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Bible Study Discussions with Gary Panell

Question: Faith

Answer: Probably of all the subjects we could talk about this one is the most basic and the most important. To me "faith" means "trust," and I believe in our culture this is the best translation of the Greek word: PISTIS, primarily, firm persuasion, a conviction based upon hearing (akin to peithó, to persuade), is used in the New Testament always of faith in God or Christ, or things spiritual. The word is used of (a) trust, e.g., Romans 3:25, 1 Corinthians 2:5; 15:14,17; 2 Corinthians 1:24; Galatians 3:23; Philippians 1:25; 2:17; 1 Thessalonians 3:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 3:2 (b) trustworthiness, e.g., Matthew 23:23; Romans 3:3.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence (confidence) of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." (Hebrews 11:1-3)

What God wants of people is for them to trust Him under whatever circumstances. He values our "trust" in Him more than anything else we can do. We only need to look at the Hall of Fame for Old Testament believers, Hebrews 11, to understand what God wants of his believers. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11: 6) I believe many people do not believe in the power of God because for so long they have been "brain washed" to think that God could not create without help from evolution. The majority of Bible Seminaries (cemeteries, excuse the pun, I know there are some out there that actually do believe the Bible, but there a lot who do not!) believe God needed the help of evolution to create everything.

Many "Christians" need to look up at the stars some night and actually get a little glimpse of Who God is, and what He is really like. Then they might read the book YOUR GOD IS TOO SMALL by J. B. Phillips. He says, "Many men and women today are living, often with inner dissatisfaction, without any faith in God at all. This is not because they are particularly wicked or selfish or, as the old-fashioned would say, "godless,' but because they have not found with their adult minds a God big enough to "ACCOUNT FOR" LIFE, BIG ENOUGH TO "FIT IN WITH" THE NEW SCIENTIFIC AGE, BIG ENOUGH TO COMMAND THEIR HIGHEST ADMIRATION AND RESPECT, and consequently their willing cooperation." I would add to that they are not willing to put their "faith" or "trust" in a God whom they believe is too small to handle there needs.

Martin Luther came to understand this as he was trying to work his way to heaven. He thought he needed to crawl on his knees and do penitence to secure salvation, because he believed he needed to help God get him saved. He finally came to understand, "The just shall live by faith." (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17) It is not of works that we are saved. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

James pointed out, though, that you cannot prove you have faith without works, because this is how we as humans see faith. With God He is looking on the heart, but man sees what we do. Someone has said, what you are, speaks so loud, I can't hear what you say.

Isaiah said: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" (Isaiah 6:1-3) When we get a glimpse of God as Isaiah did, it is easy to have faith in Him, or trust in Him!

A. W. Tozer in his book THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY says, "The God we must learn to know is the Majesty in the heavens, God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, the only wise God our Savior. He it is that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, who stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, who bringeth out His starry host by number and calleth them all by name through the greatness of His power, who seeth the works of man as vanity, who putteth no confidence in princes and asks no counsel of kings. Knowledge of such a Being cannot be gained by study alone. It comes by a wisdom the natural man knows nothing of, neither can know, because it is spiritually discerned."

God created us with a free will, we can choose to believe that there is a God who created us and everything else, or we can believe it is all one big accident. We can believe the Bible is God's word or we can believe it is a lot of myths. We can believe there was a flood where millions, if not billions, of people perished who did not believe, or we can say this is some big lie. We can choose to believe the ark of safety for us today is to be believing in, and trusting in, His blood alone for our salvation, or else we can believe it is impossible for Him to come back again and not believe in anything.

We can believe Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, or we can believe she had premarital sex. We can believe Jesus was the Holy Son of God Who came to this earth to fulfill the mission of dying as a sacrifice for our sins, or we can believe He is just another man like you and me. We can blaspheme Him and say that He had sexual relations with Mary Magdalene, like so many are being deceived into believing today, or we can worship Him as the Holy Son of God that He is!

We can believe He died on the cross for my sins, or we can believe His death meant nothing, and go on living our lives as if He never existed. We can live our lives and believe that all there is is this life and then we are dead and gone. We can believe what Jesus said, and spend eternity with the Holy Trinity or we can spend our eternal life separated from God forever in a horrible place of punishment paying for our own sins. Or we can accept the pardon of Almighty God through His Son Jesus Christ!

Recently, I was listening to a radio Bible answer program, which as you can imagine I enjoy immensely, but they had a caller asking what about a person who had been cremated how could God resurrect such a body. Here we see where faith comes in. If we believe God created the universe and everything in it, which He did, then is it too hard to believe that He can recreate our bodies when the resurrection comes? If we think God might have trouble doing this, then how is He going to get us to heaven? Do you know where it is, and how to get there? If we don't know how to get there, then we need to "trust" Him first for our salvation by repenting of our sins, and turning to Him for salvation, and then believe He will do the rest!

"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:4-5) Yes, I would say of all the subjects most important in this world to grasp, it is the importance of this word "faith." As you could tell I could go on about this a long time, and this is probably one of the reasons I waited so long to answer this question.

In Christ Jesus our Lord,

Gary T. Panell

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Keywords: faith, belief, trust