FAITH IS ASSENT
“man is as passive in believing as he was in receiving his name, or as the eye is in receiving the rays of light that fall upon it from the sun; consequently no man can help believing any testimony when the evidence of its truth arrests his attention.”
Here are some excellent quotes on saving faith. I don’t think the people who wrote these were regenerate, but God certainly used them like he used Judas and Balaam to get the truth out. Do you agree with the writing below?
“A human faith is a faith that is founded on the testimony of men; and a divine faith is a faith that is founded upon the testimony of God. For instance I believe that Napoleon “Bounaparte is dead.” In this instance my faith is a human faith; a faith founded upon the testimony of men. No man can believe with divine faith that Napoleon is dead, for there is no divine testimony to that effect. Again, I believe “that the dead shall be raised.” My faith in this instance is a divine faith or a faith founded upon divine testimony, viz: “There shall be a resurrection of the just and of the unjust.” I presume no man of sense not even Timothy himself will deny the above.
No testimony, no faith: for faith is only the belief of testimony, or confidence in testimony as true. To believe without testimony, is just as impossible as to see without light. The measure, quality, and power of faith are always found in the testimony believed.
Where testimony begins, faith begins; and where testimony ends, faith ends. We believe Moses just as far as Moses speaks or writes: and when Moses has recorded his last fact, or testified his last truth, our faith in Moses terminates. His five books are, therefore, the length and breadth, the height and depth, or in other words, the measure of our faith in Moses. The quality or value of faith is found in the quality or value of the testimony. The certainty of faith is the certainty of testimony. If the testimony be valid and authoritative, our faith is strong and operative. “If,” says John, “we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater,” stronger and more worthy of credit. The value of a bank bill, is the amount of the precious metals which it represents, and the indisputable evidence of its genuineness; so the value of faith is the importance of the facts which the testimony presents, and the assurance afforded that the testimony is true. True, or unfeigned faith, may be contrasted with feigned faith, but true faith is the belief of truth; for he that believes a lie, believes in vain.
The power of faith is also the power, or moral meaning of the testimony, or of the facts which the testimony represents. If by faith I am transported with joy, or overwhelmed in sorrow, that joy or sorrow is in the facts contained in the testimony, or in the nature and relation of those facts to me. If faith purifies the heart, works by love, and overcomes the world, this power is in the facts believed. If a father has more joy in believing that a lost son has been found, than in believing that a lost sheep has been brought home to his fold, the reason of this greater joy is not in the nature of his faith, but in the nature of the facts believed.
Here I am led to expatiate on a very popular and pernicious error of modern times. That error is, that the nature, or power and saving efficacy of faith, is not in the truth believed, but in the nature of our faith, or in the manner of believing the truth. Hence all that unmeaning jargon about the nature of faith, and all those disdainful sneers at what is called “historic faith”–as if there could be any faith without history, written or spoken. Who ever believed in Jesus Christ, without hearing the history of him? “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” Faith never can be more than the receiving of testimony as true, or the belief of testimony; and if the testimony be written, it is called history–though it is as much history when flowing from the tongue, as when flowing from the pen.
Let it be again repeated, and remembered, that there is no other manner of believing a fact, than receiving it as true. If it is not received as true, it is not believed; and when it is believed, it is no more than regarded as true. This being conceded, then it follows that the efficacy of faith is always in the fact believed, or the object received, and not in the nature or manner of believing.
“Faith was bewildered much by men who meant
To make it clear, so simple in itself,
A thought so rudimental and so plain,
That none by comment could it plainer make.
All faith was one. In object, not in kind,
The difference lay. The faith that saved a soul,
And that which in the common truth believed,
In essence, were the same. Hear, then, what faith,
True, Christian faith, which brought salvation, was:
Belief in all that God revealed to men;
Observe, in all that God revealed to men,
In all he promised, threatened, commanded, said,
Without exception, and without a doubt.” |
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This holds universally in all the sensitive, intellectual, and moral powers of man. All our pleasures and pains, all our joys and sorrows, are the effects of the objects of sensation, reflection, faith, etc., apprehended or received, and not in the nature of the exercise of any power or capacity with which we are endowed. We shall illustrate and confirm this assertion by an appeal to the experience of all.
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Faith, abstractly considered, is conviction, or credit given to testimony, or, in other words, the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another; for faith and the Bible are to the Christian what a light and a compass are to the mariner. Without the compass and light to see the direction to which the needle points, the mariner can not know how to guide the vessel.
We come to the subject of faith, and the first question that arises is, What is faith? Faith, as described by the apostle, is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
And is there very much difference between faith and belief? We have the words faith and belief in this text used interchangeably, and they mean one and the same thing. We have “He that cometh to God must believe that he is,” and we have in the same text, “Without faith it is impossible to please him.” So, then, we say that faith is the same as belief. Why, of course. The idea of asking for faith to believe! Did you ever hear tell of the like? “Lord, give me faith to believe!” Just as much sense in saying, Lord, help me to walk down to the tabernacle afoot! Faith is belief, belief of testimony. It is that, and belief is faith, or else it would be inconsistent. If faith is greater than belief then people can be saved without belief, for Christ says, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” And then he turns round and says, “Without faith it is impossible to please him.” Paul said when preaching, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” All the way through the Book of God we find that the words “faith” and “belief” are to be used in the same sense–believing in Christ in the sense of accepting all the conditions of salvation, and trusting in him and his merit for salvation. That’s what we understand by “genuine saving faith.”
The devil has faith, and if man is saved by faith alone, the devil would stand a good chance, would he not? Suppose now some one says, if the devil should happen to be in this congregation, and he should come forward here and I would ask him. the question, “Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God?” the devil would say, “Yes, I believe it,” and I say to the devil, “Do you believe with all your heart that Christ died to save you?”
No, he didn’t!” Don’t you see that the devil never can believe that Christ died for him, for he never did; he died for man, God bless you! I have that faith in Christ tonight that He is able to save me, but the devil cannot believe that; he would not accept of the gospel upon the terms of the gospel, because it is for men and women, Adam’s race.
So far as the feelings are concerned, faith and feeling, I want to say to you tonight that all the good feeling that you have on the great question of religion is the result of what you believe. You may believe a lie and feel good over it, just as well as to believe the truth and feel bad over it. It is the thing we believe that makes us feel good. If I could make you believe that you could be saved without obeying God, would not you feel just as good as a man who believes that he would have to obey God? I want to say to you that feelings are very deceptive sometimes. Poor old Jacob believed with all his heart that Joseph was dead; he believed it, and wept and was sorrowful for years. By and by the news came to him that Joseph was yet alive, and the old gentleman’s faith was changed, and oh, what joy! He had felt bad all these years because he believed a lie all the time. It made him feel bad because he believed a lie. When he received the evidence that his son was alive, didn’t Jacob feel good? He wanted to go and see his boy right away. During the late war I remember how the feelings of certain persons were reversed. In the north west county of the State of Ohio, the news came after a certain battle that a certain man was killed in the battle, and time passed on, and the people finally settled that they should have a funeral service at home; he was a member of the church commonly called the Church of God, and the preacher of that church was called to preach the funeral sermon, and the sermon was like most of those preached during the war, especially for those who were killed on the battle field. All the arrangements were made and the believed widow (I don’t know how else to put it–the women thought she was a widow) and the children thought they were fatherless, and all the friends gathered together for the services, and don’t you think that while the services were going on the man that they were having the funeral for came in! Now how do you think they felt? Would not that change the feelings wonderfully? They felt very bad when the news came that he was dead and that he could not be accounted for, and so settled in the conviction that he was not alive. You know they believed it sufficiently strong to have funeral services, but it proved to be a mistake, and how good they felt when they found out they had believed a lie. Felt bad when they believed one side of the story, felt good when they found out their mistake. So, my friends, a man may believe a lie and feel bad, and may believe the truth and feel glad, or believe a lie and feel glad, believe the truth and feel bad.
Feeling is the result of what we believe. To illustrate again – In the year ’76 I was conducting a series of meetings in Findlay, Ohio, during the Hayes and Tilden campaign. We were having grand meetings. I was going down the street next day after the election, and a large crowd was gathered around the telegraph office clear out into the middle of the main street, and I heard them hallooing with all their might; and as I came farther down the main street toward the crowd there was a man coming up the middle of the street who had on a white plug hat, and he was hallooing at the top of his voice. He would throw his white plug hat up into the air as high as he could throw it, and when it would come down he would kick it. When I came up to him I saw the tears were rolling down his cheeks, and he was yelling “Hurrah for Hayes! Hurrah for Hayes!” And the Republicans were hallooing for Hayes until they were hoarse, and you know they hallooed for Hayes, and they cried over it, and it made me feel like crying. Just think of the effect it would have on me, as peculiar as I am, to hear them rejoicing. It made me feel good. I had to push through the crowd to keep from hallooing too. I went on into North Findlay, and returned an hour or two after, and when I returned the board was changed, don’t you think! They had received a dispatch that it was a mistake, and that Hayes was not elected, and that Tilden was, and the Republicans’ faces were as long as government mules, and the Democrats were yelling and hallooing with all their might and power. It made me feel like hallooing on that side. So it went. You remember what a time they had in deciding that question in regard to who was President, and you remember the news would make the Republicans feel good when the news came to them that Hayes was elected and they believed it. And it made the Democrats feel good when the news came that Tilden was elected. So one would feel good awhile, and then the other, and they kept feeling good that way for a long time–good, bad, up and down. It reminded me a good deal of some people’s religion, sometimes up and sometimes down; sometimes feeling good, and sometimes their faith fails, and they get to doubting, and they feel bad.
I have had people say to me, “When you were preaching I had such peculiar feelings come over me; I felt the chills running over me; I felt like I ought to act right away; I could hardly wait till you quit preaching, I wanted so to confess my faith in Christ. What made me feel that way? “Because you believed what I preached.” Turn to the tenth chapter of Romans, and you will find: “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is to bring Christ down from above.)” Don’t pray for Christ to come down from above to save you. He has come once. He has died upon the cross. He has gone back to heaven, and he is going to stay there until he comes the second time. So we are not to ask Jesus to come down and save us. We have the gospel, the Word of God, that we are to receive in our hearts, believe with our minds, and confess with our mouths.
My name, they say, is “Updike.” I believe it. I don’t say “I’m Updike” because I feel so. You come around and ask me my name, and I say, “My name is Updike.” “How do you know it?” “Oh, I feel like it!” No, that don’t make me Updike because I feel that way. There isn’t any feeling about it. It is a matter of fact that I am. It matters not how much I may dislike the name, or dislike to be what I am. I am, I am, I am! I can’t help it, and it is in accordance with the law. So in regard to this matter of Christianity.
You ask me, “Are you a mason?” and you say, “I am.” “Well, how do you know you are a mason?” “I feel like one.” How do I know how any other mason in the world feels! I don’t know whether I am or not, from that? “Are you married?” another asks. “I am.” “How do you know?” “I feel like it.” Feel like you’re married! Talk about such nonsense. A man being a conductor on a railroad because he feels like it! A man being a railroad engineer because he feels like it. There isn’t any profession, there isn’t anything that you can belong to, that you are simply that because you feel like it. A man a school-teacher because he feels like one. “Are you a lawyer? “Yes.” “How do you know you are?” “Oh, well, I feel like it.” It isn’t reasonable.
What is it that is peculiar to Christianity to make it the only thing in all the world that a person would know about simply from his feelings, when the Bible doesn’t say a single word about how a man should feel in order to know he is a child of God? It is as plain as A, B, C. It tells what faith is. It tells us how to act. It tells all about that. It settles the entire question. There can not be any trouble in regard to the joy that comes from faith in God. There is joy in it. That is genuine joy which comes from genuine faith, faith that is built upon the Word of God. That is the only faith that can be genuine; therefore it is important that you and I examine the faith we have. If my faith be wrong, my acts will be wrong, my conscience will be wrong, and I am liable to be lost at last. How is your faith? No wonder that Jesus asks the question, “Will I find faith upon the earth?” Does he say a word about feeling good? No.
My brother, the question comes to-night to every man and woman here, “Have you faith in the Son of the living God?” Do you believe, and believe with all your heart, upon the testimony of the Holy Scripture, that Jesus is the Christ, and the Son of the living God? We have the “Word of God” as a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path.” Do you believe the Word of God? Do you believe it?
DISCLAIMER:
As I said earlier, I do NOT think the people who wrote the above were regenerate. However, I do believe they were stating the truth on the matter of faith, in the same way that at times Judas and Balaam spoke truth. Andrew Bain
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