Faith is active and visible, not something that occures "in your heart".

I look forward to an engaging, open, and honest attempt to come to the truth of God's Word. I will be quoting from the NKJV, unless otherwise noted. I would agree with the definition of faith given by Con. Further, I would present that substance and evidence are things that can be seen, or felt, or handled, or shown to others. These are things that could be presented to a jury to prove a case. Substance and evidence (faith) are not simply felt in the heart where no one else can see them. This is born out by Con's quotes from Heb 11:4-12. Everyone referenced in this passage is praised for not just believing, but for what they did in response to that belief. And Hebrews 11 is also referenced in James 2. When we put Hebrews 11 together with James 2:14-26, we see a much clearer picture of what faith is. Faith is more than belief. For it to be alive (and therefore effective for anything) it must include action. And as we see in James 2:24, it is for our works that we are justified, not by our belief only. Justified is defined on Dictionary. com as, "Theology. to declare innocent or guiltless; absolve; acquit. " (1) Thus, according to James 2:24, it is our works which make us guiltless before God (through the working of the Blood of Christ obviously). Faith is not the same as belief. For faith to be alive and effective, it must include works. Works are an integral part of faith, for without them, it is dead. (James 2:26) In verse 25, James says, "Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? " Likewise to what? Likewise to the last example he gave, which is in verse 23 where he says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. " Now which his it? Was it his belief that justified him, or by her works that she was justified? Both! If Abraham had sat home and believed God's promise but done nothing in response to His commands, he would not have made it into the "Faith Hall of Fame" - Heb 11. If Rahab had believed, but refused to act in the defense of the spies, she and all her household would have died in the fall of Jericho. So faith cannot be alive and effective without works, but you can have works that are not done in faith. This is evidenced by the story Jesus told of the sheep and the goats in Matt 7:21-23. Here Jesus says that "Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? '" Obviously these people did works, but Jesus says He will tell them "I never knew you". He won't tell them "I don't know you anymore. " He "never" knew them, even though they thought they knew Him, and did great works in His name. So then, not just any work is a saving work. Given that not all works are saving, yet faith without works is dead (and therefore cannot save us), but we are justified by works and not faith alone, how do we read Eph 2:8 which says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. " Obviously, as we are told in many places in Scripture, it is the power of God that saves us. This power is given to us as a gift that we cannot earn and do not deserve. But Eph 2:8 tells us that it is through faith (which as I have proven includes and demands works) that this grace is given to us. Why is this phrase necessary? Because we know that Jesus lived and died and was raised to offer salvation to the entire world. Grace is there available to everyone, but as I showed through Matt 7:21-23, not everyone will be saved. So what is the dividing point between those who are saved and those who are not? Eph 2:8 tells us that it is faith that separates those who are saved and those who are not. So, this begs the question, "If works are required for our faith to be alive, and a living faith is "saving faith" (this is a given as a dead faith is no faith at all (James 2)), what works are the "saving works" and what works are not? Let us look to Scripture for the answer. In many of Paul's writings, he tells us that works of the Law (of Moses) will not save us. For instance Romans 2:15, Romans 3:20, Romans 3:27, Romans 3:28, Galatians 2:16, Galatians 3:2, Galatians 3:5, and Galatians 3:10 all specifically mention "works of the Law". In Romans 4:2, Romans 4:6, Romans 9:11, Romans 9:32, and Romans 11:6, Paul only mentions works but given the context, he is referring to works of the Law. To zero in on one of these verses, in Romans 3:28 Paul tells us that we are, ". .. justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. " This in no way takes away from James' assertion that faith is only alive when it includes works, because Paul qualifies the works he is talking about that don't save us: "works of the Law". So if works of the Law will not save us, what works are required to make faith alive? When we read through all of New Testament Scripture, we find several places where we are told that certain things either save us, or lead to our salvation. This not being the focus of this debate, I will list just a few of them here. Romans 10:10 tells us that, "with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. " And 2 Corinthians 7:10 tells us, "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation. .. ". Given just these two verses we can see that there are "works" that are required of us to receive salvation. We MUST believe, repent, and confess that Jesus is the Son of God. Without these "works", we cannot be justified, and therefore will not be saved. One last point, there are many places in Scripture where we only see a portion of a scene in one place in the Text. To find the complete picture we must put several passages together. For instance, consider the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10. I will focus on verse 44 which says, "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. " Does this give the impression that the Spirit fell on the people when they believed the words Peter was speaking? It does to a lot of the people with whom I have spoken, but is that the truth? No, because when we look at Acts 11:15, Peter says, "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. " So now we know that the people had not heard Peter's message yet. The Holy Spirit fell on the people for one reason (and one reason only), to show the Apostles that the Gentiles had been accepted by God into the Church (Acts 11:18). So we can see that there are actions that the Bible says either lead to or are required for salvation. There are others, but the actions themselves are not the topic of this debate. The topic is whether any action at all on our part is required to receive salvation. The previous paragraph proves that point. Referenced: 1. . http://www.dictionary.com...