7-8 years ago I tried to explain faith to my atheist friend along very similar lines but I still did not have the right phrases and words so I also lacked the clarity. Thank you for for this, Father! It is joyous when something you just intuited in the past are put into words and therefore can be communicated to others.
Thanks be to God for inspiring you to speak on this topic. As a cradle Orthodox Christian, so many of these common words like Faith are assumed to be understood when in fact, it’s more of us just leaning on our ‘own understanding’. This can be so dangerous for us and impact our salvation. I’m so grateful for messages like this that help set me straight. 🙏
Father, I have been listening to Lord of Spirits & reading your books for quite a while now. I was so surprised to learn last Saturday that my priest, Fr. George Goodge used to be part of your parish!
I believe for sure your faith can grow. If you were not a cradle Christian it does not happen overnight or in a moment. Thank you for this good explanation and yes keep your faith !
I am a protestant studying faith as presented in the Word. I wanted a different perspective than my own without leaving the Christian system of beliefs. I have found that this is not so different than the protestant perspective. Thank you for your insights. Much love. Also nice map in the background.
Dear Father, these are some helpful thoughts. One point we could discuss is that ones ability to love, without desire, as you stated, should be reconsidered. We can and should "do the works of love even if you do them without love in the beginning." St. Amvrosy of Optina leads us to believe that "works of love" can be done without love, in the beginning, but these deeds require or presuppose desire. Without the will or desire to love God, or one's spouse, neither the works of love nor love will be offered. The distinction seems to be between simple obedience and love. The first is expected of a slave, the second of a son. Methodius, priest.
Ps. We should distinguish between animal lust and desire. The tricky part is our degraded understsnding of love in the first place. Animals reproduce without desire. For them instinct stands in the place of desire. But God desires to bring man into His divine Eros.
Peace be with you Father Andrew and to all who are checking in. At the onset of hearing your message about how (in your words) “…Faith is a gift from God…that He has given us a way of faithfulness…” - upon hearing those words it immediately led me to think of what Christ our Lord and God and Savior said - “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6-7). We need only look to Christ to find our way to the path of faithfulness. For the path to faithfulness starts with our love for God much as our love for those we hold near and dear is the reason why we make sacrifices for them and oftentimes even go beyond what is expected of us. Therefore let us bring our faith to a high level by picking up our cross and always walking in the path in which God has intended for us by looking to Christ as our guide always. Thanks Father Andrew for having enlightened me.
Good word, Fr. Andrew! I blame our tendency toward prepositional knowing as our definition of faith for the deconstruction crisis (particularly in Evangelical churches).
Father, much of your work has been helpful to me as I have been exploring Orthodoxy and struggling with my (low-church) Protestant background. But I would like to share one thought I have had when listening to you Fr. Stephen De Young regarding the complaint that it "doesn't make any sense" for "increase in faith" to mean "believe harder." I do not mean to dispute that he is talking about increasing in faithfulness, but I don't see that that also rules out "believing harder," because I think you CAN "believe harder/more." That is, we can increase in our confidence and conviction that something is true. And I think this fits in well with how you talk about how our actions, especially through ritual, form us and affect our thoughts and desires. Surely someone can come to God, believing in him yet with some doubt, but then through living in faithfulness and perhaps even experiencing God, that person can become more confident in the truth of the Christian faith, more confident in God's work and promises.
@@frandrewstephendamick Of course. I'm not sure if I would describe one's confidence in the faith as "feelings about God." At least not entirely. But I will think about it more. And again, I didn't mean to dispute your conclusion about the passage in question being about faithfulness. Thank you.
@@WeakestAvenger I think that in this sense "believing harder" can certainly be a result of practicing your faith, since if the faith is true then what it predicts will happen when you do it will, in fact, happen and confirm its truth. But you cannot just "believe harder" as an act of will; that's spinning yourself into delusion, and maybe even toward untrue beliefs that will prove wrong and break your faith. In other words, do not confuse the cause with the effect and start going after the effect.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (KJV) As for increasing faith, I believe that our capacity for faith/belief in spiritual things grows along with our relationship with God.
I always thought religious faith meant trust in God. To put your faith in Him is just to follow Him and trust His will. Like how a child has faith in their parent's ability to take care of them and do what's best for them.
Fr. Damick’s explanation of the biblical concept of the word “love” is in alignment with the translators of the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible. This is why they utilized the word “charity” instead of “love” in 1 Corinthians 13. Charity is when love is put into practice.
@@AlaskaPilot18 Patristic nectar has a recent video on trust, I found it edifying yet as a Lutheran it sounded essentially like our teaching on faith (as the pastoral application of 'sola fide'). For us trust is the most important part of faith (notice and assent being the other two) and the part lacking in demons. But then if you trust someone's command you obey it, if you trust their promise of commitment and love you will be loyal. I think the difference in Father Andrew's definition is the emphasis on faith as action, rather than the Lutheran understanding of a passive receiving from God as one truly listening to Him ('obey' in the sense from etymology, in this the Lutheran is called to obey God's promises as well as commands; whether we do that well or not is another question). I'm curious too.
I was birn into Catholic family and have being so my whole life.and i am getting wear down by all the constant scandals in the Catholic church and the papacy really seemed to have failed in recent years,my only pb is that i really have faith in Jesus using peter as a rock(obviously not the only foundation) on which he will built his church, and that his prayer abt peters and consequently his successors faith never failing.So do i have a faulty understanding of those passages ir not? because as of now it's only my faith in that promise that makes me want to stay in the Catholic tradition!
Where in the Scriptures or in the early Church is the teaching that St. Peter's sole, exclusive successor is the bishop of Rome? Alexandria and Antioch are also Petrine sees, and the traditional understanding is that all bishops are successors of Peter. Where also is the teaching in the Scriptures or the early Church that the bishop of Rome has supremacy over all other bishops?
If faith is faithfulness, does that mean that an agnostic could be said to "have faith" if they were to earnestly participate in the christian way of living?
Why would they participate in the Christian way of living? Out of habit? Out of obedience to parents who brought them up? Out of respect to themselves? Because of "rational egoism" - "I do good to others because, in the end, it benefits me"? The only valid reason is "out of love for God". Salvation, to the degree pertaining to our efforts, is a full time job. You need to seek God on order to find God.
@vsevolodtokarev there are many reasons an agnostic might practice christianity: Appreciation of the morals, respect for tradition, engagement in community, because a loved one is a believer, seeking God, etc.
@@WoollyMiller What I am trying to say: all of those reasons, except for the last one you named, are vain; and a persons genuinely seeking God is not actually an agnostic.
Why is there no longer missionaries to the middle east? to non christian communites? as a non christian from the middle east Iam struggling to become christian, seems that i got a bit lost along the way, iam not obident to God, i stopped praying, and iam on my own in my community, its very hard to convert and leave everything behind me, and its hard to pray everday not knowing if iam doing it right or not, its a great sacrifice that i dont know if iam ready for.
Hang in there! If I may suggest a few things. (1.) Reach out to your closest Eastern Orthodox Church and start talking to a priest. (2.) Regarding prayer: always pray from the heart, but, getting a good prayer book is a good start and many can be found online for free. (3) Keep plugging into videos like this to learn the theology, but head knowledge only gets you so far - prayer is key! (4.) Ask a priest on what books to read. I have suggestions if you're interested, but perhaps Fr. Andrew can help you with that. God bless you in your journey!
Fr. Andrew--I have read most of your books and listened to most of your podcasts, esp. LOS and O&H. Please do not continue the "I'm looking at the other guy and not right at the camera" thing. But I still love your content.
"how can you agree that Jesus can do this but also disagree? That doesn't make any sense." I'd have to disagree with that. There are many things that i have a greater or lesser degree of belief in. Many things i say i believe, often related to what i believe God can do in my life, but when the rubber hits the road it turns out i didn't believe that strongly after all... Belief is in degrees almost always, it's not binary, like certainty or nothing at all.
Perhaps, but I think with regards to the main point of the video, it might be a moot point. The demons have perfect 'belief' in the existence and presence of God 'everywhere and filling all things'. However, that does nothing to advantage them over my stumbling belief because they are still lost. To have faith is not to say, "I believe if I jump out of this plane, the parachute I'm wearing will save me", it's to actually jump out of the plain.
Faith is an invisible hope, belief, and trust that can't be measured, tested, and used in any practical (worldly) sense. It is the opposite of the physical realm, where ideas and things can put into practice, measured, tested, used to mankind's physical benefit. Both of those realms can sometimes be used to promote a good feeling - plus, in both cases God is not necessarily involved. Faith can frequently be disappointing in that it fails one at times. The material world also does that except that the material world is more easily understood and the spiritual realm stays more mysterious without explanation.
![สาวเมืองเพชร - ธีเดช ทองอภิชาติ [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kEt7F9PvO3I/mqdefault.jpg)
Appreciate the talk and perspective. I also love that big Middle Earth map on your right there, Father. Nice touch.
7-8 years ago I tried to explain faith to my atheist friend along very similar lines but I still did not have the right phrases and words so I also lacked the clarity. Thank you for for this, Father! It is joyous when something you just intuited in the past are put into words and therefore can be communicated to others.
Thanks be to God for inspiring you to speak on this topic. As a cradle Orthodox Christian, so many of these common words like Faith are assumed to be understood when in fact, it’s more of us just leaning on our ‘own understanding’. This can be so dangerous for us and impact our salvation. I’m so grateful for messages like this that help set me straight. 🙏
This makes so much sense. Thank you
Father, I have been listening to Lord of Spirits & reading your books for quite a while now. I was so surprised to learn last Saturday that my priest, Fr. George Goodge used to be part of your parish!
We're proud to mark him as a son of our parish!
Thank you so much, this is very helpful.
Thank you, Father!
I believe for sure your faith can grow. If you were not a cradle Christian it does not happen overnight or in a moment. Thank you for this good explanation and yes keep your faith !
I am a protestant studying faith as presented in the Word. I wanted a different perspective than my own without leaving the Christian system of beliefs. I have found that this is not so different than the protestant perspective. Thank you for your insights. Much love.
Also nice map in the background.
Dear Father, these are some helpful thoughts. One point we could discuss is that ones ability to love, without desire, as you stated, should be reconsidered. We can and should "do the works of love even if you do them without love in the beginning." St. Amvrosy of Optina leads us to believe that "works of love" can be done without love, in the beginning, but these deeds require or presuppose desire. Without the will or desire to love God, or one's spouse, neither the works of love nor love will be offered. The distinction seems to be between simple obedience and love. The first is expected of a slave, the second of a son. Methodius, priest.
Ps. We should distinguish between animal lust and desire. The tricky part is our degraded understsnding of love in the first place. Animals reproduce without desire. For them instinct stands in the place of desire. But God desires to bring man into His divine Eros.
"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE."
Peace be with you Father Andrew and to all who are checking in. At the onset of hearing your message about how (in your words) “…Faith is a gift from God…that He has given us a way of faithfulness…” - upon hearing those words it immediately led me to think of what Christ our Lord and God and Savior said - “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6-7). We need only look to Christ to find our way to the path of faithfulness. For the path to faithfulness starts with our love for God much as our love for those we hold near and dear is the reason why we make sacrifices for them and oftentimes even go beyond what is expected of us. Therefore let us bring our faith to a high level by picking up our cross and always walking in the path in which God has intended for us by looking to Christ as our guide always. Thanks Father Andrew for having enlightened me.
Whoot Whoot!
Thank you for your ministry Fr. Andrew!
Good word, Fr. Andrew! I blame our tendency toward prepositional knowing as our definition of faith for the deconstruction crisis (particularly in Evangelical churches).
Father, much of your work has been helpful to me as I have been exploring Orthodoxy and struggling with my (low-church) Protestant background.
But I would like to share one thought I have had when listening to you Fr. Stephen De Young regarding the complaint that it "doesn't make any sense" for "increase in faith" to mean "believe harder."
I do not mean to dispute that he is talking about increasing in faithfulness, but I don't see that that also rules out "believing harder," because I think you CAN "believe harder/more." That is, we can increase in our confidence and conviction that something is true.
And I think this fits in well with how you talk about how our actions, especially through ritual, form us and affect our thoughts and desires. Surely someone can come to God, believing in him yet with some doubt, but then through living in faithfulness and perhaps even experiencing God, that person can become more confident in the truth of the Christian faith, more confident in God's work and promises.
Feelings come and go. It doesn't make sense to base salvation on how one feels about God.
@@frandrewstephendamick Of course. I'm not sure if I would describe one's confidence in the faith as "feelings about God." At least not entirely. But I will think about it more. And again, I didn't mean to dispute your conclusion about the passage in question being about faithfulness.
Thank you.
@@WeakestAvenger I think that in this sense "believing harder" can certainly be a result of practicing your faith, since if the faith is true then what it predicts will happen when you do it will, in fact, happen and confirm its truth.
But you cannot just "believe harder" as an act of will; that's spinning yourself into delusion, and maybe even toward untrue beliefs that will prove wrong and break your faith. In other words, do not confuse the cause with the effect and start going after the effect.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (KJV) As for increasing faith, I believe that our capacity for faith/belief in spiritual things grows along with our relationship with God.
These videos have been amazing.
certainty
I always thought religious faith meant trust in God. To put your faith in Him is just to follow Him and trust His will. Like how a child has faith in their parent's ability to take care of them and do what's best for them.
Also means to love, which includes obedience , watch vid
@@h1mynameisdav3 yes, I watched it, very helpful. I was just sharing what my previous assumption about the word had been.
Ive got that same map! A nice background piece
Haleluja live breath eat and drink Jesus
Fr. Damick’s explanation of the biblical concept of the word “love” is in alignment with the translators of the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible. This is why they utilized the word “charity” instead of “love” in 1 Corinthians 13. Charity is when love is put into practice.
Excellent video, thanks for sharing!!
Very accurate approach!
Great video father!
Any resources on why only priests can consecrate the Eucharist?
Is trust seen as a synonym for faith?
To my mind they're related but not exactly the same...if I keep faith, my wife can trust me, etc. Curious to see what wiser minds might have to say.
@@AlaskaPilot18 Patristic nectar has a recent video on trust, I found it edifying yet as a Lutheran it sounded essentially like our teaching on faith (as the pastoral application of 'sola fide').
For us trust is the most important part of faith (notice and assent being the other two) and the part lacking in demons. But then if you trust someone's command you obey it, if you trust their promise of commitment and love you will be loyal.
I think the difference in Father Andrew's definition is the emphasis on faith as action, rather than the Lutheran understanding of a passive receiving from God as one truly listening to Him ('obey' in the sense from etymology, in this the Lutheran is called to obey God's promises as well as commands; whether we do that well or not is another question).
I'm curious too.
certainty
Kierkegaard said that faith is a movement.
I was birn into Catholic family and have being so my whole life.and i am getting wear down by all the constant scandals in the Catholic church and the papacy really seemed to have failed in recent years,my only pb is that i really have faith in Jesus using peter as a rock(obviously not the only foundation) on which he will built his church, and that his prayer abt peters and consequently his successors faith never failing.So do i have a faulty understanding of those passages ir not? because as of now it's only my faith in that promise that makes me want to stay in the Catholic tradition!
Where in the Scriptures or in the early Church is the teaching that St. Peter's sole, exclusive successor is the bishop of Rome? Alexandria and Antioch are also Petrine sees, and the traditional understanding is that all bishops are successors of Peter. Where also is the teaching in the Scriptures or the early Church that the bishop of Rome has supremacy over all other bishops?
If faith is faithfulness, does that mean that an agnostic could be said to "have faith" if they were to earnestly participate in the christian way of living?
Someone can be faithful to God even if they don't understand what they're doing. St. Paul says as much.
@@frandrewstephendamick This is good news for agnostics
Why would they participate in the Christian way of living? Out of habit? Out of obedience to parents who brought them up? Out of respect to themselves? Because of "rational egoism" - "I do good to others because, in the end, it benefits me"?
The only valid reason is "out of love for God". Salvation, to the degree pertaining to our efforts, is a full time job. You need to seek God on order to find God.
@vsevolodtokarev there are many reasons an agnostic might practice christianity: Appreciation of the morals, respect for tradition, engagement in community, because a loved one is a believer, seeking God, etc.
@@WoollyMiller What I am trying to say: all of those reasons, except for the last one you named, are vain; and a persons genuinely seeking God is not actually an agnostic.
Evidence of what you can’t see, not evidence you don’t have for
Why is there no longer missionaries to the middle east? to non christian communites? as a non christian from the middle east Iam struggling to become christian, seems that i got a bit lost along the way, iam not obident to God, i stopped praying, and iam on my own in my community, its very hard to convert and leave everything behind me, and its hard to pray everday not knowing if iam doing it right or not, its a great sacrifice that i dont know if iam ready for.
Hang in there! If I may suggest a few things.
(1.) Reach out to your closest Eastern Orthodox Church and start talking to a priest.
(2.) Regarding prayer: always pray from the heart, but, getting a good prayer book is a good start and many can be found online for free.
(3) Keep plugging into videos like this to learn the theology, but head knowledge only gets you so far - prayer is key!
(4.) Ask a priest on what books to read. I have suggestions if you're interested, but perhaps Fr. Andrew can help you with that.
God bless you in your journey!
Fr. Andrew--I have read most of your books and listened to most of your podcasts, esp. LOS and O&H. Please do not continue the "I'm looking at the other guy and not right at the camera" thing. But I still love your content.
"how can you agree that Jesus can do this but also disagree? That doesn't make any sense."
I'd have to disagree with that. There are many things that i have a greater or lesser degree of belief in. Many things i say i believe, often related to what i believe God can do in my life, but when the rubber hits the road it turns out i didn't believe that strongly after all...
Belief is in degrees almost always, it's not binary, like certainty or nothing at all.
Perhaps, but I think with regards to the main point of the video, it might be a moot point. The demons have perfect 'belief' in the existence and presence of God 'everywhere and filling all things'. However, that does nothing to advantage them over my stumbling belief because they are still lost. To have faith is not to say, "I believe if I jump out of this plane, the parachute I'm wearing will save me", it's to actually jump out of the plain.
Faith is an invisible hope, belief, and trust that can't be measured, tested, and used in any practical (worldly) sense. It is the opposite of the physical realm, where ideas and things can put into practice, measured, tested, used to mankind's physical benefit. Both of those realms can sometimes be used to promote a good feeling - plus, in both cases God is not necessarily involved. Faith can frequently be disappointing in that it fails one at times. The material world also does that except that the material world is more easily understood and the spiritual realm stays more mysterious without explanation.
It is not just an acknowledgement of what is true. It is believing Christ died for your sins, and you are trusting in Him for salvation.
Later in the bible it says mosaic law isnt really necessary after christ so i don't think stoning adulterers is necessary anymore 😅
Πιστεύω (Pistevo)means I believe. Πιστεύω εις έναν Θεό Πατέρα Παντοκράτορα (I believe in on God father of...) Πίστη (pisti) Faith.