Believer is an interesting term. Last week we observed how a rare term in the New Testament has become perhaps the most dominant way to identify a follower of Jesus. Believer is also a fascinating word because it is ambiguous.
We can start appreciating its fuzzy usage by asking, “What do people understand when someone is identified as a believer?” Which of the following do you understand? One, some or all?
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- Someone who believes Jesus was an historical religious teacher,
- Someone who believes Jesus is who scripture claims him to be,
- Someone who is seeking to follow Jesus,
- Someone who is relying upon Jesus as Lord and Savior,
- Someone who trusts in Jesus as Lord and Savior having relied upon Christ in immersion,
- Someone who is saved.
Each of the above sentences describes someone who can be called a believer. However, not all believers are the same. For example, if someone only believes Jesus was an historical religious figure thus refusing to rely upon him, this type of believer differs from that person who calls upon Jesus as Lord and Savior. What is meant by a believer can shift!Â
Since believer is an ambiguous term, changing what is meant by believer within a string of thoughts leads to faulty conclusions. This fallacious manner of reasoning is called the fallacy of equivocation.
To illustrate the danger of shifting a word’s definition, consider this example of equivocation from a textbook on logic.
- Only man is rational.
- No woman is a man.
- Therefore no woman is rational.
In line one man signifies a human being. In line two man refers to a male human being. Thus the meaning of man changed from line one to line two. Hence, the conclusion is invalid.
The same manner of fallacious reasoning can swirl around both the word believer as well as the verb believe. It might go something like one of these:
- Everyone who believes in Jesus is saved. (John 3:16)
- Sally believes in Jesus.
- Therefore Sally is saved.
- Believers are saved.
- Sally is a believer.
- Therefore Sally is saved.
What could possibly be wrong with these lines of reasoning? They seem biblically straightforward. However such reasoning can be fallacious if the definitions of the key words shift. When this occurs the conclusion is invalid.
Who or what determines what the key terms mean in line one? Us or scripture? The authority for the truthfulness of line one comes from scripture. Hence scripture must determine what believe and believer mean in the first lines!Â
When the New Testament writers promoted justification by faith or asserted the saving role of believing, they confirmed the principle that those who trust in Jesus will be justified and saved. Whether it be Paul, Luke or any other New Testament writer, they understood trusting in Jesus to require more than just believing in Jesus by asking him to be one’s Lord and Savior. For Paul and Luke, in order for someone to believe or to possess faith in Christ required baptism. They would never have contemplated the idea of an unbaptized believer.
From where does the truthfulness of line two originate? It is often based upon an observation that someone is seeking to serve Jesus as his or her Lord and Savior. Thus that person is identified as a believer. However, whether such an individual has been immersed often does not enter into determining whether or not that person is a believer.
Hence, what the words believe or believer mean in scripture and which are used in the first lines might shift in the second lines to a new meaning based upon someone’s contemporary definition. In line one they envelope those who have relied upon Christ in baptism. In line two they are based upon the observation that someone seeks to serve Christ. When key words shift their definitions in a string of assertions, the conclusion is unreliable. Even though the reasoning about Sally might sound biblical and valid, in actuality it involves the fallacy of equivocation!
I suspect there are several reasons why the term believer dominates today’s conversations. Not only is it unoffensive because it envelops all within Christendom, but for those who fail to understand faith and believe within the context of scripture, these words would seem to support concluding that if someone merely believes in Jesus then everything is good.
What is needed is a biblical study on what scripture communicates by faith. This Forthright web site offers several such brief studies.
Article resources can be accessed through links like this one.
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- Believer: An Interesting Term (2) - 2026-08-26