Does faith come by hearing or by reading?

Haole
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:44 pm

Re: Does faith come by hearing or by reading?

Post by Haole » Fri Feb 17, 2012 4:27 pm

When Jesus was having Scripture thrown at him, he quoted Scripture right back. And he "IS" the LORD.

parsonsmom
Posts: 37
Joined: Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:41 pm

Re: Does faith come by hearing or by reading?

Post by parsonsmom » Sun May 06, 2012 11:51 pm

dorianleigh wrote:I found this article on the Internet and I thought it was very interesting, what do you believe? Do we love the Bible more than the Lord? Do we focus more upon what we read, than what the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts? Do we focus on details in the Old Testament which have no relevance upon our Christian walk? Is this causing intellectual pride? Do we know the Scriptures better than we know the Savior? I have even slept with my Bible when I was feeling very lonely and sad. I have focused upon this book that my physical senses can appreciate much more than I've just "been still to KNOW that He is God."

Satan knows the Scripture and uses people to distract, divide and waste the precious God given resource of time. When Jesus was in the wilderness, satan kept throwing Scripture at Him, but he couldn't throw the spoken words of God around as he didn't know them. Satan is still throwing Scripture as a weapon to divide and distract believers and waste time that we could be spending praying, worshipping and loving.

Here is the article:

"When the Bible is primarily seen as a depository of divine principles for life, it fundamentally changes the way we engage God and his Word. Rather than a vehicle for knowing God and fostering our communion with him, we search the Scriptures for applicable principles that we may employ to control our world and life. This is not Christianity; this is Christian deism. In other words, we actually replace a relationship with God for a relationship with the Bible. If one has the repair manual, why bother with the expense of a mechanic?

Tim Keller, in his book "Counterfeit Gods," defined idols as "good things turned into ultimate things." I wonder if this definition applies to what some evangelicals have done to the Bible. Rather than making the Bible the means by which we discover and commune with God, they have made the Bible an end in itself. It has come to replace Jesus Christ as the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End of their faith.

I realize that in Christian traditions holding a very high view of the Scriptures, like my own, it may sound as if I am downgrading the importance of the Bible. That is not the case. I believe it is God's Word, inspired by him, and the authority for our faith and lives. Through it we discover who he is -- and what greater gift can there be? And it does contain many useful and applicable principles for life and faith. But in our zeal to honor the importance of the Bible and extol its usefulness, we may unintentionally do the opposite. We may reduce the Bible from God's revelation of himself to merely a revelation of divine principles for life. And we are not the first to fall into this subtle trap.

The religious leaders in Jesus' time were expert students of the Scriptures. They had memorized the entire Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament). And they had parsed every command, extracted every principle, and delineated every instruction it contained. But their mastery of Scripture had not resulted in actually knowing God or recognizing his Son when he stood right in front of them. Jesus said to these leaders, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life."9

This is the sinister shortcoming of faith built upon principles, laws, and formulas. It causes us to reduce faith to divine instructions or godly self-help tips: five steps to a more godly marriage, how to raise kids God's way, biblical laws of leadership, managing your finances with kingdom principles, etc. But discovering and applying these principles does not actually require a relationship with God. Instead, being a Christian simply means you have exchanged a worldly set of life principles for a new set taken from the Bible. But like an atheist or deist, the Christian deist can put these new principles into practice without God being involved. God can be set aside while we remain in control of our lives. He may be praised, thanked, and worshipped for giving us his wise precepts for life, but as with an absentee watchmaker, God's present participation is altogether optional.

This posture is particularly tempting in affluent, professional communities where people are accustomed to off-the-shelf solutions and self-help manuals. Their education and wealth mean they are used to being in control of their lives, and a huge publishing industry has ensured they maintain this illusion. Many best sellers are self-help books advocating principles to overcome nearly any problem. While proven formulas might be expected for losing weight or growing a vegetable garden, we tend to apply scientific certainty to even the more mysterious areas of life. Perusing the shelves at the local bookstore can be a very comforting exercise. Knowing that there is a solution to any problem life throws at you provides a sense of control -- it calms our fears. And if the answer cannot be found at the bookstore, we know there is always the pharmacy down the street.

This same trend is evident in many other areas of contemporary Christian teaching. It is now possible to have a "Christian" marriage, a "Christian" business, and even a "Christian" nation without Christ actually being present. The fact that we employ principles derived from the Bible is enough to convince us that they are -- and therefore we are -- Christian.

This popular form of Christianity with its emphasis on working principles and worshiping the Bible rather than God, may be appealing because it is far more predictable and manageable than an actual relationship with God. Relationships, whether human or divine, are messy, time consuming, and often uncontrollable. But principles are comprehensible and clinical. Perhaps this explains why a 2005 study found that only 3 percent of pastors listed prayer as a priority in their ministry. If he's already given you the watch, why bother maintaining a relationship with the watchmaker?

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Greetings; Reading the Word outloud to yourself solves that problem; I sat with a Jewish ministry Two years; and loved the way they taught the word; We need the entire reading of the word; I spend three days and nights with the Father Son and Holy Spirit I dont remember how things looked; but whin I was raised up and went into the public; I found I knew the Word. My brother got the benefit of it. Respectfully; parsondmom,

Post Reply

Return to “General Bible Discussion”