The Doctrine of Faith

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”  (Pro 3:5) 

March 26, 2003 – To trust in the lord with all the heart, the heart of man must necessarily be replaced.  A heart transplant is in order, for the scripture says:   “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer 17:9)  So it is necessary that the sinner receive that which God alone can give, as He says: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”  (Eze 36:26)

Please make very careful note of this fact, because there is no more important issue in all of Theology.  A NEW HEART COMES FIRST.  No man can believe, No man can be inclined towards God, No man can desire Christ, unless he first be given a new heart.

It is by receiving a new heart (mind towards Christ) that the sinner is enabled to trust in the LORD and to lean not on his own understanding.

The new heart, given by God according to His will alone, is the tool He then uses to EVIDENCE Himself to us, by His Grace alone, so that wherein we once were lost; our actions will now EVIDENCE us as having been found.  It is this EVIDENCE that allows the regenerate man to behave positively according to God’s command to him as a new creature, and not according to the “old man”.  It is this EVIDENCE which is spoken of in the book written to the Hebrews in Rome:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1)

The religious world has concocted a fanciful interpretation of faith which destroys the meaning of the word while also contorting the basis by which faith operates.  Faith pimps in the religious media have utilized authentic Biblical miracles to twist the understanding of both the root and the fruit of those miracles.  When Jesus commends people for faith, He can only be performing one of two functions:

1.)        He was impotently using the stories of faith to implore his followers and disciples to better behavior, after which He would reward them with certain goodies.  Or…

2.)        He was showing them the glory and majesty and wisdom of a Holy and Sovereign God in choosing to bestow faith and belief upon mere sinners, the weak and downtrodden, the poor and afflicted, the meek and undeserving.

Was Jesus teaching us how to pull his strings?  Was he binding Himself with shackles of iron, committing Himself with no higher purpose other than to bestow gifts upon whosoever is clever enough to “figure it out”?

False teachers find grounds in Christ’s commendation in order to exhort people to manufacture similar faithful behavior, implying that faith has humanity as its root.  They will say “If you only have faith…”, or, “If you only have MORE faith”, or “If you only have ENOUGH faith…” followed by whatever twisted reward they propose to dangle in front of the seeker.

A.M. Stibbs, in the last century wrote:

“The faith of the individual must be seen as having no value in itself, but as discovering value wholly and solely through movement towards and committal to Christ. It must be seen as simply a means of finding all one's hope outside oneself in the person and work of another; and not in any sense an originating cause or objective ground of justification. For true faith is active only in the man who is wholly occupied with Christ; its practice means that every blessing is received from another. For this reason faith is exclusive and intolerant of company; it is only truly present when any and every contribution towards his salvation on the part of the believer or on the part of the Church is absolutely and unequivocally shut out.”

I believe that faith is of God.  I believe He is the proper author and finisher of it.  I believe that Jesus utilized stories of faith to glorify His Father in heaven and not to glorify liars on earth.  For what is it to “manufacture” faith other than to LIE about reality, and could God ever be a co-participant in a lie?  This is the root of the modern Faith heresy, and it denies that Faith is an element of God Himself that He uses to justify His elect, for the singular purpose of glorifying the Godhead to the principalities and powers in the heavenly realms.

The faith stories in the Bible do not comprise a recipe book for the carnally minded.  These stories illustrate God’s work IN people, not their work on God’s behalf.  These people, due to God’s gift, were able to abandon SELF in order to focus all trust on the only one capable of any heavenly good.  They did not see the work of God to be co-operative.  Jesus Christ was totally and completely sufficient.  To have faith is to abandon all hope outside of the purpose and power of God.  To have faith is to abandon all desire for our own results, but to place ALL trust in the hidden will of God.  The ultimate manifestation of faith, is to declare “Not Mine, but THY will be done, Lord”, to seek to touch the hem of His garment and to rest in the knowledge that He is God.

The entire thrust of the Reformation was centered on Justification by Faith alone.  The Arminian cannot successfully assault the Gospel by challenging the plain text of scripture, so they must redefine terms in order to subvert souls.

To the fallen religious mind, faith is no longer a gift from God, who alone is its sole author and finisher.  Turn on any form of religious media today and you will hear of a different faith.  The false faith has MAN as its author and concoctor.  Their error is to believe that to manifest faith is to LIE about the evidence.  That is how they convince people that their health, wealth, and prosperity is completely based upon their ability to LIE to themselves about their reality.  Since they are convinced that God only “rewards” faith, and is not in fact the source of it – they can also convince people that their own personal condition is based upon how they act or what they say.  It is the lie of POSITIVE AFFIRMATION, which has its roots in Gnosticism and the occult.

In order to sell the New Age potion of positive affirmation, the religious guru must first build his argument on false premises and presumptive readings of scripture.

First, he must convince you that it is the “will of God” that your flesh be healthy, wealthy, comfortable and prosperous.

Second, he must convince you (based on this false premise) that God has already provided all these things for you, and it is now up to YOU to claim that birthright.  If you do not receive the false promise, then it is because YOU are not acting in “faith”.  It is true that you do not have because you do not ask, but you certainly do not ask aright when you ask from self and not from His faith.

Let’s look at some examples:

RELIGIOUS MAGICIAN:  God wants you to be healthy.  Sickness is caused by SIN.  If you are not healthy, it is because you are either doing something sinful, or you are sinfully NOT doing something you should be doing (let’s say… tithing).  Or you could be the victim of some “generational curse” that you must break by doing some incantation, or…(let’s say GIVING MONEY to the magician).

TRUTH:  Sickness is caused by sin.  But not ALL sickness is caused by personal sin.  Sickness exists because of ADAM’s sin, and it is an evidence of the perpetual nature of that ORIGINAL SIN.  God uses all manner of afflictions to call His elect to Himself.  Many people get sick because of stupid sins (pride, idolatry, behavior, sexual sins, etc.), but if we are to be properly able to rightly divide ALL of scripture, we must confess that GOD alone is sovereign over health, and many wicked hellbound sinners are in perfect health, while many Godly servants suffer from afflictions.  Here is a BIG CLUE for ya… EVERYONE who is living is dying, and unto GOD belongs the issues concerning death.

RELIGIOUS MAGICIAN:  God has provided wealth and comfort for you!  He has paid the debt in order that YOU don’t have to live like He did.

TRUTH:  Jesus Christ paid the debts of HIS ELECT, not so that religious men can live comfortably, but specifically so that His Elect can JOIN HIM in being hated, despised and persecuted for His sake.  Jesus Christ paid the supreme penalty due for OUR SINS, so that we have eternity purchased for us, and that cancelled debt allowed us the blessing and honor of picking up our crosses to follow Him.  Without HIS Cross, we would have no Cross to bear, no hope, no heavenly kingdom into which to push.  But the Father loved His own in such a manner, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosover believeth in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died for Christ’s sake at the hands of the Nazis, said:  "When Christ calls a man to take up his cross, he bids a man come and die."

The “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews Chapter 11 not only relates the stories of Abel, Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Joshua and Rahab, and commends those who, through God’s faith,

“Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.  Women received their dead raised to life again…” (Heb. 11:34-35a)

But it goes on to say:

“…and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of [cruel] mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and [in] mountains, and [in] dens and caves of the earth.”  (Heb. 35b-38)

Faith is not evidenced by the best wishes of the carnal mind, rather it is evidenced by God’s power and might being used to glorify Himself alone in those whom He is pleased to use.

FAITH IS EVIDENCE!

Faith operates based on overwhelming evidence.  In fact, it alone is evidence enough for those who operate according to its workings.  Faith is not the ability to lie to oneself about sickness, rather it is the ability to operate, based on OVERWHELMING SPIRITUAL EVIDENCE, that God alone has the power to heal, or to withhold healing, and He alone is wise and perfect and justified in the use of either tool in the life of His children.  Faith is the ability to say, “God I know you can heal, and you alone are sovereign over the fate of our carnal bodies.  I know that You can and do heal according to your sovereign will, and that it would not take a “touch” or a cloth to effect your will on the body – a thought in your mind would suffice to heal both the body and the soul of man.  But I am willing to accept your perfect will concerning me as perfect, and I rejoice in your disposition of this case however your perfect will determines that it will be disposed.  False teachers will claim that faith is making claims on God WITHOUT spiritual evidence, but effective faith is to believe the absolute evidence of God’s sovereignty, while being mature enough to trust Him wholly, knowing that He works all things to the eternal good of those who are His.

If we are not willing to believe His Word, all of it, without regard to consequence – then faith remains a whisp of smoke to us, being neither evidential, nor beneficial for our spiritual growth.  Faith is the ability to admit that we are weak and unable, while grasping the enormity involved with recognizing that He is all powerful and able.

Faith claims boldly:

“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18)

There is no more heinous idol, no more dangerous golden image, than that which has been set up in the “temple” of God (His professing church), that proclaims that man is the fountainhead of faith – and that false teachers and false “brethren” have some lien on God’s awesome power based on the activation of their own carnal will.  Faith is not conviction – in that many who are sincere and convicted are sincerely wrong and in peril of the judgement.  Many propose to teach God’s hidden will, when they have been neither called nor prepared for the task.  They preach and teach from their own belly, violating much of God’s Word through their own foolishness or immaturity.

The devil has set his camp around the false teaching of faith.  He has overrun the world with his ministers of light, false apostles, false prophets and false teachers who through their willful ignorance overthrow the faith of some by their wicked notions.

The apostles knew who was the fountainhead of faith, and they implored Him knowing that they could receive it from no other:

“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.” (Luke 17:5)

But note well what the Lord had to say to them:

“If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.  But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?   And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?  Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.  So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” (Luke 17:6-10)

To God alone be the glory, and may His will be done.

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker