What is Faith?

Both Mormons and Evangelical Christians agree that faith is vitally important to our spiritual lives, but we tend to differ on what faith means. Latter-day Saints believe that true faith includes works as a part of its definition, but Christians believe that faith is a simple trusting in Jesus.

This discussion matters tremendously because the Bible teaches that faith leads to eternal life. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church) and Evangelical Christians must rightly grasp the Bible’s definition of faith if we are to obey the commands to believe in Jesus.

In this video, we explore Jesus’ teaching on faith in John 3. Jesus spoke about the story of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness as an example of the kind of faith we’re to have. That story gives us a paradigm for genuine saving faith. As Christians, we don’t believe in a faith that includes works as a part of its definition, but rather in a faith which produces works.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)