Research Paper on:
Faith, Religious Experience And Mysticism

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
deal in todays society and many who use the word, use it inaccurately. These authors go on to say that a young child in a Bible study class would  define the word as "believing that God is up there" (Allen and Swick, 2001). The authors comment that most adults would probably respond in a similar fashion (Allen and Swick,  2001). The authors then argue that "in the New Testament, faith is not connected with the existence or non-existence of God" (Allen and Swick, 2001). To very early Christians, faith  was not about the belief in the existence of God, in fact, Gods existence was not an issue at all (Allen and Swick, 2001). However, we do read in one  of Pauls epistles, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1). This seems like a very clear definition  of faith and it sort of intimates that God is in the middle of faith. If we read further in Hebrews, we find Paul goes through a long exhortation for  the rest of that Chapter of the many who received blessings by faith. Just a little bit further, though, we read about Enoch: "For before he was taken, he  was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he  rewards those who earnestly seek him" (Hebrews 11:5-6). Allen and Swick (2001), however, argue that First Century Christians thought not about the existence of God but what kind of  a God He was. Allen and Swick (2001) also discuss the different ways in which each New Testament writer addressed the issue of faith, each having his own