TWO IDEAS OF “FAITH.”

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 16, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 16.

TWO IDEAS OF “FAITH.”

Which Is Your Idea?

Faith, according to the word of God, is a matter of individual exercise. It is believing with all the heart; it is choosing and receiving Christ; it is yielding unreservedly to God, to obey, to suffer if need be, to wait. It is like the trolley which makes connection between the car and the living wire overhead. The power is in God’s word, and faith in the believer appropriates that power. A congregation of such believers, according to simple Bible rules, forms a church or congregation of God.

But Roman Catholics make faith synonymous with a creed or “articles of faith.” This is emphasized anew by Archbishop Riordan, in a sermon on “The Church and the Scriptures,” preached in Metropolitan Hall, San Francisco, February 14, and reported in the Chronicle of that city of February 15. He says:—

At St. Peter’s first sermon 3,000 of his hearers are moved by grace and receive the faith.

What he means by “the faith” is thus stated in the same sermon previously:—

It is therefore evident that the faith, or “body of doctrine” given by our Lord to the world was to be preserved to the end of time.

And to know what this teaching is, he tells us:—

In the Catholic system we come to the knowledge of our Lord’s teachings, not directly through the Bible, but directly through the church, which interprets the Bible.

In the Catholic system the power which interprets those principles and applies them is the authority of the church, residing in her divinely appointed ministers, and not each individual of the Christian society.

Error Breeds Error.

The one error concerning faith has led to the other, the custodian of faith. As faith is the “body of doctrine,” it must be held, controlled, and interpreted by a select body of men. The soul may not come directly to Christ in his word, even as the poor leper, or the little child, came to him in person; he must first break the cordon of the austere and selfish disciples, who, as of old, arrogate to themselves the sole right to guard the body and graces of Christ. See Mark 10:13, 14; John 12:3–7; Luke 9:51–56.

This leads to the further error that the applications of this “body of doctrine” are not by personal faith on the part of the believer, but that they are applied by the visible church; that without the church the truths of the Bible are dead.

The following excerpts from the same sermon will clearly prove this:—

The letter of the Gospel is by itself dead, and can give no life unless made to live in the great society called the church. The Bible is no doubt the word of God, the book by excellence guarded by the Catholic Church. . . . In it are contained all the principles whose spirit must be embodied in the character of every man who lays claim to high moral character, and in the constitution of every country which makes any pretension to progress and civilization.

But far beyond the dead letter of the Bible is the mighty power of the living church of Christ, in which and through which the truths of Scripture receive their significance and application. This is the power which in every age has brought men to the knowledge of the Christian law, which has regenerated the world morally and politically, and has made civilization coterminous with Christianity. Not the dead words of the Gospel placed in the hands of the people, but their meaning and spirit acting through the church, manifesting themselves in her sacraments, in her liturgy, breathing in her prayers, and speaking through those who, in the name and authority of the divine Founder of Christian religion, were commissioned to carry the truths of salvation to every creature, even to the end of time.

Much more might be quoted, but this is sufficient to show that, according to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, faith means the “body of doctrine,” or the creed; that this faith is held not by individuals, but by the body or society called the church; that the individual can not come to God’s word direct for instruction, comfort, strength, and life, but must obtain it through the church; that the individual can not make application of the truths of the Gospel, but that these applications must be made by the church; and that, without the church, the Bible, the Gospel, the words of Christ, are dead.

This makes the word of God dependent on the church, and not the church on the word. And this is expressly stated by the archbishop, who says, in speaking of the work of the apostles:—

Before half of the first century the faith of Christ is carried to all the people of the civilized world. This work was accomplished without the aid of Scriptures.

What the Word Says.

The truth of this will be seen to be wanting by every one conversant with the New Testament Scriptures. Says Jesus: “Search the Scriptures, for you think in them you have life everlasting; and the same are they that give testimony of me.” John 5:39. (Scripture quotations are from the Douay version throughout this article.) Even Christ himself did not teach without the aid of the Scriptures: “And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things that were concerning him.” Luke 24:27.

That the apostles and inspired teachers preached the word of the Scriptures, see Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), in the temple (Acts 3:22–25; 4:11), Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7, Paul’s in Acts 13. It is said that the early disciples “went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4), “preaching the word of the Lord” (verse 25), “the gentiles also had received the word of God” (Acts 11:1), “preached the word of God in the synagogue of the Jews” (Acts 13:5), “three Sabbath days he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2), and the Bereans are called by inspiration “more noble” than others, because they “received the word with all eagerness, daily searching the Scriptures, whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). A multitude of other passages in both Acts and the Epistles teach the

same thing, that the apostles depended upon and taught the word, the Scriptures.

“Preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2) is the injunction to Timothy, the minister of Christ. And the word he was to preach was “the Holy Scriptures, which can instruct thee to salvation, by the faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice; that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work.” 2 Tim. 3:15, 16.

The apostle Peter teaches the same thing: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, that liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh [in church or state] is as grass; and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass is withered, and the flower thereof is fallen away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.” The words in Italics are so printed in the Catholic version, and are quoted from Isaiah 40; and Peter tells us that this is the very word, the Old Testament Scriptures, which by the Gospel is preached unto you. His preaching, therefore, was founded on the Scriptures, as was Paul’s.

Personal Faith.

The reception of that word was not by any faith which the church held or bestowed, but by the personal faith of the individuals who received it, and who grow by feeding upon that same word. “Purifying their hearts by faith.” Acts 15:9. “I commend you to God and the word of his grace, who is able to build you up.” Acts 20:32. “When you received from us the word of the learning of God, you received it not as the word of men, but (as it is indeed) the word of God, who worketh in you that have believed.” 1 Thess. 2:13.

Everywhere in the Scriptures it is the word of God, and personal faith, the faith based on that word, the faith which dwelt in Jesus Christ. “It is the word that is living and effectual” (Heb. 4:12), that is “Spirit and life” (John 6:63), that by faith renews and regenerates the church. The church in individuals receives life from the word, and so becomes the body of Christ, not the word receiving life from the church. If the church receives the word, lives the word, she becomes indeed the body of the living Christ, a living epistle of Christ; but if she fails to do this, she will be utterly rejected, as were the Jews of old. The real test of God’s true children is not by a continuous fleshly line, not by a successive priesthood, not by outward forms and sacraments and liturgies. The Jews thought it was; Jesus declared them to be the children of the devil. John 8:44. The real test of being children of Abraham was the faith, producing the works, of Abraham. John 8:39. God was not dependent on them; he could by his mighty living word make children to Abraham of dead stones—just what all men are, and every church is, without the vivifying power of God’s word received by personal faith.

“The head of every man is Christ” (1 Cor. 11:3), whether pope or priest or layman. Come direct to him. Believe his word; it is for you, whosoever you are. The church of Christ may aid you; your brethren may help you; God’s teachers may instruct you; but if the word avails you aught, it will not be because of others’ faith, but your own personal faith in Christ as a personal Saviour, full, glorious, complete, without any intermediaries. He is “not far from every one of us.” Acts 17:27.