(Not Being) Mixed with Faith

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it, Hebrews 4:2.

Not everyone who heard Moses believed him. Not everyone who had access to one of Paul's letters when they received them believed that the letter in their hands was from God. Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you, 2nd Corinthians 13:3. Keep in mind that the statement from the Apostle Paul that you just read was written to people who had read his first letter to the Corinthians. They were not sure that Christ had spoken through him.

Compare that attitude to Romans 10:17; So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. If faith comes from hearing the word of God why then did those in Corinth doubt what Paul had written? Why didn't the children of Israel in the wilderness profit from the word of God? Faith comes in two parts. The hearer must make an act of the will to believe what he hears. As he hears, the word of God gives faith that otherwise could never be attained.

We think of the plea made in the gospels; And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief, Mark 9:24. In this we have a perfect picture of the weakness of a willing man's faith seeking a greater faith that only Jesus Christ can give. I am a bible believing Baptist. I believe that the King James Bible is the words of Jesus Christ. The King James Bible is the 21st century's fulfilment of Hebrews 1:2; Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.

We must remember that when we make such statements, there will some who balk at them. They do not believe that the King James Bible is perfect. I have learned that there are two classes of such people. There are some who have been mislead by the scholars and the common myths surrounding manuscript evidence. They mean well and they have a willingness to accept the truth if the person presenting the truth can do so with wisdom, patience and knowledge.

There are others who would not have believed that 1st Corinthians was from Christ if they had received it 2000 years ago, and they would not have believed Moses had they been there to hear him speak. It is not their will to believe and anything that they read or hear will not be mixed with faith. They hide behind pious bromides such as "only the originals were inspired", or "that isn't translated correctly".

We waste our breath and our efforts on such. If you took them by the ear and transported them back thousands of years to see the originals, they would not mix the reading and the hearing of the originals with faith. The proof of Paul speaking in Christ was the words themselves. Paul took great pains to link all that he wrote and said to the rest of scripture. The dirty little secret is that thousands if not millions of people who claim allegiance to the scriptures don't believe them in any form today and wouldn't have believed them in any form at any time in history.

Jesus Christ himself spoke of this. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me, John 5:46. He spoke this to the scribes and Pharisees. They carried Moses. They taught Moses. They studied Moses and made him their life's work, and yet they did not believe what they read. If you run into that same spirit in a 21st century preacher who studies the scriptures, makes it his life's work, and who carries it around with him, there is no single thing that you can do or say about the King James Bible that will move him one iota.

Throughout my long tenure in preaching and believing a King James Bible, I have had the pleasure of meeting some excellent men and women who through their education had been persuaded against the surety of the scriptures as presented in our King James Bible. There were a few barriers to faith that had been erected in their lives that the Lord subsequently used me or friends of mine to remove. These are men and women who if they had heard Moses speak would have believed him. Had they been in Corinth when Paul's first letter arrived, they would have believed it was from Christ.

With a few misunderstandings taken out of the way, and with a nudge or two from someone who trusted a King James Bible, they approached the word of God with faith, received faith from the word of God and became settled bible believers. Not I nor my friends persuaded them. If you asked them why they believe the King James Bible they would speak like the Samaritans who made it clear that the woman at the well is not who convinced them.

John 4:41 And many more believed because of his own word;

John 4:42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves.

If we run into truly noble people who through training or ignorance are predisposed to mistrust a King James Bible it is good to be prepared to answer their questions and to present the clear unmistakable heritage of the King James Bible. We live in a time when there are many books, websites, and articles that can answer each and every spurious argument made against it. It is good to collect those and to master their arguments. The fallacy to such material aids is that they can never create faith. They can only knock down the barriers to faith.

A person predisposed to not believe will not believe not matter what barriers you remove. As Abraham explained to the rich man, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead, Luke 16:31. You cannot make people believe.

A person will make up his or her own mind as to whether or not to believe the words of a King James Bible based on the words themselves, not by arguments about the words. While the rulers of Jews sought for genealogical evidence about Jesus Christ, the common people believed on him through his words,The officers answered, Never man spake like this man, John 7:46.

The analogy to all of this is evolution. The spirit of the world is in men. It is part of the fall of men, he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end, Ecclesiastes 3:11. I don't waste time on unbelievers arguing about creation. I ask them to research two celled creatures and I leave it at that. There are no two celled creatures.

Despite fossil evidence of one celled creatures spanning every fossil layer, there are no fossils of 2 celled, 4 celled, 8 celled, 16 celled, 32 celled, 64 celled, 128 celled, 256 celled and any other combination until we get to thousands of cells. They are all part of the fantasy and myth forced upon a world hungry to be deceived. If that does not persuade a person to look at alternatives to the common myths, nothing will.

Taking evolution away from a person will not cause them to believe. It will remove a barrier to belief. Showing a person manuscript evidence will not make them believe their King James Bible. It will remove a barrier to belief. Showing a person the excellency of the King James translators' education as opposed to the pitiful lexicons and puffed up professors lined up against them will not create faith in the King James Bible. It will take away barriers.

Whether or not a person comes to believe the King James Bible will come down to the words of the King James Bible themselves. The King James Bible creates faith. That statement by itself is all that ever needs to be said to prove that it is indeed the word of God.

With barriers taken out of the way, and with a preacher who can preach it properly, a person who cannot believe a King James Bible is not some kind of sophisticated scholar. He is just the plain old kind of unbeliever who hitherto fore had infiltrated the children of Israel in the wilderness, the rulers of Israel at the time of Christ, and who defiled the Corinthian Church. He disguises his blatant and damnable unbelief with pious scholarship.

I would hope that I would have unlimited patience with a person who I see truly reflecting upon the truths of scripture and the barriers erected against it. If I see that a person is indeed considering what I say to them and show them, I do not write them off. It took months to persuade me, but in the end it was the hearing and reading of the King James Bible which created faith in it. Dr. Ruckman's The Christian's Handbook of Manuscript Evidence combined with my previous studies on church history and language removed barriers of unbelief from me, but in the end it was up to me as to whether or not to mix the words of a King James Bible with faith.