Bible Dictionary
BELIEVERS
Believers are those who trust in Jesus Christ and attach themselves to His church. The term describes people who profess faith in Christ, though their spiritual experience and maturity may differ.
Definition
Believers are people who profess faith in Jesus Christ and attach themselves to the Christian church. The term identifies those who believe, while allowing for different degrees and forms of actual faith and spiritual experience.
Biblical Usage
Belief in Jesus Christ is presented as the essential condition for admission into the Christian community. The New Testament uses believers as a regular designation for Christians and does not divide them into a superior class of spiritual “knowers.”
Historical Background
The term translates several Greek expressions meaning those who believe or have believed. The supplied material distinguishes ordinary New Testament usage from the later Gnostic contrast between believers and knowers.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>be-lev'-ers (in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) of Ac 5:14, for posteuontes, the Revised Version, margin "believing"; in the King James Version of 1Ti 4:12 for hoi pistoi, the Revised Version (British and American) "them that believe"): Equivalent phrases, they (he, she) that believe (for hoi pepisteukotes; hoi, pisteuontes; (adj.), pistos, etc.) occur frequently as a regular description of those who professed their faith in Christ, and attached themselves to the Christian church. The one essential condition of admission into the Christian community was, that men should believe in Jesus Christ (Ac 16:31). The actual experiences of the men thus denoted varied with all the possible degrees and modifications of FAITH (which see). Believers are nowhere in the New Testament distinguished as a subordinate class from the "Christians who know" as in the Gnostic antithesis of pistikoi and gnostikoi, "believers" and "knowers."</p><p>T. Rees</p>