Faith, also derived from Latin feid and Old French side, is faith or trust in an entity, person, idea, or institution. In the wider context of faith, one might define faith as “an extraordinary or unexplained confidence in things unseen”. Faith is an essential part of the personality of man and is usually an important component of religious life, though not at all exclusive to it.
In general, it has been thought that the two greatest religions in the world are Christianity and Islam. The core ideas of both are essentially the same, though each sect carries certain elements unique to its history, personality, and experience. Both share a belief in a deity or deities, an afterlife, and a plan of life after death. Islam in particular, while not officially regarded as a religion, carries with it obligations to duty, ritual, and knowledge. The relationship between faith and salvation is a complex one, and while some might argue that it is impossible to discuss faith and salvation with a straight-line approach, the following comparison illustrates the essence of faith and highlights its importance to mankind.
Adam and Eve were the first people on earth; each of them had a personal belief and subsequent acts which led to their salvation. If this simple example shows anything to the reader, it is the importance of belief to individual and group alike – beliefs are what guide individuals through the course of their lives and determine their ultimate destiny. If there is no belief at all, then no individual or group could ever know about its entirety, and the only option for salvation would be to chance upon an individual’s own experience, which most people believe would be unique and possibly supernatural.
If we further assume that each individual Christian is saved and predestined for heaven and salvation, then the necessity for faith becomes more obvious. Without faith, no Christian can ever know where he or she will end up after death, and without faith, there is no path to heaven or salvation. Without faith, an individual can only be convinced of things by faith – such as the Christian religion.
While the Christian religion is the most important aspect of world society today, most people simply don’t know about it because of the exclusivity of private interpretation of the Bible. Everyone believes that the Bible is infallible and to prove otherwise, a person must first assume an unreasonable faith. Because of this, almost everyone in the world today has faith in God and Christianity; they have no need for other forms of faith. They don’t need to know anything more than what the Bible says, which is why Ephesians, Galatians, and Epistle of Paul are essential for all Christians.
Whether or not a Christian believes in these three books, the fact remains that they hold all the answers they need to know about God and about eternal life. Without belief in God and a knowledge of his omnibenevolence, there is no way a person could understand what it means to be a Christian or have any depth in understanding the Bible. A person must believe that he is saved from hell and that he has an eternal destiny before him.
