Preaching on Faith and Its Necessity
Introduction
Recently a television program was aired in the Atlanta area featuring Thomas B. Warren in an interview about the Warren-Flew debate. The primary thrust of this program, as is the thrust of the whole “Issue of Life” series, was to show the need for belief in God and further to show the credibility of belief in God.
A responsible person was reported to have questioned the value of this effort by wondering, “If the money spent on this effort were spent on this effort were spent on trying to convert people, would it not be more profitable?”
The failure of this person—and he represents the thinking of thousands in the church—to realize what is involved in preaching the gospel and converting people is essentially the major lack of the church in its responsibility to evangelize the world.
I hold in my hand the Bible. It is God’s book. It is His communication to man. In this Bible God reveals to humans today what He wishes them to know about Himself and indeed what He wishes them to know about themselves. Although we may learn many other things from our observation of the world about, the Bible contains that which God wishes us to know for our spiritual welfare.
This writer has been preaching for a little over thirty-five years. When I began, I almost never found anyone who questioned the authority of the Bible. The whole controversy involved the matter of what the Bible said. Today much of our controversy involves whether it even matters what the Bible says.
It is utterly incredible that discerning people do not realize this. This is a glaring change. To say that we must alter our approach to these people in no way suggests that we should preach anything other than the Bible. It merely observes that we cannot begin with step #2, but we must begin with step #1.
Let us suppose that someone grew up in a small town and all his life he had heard his grandfather and his father give directions to the general store. Always they said, “You travel east for one mile, turn right at the intersection and you will find the general store a half-mile down that road on the left.
Suppose the man grew up and moved into his own home, a mile west of the old home place where he grew up. If he wished to direct a stranger to the general store from this new location he must say, “You travel two miles east, etc.”
The general store is still located where it always was and the directions to it are exactly the same as always, providing you begin at the same place.
A Blind Spot
To pretend that the world is the same as it was when I first began to preach more than thirty-five years ago is to have a blind spot. The people of today are further back down the road away from Christianity, in many instances, than their parents were.
Certainly the way to convert a person is to teach him the Bible, but if not believe in God, then BEFORE you simply teach him what the Bible says you must show him that there is a God and that the Bible is God’s word.
When Paul went to Athens and began to preach to those people, he began WHERE THEY WERE, not at some point that was perhaps more convenient to him. Why did he not merely show from Old Testament scriptures that Jesus was proved to be the promised Messiah. These people would have stared at him blankly since most would have known nothing about the Old Testament scriptures.
There is no substitute for the Bible in converting people to Christ and by the same token we cannot avoid the responsibility of defending the existence of God and the integrity of His word since these principles are absolutely essential if one is to obey the gospel.
In short the most distressing thing about the comment of the person we mentioned who questioned the value of our television program in contrast with converting people is his failure to recognize that what was being said on the program was the heart and core of what must be believed in order for one to BE CONVERTED.
While this presentation is not to be a sounding board to defend the work of Thomas B. Warren, my work in the Issue of Life, and the work of other men deeply concerned with this problem, nevertheless these things provide a very concrete and practical example of the failure of the church today—in many instances—to understand the relationship of FAITH to preaching the gospel, to the doctrinal principles of Christianity, and to bringing the world to Christ. “Without faith it is impossible. . .”
A Definition
Faith itself and many other principles contained in God’s word are greatly minimized by the simple failure to understand the word “faith.” While we are not giving a definition that would be as precise as a mathematical definition of some number system, it is certainly precise enough for our correct use of this term.
Essentially the word faith, as it is used in the Bible, simply means “taking God at His word.” To be sure one might have faith that God exists and that He is one to be trusted even if He had not given a word, but that is a hypothetical situation which does not exist in fact today. If that were the case we would not speak of the meaning of “faith” as it is used in His word, for there would be no word. If one is to give the Bible any heed at all then one must understand faith as it is found there. In God’s word faith means “taking God at His word.” This means accepting and submitting to God’s revelation to man.
It is not within the scope of this presentation to consider all the different concepts which are NOT faith, however, we will note a few.
1. Believing that everything will be as we wish is not faith. Sometimes people will say, “I just know that such and such will take place. I have faith.” If they are not assured of this from God’s word they do not have faith in Him that these things will happen.
2. Faith is not irresponsible unconcern. Often there are things which people ought to be concerned, but they deny their responsibility. Evidently there were those in New Testament times with such ideas. Perhaps they contended that there was no need to work and provide for their families because they had such great faith that God would provide Paul says of them, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Timothy 5:8).
3. Faith is not an intuitive feeling of what we conceive to be right and wrong, true and false. Such ideas are the result of earlier training and rather than having a common faith, held the same by all Christians, each Christian would have his own “subjective faith.” Its nature would vary from person to person, and indeed within one person, vary from time to time.
Faith is Taking God at His Word
Certainly, faith begins with an acceptance of the existence of God. Without faith it is impossible to please him. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
Embodied in this statement are the two elements from which the whole concept of faith flows. It is not enough merely to believe that God is, but one must also believe that he is a rewarder of him that diligently seeks God. It is obvious what is involved in the first part of this—God is. It may not be immediately obvious what is in the second part. In this Christian age our only means of learning of the reward which God offers to people who diligently seek Him is through His word, the Bible. By implication, this passage tells us that to please God one must believe in His existence and also in the integrity of His word. In truth, to recognize the existence of God is to recognize that one is considering that person whose word must be true.
Faith Only is Absurd
If one “takes God at His word,” then he must follow that word. Certainly, we may give mental assent to the existence of God without doing what He commands, but this is not a complete form of faith. It is only a part of a living faith. James points out that one may recognize the existence of God and yet not follow Him. This is a rudimentary form of faith, but it is not the complete and living faith of the New Testament. Such a “faith” is like a body without a spirit. “For as the body without such the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26).
Faith Implies the Word
“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). This passage is simply stating that the Christian walk is one which is directed by the word of God, not what one has determined from his personal experience.
Here faith is contrasted with sight. There is hardly a principle that this writer would consider more important than the recognition that faith is contrasted with SIGHT, not contrasted with reason or with knowledge.
Not one time in all of sacred writ is there a suggestion that faith is to be considered in antithesis to knowledge. However, it is not at all uncommon to hear faith referred to as some sort of “leap in the dark.” It is treated as a wild and wonderful, sublime GUESS about the future. Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Now this has to be same system in which we walk by faith, not by sight, so faith and knowledge are not at all incompatible. Indeed, accepting God’s word for something is a sure and certain means of knowing that this concept is true.
In the context of the principle, “We walk by faith, not by sight” the word sight refers to all our senses, not merely the visual sense. The meaning of this statement is that we obtain our knowledge of spiritual things by being told of God, rather than by our senses. This is not to say that we need not employ our senses in determining what God has said. For example, a person may read the Bible and thus use his sense of sight. Sight is used to determine what God has said, but sight is not used to determine DIRECTLY that information. We learn through the Bible that there is a HEAVEN. This cannot be determined visually at all by human beings. No doubt God “sees” Heaven, though His “seeing” is infinitely superior to ours. We may employ our eyes in reading God’s word about Heaven and know of its existence. We may employ our ears in hearing someone read these words. If we are blind we could, perhaps, use our sense of touch, in reading Braille. In short, we may employ any and all of our senses to determine what God has said. In fact, we MUST employ some of senses to determine what God has said, since he does not speak to us directly in the spirit. The contrast here is between a system which gains knowledge directly through the senses and a system which gains knowledge through communication although the senses must be employed.
Faith and Human Reason
All of my preaching life and some of the time before, I have heard gospel preachers say, “We gain our knowledge through faith and not through human reason” Let me say here and now that I regard this as a very poor statement although I realize that it has been said often and rather proudly by many of our brethren. I wish that these people had bothered to speak by “faith” instead of spending so much effort in plaining that they are “going to speak by faith.” If they had, they would have realized that faith is set in contrast with SIGHT, not with REASON, in the Bible.
The only kind of reason that a human being can use is human reason. The adjective human reason makes this sound rather deficient, and indeed human reason is somewhat deficient, but it is the only kind we have. Reasoning is really simply the proper functioning of the mind.
Just as we MUST employ sight to determine the will of God, just so we MUST employ reason. This so-called HUMAN REASON is the ability think and understand, which incidentally, was created in human beings BY GOD. Human reason was designed by our Creator for a number of purposes, not the least of which is that His creatures (human) can recognize His existence and know His will.
Untold harm has been done among the Lord’s people by the expression under consideration, “We walk by faith not by human reason.” This is not a Biblical statement, and indeed if one takes it to mean that we need not employ our reasoning processes to learn God’s will, it is overtly anti-Biblical.
The contrast of reason with faith has become popular as a result of the misuse of the word faith. Had the word faith been properly understood and accepted, this sort of antithesis would never have arisen. Evidently what was being described is the contrast of existentialism with rationality. Certainly, this is a valid contrast. For one to say, “I believe a certain proposition just because it feels right” and another to say, “I hold this proposition as a matter of knowledge” will obviously result in two greatly contrasting bases. BUT faith, as it is used in the Bible, does NOT refer to some existentialist system. It is sublimely reasonable.
For one to say, “I KNOW that this proposition is true because God has affirmed it in His word” is to walk by faith even though we must employ our senses and the functioning of our minds to come to realize that God has made such an affirmation in His word.
Faith Versus Short Cuts
It seems that a great many people would like to have a short-cut method of determining truth. They wish some simple formula which may be employed without having to go to the Bible to see what God has said. Although those who hold these concepts may feel that they have higher motivations than the ones I am ascribing to them, I believe that at the base of them is a fear and a lack of mental industry which creates a desire for a means to settle questions without having to learn God’s word.
We are mentioning a few but there are others that are employed and that have not been thought of yet.
1. Faith versus feelings. Certainly, the great truths of God’s word and their application to us will result in many deep emotional responses, however the proper order is concepts held which result in feeling, not in feelings experienced which result in concepts held.
2. Faith versus ultra-liberal. This is a sort of “anything goes” spirit which is sometimes articulated in such expressions as, “I’d rather go to Hell doing something, than doing nothing”. That hardly seems a worthwhile choice, since obviously the preferred situation is to not go to Hell at all. Those who hold this position often think of the Bible as a “dead letter” and seem to feel it is to be used as a departure point and improved upon.
3. Faith versus ultra-conservative. This position is not only a crippling position, but it is a sin, of itself. For one to say, “I realize that God has not condemned this action but to be on the safe side, I condemn it” is one of the most insulting things that one can say of God or His word. The ultra-conservative is saying, “I am more particular than God.” Paul had many strong words about these people and advocated that Christians jealously preserve the liberties that God gave them. (Galatians 5). Of course Christians are told that they should not selfishly insist on liberties to the point that they would endanger the soul of someone (1 Corinthians 8).
No doubt we could spend an entire lesson on short cuts, man-made rules which are supposed to solve every question without bothering with a “thus sayeth the Lord,” but we offer these simply as examples of this principle. The conclusion is that THERE ARE NO SHORT CUTS. God gave His communication and every responsible person can understand it. He meant for us to understand it and thereby learn His will so that we can obey it.
Faith and the Doctrine of Christ
What is the relationship of faith to the doctrine of Christ? One might say that it is IDENTICAL with the doctrine of Christ though we would be using the word faith in a somewhat accommodated sense. Jude refers to it as “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). Obviously, Jude is referring to that body of communication delivered through inspired men and received by us as the word of God.
When gospel preachers come together to learn of the will of God, their task is essentially a matter of discovery. They have no other source of information about God’s will than the word of God. Many other related subjects may and often must be studied in order to come to understand that will.
1. We will need to study the universe to learn things about God. The Heavens declare His glory.
2. We will need to study language to learn the meaning of words and their relationships.
3. We will need to study logic to recognize the nature of our mental processes which God created so that we can understand His will.
4. We need to study existing conditions in the world so that we may know how this word is to be applied.
5. And, very importantly, we need to study our own hearts, to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith.
YET IN ALL THESE THINGS, the focal point of our study is the word of God. If we properly obtain this sort of information and use it, our sole objective has been to (1) Identify God’s word, (2) Understand God’s word, and (3) Apply God’s word. As intelligent persons, we should be able to distinguish these efforts from efforts to minimize and abandon God’s word.
Faith: The Beginning of Acceptance
All obedience begins with faith. Though other things go before to produce that faith such as hearing the word of God, our first deliberate action to conform our lives to God is the action of faith. Faith is called a “work” by Jesus. In answer to a question put to Him in verse 28 “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Jesus said in verse 29 “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:28-29). Faith is not the END of obedience, but it is the beginning. Baptism is the culminating act of obedience to the gospel plan of salvation as faith is the beginning to act that plan.
He that begins his obedience and completes it shall be saved, but he that does not begin it shall be damned. Who could believe that we would need to say, he that does not begin his obedience and does not complete it shall be damned. This is the very principle found in Mark 16:16.
The Challenge Today Is to Faith
I do not know what the church is doing or what it plans to do, but it is obvious that the Devil plans to destroy the faith of every person. This would not be so frightening, if we did not see his track-record. He has gained access to and much control over PUBLIC SCHOOLS. He has much influence in the mass media of today.
We can use these things, but we are spending the millions and perhaps billions of dollars contributed by members of the church each year to do something else, though it is difficult to tell from our impact on the world what that something is.
Our marching orders today are the same as the apostles had and that is to go and make disciples of every nation. The fundamental need of ever person is to believe in God and the integrity of His word. If this faith is allowed to become complete that person will “take God at His word” and this means obeying that word. Our task is simple enough and yet difficult. Our need is to be at it.
Originally published in:
God Demands Doctrinal Preaching
Third Annual Spiritual Sword Lectureship
National Christian Press, 1978
pp. 237-45
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Robert S. Camp was an associate of Dr. Thomas B. Warren. Along with the late Roy Deaver, Mr. Camp served as a moderator for Dr. Warren in his 1978 debate with Professor Wallace Matson on the Existence of God.