AC 896
It is one thing to know truths,
and quite another to acknowledge them,
and still another to have faith in them.
To know is the first thing of regeneration,
to acknowledge is the second,
to have faith is the third.
What difference there is
between knowing, acknowledging, and having faith
is evident from the fact that the worst people may know,
and yet not acknowledge,
like . . . those who attempt to destroy doctrinal things by specious reasoning;
and that unbelievers may acknowledge,
and in certain states preach, confirm, and persuade with zeal;
but none can have faith who are not believers.
[2] Those who have faith, know, acknowledge, and believe,
they have charity,
and they have conscience . . ..
This then it is to be regenerate.
Merely to know what is of faith is of a person's memory,
without the concurrence of his reason.
To acknowledge what is of faith is a rational consent
induced by certain causes and for the sake of certain ends.
But to have faith is of conscience,
that is, of the Lord working through conscience.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
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