FAITH REVISITED

Much has been said about faith for quite a number of decades now. Back in the Latter Rain revival days, Kenneth Hagin began his teachings on faith. Since then, others have taken his teachings and transformed them into the Word of Faith / prosperity gospel, what I have decided to call the HAWG (Health And Wealth Gospel). Many congregations have used ‘Faith’ in their names. I know of two chains using the name Faith Assembly.

In all this emphasis on faith, I have seen some shortcomings in the understanding of this subject. Some are more than simple mistakes - they have become dangerous threats to life and health.

In this article, I will examine these issues and try to bring some Scriptural clarity.

What is faith?

Many WOF teachers would point to this verse to define ‘faith.’

Hebrews 11:1 NKJV

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

After reading or quoting this verse, they will say that faith is a substance, or a force. That statement makes faith into something mechanical, something that we can manipulate like a tool to fix broken aspects of our lives.

We see this reflected in the titles given to sermons, books, videos, etc., about using faith:

Four Steps To Answered Prayer.

Six Steps To Healing.

Seven Habits That Bring Prosperity.

Those are titles I made up to illustrate my point. But if you search the websites or watch the television programs of HAWG teachers you will likely find some kind of product with a similar name that they offer as a ‘love gift’ for a donation.

But some take those teachings and turn them into rules. If you don't pray enough, confess enough, fast enough, then that is why you haven't been healed, your bills are unpaid, your car broke down….

Some go even further to say you must achieve ‘rapturing faith’ before Jesus returns, or you will be left to go through the Tribulation. I see this as fearmongering to manipulate people to stay true to a cult leader. This teaching puts undue stress on people that can create mental and physical health issues. Some people under such a burden have ended their own lives.

While I do admit that faith has some mechanical aspects, its nature is not that way.

Hebrews 11:1 NASB1995

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

This is how most of the more recent translations render this verse. No mechanical wording there.

But notice the second clause in both renderings. The words ‘evidence’ and ‘conviction’ are legal terms. In the context of Hebrews, what the author, or authors, intend is that the faith of Old Testament heroes is the evidence that supports the conviction that

…we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience…

Hebrews 10:19-22 NASB1995

At first, the earliest disciples faced persecution only from the Jewish religious authorities. The government had no interest in them at the time. All the disciples were Jews, who still saw themselves as Jews, and except for their belief in Jesus, they still did what Jews did. The practice of Judaism was legal under Roman law, so government officials first saw the disciples as members of a new Jewish sect. As long as the disciples didn't violate other Roman laws the officials had no legal reason to worry about them.

But some of those disciples couldn't handle the persecution. They knew they could avoid it if they gave up their faith in Jesus, and went back to being just Jews…who followed the Mosaic law for salvation. The author, or authors, of Hebrews did not want that, so they wrote the letter to warn the disciples about the consequences of forsaking Jesus. The eleventh chapter points them, and us, to the faith of the heroes as a reason to continue believing in, and following, Jesus.

One last note about Hebrews 11: Many people take the “great cloud of witnesses,” mentioned at the beginning of chapter 12, to be the heroes, and they are now watching us from heaven. This is often extended to include recently deceased relatives. Do you really think anyone in the presence of Jesus is concerned with anything going on in this world? No, they are not witnesses OF us. They are witnesses TO us!

The nature of faith is more than mechanical or legal.

Mark 11:20-26 NASB1995

As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter *said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”

And Jesus *answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”

This is THE central Scripture passage of faith teaching. When you see faith as a mechanical force, then this passage becomes the handbook of HAWG doctrine.

But if you read it slowly, and with an open mind, one phrase just might stand out, and change how you see faith. To save you some time, I will highlight the phrase here: “…and does not doubt IN HIS HEART…”

Doubt is a heart matter. So is faith.

Another way to say it, faith is not a matter of moving mountains, paying bills, receiving healing, raising the dead, etc. It is not a measure of one's spirituality.

Faith is a relationship word. Faith in your heart is the very core of all your relationships. That includes your relationship with God.

My time as a soldier helped me to see this. I was ruminating on the difference, and the similarity, between the terms ‘believer’ and ‘disciple.’ One well-known HAWG teacher directs his ministry towards believers. In recent years, I have seen a larger emphasis on discipleship. I also noted that in most of the New Testament, Christians were called disciples. Then I thought of the logo of the U. S. Army's Infantry School. It shows a Revolutionary War soldier holding a musket in one hand, and making an overhead gesture with the other. The caption reads, “Follow me!” That got me to thinking of the officers I had that I would follow into combat. (Thank God I never had to!) Then it hit me: You won't follow anyone you don't trust.

Don't get me wrong. I never had a close personal relationship with these officers. But I had seen enough to know that I could trust them to not make mistakes that would get me or another soldier hurt or killed. I know those are possible in combat, but officers who unnecessarily put their troops in harm's way often make things worse on a larger scale. The army takes a dim view of that.

In short, you have to be a believer to be a disciple.

What is the purpose of faith?

One of the key verses on faith is one I have seldom heard a HAWG teacher quote, and I have never heard anyone give a teaching only on this one verse.

Hebrews 11:6 NASB1995

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Whenever a HAWG teacher does quote or reference this verse, they tend to focus on the “rewarder” clause. This is just another indication that they are seeing faith as a mechanical phenomenon. Believe God by buying their books and CD's, or giving an offering, and get a reward. Better yet, in their view, become a ‘partner’ of their ministry!

How about using your faith to please your Father? The OT heroes pleased their God by their faith. I see nothing in the NT that indicates anything different about the purpose of faith.

Why is pleasing God by faith so important? Ask any parent who has been hurt when their child did not trust them.

How does faith actually work?

Two passages I know of give us a look at how faith actually works.

Galatians 5:2-6 NASB1995

Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

The Galatian disciples were some of the earliest converts in Paul's apostolic ministry. You can read about this in Acts 13 and 14. Soon after Paul and Barnabas returned from this trip, Judaizers came in and began to teach that Gentiles needed to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. Paul wrote this letter to counteract that teaching.

The problem with that doctrine is that it bases salvation on man's works instead of God's. We need to base our faith on God’s love for us, and His faithfulness to us.

In other other words, we trust Him and believe His Word because we know His will, His intention, is to provide for us, and to bless us.

Matthew 17:14-20 NASB1995

When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He *said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

Jesus made a very interesting statement here. On the one hand, He tells His disciples they had little faith. But, on the other hand, He tells them that if their faith is no bigger than a mustard seed, they could not only cast out a demon, they could move a mountain! Was He saying that their faith was smaller than that? How big is a mustard seed anyway?

Matthew 13:31-32 NASB1995

He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Jesus only states that a single mustard seed is the smallest of seeds. He doesn't specify if He means the seeds in the man's field, or all types of seeds. I looked up ‘mustard seed,’ and found they range from 1 to 2 millimeters, or 3 to 5/64ths. That is very small for seeds.

If Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a single mustard seed, did He also mean that faith works like a seed? Could be…

What did Jesus say the seed did? It grew. It did not stay a seed, it became a plant. Your faith can grow. No matter how big your faith is now, it can grow.

How does faith grow? Here we need to turn away from the metaphoric language, and remember that faith is a relationship term. How do relationships grow? Love?

Yes. But how does love grow? TIME!

Spend as much time as you can with God. Read and study the Bible. Pray. Approach both as if you are spending time with someone who loves you, and you love them.