The Assurances

Assurance: A certainty or confidence of mind or matter.

Hope is the seed of the Assurances. Hope is desire and possibility, as a seed it takes root as Belief. Believing, the active form of Belief, becomes the stalk which branches into Faith which is a spiritual concept. Faith then blossoms as Trust, its active form. This plant is both the parent and the offspring of the Unconditionals: Grace, Agapé and Forgiveness, for the Unconditionals yield assurance which in turn yields the Unconditionals; together they are Self-replicating.

Often these words are used interchangeably. They seem to have begun as a single word; in the Greek text of the New Testament the word pistis (n. pistis, v. pisteuein) is translated into English as either Trust, Faith, Believe or Belief. When defining words it is important to look both at their present and historical usage.

Merriam-Webster Online Definitions Faith
(bold headings are my own)

Faith as Promise
• allegiance to duty or a person: loyalty
• fidelity to one's promises
• sincerity of intentions
Faith as Trust
• belief and trust in and loyalty to God
• belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion
• firm belief in something for which there is no proof
• complete trust
Faith as Belief
• something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
• without question

• assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something
• one in which confidence is placed
• dependence on something future or contingent: hope
• a charge or duty imposed in faith or confidence or as a condition of some relationship

• a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing
• conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence

Biblically Belief, Faith and Trust are the same word, but how do we use these words today? They are all components of the same concept. Faith and Trust are the noun and verb forms of spiritual elements and Belief and its verbal counterpart Believe are mental elements. Hope is a separate element and is both a noun and verb. It is based upon possibilities and desire, but is without expectation. Hope produces the other elements, but they also produce Hope and thus together they are Self-creating because the plant produces seeds.