Faith is your belief system. Faith can be on a continuum going from weak to strong, from strong to weak, from weak to weaker, from strong to stronger. Faith does not have to be seen or proven, yet the believers know, not only think, but know it to be true. This is the virtue of faith. Faith can also be a gift as has been witnessed through many miracles, moving mountains, healing the sick, raising one from the dead, or in the case of Elijah the prophet, preventing the rain from falling for three years.
Religion is the organized rites and rituals by which you practice your faith. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, our religion is also based on the Holy Scripture and the Traditions. Our Lord Jesus Christ chose the nation of Israel as His chosen people. All humanity descended from Adam and Eve. The people that became God's nation were their descendants who were taught to observe and to adhere to all of God's commandments and statues. Seth, Noah, Abraham, David, etc., kept the faith alive. Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ chose this nation as His people and promised that salvation would come through their descendants. This is our faith and our religion. It is expressed through a life of repentance, keeping the commandments of God, and observing the Holy Sacraments.
A Christian is one who believes and follows the teachings of Christ. "And the disciples were first called Christians is Antioch" (Acts 11:26). The names of the churches varied according to their locations, e.g., the Church at Alexandria; the Church at Corinth; the Church at Jerusalem, the Church at Rome; etc., The Coptic Orthodox Church is the Church at Alexandria. Coptic means Egyptian. The faith which our church received is the same faith which Christ delivered to His blessed disciples and apostles. Therefore, the same faith and religion we received directly from our Lord Jesus Christ through the successors of His apostles, we deliver to this generation, and God-willing, this generation will deliver it to the next generation, and so on, until the Second Coming of Christ, in which He will receive His church, faith and religion, wholesome as He left it.
Faith and religion are what bring people closer to God, to obtain Salvation, and the hope for an everlasting life with Him.
