John the Revival Preacher

In a blog post from October Dr. Leithart, quoting from Kimberly Belcher says Augustine taught that infants are the perfect subjects of baptism. Here are the last three paragraphs of the post. Emphasis mine. Quote marks and page numbers mean the quote is from Belcher's book

How can an infant be an ideal subject of baptism when the infant cannot believe? To this, Augustine's answer was that the infant can in fact believer [sic]: “Augustine calls unbaptized infants ‘unbelievers,' but infants who have been baptized are ‘believing.' Infant ‘faith,' according to this, is accessible to outside analysis and decisively determined by ritual initiation” (83).

This reveals a radical difference between pre- and modern understanding of “faith”: “The modern assumption is that faith is an ephemeral disposition perceptible only by the subject. Faith can only be affirmed by the person himself or herself, and he or she may deceive others. Moreover, faith is defined within a cognitively centered definition of the self. . . . Since infants' cognitive ability does not allow them to affirm propositions, infant faith is not well defined. Within this context., an adult's affirmation of faith ‘on behalf of' an infant catechumen, since the adult has no knowledge of the infant's inner state, is understandably interpreted as a pious falsehood or as only a promise of future development” (82).

This is simply not what Augustine means by “faith.” It is not for him a cognitive state known only to the subject. Like truth, it is something that can be marked on the body, something into which one can be initiated without knowledge or consent. As Belcher puts it, “Baptism should immerse the intiand into a new way of being, not begin an intellectual conversion. The truth of the profession of faith transforms human capacities, rather than expressing the initiand's assent to an objective truth. The church's certainty guarantees the objectivity of the proclamation, but the ritual affirmation changes the initiand's subjective world and his or her way of being in that world” (84). For Augustine, one becomes a believer by being initiated into the faith, rather than by having an intellectual conversion or a conversion of will. [Emphasis mine.]

Does Leithart agree with this? It is hard to tell. He often quotes authors without giving his take on the quote. But given his past writings one could guess that he, at the very least, finds this a helpful way of saying things. But is it good to talk about faith like this? Should we say that one becomes a believer by baptism or that faith comes via baptism? Is this the way the Bible talks about faith and salvation? Are evangelicals wrong to call people to believe in Jesus? Should we instead call them "into the faith" via baptism? Are believing in Jesus and coming into the faith synonymous? Is faith active, such as resting, grasping, believing in Christ? Or is it passive such a being baptized, being brought into the church, or being marked out from the world? Are both biblical options? And if so, are they synonymous? If being in the faith makes one a believer, what happens to the subjective, internal side of the faith? Does it become superfluous, automatic, or irrelevant?

I want to examine these questions by looking at how the New Testament uses the term faith beginning with the Gospel of John. I will look at other New Testament books in the future.  In particular, I am going to focus on whether the New Testament presents faith as active or passive. In other words, can someone become a believer without their knowledge or consent through baptism? And if the answer is yes, in what sense can they be called believers? Should we call the baptized to repent and believe? In this post I am focused solely on John. I am aware of how passages in the New Testament could support Augustine's point. I will address those as I move through this series. So don't say, "Well what about that passage in Acts?" I will get there, but not yet.

For my non Greek readers, faith and believe both come from the same Greek word.  Thus you could substitute "believe" for "having faith in" and "faith" for "belief." John's gospel contains around 41% of the total uses of the verb "believe" in the New Testament (c. 98 out of 241). Thus it is a good place to start in understanding how faith is used in the New Testament, though we will see it used in a variety of ways in other New Testament books. It is interesting that John does not use the noun "faith" at all with the possible exception of John 20:27.

Of all the books I have looked at so far, John's was the easiest to determine whether or not faith is active or passive. The word "believe" is used almost exclusively by John to mean believe in Jesus, believe something about him that indicates you understand he is the Christ, or believe His words. It could be paraphrased three ways: Believe in me, believe me, believe what someone/something has said about me. The key point for my purpose is that the word believe in John's gospel is active, not passive. Here a few examples:

John 3:14-16

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 

John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned.
John 3:35 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.
John 4:39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him.
John 6:29 This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent.
John 6:35 Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
John 6:69 We have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.
John 9:35-38

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you." He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. 

John 10:42 And many believed in him there.
John 11:35 Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
John 11:45 Many Jews therefore,who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believe in him.
John 14:1   Believe in God; believe also in me.
John 17:20 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.
John 20:31 But these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

Here are ten other uses of the word believe in John: John 1:7, 1:50, 2:11, 2:22, 5:24, 5:38, 7:39, 12:38, 14:12, 19:35.

Even when the word "believe" is used without the preposition "in", such as in John 8:45-46, the meaning is the same. Jesus is saying in John 8:45-46  believe that I am the Son of God (see also John 6:30-36, 10:25-26, 11:42, 16:31, 20:29). It is not hard to see how this is equivalent to "believe in me."

Believe in John's gospel is active. We believe in Jesus. We believe in His name. We believe He came from the Father. We believe the Father's witness to Him. We believe that his works testify to who he is. We believe the Apostles who speak of him. At the end John exhorts us to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  In fact, throughout the book John sounds like a revival preacher calling on all who read to trust in the name of Jesus.

There is no indication in John's gospel that we are brought into the faith via baptism or some other external rite. Faith is trust in Jesus Christ that leads to everlasting life including being resurrected to glory (John 6:40). In John, faith is an internal and subjective act with outward results including confession that Jesus is the Christ, obedience to him, etc. That does not mean there are no allusions to baptism or the Lord's Supper in John's gospel. Nor does it mean that baptism is based on something subjective thus undercutting paedo-baptism or that baptism fails to do something objective. But it does mean that in John's gospel one does not have faith by being baptized, through a rite, or by being in the church. For John a believer is someone who had a conversion of the will by God's grace (John 10:29) and a conversion of the intellect by understanding who Jesus is (John 11:27, 13:19, 20:25-27). A believer is someone who has put his trust in Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Related Posts
John 6, the Lord's Supper, and Belief in Christ
Two Types of Preaching

They Will Not Prevail

The enemies of God are planners and schemers. In Psalm 2:1-3 the nations and rulers plot and take counsel on how they can break God’s chains. What can we do to escape God? How can we run from Him? How can we evade his rules? What can we do to destroy his Word and make him disappear? Imagine a bunch of corporate lawyers sitting in a back room late at night plotting the overthrow of another company.

In our culture this plotting takes place through things like feminism, sexual freedom, the acceptance of evolution, the careful parsing of God’s word by weak-willed men (and women) so that it becomes impotent, college classes on gender studies, failure to call public leaders to repentance, and a denial of sin as the problem in our lives.

For Christians who love God’s Word and its Author, this scheming can be discouraging. Our resources are paltry. Leaders are dropping like zombies in The Walking Dead. Doctrinal compromise is normal. Every day more laws get passed that destroy the remnants of Christianity that were once in our culture. And what of the Church? She is harassed and persecuted around the world. Where she is not persecuted by the enemies of God she is threatened by wolves who have found their way into the sheepfold. All in all, there are times we wonder if Jesus missed something when He said, “The gates of hell will not prevail against his church” (Matthew 16:18).

There is a great encouragement for us in Exodus 15. Exodus 15:1-21 is the song that Israel sung after the Egyptians had been drowned in the Red Sea.  The song exalts in God’s marvelous power to deliver his people from the strongest of enemies. Verse 9 takes us behind the curtain to see what the Egyptians were planning:

The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.'

The Egyptian army had it all worked out. They were going to overtake that ragtag band of slaves, led by an 80 year old shepherd and destroy them. They were going slaughter them by the seashore spilling their blood all over the sand and then go back to feast. They were cocky and sure of themselves. After all, Israel's back was to the sea and Egypt had the greatest army in the world. What or who could possibly stop them? 

But just like Psalm 2:4 God laughed. Man can plot and scheme, but God is the one who directs history. God’s plans are the only sure plans.  Egypt does not prevail. Instead they are destroyed. Exodus 14:30 says that Israel saw the bodies of the Egyptians washed up on the shore. Exodus 15:1-10 says God

Threw the horse and rider into the sea

Cast Pharaoh’s army into the sea

Drowned Pharaoh’s choicest of captains so they sank like stones

Dashed the enemy into pieces

Consumed them like stubble

Covered them with the sea

All those plans, all those schemes thwarted in a moment by a God who is not like other gods (Exodus 15:11), but is glorious, fearful, powerful, and a man of war. 

If you are Christian do not fear the plans of the great men of this world. Politicians, professors, movie stars, talking heads, Muslims, and false teachers of all stripes can plot and scheme to tear down God and his people, but in the end they will not prevail. They will come to nothing. They are but a drop in the bucket and dust on the scales (Isaiah 40:18).  Do not listen to the fear mongers in the press or on your Facebook page. Even your Christian friends can get sucked into the vortex that says that God will not deliver and it would have been better to stay in Egypt (Exodus 14:10-12). Tell them to not be afraid. God has already saved us to the uttermost in Christ. We have already seen the salvation of God (Exodus 14:13). Sin, Satan, death, and our enemies have all been put under his feet. Jesus has all authority (Matt. 28:18-20).  He rules over the kings of the earth (Rev. 1:5). Why the fear? Why the anxiety? Why the lack of trust? Christian believe him. He rescued Israel. He will rescue us. 

But if you are not a Christian or if you used to profess faith in Christ, but now you are drifting away, you should fear. You will not come through the sea. You can plot, scheme, push those thoughts about death away, hope it is all a myth, ignore God's word, but it will not change a thing. One day you will stand face to face with the God who drowned thousands. If Pharaoh was destroyed by Him, what chance do you have? If his chariots were dashed to pieces on the rocks, what hope have you of escaping by your own power? But He is not all wrath. He is also kind to those who trust in His Son Jesus Christ (Psalm 2:7, 12) and turn to Him. Join the glorious band who have been delivered by the blood of Jesus. Join those of us who because of God's kindness came through on the dry land (Exodus 15:19). You too can see the salvation of God (Exodus 14:13) if you will just trust in Jesus and follow Him.  

Book Review: Saved by Grace

Saved by Grace: The Holy Spirit's Work in Calling and Regeneration by Herman Bavinck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the best books I have read on the intersection between calling, regeneration, and the means of grace, especially the preaching of the Word. Bavinck takes particular care to show what we should and should not believe concerning the regeneration of covenant children. He also shows how the reformed position refutes both the Anabaptist's rejection of means, as well as the Roman Catholic position that regeneration is automatically conferred through the sacraments. As a minister in the CREC I have been involved in the Federal Vision controversy on various levels. My understanding of the strengths and dangers of Federal Vision were clarified by reading this book.

View all my reviews

A Declaration of Insanity

It is odd that a book that is usually the cornerstone of a doctrine of sinless perfection begins with an extended section on the nature of sin, which removes any doubt that we are sinners. I just finished preaching I John 1:5-2:2. Here are some thoughts from this great passage.

God's character restricts who he fellowships with. God cannot have communion with darkness therefore we must be light (Ephesians 5:8) if we are to be in fellowship with God.

A man cannot be a Christian and live a life dominated by sin.

People can claim to be Christians and yet be lying. They are shown to be liars by their actions (walking in darkness) or by their theology (I am sinless). There is such a thing as a false profession.

When we have fellowship with God by walking in his ways we also have fellowship with other Christians. We cannot claim fellowship with God and live in bitterness and antagonism towards our fellow believers. Yet this does not mean that everyone who claims to be a Christian we must be in fellowship with. See point above.

A claim to be without sin is a declaration of insanity. Any man who believes this about himself is living in a fantasy land.

Few of us will say we are sinless. However, many of us function as if we are not sinners. When we are confronted with our sin our mouths drop open and we say, "Impossible!" So while theologically we may not claim to be sinless, practically we live as if we are.

The truth and God's Word are equivalent (See also John 17:17). Notice this pattern
I John 1:6 We lie and do not practice the truth
I John 1:8 We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us
I John 1:10 We make him a liar and his word is not in us

Truth is not just a person, Jesus Christ, nor simply a set of beliefs, though it is both of those. Truth is something we practice or do. True grasp of the truth produces actions formed by that truth.

Regular confession of sin is the antidote to an elevated view of our own holiness.

I John 1:9 is not an excuse to keep on sinning. Anyone who uses God's mercy in forgiving sins as excuse to keep on sinning does not understand God's mercy. (See also Psalm 130:4).

One goal of Christ's death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and sending of His Spirit is so we might not sin. Jesus, John, Paul, and Peter all believe we can make substantial progress in holiness in this life. We can never be perfect. We just begin to obey in this life, but it is real Spirit fueled obedience that is conforming us to the image of Christ.

Jesus' blood is the key to our forgiveness and cleansing. It is easy, much easier than we would like to admit, to forget the cross.

God is faithful to his promises to forgive our sins and make us clean. He has shown this faithfulness in the death of His Son.

Christ is our propitiation, a covering our for sins that turns God's wrath away from us. Trying to remove God's wrath from the equation is a compromise.

Jesus Christ is our ever present intercessor. This means we always need intercession. There is never a day when we don't need Christ pleading before the Father on our behalf.

Our Intercessor is righteous. We can put complete faithfulness in our High Priest. He will never do us wrong.

I John 2:2 does not teach that Christ's death on the cross was a covering for all the sins of all the men who ever lived. But it does teach that he covered our sins at the cross.

What Does It Mean to Be Saved?

John loves to use simple, everyday words to get across grand truths. Words like light, darkness, bread, know, walk, all have deep meaning within John's writings. Here are the different ways John describes our salvation in his first epistle. I did not try to list all the ways John writes of our salvation. Nor do I list all Scripture references for each concept. Many of these he mentions several times. I also understand that some of these are causes of our salvation and others are effects of our salvation. We often view our salvation in a narrow way. The different ways John describes our salvation can help open our eyes to what it means to be saved. Rather than comment on them I am going to list them to show the variety he uses.

Being saved means we have eternal life and have passed from death to life (I John 1:2, 2:25, 3:14, 5:11, 13).

Being saved means we have fellowship with the apostles, with the Father and the Son, and with each other (I John 1:3,7).

Being saved means we walk in the light (I John 1:7, 2:10).

Being saved means that by the blood of Jesus our sins are cleansed and forgiven (I John 1:7, 9).

Being saved means that Christ is the propitiation for our sins (I John 2:2).

Being saved means we know God and know the truth (I John 2:3, 21).

Being saved means we keep the commandments of God (I John 2:3-4).

Being saved means we abide/remain in God and abide/remain in the light (I John 2:6, 10).

Being saved means that God abides/remains is us (I John 4:4, 13).

Being saved means we are anointed (I John 2:20, 27).

Being saved means we are children of God, have been born of God, and God's seed remains in us (I John 3:1, 9).

Being saved means we believe on the name of Christ (I John 3:23, 5:13).

Being saved means we love God and the brothers (I John 3:17, 4:7, 19).

Being saved means we have the Spirit (I John 4:13).

Being saved means we confess that Jesus is the Son of God (I John 4:15).

Being saved means we have overcome the world (I John 5:5).

Being saved means we believe the witness/testimony of God (I John 5:9-11).

Good Works and Final Salvation

It was interesting to find this quote from Peter van Mastricht (1630-1706) about three periods of justification. Mark Jones quotes this with approval in the chapter "Good Words and Rewards" in his excellent book Antinomianism. I have removed Scripture references.

From this come three periods of justification that should be diligently observed here, namely 1: The period of establishment, by which man is first justified: in this occasion not only is efficacy of works excluded for acquiring justification, but so is the very presence of these works in so far as God justifies the sinner and the wicked. 2: The period of continuation: in this occasion, although no efficacy of good works is granted for justification, the presence of these same works, nevertheless, is required. And it is probably in this sense that James denies that we are justified by faith along but he requires works in addition. And lastly 3: The period of consummation in which the right unto eternal life, granted under the first period and continued under the second, is advanced even to the possession of eternal life: in this occasion not only is the presence of good works required, but also, in a certain sense, their efficacy, in so far as God, whose law we attain just now through the merit alone of Christ, does not want to grant possession of eternal life, unless [it is] beyond faith with good works previously performed. We received once before the right unto eternal life through the merit of Christ alone.  But God does not want to grant possession  of eternal life, unless there are, next to faith, also good works which precede this possession. 

Mark Jones closes the paragraph with this note.

It is a sign of the times that not a few in the broadly Reformed church today--indeed, even professors of theology, would have a real problem with Van Mastricht's conclusion that eternal life is not granted unless good works are performed by the godly.

Do we believe that good works are necessary for final salvation? I have found very few Christians, even reformed ones, who would say yes.  Jones' book challenged me on this issue.

A New Creation in Ephesians

Four things are created in Ephesians:

First, we are created for good works (2:10).

Second, God created one new man from the Jew and Gentile (2:15).

Third, God created all things (3:9).

Fourth, God created a new self in his likeness (4:24).

Our salvation is viewed as a new creation, a making something new which is equal to the making of the world. By His Word and Spirit the worlds were made. By His Word and Spirit we are remade. By His Word and Spirit Heaven and Earth made. By His Word and Spirit Jew and Gentile are made into one new body. By His Word and Spirit Adam and Eve were made in the likeness of the living God. By His Word and Spirit we are remade into the likeness of express image of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. By His Word and Spirit that which was formless and void was made into the stars, sky, Sun, moon, and earth. By His Word and Spirit our dead souls are made alive in Christ. 

We should stand amazed at the beauty of the world, the stars hanging in the black heavens. But we should also stand amazed at the 4 year old who loves to lift her voice like the children in Psalm 8 in praise to her Savior.  And we should stand in awe of the 94 year old whose body is broken, but whose soul is being remade in the likeness of Christ. The new creation of a fallen human is no less a feat than the original creation of the world from nothing. 

Flywheel, Eustace, and Redemption

“I made Jesus Lord of my life.”  Jay Austin in Flywheel

“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right to my heart.  And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt.  The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off…Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off—just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt—and there it was lying in the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been.” Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader after Aslan had torn off his dragon skin.

These are just some initial thoughts on metaphor and fiction in the Christian life. I am not criticizing the movies listed. I am just asking do they give me the vision of the Gospel that they claim to?

I just finished watching the movie Flywheel.   I also just finished reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.   After watching Flywheel, I asked myself why do I learn more about my redemption and salvation from a fictional story about a British boy who turns into a dragon than I do from a real story, set in a real place with a “real conversion?”  Why does Flywheel seem less real?  I am not talking about production values or acting. I understand that the men who did Flywheel are creating a path for Christian movies. Their subsequent movies have improved greatly in almost every way. And I am grateful for those movies. But even with movies like Fireproof  or Courageous  the point would still stand. Why do movies that preach an overt Christian message seem less realistic, less true to real life, than movies that don’t, but have an underlying Christian message?  Is my perspective too shaped by fiction and metaphor? Have I departed from a biblical view of true religion and conversion because I empathize with Eustace and not with Jay Austin?

I do not believe so.  I think C.S. Lewis understood how to convey the Christian message better than the men who did Flywheel. And that is not because C.S. Lewis was a better writer, but rather because C.S. Lewis understood metaphor. C.S. Lewis understood that painting a picture with words was how God often told us who we are and how we were saved. He wasn’t against propositions. But he understood that propositions need flesh and that flesh was metaphor and symbol and fiction.

We have come define or describe conversion in ways that are foreign to the Bible. We have tried to describe conversion in ways that the Bible on rarely does. Thus when we put a conversion on screen it rings hollow to someone whose mind is filled with biblical imagery.  It may come as a surprise to many Christians, but the Bible does not talk about conversion in terms that most evangelicals use.  Never are we told to “Ask Jesus into our hearts.”  Never are we told to “make Jesus Lord of our lives.” Never are we told to “Accept Jesus.” Never are we told to even kneel down and pray a prayer to be saved.  These pictures which almost completely define evangelical thought on conversion are absent from the Bible.  Even the term “born again,” which is standard fare in evangelical circles is only used in two places. (John 3 and I Peter 1:23) So most evangelicals have come to describe and define conversion by words and phrases that are not even in the Bible. We are supposed to be people of the Bible, but when it comes to conversion we talk in unbiblical language. That is why Jay Austin’s conversion is not as convincing as Eustace’s.

The Bible describes conversion almost entirely by metaphor, not by what the person actually does. The Bible tells us what happens at conversion, not what we are supposed to do at conversion. For example, the Bible does not say that the converts at Ephesus knelt down and asked Jesus into their hearts. It says, “You were dead, but now you are alive.” (Ephesians 2:1)  The converts at Thessalonica became “followers of [Paul, Silvanus and Timothy] and of Jesus.” (I Thess. 1:6) They also turned from idols to worship the living God. (I Thess. 1:9) Christians are described as those who have left darkness and come into the light. (Ephesians 5:8, Colossians 1:13, and I Peter 2:9) Paul describes conversion as reconciliation in Romans 5:10. We were enemies of God. Now we are his friends. In II Corinthians 5:17 Christians are described as a “new creation.”  In the Gospels, Jesus uses pictures like a feast or a son coming home or sheep being rescued or a man taking up his cross or finding a pearl or choosing a narrow way or listening to the words of Christ. We do not talk about conversion the same way the Bible does. There is nothing wrong with using the phrase “born again.” But there is a problem when that becomes the primary way of describing conversion. Why not describe conversion as being brought out of darkness into light or turning from idols to worship God or being raised from the dead?

So when we end up putting conversions on the screen we try to make it real by using real people, really repenting. But we might be better served, especially since movies are visual, to use metaphor to tell the story of a conversion instead of trying to picture a true conversion. C.S. Lewis fires our imagination as he describes the dragon skin being torn off of him. That is me in all my sin. He describes the pain of my sin being torn off. He even describes my pathetic attempts to deal with sin outside of Christ. We need more men like Lewis. They do not have to be as skilled as he is, but they need to have the same understanding of metaphor that he did. We should preach in the pulpit and in our homes and evangelism. But we should use movies and books of fiction to picture the Gospel.  A movie that shows two men who hated each other deeply and then are reconciled is a movie that pictures the Gospel. A long lost son who returns is a picture of the Gospel. A beautiful bride who prepares and longs for her husband is a picture of the Gospel.  A slave being set free is a picture of the Gospel. Even a movie where the ending is bitter can be a picture of man outside of Christ.

So as Christians we must develop a sanctified imagination. We must learn to think and write in pictures and metaphor. We need to make more movies that do not try to preach the Gospel, but instead  give our imagination a true picture of who we are and what happened when Jesus saved us.