Have Faith In

GOD

 

-part five-

 

what faith isn’t:

(or so the bible says)

One of the most important lessons I have learned since leaving the word of faith movement is this; verses strung together from The Bible do not automatically qualify a teaching as biblical. We’re told in the book of Job, “For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.” (Job 34:3). The Apostle John tells us, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1^st John 4:1). Luke records Paul’s words to the elders in Ephesus, where the Apostle says, “ Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:28-31 a).

Not least of all, we have the words of The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who said, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” & “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”(Matthew 7:15 & Matthew 10:16). These verses are just a few examples of the warnings that we are constantly given throughout Scripture concerning the diligence we are exhorted to employ in the pursuit of truth & doctrinal purity. Without these biblical parameters, we will quickly run into trouble & often into things much worse.

¹ But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. ³ And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not (2^nd Peter 2:1-3).

Are truth & doctrinal purity the aims of the word of faith movement? Leaders may say that it is, but I see no evidence in support of that. Is the propagation of The Gospel the objective of the word of faith movement? Followers may say that it is, but I see no evidence in support of that either. Does the word of faith movement exist to perpetuate itself, enrich its leaders & swell its numbers? Leaders & followers alike will sing out a resounding no, but I have to say yes, based on biblical evidence, personal experience & current observation.

The word of faith mindset is dissident. Although the entire movement itself cannot be accurately identified as an independent cult, it certainly bears similar psychological & emotional tendencies. These inclinations have permeated ministries, churches & even whole denominations. It happily drifts beyond accepted orthodoxy & turns into what I’ve come to describe as christianity plus. These things will be packaged as new perspectives or variations on themes. This is what has happened to our simple, innocent, childlike trust in God. It was pumped full of metaphysical steroids & it has morphed into a creature that is unrecognisable as the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude v 3).

Why don’t we revisit Hebrews 11 to find out, if nothing else, what faith isn’t. Is it a creative force, used by God? Is it a spiritual principle to be adhered to for guaranteed success? Is it an ethereal power released by words that are believed in the heart? Let’s look.

I always recommend that folk read the first ten chapters of the book of Hebrews before they dive into chapter eleven. The writer is speaking to a group of people who were considering going back under the law. Given the content & subject matter, some of the recipients of this epistle may even have been priests who had become disciples. However, this particular point is solely a matter of my own personal opinion. Luke tells us, “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7).

“The author states it repeatedly. He urges the Jewish Christians to hold fast the confession which they have made in Jesus as Messiah and Saviour. Their Jewish neighbours have urged them to give up Christ and Christianity and to come back to Judaism. The Judaizers tried to make Jews out of Gentile Christians and to fasten Judaism upon Christianity with a purely sacramental type of religion as the result. Paul won freedom for evangelical and spiritual Christianity against the Judaizers as shown in the Corinthian Epistles, Galatians, and Romans. The Gnostics in subtle fashion tried to dilute Christianity with their philosophy and esoteric mysteries and here again Paul won his fight for the supremacy of Christ over all these.. But in Hebrews the author is battling to stop a stampede from Christ back to Judaism, a revolt (apostasy) in truth from the living God. These Jews argued that the prophets were superior to Jesus, the law [that] came by the ministry of angels [&] Moses was greater than Jesus, and Aaron than Jesus. The author turns the argument on the Jews and boldly champions the Glory of Jesus as superior at every point to all that Judaism had, as God's Son and man's Saviour, the crown and glory of the Old Testament prophecy, the hope of mankind. It is the first great apologetic for Christianity and has never been surpassed.”

The Epistle to The Hebrews, Word Pictures in The New Testament by A. T. Robertson A.M., D.D., LL.D., Litt.D.

³² But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; ³³ partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. ³⁴ For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. ³⁵ Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. ³⁶ For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. ³⁷ For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. ³⁸ Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. ³⁹ But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:32-39).

¹ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

In chapters one to ten, the author details the superiority of The Lord Jesus Christ to the prophets; to angels; to Moses; to the sacrificial system; to the sabbath; to the priesthood. These things had been foregone by the Hebrews in order to embrace Christ as Messiah.

They had been warned “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:28-30). With these truths in view, the writer goes on into what we call chapter eleven.

Please forgive me for unceremoniously bursting the first of several bubbles here, but I have to tell you that Hebrews 11:1 is not a definition or explanation of the nature of faith as a law or as a force. It is a declaration. It is a summary of what these believers had done in accepting Jesus as their Messiah, just as others had before & would in future. Faith is the substance or underpinning of hope. Faith is not a mystical superpower that gives materiality to our hoped for desires in order to bring them to fruition.

The writer of the epistle frames the things hoped for quite clearly. “And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” (Hebrews 3:5-6). & “And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:” (Hebrews 6:11).

¹⁸ that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: ¹⁹ which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; (Hebrews 6:18-19).

¹⁹ For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God (Hebrews 7:19).

Prominent word of faith teachers have opted to use a secular definition of the words substance & evidence, instead of simply allowing the text to do what it does best, all by itself. They will emphasise the words substance of things & evidence of things, which interrupts the continuity of the narrative & turns it in another direction altogether. Faith is therefore connected to things. Material things. Ethereal things. Things just beyond the grasp such as healing or prosperity. The law or force of faith draws these things to you & brings them into possession. Hope, we are told, is future tense. It is like a dream because it is immaterial. It has no substance. Faith, it is said, is present tense. Faith is now. It takes the inconsequential quality of hope & makes it substantive, bringing it into reality. This is not what the text is saying at all. The writer is driving home the truth that these believers have placed their faith in Christ & that their faith underpins, supports & platforms the hope that is within them (1^st Peter 3:15).

Remember the words of Paul to the Romans, “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” (Romans 8:24-25). Faith is the basis & conviction of our hope. It is not a metaphysical law or force that was used by God, or can be used by anybody else. The Lord inspired this epistle to canonise the finished work of Christ, His cross & their dominance over all that had gone before.

The greatest danger that I can see is this; word of faith teaching seeks to establish who the believer is & what they can do, rather than substantiate Who The Lord Jesus Christ is & what He has done. It is all about Him; it is not about us. the sooner we realise this, the better.

² For by it the elders obtained a good report (Hebrews 11:2).

It strikes me that few have stopped to ask which elders the writer is referring to here. This is partly because the word of faith devotee is usually swept away to verses in the book of Numbers, which state, “And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:32-33). There you have it. An evil report is the opposite of a good report. These people had a poor image of themselves & that is why their report was evil. It was not a confession of faith. However, this is a leap of logic & what we have said about that; just because an argument is logically sound does not necessarily mean that it’s theo-logically sound. It isn’t enough for a teaching to make sense. It has to be true. It has to be so (Acts 17:11). Herein lies the rub.  

The good report that is spoken of in Hebrews 11 is not solely to do with those who went & spied out the land of Canaan. Read the rest of the chapter & you will see this. Instead, it is a commendation that The Lord gave to those who believed in Him. They obtained a good report. The same commendation these Hebrew believers would receive. “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:39-40).

The writer is not making a statement about the power of the force or law of faith. There is no such thing. Instead, it is an encouragement to remain faithful just as God has been faithful. The good report they obtained from The Lord was a Divine attestation. We will come to see the importance of this.

³ Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:3).

This verse has been the subject of much wrangling. It has been suggested that this is proof positive that God created the universe by using His faith; the God kind of faith. This is not so & by paying attention to what is actually said in the text, we will skilfully avoid a series of serious errors.

The Bible does not say that the worlds were framed by faith. Remember how the writer began this epistle, with the words “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” (Hebrews 1:1-3). Hold on, we’re not done. The writer of Hebrews continues speaking of Christ, quoting The Psalms & Isaiah, saying, “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: they shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;  and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” (Hebrews 1:10-12).

¹ In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God. ² The same was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:1-3).

¹⁶ for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: ¹⁷ and he is before all things, and by him all things consist (Colossians 1:16-17).

Christ as The Father’s agent in creation, as His Word in the mouths of the prophets who foretold His coming. Faith in Christ as The Governor & Divine sustainer of all in the created order. This is The Messiah the Hebrews had come to trust & believe in. The undisputed, undefeated, heavyweight King of Kings & Lord of Lords. The Alpha & Omega. The Beginning & the end.

³ knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. ⁵ For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: ⁶ whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: ⁷ but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (2^nd Peter 3:3-7).

Put to bed, the ridiculous notion that our eternal omniscient God needed faith. He is almighty. His agent in creation was His Word & that Word is Jesus Christ, King & Messiah. That is what the Hebrews & we by extension understand by faith. Scripture shows us this conclusively. God did not use a confession of His God kind of faith to speak creation into existence & there is no way that our tiny minds can possibly comprehend The Godhead at work in the formation of the universe we are still endeavouring to explore. Let’s stick to what The Bible says & avoid what it does not. Faith is not a law. Faith is not a force. Faith is our response.

⁴ By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh (Hebrews 11:4).

The Genesis narrative tells us [that] “..in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.” (Genesis 4:3-5).

Cain brought a meal offering & Abel brought an animal offering. Notice this; The Lord had respect to Abel as well as his offering, not just the animal sacrifice he brought. The text continues, “And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” (Genesis 4:6-7). It was not just the offerings these men brought before The Lord; it was also their lives lived before Him.

Far from showing Abel wielding the awesome power of the God Kind of faith, or enhancing a spiritual law, Scripture is demonstrating that Abel’s life was attested to By God Himself. He obtained witness that he was righteous. His brother planted produce & wasn’t necessarily there continually tending to what he had deposited. However, Abel would have been with his flocks constantly (Proverbs 27:23). Cain murdered his brother in what I can only imagine was a fit of Jealous rage (Matthew 5:22) & Abel’s blood cried out to God from the ground that it was seeping into (Genesis 4:10). The blood speaks. Jesus testified of him, calling him & his innocent blood righteous (Matthew 23:25). Yet, in the presence of God, the Holy & Precious Blood of The Lord Jesus Christ speaks for all who believe in Him (Hebrews 12:24). The writer of this epistle is encouraging the Hebrew believers to remain faithful to Him who had called them, obtain the witness of God & have their gifts attested to because they please Him.

⁵ By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. ⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:5-6). 

I’m reminded of the words of Jesus, Who said, “..No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62). The Hebrews were in danger of this. If they abandoned their faith, cast away their confidence & drew back, they would not please God. The elders pleased Him & He testified to that. His creation pleased Him because He said that it was good & His Word, Who is Christ pleased Him & he attested to that also (Matthew 3:17). Abel pleased Him & He bore witness to this. The Hebrews are being encouraged to do the same, by faith. So now we come to Enoch. His walk with God was a walk of faith. The text isn’t saying that Enoch was somehow so proficient in his use of faith that he simply crossed over into the next life. “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” (Genesis 5:24). There is something more theological here. Remember the writer’s admonition in the previous chapter. “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” (Hebrews 10:37). The faithful Hebrews & all believers by extension, can look forward to being caught away, as Enoch was in a type, when Christ returns. Enoch pleased Him. He had that testimony before God took him. The writer reproved the Hebrews to do the same. Faith is not a force. Faith is not a law. Faith is a lifestyle.

 

 

End of Part Five

 

 

 

copyright © by david Samuel Parkins mmxxv all rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is presented & without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser