“And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. “
Matthew 28:17
You have heard the stats, “3 out of 4 dentists prefer Colgate.” If the advertisers tell me this statistic is true then it must be true. Right? Well, I have discovered another statistical maxim, but this one is not about something as trivial as toothpaste, but rather it affects your eternal standing and present-day wellbeing. From my very own research and straight-forward calculations I have discovered something that may shock you:
“3 out of 4 people do not have authentic FAITH.”
That’s right! 75 percent of the people you rub shoulders with every day hold either a deficient view of faith or are completely absent of any kind of genuine connection with God whatsoever. The main source of my research comes from God’s own authoritative word, and I think it is completely trustworthy. Of course, you need to have faith in the first place to believe this. As a reminder, it says in the Holy Writ that God’s word “is living and active…discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Circular reasoning? Only to those who don’t believe.)
You cannot hide from the searching eye of God. And when his word speaks about our inherent spiritual lack it does not lie. So when it comes to comprehensive faith within any confessing and non-confessing community, Paul makes his case in 2 Thessalonians 3:2 where he says, “Pray that we may be delivered from wicked (unreasonable) and evil (ungodly) men. For not all have faith.” That is a terrifying report – some people that you think you know may not know. They don’t have “IT”, with “it” being the only thing that is necessary to please God.
And if you are wondering what is needed, scripture is very clear: YOU GOTTA HAVE…
The two components that are needed in order to possess authentic faith are clear: (1) Belief in God’s “EXISTENCE” and (2) Trust in his promise of “REWARD.” Both of these components are mandatory if a person is going to make a real connection with the living God. In the children’s book “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, the only way to get to the wonderful land of Narnia was to believe it “actually existed” and that if you entered through the wardrobe door you would be “rewarded with actually seeing” Aslan, the glorious lion, himself. The true believer like Lucy was able to touch the cold of the snow and hug the furry mane of the lion because her simple faith caused her to act on what she believed to be true by jumping into the wardrobe, while her siblings thought she was nothing more than a crazy, imaginative child.
But I am getting ahead of myself. It is imperative for us to define these terms more in-depth:
(1) EXISTENCE:
This is where a person actually believes that a powerful almighty being really lives as he is described in the pages of scripture. Faith must start here. The singular purpose of the Old Testament is to reveal in vivid color, the person of Jehovah to the ignorant and previously unbelieving world. Through the written record of the true and miraculous events of Jewish history and the bold pronouncements of his chosen prophets, the Holy God was making himself known to you and me. Time and time again God declared himself to be ” “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” (Exodus 34:6) Isaiah the prophet saw Jesus himself sitting on the throne and heard shouting a company of angels declaring that God is “Holy, holy, holy!” (Isaiah 6:1-7)
All of these compiled stories are given to us so we can get to know what the living God is like. And when I say living, I mean what Francis Schaeffer the great theologian meant, “God is the God Who is There!” My favorite verse that shows how believing in God’s existence changes everything in a person’s life is found in Job 31:23. Job was a man who suffered like no one else, and some of his friends wondered why he just didn’t give up on his belief in God and live whole-hog for himself. Here is Job’s reply, “For I dreaded destruction from God, and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.” The essence of having a right understanding of “EXISTENCE” is having a holy fear of God.
(2) REWARD:
If “EXISTENCE” is truly comprehended by the human mind, the next part of ‘REWARD” comes relatively easy. Reward simply means that I believe that God does not lie when he says he is going to do something. He will do that thing. If I know that God is Holy, I will then know that he will always be full of integrity both in word and deed. The problem we have is that we deal with fallen humans every day, who lie, forget, and quit. God will always do what he says he will do.
But “REWARD” also infers that you will believe one more thing about God, that his heart is first and foremost generous. He wants to bless people. Scripture goes out of its way to point out this fact by using words to describe God like “love”, “mercy”, “compassionate”, “longsuffering”, “kindness” and “grace”. Romans does all it can to scream that “God is FOR US!!!” Satan, on the other hand, has one goal, he wants you to see God as “against you.” That is what his name means, he is the accuser. He is always trying to heap guilt and shame and memories of failure into your mind to get you to hide from God and not believe that his biggest desire is to forgive. If you still doubt that God is for you just look to the cross:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
You can’t get any more clear about God’s goodness than that. The essence of having a right understanding of “REWARD” is having a daily all-pervasive hope. These are the two necessary components to have authentic life-changing faith. Now let us look at our original claim that 75 percent of the people don’t have it.
This chart shows how the two components are necessary, and when one or both are missing faith loses its power. The chart is easy to decipher – when the “E” is capitalized it refers to having a robust and genuine belief in God’s existence. When it is in the minor case, “e”, that means a real understanding of the God that exists is not there. The same goes for reward: A capitalized “R” means a person has hope that God is “for” them – when a small case “r” is present a person sees only an unhealthy fear of punishment and despair.
er: The Atheist Heart
Here is the person who finds the idea of an All-powerful and Ever-present being as a preposterous joke. The truth of God’s invisibility is seen by the stubborn atheist as nothing more than a lame excuse for a lack of solid evidence in his being. “Only a fool believes in fairy tales,” they say.
Reasons for why atheists don’t believe in God abound – from their hatred of authority, being overly impressed with their education and their own intelligence, to a simple hard-heartedness – the atheist has blocked God out, and his opinion, from their daily life. An atheist is a person who thinks they can face the storm of life on their own.
An atheistic heart can also be present in those who claim to be believers as well. It isn’t the profession of faith that determines genuine belief, it is a certain conviction, knowing that you know, that matters. And while the Christian atheist can say they know, they will live as if they don’t.
When you don’t believe in a being that provides compassion and care towards this broken world, everything becomes a random, hopeless mess. Honest people have to admit if there is no God who will someday right every wrong, life holds no meaning and becomes utterly depressing. Cosmetics, plastic surgery, alcohol, movies, bank accounts, and the constant need for sexually gratifying encounters become nothing more than the actions of an empty person who is trying to quiet the simmering despair that is always lurking underneath the surface. And if you don’t have God, all you have is politics, and we all know politics is a crapshoot. And then you die.
For the Atheist, Faith is replaced by dreadful Fate. No wonder people are angry.
eR: The Ignorant Heart
Here is the person who has a warped or misunderstood knowledge of God; and they don’t seem to care if they right or wrong in their misunderstanding. They find satisfaction in inventing their own deity to believe in. This group is willfully ignorant because they want to be. If they were to search for the God who does actually exist they secretly are fearful they might find him, and in turn, they know they will need to conform to his will. So instead, they act like the god they invented is the god who is — even when they know he is not. “God is love, whoever he, she, or it may be,” they confidently say with arms raised high, or legs crossed in a spiritually impressive yoga pose.
Reasons for why the ignorant don’t believe in the real God abound – from lust to laziness, being impressed with their own emotional intuition, to simple sentimentality – this group makes up their own fairy tales to suit their own desires. It isn’t proper theology that matters to them, it is the passion, the desire, the good warm feelings that can make a person cry and sing that really matters. They tout a sloppy wet kind of love that can’t stand up to evil when it rears its ugly head.
Ignorance relies on false hope. When someone dies euphemism abounds: “They are in a better place.” “We all are God’s children.” The ignorant worship what they don’t know, and they bask in the mystery and beauty more than the God who actually exists. Tears and tolerance mean more to the ignorant than truth.
Er: The Legalistic Heart
Here is the person who believes that God exists, but fail to believe he is good. Life is about keeping him happy through never-ending human effort, endeavor, and slavish obedience. Here lies a fear of God that has no room for love. And where there is no love there is always the need to prove self. Joy is not possible when you don’t think God is for you. So the goal is to always keep God happy and at arm’s length. Which means you are never done because God is always watching and wanting more.
Such a rotten, no-good, lousy, bone-breaking burden! It is the reason the stiffed-jawed nun wears her black habit, the old baptist deacon is choked by his ugly wide ties, the Hindu priest bathes in the dirty water of the Ganges, and the bitter old grandma scolds the young pastor with a crooked pointer finger saying, “we’ve always done church this way, young man!’
A legalist only believes half of God’s promises, the negative, soul-crushing, ones. Grace seems like a dream too good to be true…so legalism by its very nature is a half-baked faith. And a half-baked faith is no faith at all. That is why so many religious people are never happy, good news becomes a burden, and self-righteous control of self and others is a constant curse.
ER: The Faithful Heart
Here is the person who believes the God of the Bible exists and he is for them. So they are enthusiastically looking for the promises in scripture to live by because they know God himself has sworn by his word. He is bound to do what is written. And he loves it when you remind him of that fact.
That all that true prayer is.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the perfect example of a person who has a faithful heart. Listen closely how her faith is described in the book of Luke when she was told she was going to have a child even though she was a virgin, “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” Blessing comes to her because she (1) Believed that the Lord existed, (2) and that he would fulfill his promises to her. Blessed means he is generous, good, kind and most of all for us!
Three out of Four
So do you have faith? A lot of people really believe they believe just because they say they believe. But very few take God at his word because they know he is good, really, really good!
My hope in writing this is so this Christmas you will quit playing the game. Stop acting like you believe. Start taking his word seriously. And it all starts with one question…
“Do you believe that the God who spoke the earth into existence, split the Red Sea in half, sent fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, came in the form of a baby, died on the cross for your sins is actually alive right now?” How you answer that changes everything.
