must repent and believe to be saved will claim that this type of faith is a work. So, what defines a work?

Ephesians 2:8-9 is where we get the concept that we are not saved by works. But it says we are saved by grace through faith. Belief plus repentance plus trust equals faith. To have faith in something you must believe in it, turn away from the opposite of it (change our mind, repent), and put your trust in it.
So, if belief and repentance and trust are not works then how is faith? This is an absurd claim that is in no way justifiable.

For example, a gift is given to you, it is not a gift if you try to pay for it in any way or earn it by doing anything. But you still must open the gift. Is opening the gift a work? Simply believing the gift is for you and has something in it does not take the wrapping paper off of it. You must act.
The word belief has two meaning the biblical one which is equivalent to faith and the English one which means to accept a statement or idea as true.

Conclusion

All the facts show that intellectual acknowledgment the English definition of belief, is not enough to be saved. The Greek word for belief is different than the English definition (for belief) and better aligns with the English word faith. If we know the facts but do not act, what good does it bring? Believing in God is good but it’s not fully there, because even the demons believe. To summarize; simply knowing the facts is not enough, know the creator and pursue him with all your strength, mind, and heart. That is how you are saved. Biblical belief is faith. It is believing and applying. Do you simply believe or do you have biblical belief? Not everyone who believes (English def.) will be saved they might believe they are saved but this is not reality. We are saved by Faith not merely believing.