The Sword Room

In Hebrews 11:1 faith is defined as “the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” In the examples which follow from the characters of the Old Testament two things stand out. First, the great heroes of the faith did not realize the fulfillment of the promises they hoped for. Second, they exercised trust in a God they could not see. Their faith was the substance of what they hoped for but did not attain and it was the conviction which strengthened their trust in the unseen Creator.

All this makes sense to the believer; but to the unregenerate mind such faith seems blind and irrational. This is because the theory of knowledge (epistemology) adopted by the pagan mind rests on rationalism, pragmatism, and empiricism. Does it make logical sense to spend your life hoping for something you cannot prove exists (Rationalism)? Why believe in something that results in pain and produces no payoff or positive benefit (Pragmatism)? How can you believe in something you cannot verify or falsify with the senses (Empiricism)? The flawed epistemology of the world leads skeptics to the conclusion that Christian belief is without knowledge, or “blind.”

It would be easy to show the inconsistency of the pagan epistemological system. Everyone believes in abstract concepts which cannot be proven or verified in the real world–good, evil, love, justice, etc. How do we know these things exist? Well, we just do–innately and universally. In fact everything we believe we know is based on unprovable assumption. We have a perception of seeing, but we cannot prove rationally or empirically that this perception of seeing is valid and not an illusion. We ”know” it is valid and we proceed on that assumption. Why? Because it is rational to do so: we could not otherwise live in this world.

But the real underlying point of the Faith Chapter is that there is another kind of knowledge available which the unbeliever suppresses in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18ff.). Revelational knowledge comes to us through the creation and the conscience (General Revelation), as well as through the Word of God (Special Revelation). So faith is not without knowledge even though it is without sight. Of Moses it is said: “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen” (Heb. 11:27). Moses could not see God, and his actions might have appeared irrational to Pharaoh, but his faith was not without knowledge. The reason it appears thus is that the unbeliever often denies the reality of revelational knowledge. This is why you hear idiots like Bill Maher say that it is impossible to know God is real and Christianity is true. He brilliantly concludes that since he does not possess this knowledge no one else possibly could. Check that for logical consistency.

OK, let’s wrap up. Fellow Christians, your faith is not totally blind: it is based on solid knowledge rooted in divine revelation and the illumination of that revelation by the indwelling Holy Spirit. “And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8).

One of the most colorful stories in all scripture is found in 1 Kings 18: Baal versus Yahweh on Mount Carmel. After three years on the run Elijah finally returns home. Before praying for rain he stages a contest between the false God, Baal, and the true and living God of Israel. It is not enough to pray for the rain to begin: a statement must be made, punctuated with a large exclamation point. The Phoenician fertility gods must be decisively shown to be lifeless and impotent over the forces of nature.

You know the story. Elijah summons the 450 false prophets of Baal who are on Ahab’s payroll to Mount Carmel. There are two altars–one for Baal and one for the Lord. Both are stacked with wood, and two bulls are slaughtered and one is placed on each of the altars. The false prophets spend the day yelling and shouting, and cutting themselves with sharp stones; but their false god does not and cannot answer by fire. Elijah looks on, taunting them and their deity before finally summoning the people to himself. He digs a trench around the altar and drenches the wood and sacrifice with water. Then he prays and the Lord sends fire which vaporizes the water and consumes the offering. The people cannot deny that the Lord is God, and they assist Elijah in slaughtering every last one of the 450 false prophets.

This great illustration of faith and courage is often misunderstood and misapplied. When I first got saved in 1971 there was a Jesus People Bible study in Des Moines, Washington, led by a guy named Jeff. Jeff used to bring this old guy in a wheelchair to the Bible study who was paralyzed from the waist down. This fellow had been Jeff’s teacher in grade school many years earlier and still taught school at the time he was attending Bible study.

The teacher was not a believer, even though Jeff had shared the gospel with him many times and was praying for him. For some reason this teacher liked being in the Bible study atmosphere and was welcomed by all. But Jeff was not satisfied with this, and every week he would have us lay hands on the old guy and pray for his healing. Jeff figured if the Lord healed the old boy he would have no choice but to give his life to Christ.

But despite our earnest prayers it never took. Then Jeff read about Elijah’s confrontation of the false prophets at Mount Carmel, and he concluded that he needed to water it down a little more. That is he needed to up the stakes and put the Lord on the line. He staged a gathering in the gym of his old grade school one evening and invited the entire staff of the school to attend. He sent flyers to many in the community, inviting them to come and see the paralyzed teacher healed. He watered it down further by inviting the man’s extended family of unbelievers to attend the event.

Long story short: before a packed out gym Jeff prayed, and the old schoolteacher stumbled and fell on his face. Total humiliation.

What was wrong with that picture? Simple: Jeff did not carefully extract the meaning of the text (exegesis), but instead read his own ideas into it (eisogesis). What do I mean? Well, just read the following verse (1 Kings 18:36):

And it came to pass at the time of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.”

Did you catch that last clause? Apparently Jeff didn’t, and neither do any of the smoldering stubs teaching false name-it-claim-it. Jeff’s faith was misplaced because genuine biblical faith is based on revealed truth. Elijah didn’t wake up one morning and decide on his own to stage a contest on Mount Carmel. God answers prayer according to His will, and when He has revealed His will, as in the case of Elijah, faith has a solid foundation. Anything less is testing the Lord, which is what Jeff was doing.

He meant well, but his zeal was not according to knowledge. His ignorance was inexcusable, however, because had he read the text more carefully instead of taking the ball and running with it, he would have been happy to continue praying for the old teacher as he had, trusting in the sovereign God of scripture to do according to His unrevealed will.

In the end Jeff ended up looking more like one of the prophets of Baal than like Elijah. Moral of the story: read the Bible and follow what it says. When God does not specifically reveal His will, real faith is trusting Him with the outcome and not trying to manipulate circumstances to fit our desires.

We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always concerning all of you, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints, because of the hope set aside for you in the heavens (Colossians 1:3-4).

First Ephesians, then Philippians, now Colossians–my Bible reading itinerary over the past two weeks. Just started Colossians this morning and was reminded by the above verses of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13 that of the three greatest Christian virtues–faith, hope, and love–love is to be the most sought after. It would seem that the context there qualifies Paul’s meaning to the effect that these three virtues are the greatest in terms of our effectiveness in bringing edification to the body of Christ. After all, the great love chapter is sandwiched between two chapters on the use of spiritual gifts in the corporate assembly.

In this Colossians passage Paul thanks God, having heard of the presence of faith, hope, and love in the lives of the believers there. Faith is simple trust alone in the person and work of Christ alone. Love is a self-giving commitment to unconditionally seek what is best for your brother in Christ through concrete actions of service–after the example of the Savior Himself. Hope has a forward look toward those treasures in heaven which await the believer. After many years of life and ministry I have come to see hope as a great motivator. When a person sees light at the end of the tunnel he will take action to move toward that light. Sometimes, in the absence of immediate hope, all we have to go on is the hope we know is laid aside for us on high. Read Hebrews 11 and you will see the close connection between faith and hope.

In verse six Paul says that the good news of Jesus is bearing fruit and increasing among the Colossians and across the Roman Empire. My first inclination is to conclude that Paul is referring to the verbal proclamation of the gospel; and of course he must obviously have this in mind, since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). But I can’t help but think that when the gospel proclamation is backed up by the testimony of lives characterized by genuine faith, hope, and love, the effect is really powerful.

My prayer for me and you is that we will grow in our trust for Christ and Spirit-filled love for God’s children, and that we will place our hope where it rightly belongs–in the hope God by His sovereign hand reserves for us in heaven, where moth and rust cannot reach, and thieves cannot break in and plunder. May we live the gospel today and demonstrate these virtues in our lives to where the unbelievers and believers around us see a genuine difference in us. And as the good news grows and increases in us may His grace spill over and touch the lives of many.

Stay tuned for more out of Colossians over the next few days.

As a postscript I wish to dedicate today’s post to a man named Eldon. Eldon was/is a pastor I knew a few years back (1984-86). What I remember most about him was his faith in Christ and commitment to the Word of God. He was a loving husband, father, and shepherd of God’s people. I was honored to sit on his ordination council, and I can remember to this day how he shed tears of gratitude to Christ as he shared the testimony of what Jesus had done in his life. What a joy to know that after these years he is still trusting and serving the Lord. Eldon, if you shoud be reading my words, this one’s for you, brother. Keep you hand to the plow.

When I read through the Old Testament I am amazed at how quickly spiritual healing can come when God’s people repent and return to Him: Return, O faithless sons, and I will heal your faithlessness (Jer. 3:22). In Hosea’s prophecy we read:

Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him (Hosea 6:1-2).

In Isaiah 1:18-19 the Lord invites His wayward people to come and reason with Him, promising them cleansing from sin and a restoring of their prosperity. The prophets were simply reiterating the promises given through Moses to Israel and Judah that even after turning away from God and being uprooted from their land, He would restore them, cleanse them, prosper them, and give them new hearts filled with love for Him (Deut. 30:1-10). The cycle of rebellion, judgment, repentance, and restoration is repeated throughout the Old Testament. Read the book of Judges for an example of this.

In the New Testament we see God changing the hearts and lives of the most unlikely of candidates—tax collectors, zealots, prostitutes, and Pharisees bent on snuffing out the Christian faith. We read of those who were formerly fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers being washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 6:9-11). When they became new creatures in Christ the old things passed away and were replaced with the new. They were not sinless, but nor did they remain enslaved to their sin.

People living in Bible times had the advantage of not being enlightened. They did not know, as has been “proven” by evidence-based research, that thieves and homosexuals cannot change, or that alcoholism is a disease over which even the Christian is powerless—and that the best one can hope for is a lifelong process of recovery, one sip away from a drunken binge. No one told them that to experience true inner healing they must spend thousands of hours and dollars working through their childhood issues in the office of a godless psychobabbler. And even for all that they will never be truly and completely healed.

Of course that was then and this is now. They did not have to try and serve God in a postmodern world where relativism reigns supreme and absolute truth is rejected. They were not living in a secular and humanistic society where the name of the true and living God has been expunged from public life, all the way from the schoolhouse to the courthouse to the White House. Theirs was not a pluralistic society where one man’s truth—or god—is as good as the next guy’s. Our situation is unique and much more difficult culturally. It is much harder for people to change nowadays.

Bull@*#!!! Such drivel is code for unbelief, pure and simple.

Believe God can change you and that He can change others through the gospel and the good old-fashioned means of grace. No rocket science required. For more I suggest you watch my videos on sanctification or read my book, Fight or Die. The videos are available on this site using the videos link, and you will find the book on the store link.

A bit of a twist on the popular adage.

One of my many jobs as a young man was as a laborer on the yard crew at a cement plant. Eight hours a day five days a week on the end of a shovel, or Mexican backhoe, as they used to call it. Cleaning up spills and messes. Once I got a rhythm going I could go hard all day, stopping only for the usual breaks. But I hated it because the pay was low, and the guys on the crew were a tough bunch of cussing chewing boozing losers. On top of it all we had to work under the kilns in a tunnel that ran about as hot as your typical sauna. I have already told the story of how I volunteered for and got a position running one of the company bulldozers, having never run one before, and how I went to a friend who was an equipment operator for a quick tutorial before jumping on the machine at 7:30 the very next morning. Three weeks later I had a wealth of experience and a fat wallet. Moral of the story–nothing ventured nothing gained.

This morning I was reading in John’s Gospel about Peter’s attack on the servant in the garden and his three-fold denial of Jesus in the courtyard of the high priest. It is easy to focus on Peter’s failure without remembering that he put himself in the position to fail by wanting to be with Jesus. The others had fled (except John). Peter wanted to follow the Lord and try to help, and in so doing risked his life. Because he did not take the safe course of retreat he was vulnerable to failure. Nothing ventured nothing failed.

Same thing in the Matthew 14 storm incident where Peter alone of the terrified disciples dared to think he could walk on water. But at Jesus’ directive to come off Peter went. Yes, he lacked the faith to stay afloat, but at least he tried. Notice that he asked Jesus first to bid him come, so that when he stepped out of the boat he was obeying a command. He tried and sank. Nothing ventured nothing failed.

Peter was impulsive. He had more confidence in his ability than he had ability. He needed to learn this, and his experience in the courtyard that fateful night prepared him for what was to come. Less than two months later he stood in the power of the Spirit preaching to the multitudes on Pentecost. Three-thousand saved in one day. There could be no question in Peter’s mind about his part in it. He had no illusions of grandeur because he had gained valuable insight into his own limitations. Failure is not always bad, ultimately: from it we learn to depend on God. They payoff is not always immediate, however.

Nothing ventured nothing failed? That sounds like the attitude of the unfaithful steward who buried his coin in the ground. Dare to trust God today as you are faced with opportunities to serve Him. Don’t be foolish; base your decisions on the wisdom of His Word. Dare to take the calculated risk of sharing with that friend, neighbor, or fellow worker. Who knows what will happen. Step out of the warm comfort zone on the sidelines. Get into the game.

Nothing ventured nothing failed?

Failure is not in the eye of the beholder. Think of what Peter’s denial looked like to him and the other disciples. Who would have ever guessed then that the Big Fisherman would be so mightily used of God?

Nothing ventured nothing gained. I like that better, along with It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. (What does that have to do with anything? Well, I’m not sure, but it seemed like a good time to throw it in.)

“Bill (Name changed to protect the innocent.) has locked himself in the bedroom and won’t come out! He hasn’t eaten or drank anything all day, and he won’t talk to me.” Bill’s wife had never seen him so depressed, and she feared he might hurt himself. She was ready to dial 911 but called me first. ”I thought maybe he would talk to you.” Wives always get bent out of shape when their husbands become upset about this or that thing and won’t talk to them. How can they help fix the problem without talking it through? ”The worst part about it,” she sobbed, “is that he says he doesn’t even know for sure if he believes in God any more.” She sounded almost embarrassed as she half-whispered into the phone.

Bill had been suddenly let go from his job as an accountant at a large commercial real estate development firm as part of a downsizing strategy. The termination completely blindsided him. Fortunately, all but one of his three children were raised, but the youngest was just getting ready to enter college. They had just purchased a new home. Bill’s wife was recovering from a tough bout with cancer–in remission but unable yet to return to work. What savings they had would burn fast unless he could find comparable employment in a financial climate that rendered the prognosis bleak.  

A few days later I had coffee with Bill, and we talked about his dilemma. “I am having a really hard time with my faith right now,” he said as he sipped his coffee. Then he sat back in his booth and got this serious, almost defiant look on his face, as though he were squinting through smoke. “After all I’ve done for God over the years, if this is the best He can do for me–well then, maybe He doesn’t really exist after all!” I couldn’t believe it. Bill had stood like a granite pillar beside his wife all through her chemo and radiation therapy–hair loss and all. He was a respected board member in the church, who regularly counseled young couples on budgeting and financial planning. He gave generously of his income to support the church, taught Sunday School, led singing in a pinch, moderated business meetings, and visited the shut-ins. He always dressed in a business suit, and the old ladies liked him because he was a ringer for James Garner. (Polyester, you know? This was the late 1970s.)

The funny thing was, he never practiced his righteousness in private. He always had to tell everyone about his good deeds, and he measured others by whether they came on board with his pet projects. For example I remember once when people were just coming in to a church service, and the foyer was filling fast. Bill wrote out a check and held it in his hand as he stood by the offering box situated just inside the auditorium. He actually waited until a group entered before placing the check into the box in the sight of all, and then he offered a hearty greeting and handshakes to all.

To be honest, Bill was not an encourager. He did not make others feel like they had a shot at attaining to his level. He made others feel inadequate by comparison. And guilty for not measuring up. Always wanting to take charge. Always looking you straight in the eye and shaking your hand until it nearly broke. Yet people revered him for his “commitment to Christian service.”

Bill finally found another job, but he was never the same. He seemed more subdued in the months that followed. Later I learned that he was so disappointed in how he had responded to the job loss that it shattered his exalted image of himself. He resigned from the board, attended church for a few more months, and that was the last I saw of him. Except I called him a few times, and he told me he had found a church closer to where they lived.

People in the church were really shaken by how such a man of faith could fall so far so fast. As far as I know he never went out and tied one on or cheated on his wife. But his faith seemed shattered. As I look back on that episode in my ministry and think about that shattered faith, I am left asking this question: Faith in whom?

After all I’ve done for Lord over the years, if this is the best He can do for me–well then, maybe He doesn’t really exist after all!

What’s wrong with that picture?