Have Faith In

GOD

 (based on conversations I have had with professing christians)

-part six-

 

what faith doesn’t:

(or so the bible says)

 

It is The Lord, not the devil, that is in the detail & how often we miss Him completely. I believe that there is nothing in The Scriptures by mistake, nor is there anything so small that it remains insignificant indefinitely. If jots & tittles are important to God, they ought also to be significant to us. However, there are those who willingly & wilfully pass over whatever is there in the plain reading of God’s Word, in order to construct & introduce something entirely alien to the text, for their own purposes. This leads to gross errors & the further along this rocky road we travel, the greater the dangers. Let me give you a prime example, using the second faulty foundation of word of faith rhetoric; the so called confession of faith. “(as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;  and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.  And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” (Romans 4:17-22).

I recommend reading Romans 4 in its entirety, rather than simply being led by the nose into cherry picking verses that are twisted out of all reasonable recognition, after the manner of mainstream word of faith teaching. The answers, are in the texts. However, a selective isolation of verses is necessary for some to attempt to prove the principle that we dismantled in our last meeting; the false premise that faith is a law or force, originally used by God in creation & also known as the God kind of faith. These verses from Romans 4 are then employed by word of faith proponents, in a heavily elasticated attempt at further revealing the nature of the God kind of faith, because according to them, faith “..calleth those things which be not as though they were;” (Romans 4:17b). We are taught to imitate God by doing the same thing as Him. Call those things which be not, as though they were. Speak faith filled words that bring our heart’s desires into reality. Say it & see it. Name it & claim it. Blab it & grab it. Confess it & possess it. The dangerous proximity of this dogma to the new age’s law of attraction is concerning to say the least, but it would seem that some are simply hitting the snooze button & ignoring the alarm. Tut. Tut. Tut.

When we examine the passage in Romans 4, this is not what Paul was teaching at all. There is no such thing being taught here. Please bear with me while we thrash this out.

The cry goes up, “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;” (2^nd Corinthians 4:13); “A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” (Proverbs 18:20-21). You see, they say, Scripture clearly teaches this principle of confession. Beginning with our confession of Christ as our Saviour at salvation & continuing on in our walk of faith. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:10). We are to confess with our mouths whatever we have come to believe in our hearts. Is this what the Apostle Paul was teaching? Let’s look at the text.

Dissenters will say that the Apostle Paul didn’t know what he was talking about. The glaringly obvious differences between Romans 4 & the original narrative in the book of Genesis cannot be ignored. However in defence of our dear brother, I have to point out that Paul was a distinguished Jewish theologian, making a particular doctrinal point, while discussing a Hebrew construct, to an audience that included gentiles. Your average, common or garden word of faith teacher will not get into this, because explaining what Paul does here theologically will unravel the twisted falsehoods they peddle. Paul is building his contention concerning God’s justification of Abram by faith, apart from the works of the law or circumcision & despite his human failings. We too are justified by faith, apart from the works of the law or circumcision & despite our human failings.

We also have to remember the admonition that The Lord gave to Abram; “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” (Genesis 17:1). The Lord Jesus also said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48). Well, thanks be to God for the doctrine of sanctification.

God promised Abram many things. “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6). The Lord God was his shield. The Lord God was his reward. The Lord God promised him descendants as the number of the stars in the heavens & as the sand of the seashore. The Lord God promised that Abram would be the father of many nations & that kings would come out of him. The Lord God promised him & his descendants the land of Canaan. The Lord God also promised him a son from his own body, through his wife. The Lord God would make His covenant with the lad & his seed after him.

The Lord God was speaking. The Lord God was promising. The Lord God was demonstrating His perfect foreknowledge & Divine Omniscience. It is His eternal perspective, because He is all seeing & all knowing. This is the theological point that Paul is unpacking in Romans 4, seen from God’s eternal viewpoint. However, the rhetoric of modern faith teaching removes God from the centre & places man there. It is you who are in control of your life, destiny & circumstances because it is you who has the power through your confession. Lean in.

“[In Proverbs] chapter 18 verse 21, it says death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat his fruit. Now this particular verse of scripture is an astounding revelation; listen to this; death and life, what else is there that covers the gamut doesn't it? Death and life, but listen to this, listen to this; death and life are not in the power of God. Look at the verse. It doesn't say death and life are in the power of God. It doesn't say death and life are in the power of Jesus. It doesn't say death and life is in the power of The Holy Spirit. It doesn't say death and life is in the power of satan. It says death and life is in the power of the tongue. That's incredible and those who love it will eat its fruit. In other words you're going to eat the fruit of what you speak. death and life. I love that, because it tells me that I am the architect of my own destiny. Now that does not say that God is not in the mix, don't misunderstand me but he made us with free will so we can obey or disobey. We have that choice and He'll allow us to do it. We see it all the time. So He's put principles into His Word that we can take and operate in and through these principles bring about what God intended in the first place for his creation of us; abundant living in every area of life. So he says death and life are in the power of the tongue so that means you can speak death to your life or you can speak life to your life.”

Frederick K. C. Price, The Power of Positive confession, at Faith Christian Center in Arlington, Texas in 2009 (emphasis added).

The thrust behind positive confession is the misplaced belief that because God is a faith God, He confessed creation into existence. The words and God said are lifted from Genesis 1 in order to try & prove this point. Therefore, if we are to be imitators of Him as dear children (Ephesians 5:1) we are to do the same. I am yet to find a single word of faith advocate who has been able to move a single grain of sand with their faith, much less create a universe or move a mountain. Even the leaders of this movement seem to have difficulty fighting off the dentist, optician, doctor, mortician or funeral director. Fred Price himself died in 2021 after succumbing to Covid 19 related complications. Of course, his passing was billed as him deciding to go & be with The Lord after catching a glimpse of glory.

“Faith's confession is always a joyful confession. It confesses that we have the money before it has arrived. It confesses perfect healing while the pain is still in the body. It confesses victory while defeat still holds it captive. Your confession is based upon the living Word. "I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is not only able to make good, but He is making good now in my case." When we confess the Word with joy, it brings conviction to the listeners. In Romans 10:10 it says, "For with the heart man believeth ." I like to translate it like this, "For with the heart, man acts on the Word." The heart acts and that drives the lips to confession. A doubting heart is a sense-ruled heart. A fearless confession comes from a Word-ruled heart. The Word dominates their heart life and they speak as did Paul, "I know in whom I have believed."…Paul had a faith-filled, joyous confession. Only a heart that is nourished on the Word can stand in these hard places. When we know that the Word is God speaking to us now, it is not difficult to act upon it.”.

E. W. Kenyon, The Hidden Man; an Unveiling of The Subconscious Mind © 1981 (emphasis added).

Oh dear. If what these men say is true, it would mean that Paul failed miserably in living up to his own teachings. He made several bad confessions, saying, “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” (1^st Corinthians 2:3) & “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (1^st Corinthians 15:10) & “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;” (Ephesians 3:8) & “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1^st Timothy 1:15) & “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). Yet Paul claimed to have kept the faith. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:” (2^nd Timothy 4:7). He fought. He finished. He was faithful.

This is the same Apostle who admonished the Romans not to think of themselves more highly that they ought to. “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Romans 12:3).

Perhaps Paul knew something that the modern Church has conveniently forgotten or deliberately ignored. Let’s return to our example of true faith; our father, Abram.

¹And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. ² And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. ³ And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. ⁴ Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. ⁵ And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. ⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. ⁷ And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? ⁸ And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. ⁹ And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. ¹² And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. (Genesis 22:1-12).

Do we see Abram utilising confession for possession here? Surely the father of the faith would have left us evidence of this principle in action, wouldn’t he? Between Abram believing God & his act of faithfulness in being willing to sacrifice Isaac, there were one or two significant occurrences. In Genesis 15, Abram believed God & was justified by faith. In Genesis 16, he goes into Hagar & produces Ishmael. In Genesis 17, The Lord changes his name & he receives the sign of circumcision. Abram becomes Abraham. In Genesis 18, The Lord appears to Abraham & informs him of His intentions concerning the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah. In Genesis 19, he rescues his nephew Lot from sin city. In Genesis 20 Abraham encounters Abimalech & lies to the king about Sarah being his wife, in order to save his skin. In Genesis 21, Sarah conceives & gives birth to Isaac. Our father Abraham had been a busy boy. Yet throughout his ventures, Abraham wasn’t confessing, naming, claiming or saying. God said it. God promised it. God did it. Ultimately, by the time we get to Genesis 22, we see that Abraham has moved to a place in faith, of unquestioning obedience to his God.

¹ Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, ² (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) ³ concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; ⁴ and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: ⁵ by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: (Romans 1:1-5).

²⁵ Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, ²⁶ but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: (Romans 16:25-26).

Do not be tempted to think that you can simply confess, name, claim, say, see, declare or decree your way into or out of anything in this life. It is a lie that appeals to the desperate & the delusional. I have seen both. Abraham’s faith grew out of the relationship he had with The Lord. This went beyond what had been said to him. It also embraced the faithfulness of He Who had said it. Abraham had faith in God & that faith produced the obedience that underpinned & drove his actions. If you want to walk in faith as Abraham did, let’s see your submission & devotion.

⁷ Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? (2^nd Chronicles 20:7).

⁸ But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend (Isaiah 41:8).

²³ And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:23).

There was no law, therefore there was no legalism. There was no circumcision, therefore there was no obligation. Faith is our loving response to a loving God, not a system or formula. I have of course heard the objection that it is our confession that Jesus takes before The Father & we are encouraged to do the same because of our covenant rights. “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;” (Hebrews 3:1). However, these verses speak of our personal profession of Christ as our Saviour, not the misguided belief that The Lord Jesus takes whatever we have been naming, claiming, saying, seeing, declaring & decreeing, before God as our covenant representative, while we exercise the God kind of faith. What utter nonsense. This is not the example of faith set out for us in The Scriptures.

Romans 4 does not end with verse twenty two. The Apostle Paul continues, saying, ^“Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; ²⁵ who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” (Romans 4:23-25). The justification by faith of all who believe is what is being taught. Calling those things which be not as though they were, is a simple & straightforward description of what God did & can do, because He is The Lord. It is not the principle of positive confession that the word of faith message teaches. It was God Who said these things, not Abram. It was God Who made these promises, not the patriarch. It was God Who declared, decreed & ordained these things, not man. If we are to imitate God, as some say, then let’s see them raise the dead, because our text tells us that it is God Who “..who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17b).

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, ¹⁸ of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: ¹⁹ accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure (Hebrews 11:17-19).

With these truths in view, we can see just how ludicrous word of faith assertions are. As I have said; The Lord God was speaking. The Lord God was promising. The Lord God was demonstrating His foreknowledge & Divine Omniscience. It is His perspective, because He is all seeing & all knowing. Furthermore, our text from Romans 4 clearly states that it is “..God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were (Romans 4:17b).

If we are meant to imitate God by doing & saying the same thing as Him, then that would mean that we can also call non-existent things into being. But this is not what Paul is teaching us here. It is The Lord, not the devil, that is in the detail.

⁸ And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. ⁹ So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. (Galatians 3:8-9).

In our next & final visitation of the topic of faith, we will address what is perhaps the most abused passage of Scripture that word of faith leaders handle. It is a flagrant abuse of the teaching of The Lord Jesus Christ, devoid of any knowledge of what, in my opinion, is probably the pinnacle of our Saviour's demonstration of & teaching on faith. Of course, I’m speaking of Mark 11:22-24.

 

End of Part Six

 

 

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

 

 

 

Have Faith In

GOD

 (based on conversations I have had with professing christians)

-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