 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Christianity Versus Churchianity
Part 4 - Faith
By William R. Cunningham
August 24, 2003
INTRODUCTION
We must know what the Bible says in regards to things pertaining to Christianity. Faith is definitely one of those things. There are a plethora of teachings about faith today and many of these doctrines are inconsistent with the
Bible’s revelation of faith. It is very important that Christians are diligent about their knowledge of God and things pertaining to God. Paul said, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
Can you rightly divide the word of truth? Can you effectively and accurately share your faith with someone else? Can you explain various doctrines of the Christian faith apart from your denomination, church affiliation, or your church leaders? It is very important that we know the truths of the Christian faith, which are revealed in the Bible.
What can you say about faith? Do you know what the Bible says about faith or do you define faith according to the way that TV evangelists, word of faith preachers, and others define it? Is a faith a force or something else? What is the biblical perspective and revelation of faith? These are the questions whose answers I hope to shed some light on in this lesson.
FAITH
We must always remember that the Bible was not written in English. Furthermore, the people that wrote the scriptures contained in the Bible did not speak English. Therefore, we must always be aware of the fact that the English Bible is a translation of the original biblical languages. With that said, it now becomes increasingly important that we are aware of the underlying Greek and Hebrew words and their usage in order to accurately interpret a given scripture and especially to extract a Biblical truth from the Bible. This doesn’t mean that we should all be Greek and Hebrew scholars, but it does imply that we should know how to get at the information necessary to understand the true meaning of the biblical text in its original language.
Effective Bible study demands that we interpret the Bible in the same way that someone at the time of the writing of a given scripture would have interpreted it. The same principles would be revealed regardless of culture, customs, or time period of a Bible reader. That is why the Bible can stand the test of time. Its message does not change. This also means that we have to understand the context of the scriptures in order to effectively interpret the scriptures. With that said, let’s begin a study of faith from a biblical perspective.
The English word “faith” is translated from several Hebrew and Greek words in the Bible. The following are samples of these.
- Deuteronomy 32:20 – Hebrew emun, established, trusty, abstractly it means trustworthiness.
- Habakkuk 2:4 – Hebrew emunah: firmness, figuratively security; moral fidelity. This is the only time that this Hebrew word is translated like this.
- Matthew 6:30 – Greek ogliopistos: incredulous, lacking confidence
- Mark 11:22 – Greek pistis: persuasion, credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly constancy in such profession; by extension the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself. It is also translated as assurance, belief, believe, faith, and fidelity.
Examples of faith:
- Romans 3:26 – The belief in Jesus
- Romans 1:8 – The common belief of Christians as a whole
- Matthew 8:10 – The centurion
- Matthew 9:1-2 – Paralytic man
- Matthew 9:21-22 – Woman with issue of blood
- Matthew 9:29 – The blind man
- Matthew 15:28 – The Canaanite woman
- Acts 6:7 – Obedient to the faith
- Acts 14:9 – A man who Paul saw had faith to be healed
- Acts 16:5 – The church was strengthened in the faith
For the Christian, faith is depending on God to do what He said He would do. Faith is believing in Jesus Christ for the salvation that came by the grace of God. Faith is reliance on Jesus for salvation. You will notice that none of these references to faith in the above scriptures have anything to do with getting new cars, houses, money, etc. The Bible does not in any way teach faith in such a way. Faith is reliance on God. Faith is our conviction of Jesus Christ and the redemptive act. Faith is trust of God for provisions. Faith is not a force that we can use to get stuff from God, as we will discuss shortly.
It also appears that the Bible assumes that God will provide for us. The Bible assumes that God will give us gifts, though not to lavish us with riches for our own lusts. There is nothing in the Bible that says that God is opposed to us getting a new car, home, job, spouse, etc. The Bible even implies that He would grant us such things but not at the demand or our great faith, but according to his own grace and love for us.
However, in Churchianity and in particular the Word of Faith Movement, faith is a tool that we can use to manipulate or control God. One minister even likens faith to a medicine bag used by doctors. It is something that we could go to in order to get what we need.
Churchianity considers faith to be a force that we can activate by our words. Some ministers believe that we can cause God to do things by confession. If we say it then we will have it. That theology is a perversion of Mark 11:22-24. In any case, this teaching causes one to see God as a genie that who has to do what we say. Never mind that the Bible declares that we have to pray according to the will of God (1 John 5:14-15).
The Christian must realize that faith is totally pointed to God. We have no power to do anything of our own strength to say nothing about compelling God to do something. God is sovereign and we cannot make him do anything because of our confession or great faith. We are to put our faith in God and in Christ for salvation. We are to trust God to take care of us and to provide for us. However, we should not think that our mere activity, such as confession, would make God do anything because it won’t.
Word of Faith
There is a movement known as the “Word of Faith” movement in the Christian community. The father of this movement is identified as E.W. Kenyon and has been perpetuated by many ministers such as Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, and others. I was at one time part of this movement, though not completely sold out. However, I did subscribe to some of its teachings and even perpetuated some of the claims of this movement myself. However, I was saved from the bondage of this movement because I already had a relationship with God and was already involved with Bible study. Therefore, I began to see that the claims of this movement were not consistent with the Bible and I subsequently abandoned it. It also caused a bit of a falling out with a pastor of the church that I was attending at the time. I had noticed that the direction he was going was not in the direction that I was going, namely the teachings of the Bible. Therefore, I now say and want to make it clear that I do not promote or agree with the teachings of the faith movement.
The Force of Faith
Faith is a force and this forced is released and contained in words. This is the belief of the word of faith movement. There is positive faith and negative faith and consequently positive and negative words respectively. That is to say that you situations came about by the words that you spoke in the past. One belief of this movement is that the situation that you are currently in is a direct result of the words that you have spoken, either positive or negative. So if you say positive words then positive things will follow. This is called faith filled words. If you say negative things then bad things will happen. These are words of doubt.
Again let me make it clear that the Bible does not teach such things. As a matter of fact, these teachings are more consistent with New Age philosophy then they are to the Bible. Words are very important in the New Age philosophy. Thoughts are also very important in New Age philosophy. It is thought that positive thoughts would attract positive situations and negative thoughts would attract negative situations. Therefore, if one were to think positively then he or she would attract positive things. If a person were to likewise think negative thoughts then he or she would attract negative things on his or her life. These are the beliefs of the New Age movement. You might also notice that it is very similar to the word of faith’s teaching on confession. Go to http://www.carm.org/newage.htm for more information about the New Age Movement. I also recommend Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (www.carm.org).
The faith teachers use Hebrews 11:1 to support their teachings on faith. I’ll quote it here.
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The faith teachers hold that faith is a substance and this substance is a force. It is taught that faith brings spiritual things into existence through the power of the confessed word. However, they have misinterpreted the scripture. This is because of the ways that the word substance (Gk ›ðüóôáóéò -- hupostasis). However, this word can also be translated as substantial nature; the real nature of a thing which underlies and supports its outward form or properties according to the “Vines Word Studies of the New Testament.” The Greek, hupostasis was indeed translated this way in Hebrews 1:3 (the express image of his hupostasis, i.e., KJV:person; NIV: being). However this quality of hupostasis is not appropriate when used with faith. The Vine’s says that faith is the act of the moral intelligence directed at an object. Therefore, we cannot say that faith is substantial being as was said that Jesus Christ is to God. In this case, the better translation is assurance. In this case faith is actually that to which the unseen objects of hope become real and substantial. Consider how other translations render this verse.
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
(NCV) Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.
(NASB) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
(Amplified) NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title-deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality—faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.
So we can see that the claims of the faith teachers that faith is a force is not supported by the Scriptures, scholarly interpretation, nor philosophically.
The Bible presents faith as a conviction of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible presents faith as the belief in Jesus Christ or trust in God to provide for us. It does not present faith as a force in which we make demands of God.