Have Faith In God

And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God. -- Mark 11:22

My wife used to work as an administrative assistant for a pastor in a "Word of Faith" church.  It was quite a prominent ministry, especially around Dallas.  They were nice people, sincere people.  They were not trying to delude anyone.  Some of us -- not necessarily me -- have a tendency when dealing with nice, sincere people to think that there must be something to what they say, and what they believe.  Mormons are like this.  I have never met a Mormon I didn't like.  I'm not as harsh as some in that I consider them to be Christians, in general, especially as they have evolved over the years.  Still, I think the Book of Mormon has roughly the same level of inspiration as Treasure Island, though it's not as well written.  It doesn't mean Mormons aren't sincere. 

So, too, with the Word of Faith.  The reason I bring this up is because my wife was on the subject recently having listened to a minister whom she respects speak against some of these doctrines.  Her argument was that, working in that ministry where she did, she had been witness to quite literally hundreds of people who had their lives turned around by messages from that leader.  My response was that positive thinking is better than negative thinking, and that, if a person is motivated to get up, keep trying, and not quit, more times than not, things will work out. 

Again, I'm not saying the people involved are not or were not Christians or that their intent in any way was to fool people.  I've read E.W. Kenyon's books.  Identification is an excellent book.  I've lost my copy and would love to find another one.  It's very insightful.  The problem is that we are always treading a fine line.  We are always dealing in paradoxes.  It's very easy to get tangled up in language and terminology.  The truth, as I said a couple of days ago, is ineffable.  Just because something moves us toward the truth doesn't mean it encapsulates the whole truth.  Just because something is true doesn't mean it captures the Absolute. 

There's nothing  "wrong" with saying, Have a good attitude.  Don't let troubles get you down.  Don't give up.  That's encouragement.  In Acts 4:36, we read about a Cyprian Levite named Joseph.  We don't know him by that name but by his nickname -- Barnabas, which means "son of encouragement".  When David's men were about to stone him because their families and possessions had been taken by Amalekite raiders, David was distressed but he "encouraged himself" or "strengthened himself" in the Lord (1 Samuel 30:6).  Sometimes getting some courage in you is exactly what you need. 

But that isn't the Gospel.  You can be a stone-cold, hell-bound, devil-worshiping, dope-shooting, unrepentant pervert, yet wake up one morning, realize your lifestyle is destructive and that you are an abject failure.  You can buy some DVDs off public television or download some positive thinking podcasts, read some books, get your MBA, put on a suit, and become CEO of a Fortune 500 company.  You are now a hell-bound, unrepentant, devil-worshiping, successful pervert.  

The foundational text for so many Word of Faith proponents is that passage in Mark 11 where Jesus curses the fig tree.  Some will twist in a marginal reading to turn the Lord's initial declaration from "Have faith in God" to "Have faith of God" to a completely unjustifiable "Have the God-kind of faith".  Then we go into "you can have what you say". 

What it appears to me that Jesus means is that, as He says elsewhere, "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."  Or, as Hebrews 11:1 famously says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."  You know something is true.  You do not convince yourself any more than Abraham convinced himself that he was going to have a son at 100 with his 90-year-old wife. 

Who convinced him?

 I will let Andrew Murray carry on from a reprint called Jesus Himself.  I have inserted some breaks to make it a little more readable for those of us born after 1893:

It is by faith. We sometimes speak of faith as trust, and it is a very helpful thing to tell men that faith is trust: but when people say, as they sometimes do, that it is nothing else but trust, that is not the case. It is a far wider word than trust. It is by faith that I learn to know the invisible One, the invisible God, and that I see Him.

Faith is my spiritual eye-sight for the unseen and heavenly. You often try hard to trust God, and you fail. Why? Because you have not taken time first to see God. How can you trust God fully until you have met Him and known Him?

You ask, "Where ought I to begin?" You ought to begin with first believing; with presenting yourself before this God in the attitude of silent worship, and asking Him to let a sense of His greatness and His presence come upon you.

You must ask Him to let your heart be covered over with his holy presence. You must seek to realize in your heart the presence of an Almighty and all-loving God, an unspeakably loving God.

Take time to worship Him as the omnipotent God, to feel that the very power that created the world, the very power that raised Jesus from the dead, is at this moment working in your heart.

We do not experience it because we do not believe. We must take time to believe.

Jesus says, "Oh, my child, shut your eyes to the world, and shut out of your heart all these thoughts about religion, and begin to believe in God Himself."

That is the first article of the Creed--"I believe in God."

The Deep

Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.  And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”  And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”  And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.  — Luke 5:3-6

Simon engaged in an act of faith.  It is clear from his response that he, the professional fisherman, was not about to believe that he was actually going to catch any fish.  No, Simon was merely humoring a celebrity — for that is what this itinerant rabbi called Jesus was at this point.  Jesus was an engaging teacher associated with some healings and, possibly, a prophet.  But no one much considered Him to be the only-begotten Son of God.  We have seen that His family was not supportive.  His kinfolk in Nazareth had tried to kill Him.  Despite His popularity, or notoriety, Jesus was creating enthusiasm and interest but not much devotion.  Simon, Andrew, James, and John don't know it yet, but they are about to be in on the calling of Christ's first disciples.

Simon Peter demonstrates that faith is not a matter of mental acquiescence.  It is not a matter of reasoning or logic or anything we can grasp in the conscious mind.  Fishing as these men did it was not a sport.  It was a long-practiced and perfected craft.  They fished at night when those denizens of the lake came into the shallows to feed.  They did not put down their nets in deep water but used the net to sweep through the shoals catching the fish between the nets and the shore.  Letting down a net in deep water was a waste of effort.  All you got was a wet net.  

We sometimes fail to give people of biblical times credit for any knowledge or what we think of as modern thought processes.  For example, I can assure you that people in those days knew where babies came from.  They may have told some fantastic stories, legends, and myths, but so do we. 

Abraham and Sarah knew that ninety-year-old women do not get pregnant.  The very idea was laughable to them.  They may not have known all the cellular and molecular biology behind it, but they did breed and tend livestock.  Like the saying goes, "We may be from the country, but we know how the cows come home."  No one who has ever pulled a calf or assisted in lambing or foaling has any illusions about storks.  They also butchered their own meat.  Odds are Abraham knew a lot more about anatomy and which parts do what than the average urban-dwelling 21st Century Schizoid Man.  So, too, in the days of Christ, no one believed in virgin births — not even Mary as evidenced by her stating of the obvious -- "I don't see how that's gonna happen" -- in response to the angelic announcement of her impending conception.  Sexual knowledge did not begin with Dr. Freud or Dr. Ruth or Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.   

If there is a difference between us and people like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and the Apostles, it is that they were a little less willing to think that they already knew it all, that they somehow had access to all the secrets, that technology made them all geniuses.  These days people who cannot make change from a dollar think they understand Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity because they have heard "E-equals-M-C-squared", or because they have watched "The Big Bang Theory" on television.  Knowing how to use a smart phone does not make one smart.   

As Hebrews 11:1 famously says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."  When we read that chapter in the book of Hebrews, we are struck by how those heroes of faith consistently transcended the limitations of their human understanding in response to His word.  God does not call us to stop thinking logically or reasoning or learning or acquiring material knowledge.  He calls us to go beyond the shallow, conscious mind and plumb the depths.  The "things not seen" refers not just to heaven but to all the treasures and resources of our life that lie below the surface.  Like Simon, if we are going to transcend our current state, we are occasionally going to have to move out of what we know from experience, from what we are taught by the world. 

Interestingly, this is not the only time this same group had this experience with Jesus.  From John 21:1-7, we read: 

After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.  Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.  Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.  

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.  Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.”  He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.  That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”  

I have heard people say that if they had lived in the days of Christ's Incarnation and seen Him raised from the dead, they would "have more faith".  It does not work that way.  Seeing is a function of faith.  Certainly seeing the positive outcome of an act of faith can make us more willing, perhaps, to risk ourselves again.  But an act of faith is an act of faith.  There is just no getting around it.  Without faith it is impossible to please God. 

For three years, Peter and the rest had left their boats and followed Christ.  They had seen Him do all the miracles.  They were witnesses of His death, burial and resurrection.  So Peter says, "Well, I reckon we need to go back to fishin', boys."  I am no different.  I have been transformed by the power of the Blood.  But, after all, a man's got to live.  Jesus reminds them and me and you that "once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia".  It's not that we can't fish any more, it's that we will never fish quite the same way again.  We will always be eying that deep water.  And listening. 

Cause and Effect

Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. — Hebrews 11:1

Now without faith it is impossible to please God, the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him. — Hebrews 11:6

Do you know the difference between correlation and causation? If you do, you are ahead of most folks, and you're also ahead of many so-called experts.

I made a single mistake in the design of my house. In my office, I have a half-bath, which is fine. If I had made it a three-quarter, with even the simplest shower, I could have avoided exposure to all kinds of evil. For example, the other night I needed a shower, and I had to cross the master bedroom as my wife was watching the day's Oprah re-run. Oprah had some experts on telling people how to increase their wealth (for most Oprah-watchers, getting a job would be a good start). The final suggestion was to buy a house, since, the "expert" claimed, people who own their homes are something like 34 times wealthier than renters. I could not help myself. "That dumbass is no expert if he/she doesn't know the difference between a cause and a correlation!" I exclaimed.

The problem is that what the idiot said is probably actually the case. People who own homes no doubt have more wealth/net-worth than renters. The expert implied — and likely believes — that owning a home causes a person to be wealthier. The truth is that owning a home — for most people — correlates with having more wealth. Right now, there are millions of people who believed in the causation theory living in mortgaged houses that have actually decreased their wealth because they owe more on the mortgage than the house is worth or will be worth in the foreseeable future. There are also a large number of people for whom home ownership is sucking out most of their resources. They were led to believe that owning a home equaled increasing their net-worth, so owning a bigger, more expensive home meant they had more wealth. They are saddled with monthly payments that eat up over half their disposable income, and they are living, not just from paycheck to paycheck, but off their credit cards. Every day they are, as TEF most famously said, "Another day older and deeper in debt."

The confusion is also seen quite often in medical science and probably other branches of science. The false prophets of anthropogenic global warming see the correlation between increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and increasing temperatures and claim that "carbon emissions" cause planetary warming. In fact, increases in CO2 lag increases in temperature, so it could hardly be the cause. Carbon dioxide causes global warming in the same way that the hole in the window caused you to pull the trigger on your BB gun.

Obesity, cholesterol levels, arterial plaque, and heart attacks correlate. I am not convinced that there is a direct cause-effect relationship. I am personally convinced that, for most people, dietary cholesterol does not cause heart attacks or strokes. Rather, it seems plausible to me that obesity itself is an effect instead. Note: I am not offering medical advice to anyone. I'm just saying what I think. I am as completely ignorant and unqualified with regard to medical science and human physiology as I am most other subjects, including finance and politics. I do, however, believe that a reasonable amount of physical activity along with having a vocation or avocation that gives you real joy will cause you to have a healthier and higher quality life, if not a longer life. And what do you really want?

Faith can correlate rather than cause as well. In my work, I often have to come up with solutions to problems. Sometimes, I just know I'm right about a fix or a solution. Other times, I have a little twinge of doubt that tells me all is not as it should be. If I were a name-it-and-claim-it type of faith person, I would try to quell the doubt and strengthen my faith. As it is, I have learned to re-examine my code. The other approach — thinking will make it so — is rooted in a childish mindset of magical thinking. Too often faith is equated with or devolves into such idolatry.

When the Bible talks about the faith of Abraham, it speaks of him "believing God". Isaiah asks, "Who has believed my report?" In Romans 10, Paul explains that the path to salvation is to "believe in your heart". What does the heart believe? The truth. The truth that Christ was raised from the dead. Faith does not cause the truth to be true. Doubt does not mean that Jesus has not been raised. My refusal to believe causes me to miss salvation, but it doesn't make anything untrue. Faith causes me to experience the benefits of the truth. But faith correlates, you might say, with the truth. It would be far more appropriate to say that the truth causes faith on my part. Faith is the result not the cause.

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is God's gift ... (Ephesians 2:8).

So faith comes from what is heard ... (Romans 10:17)