But without faith it
is impossible to pleas Him,
for he who comes to
God must believe that
He is, and that He is
a rewarder of those
who diligently seek
Him.
Hebrews 11:6
But he who doubts is
condemned if he eats,
because he does not
eat from faith;
for whatever is not
from faith is sin.
Romans 14:23
What a
dichotomous people we are so often for we divide our thoughts and words making
one to be contradictory and wrong and the other to be believed or held as a
truth when a single word is spoken. One word used in this manner is: faith. It
seems that some will object that we should believe in God or a god by faith and
if we say we do then we are wrong. Some even will even turn to other religions
in order to avoid the plain fact of the Bible: “But without faith it is
impossible to pleas Him,…”, and then turn to another religion who is also a
from of religious faith. This turning to another faith was suggested by a
person who objected to the Bible and to the fact that it is by faith that we
receive the written word; in fact he suggested that another turn to Buddhism.
Why? Is it due to the fact because the Bible is more than just a book of
suggestions? Why should we have to come to God in faith? Well, have you seen
God? Were you there when the foundations of the universe put in place? Were you
are the cross when Jesus Christ was crucified? Furthermore, have you been to
Paris, Bangkok, or any place in the world so that you can say with surety that
they exist? If not, then you must believe by faith that they do exist. You may
have pictures, or books, or even testimony that they do exist but you have not
been that place and you must believe by faith that they do exist. When you
drive your car, do you have faith? Yes! Your faith is in your tires, and that
the person making those tires made them correctly and they will stay inflated
and you will be safe: but this is all faith. When you go out to eat do you do
so by faith that the person(s) making the food have not done something terrible
to our food, as has been reported that this has happened, yes, you do this all
by faith. Faith is necessary in this life for we live by faith. We have written
for us a book, many books, written by 40 men who were eyewitness to the many
things about which they wrote. Archeology has shown often that Scripture is
correct. A well known retraction that was necessary by those who opposed what
written in the Bible, and that was the Hittites and they would not believe that
that nation of people ever existed therefore the Bible was wrong. What Archeologist
have discovered is that the Hittites were a real people and in fact a large and
prosperous nation. Now, we do not have faith when we have fact, we have then
knowledge and that knowledge may aid us in our faith, faith in other
Scriptures. Yet, we must come to God by faith for faith is the root of our
believing, believing in anything, but more especially in God who has revealed
to us Himself. This is nothing less than what we do in our lives everyday. To
know is one thing, but our knowledge if we wish it to have any truth must come
by our study and this is what I am doing in this blog. I hope to drive you to
be so curious as to check out what is being written.
The Trinity
is another such word that has confused many and made cause for some speculation
trying to reconcile from a secular and man view as to whom God is and how we
are to perceive Him. Scripture is plain and even those hard to understand
verses when studied will give light of understanding to this doctrine. Why is
this important anyway? Can we not just believe in God and that He saves and
stop there? No! this issue of the Trinity is soteriological (salvation) in
nature. There are questions that to be answered: i.e., could Jesus Christ save
a man if He were a demi–god, that is less than true God, or of a different
essence or even a possibly be only to have similarity to God? If Jesus was a
created being, as do Jehovah Witnesses teach that he is a god, but not the true
God, a created being by God and that salvation does come through him. Sounds
good on the surface, yet, Scripture never speaks of Jesus Christ being anything
other than the creator, the Wisdom of God, and the Son of God. Let me ask this:
Would God create a being who could sin, and do as Satan did, refuse God and
then by his refusal salvation could not come by God? Would God leave salvation
to chance? No! If God will a thing, then that thing will happen, and if God
does not will a thing then that thing will not happen. God is God, and His
purpose stands forever: “The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, ‘Surely, as I
have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall
stand” (Isaiah 14:24). This controversy over who Jesus is became bitter as
a major person in the church asserted that Jesus Christ was not the God, rather
a created being and that Jesus Christ had a special relationship with the
Father and yet not the same essence as the Father. Arius was condemned and sent
into exile, which he did by fleeing to an old friend and schoolmate, Eusebius,
the bishop of Nicomedia. This dispute had gone well beyond just an internal
church dispute for it by being centered in Asia Minor threatened the empire,
the unity of the empire therefore Constantine tried to settle the dispute but
the dispute went beyond his powers therefore the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.)
was called to settle this dispute.
I will
address this in tomorrow’s blog. Knowledge will not save you. Knowledge will
aid you to make your salvation and election sure. Is this important? Yes! We
will live by what is in our minds and in our beliefs and yet, in the final: we
live by faith, an assured faith, and this assurance come to us as we study the
Scriptures.
Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said:
“Shall the
one who contends with the
Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God,
Let him
answer it.”
Job
40:1–2
Live by Faith: Faith in the true God
Richard L. Crumb
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