“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17
As most of my readers know, I did not always embrace the Reformed
faith. For the first 20 years of my Christian walk I was fairly
convinced of synergistic theology, though I would recoil at the idea of
labeling it as such. In my mind, I just believed the Bible, or so I
thought.
I was recently having a discussion with a gentleman through e-mail
and he was lamenting the fact that I no longer believed as he does (he
is a synergist). He said my problem was that I gave false teaching a
chance to wreak havoc in my soul by exposing myself to it – by listening
to it. He then wrote “Faith comes by hearing” If you keep hearing
something you start to believe it.” He thinks of Reformed theology as
falsehood, and so using this verse (Romans 10:17), was seeking to show
the source of my error, namely that I should never have listened to
reformed theology.
Leaving the discussion about Reformed theology aside, is what he
wrote correct? Does hearing something mean that you will believe it. I
would suggest not, and go further to say that his view of Scripture is
incredibly low to say such a thing. The obvious implication of his words
is the concept that we believe anything we hear. But is that true? I
have heard many things in life that I do not believe. Some people in
England believe Manchester United are the greatest soccer team in the
land, when it is clear that this title belongs to Liverpool alone. I
could hear someone talk of the Manchester team in such glowing terms all
day and all night for a week, and never believe the bald faced satanic
lie. I jest, of course (slightly anyway – after all the Manchester team
are called “The Red Devils”) – but the point is still a valid one. We do
not believe everything we hear – even something we hear repeatedly. It
is God Himself who gives the gift of saving faith (Ephesians 2:8,9) – it
is not the product of our natural humanity, however many times a person
hears the Gospel preached. Continue at John Samson
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