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Hebrews 6:1, 2 gives us a short list of principles described as the “milk” of the word. The term is used to describe baby food for those who are new believers. One of these foremost principles is “faith in God.”
Some think of faith as a creed from a particular religion or denomination. Such people may ask, “What faith are you?” meaning what church do you attend? Where is your membership? Are you a Baptist? A Presbyterian? A Lutheran? A Catholic? Such questions, however, assume that you have faith in a particular church, that you have faith that your church is the true church whose creeds are fully true. Some people spend years in search of the true church.
Some denominations set forth the righteousness of their founders as proof of being the true church. The fallacy of this is in the fact that succeeding generations cannot help but deviate from the doctrines of their founders, some more than others. Even the church itself, founded by Jesus Himself, often had disagreements from one leader to another. Some followed Peter, others James, others Apollos, and others Paul (1 Corinthians 1:12).
There is a difference between faith in God and faith in the church. If we place our faith in the church, we set ourselves up for eventual disillusionment or disappointment, because even good men are imperfect in their behavior and in their understanding of the word of God. One of the main purposes of the church is to be able to share our understanding of the word with others and discuss these things in the hope of gaining greater insights that others have received. We do not need to agree, but we need to teach and to be teachable.
In my view, God does not give any man (or denomination) all truth, in order that we learn to be open to hear what others believe is their revelation. We must also learn to love those who differ with us. Excommunication (division) ought to be a last resort after a thorough examination, and even this should be over the essentials, not over non-essential beliefs.
Paul says in Ephesians 2:8,
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
In practice, many people have elevated other doctrines to a level equal to faith, saying, for example, “by grace you have been saved through faith and by believing in hell, the devil, church membership, or our mode of baptism,” etc. These are important studies, of course, but they go beyond simple faith. I can fellowship with anyone with genuine faith, even if we have little else in common.
Speaking of the gospel, Paul wrote in Romans 1:17,
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
What did Paul mean when he said, “from faith to faith”? He certainly was not referring to a man going from one denomination to another in search of the true church. It was not about going from the Baptist faith to the Presbyterian faith or the other way around. Instead, he was speaking of moving from one level (or quality) of faith to a higher level of faith. So even the disciples asked Jesus to “increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). Faith can be increased through a deeper relationship with Christ that comes through practical experience.
Romans 10:17 says,
17 So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.
Hearing has to do with divine revelation, whether it comes through reading the word of God or by direct revelation. It does not come by merely reading the Bible. It comes through hearing the word. For example, if, while reading the Bible, something jumps out of the page at you and has an impact on your life, the Holy Spirit may have spoken to you, and you heard His voice.
Often, such revelation comes in the form of a promise of God. Let us assume that this revelation is genuine. God is righteous because He will do all that He has promised, whether those promises were given to people in the Bible or to you directly. Our righteousness is based on our own belief that God is able to fulfill His promises. So we read about Abraham in Romans 4:21, 22,
21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform, 22 therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness.
Faith is not about praying mightily and fasting forty days and forty nights until God finally relents and gives us what we want. Faith is about believing the promises of God, not about convincing God to believe our promises to Him. Our time is better spent in discovering the promises of God and “being fully assured” that He is able to do them, even if it takes a very long time to fulfill.
The promise of the coming Messiah and the Holy Spirit were given centuries before God actually fulfilled His word. It took many generations. For Abraham himself, it took decades for God to give him the promised son. Time tends to test one’s faith. Yet the passage of time should not destroy our faith but increase it as we grow spiritually and get to know God better.
Dr. Stephen Jones has been writing blog posts since 2005 on a variety of topics from Bible Studies to World News, and he has been writing books since 1992. Dr. Jones' most important writings came after God brought him back into the full-time ministry in 1991. It is here that all his earlier years of searching the Scriptures began to come into clear focus. He combines a knowledge of the Old and New Testaments with a personal revelation of God that began and developed during the "wilderness" period of his life, which he often refers to as God's True Bible College... Read More
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