Intellectual Faith

[37818]

If salvation is not easy believism then salvation is a work. Salvation is easy because it is not a work. ". . . Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." -- Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30.

 

[JonC]

NOTE: I hope that people will argue their positions in a Christ-like manner. Please remember that you are arguing your interpretations. All are Christians here and affirming the same passages of Scripture. Do not usurp God and Scripture as the standard by which doctrine/ interpretation is weighed.

Christians can benefit from exploring these issues but only if they are able to maintain a Christ-like disposition.

 

[Jerome]

Is intellectual faith alone sufficient for salvation?

...an academic or intellectual exercise.

This pattern you've seen was noted (and rebuked) here:

On ideologues championing Calvinistic dogmas

"there is an attractiveness about them to some people, in large matter, because of their intellectual rigor. They are powerfully coherent doctrines, and certain kinds of minds are drawn to that. And those kinds of minds tend to be argumentative."

"the intellectual appeal of the system of Calvinism draws a certain kind of intellectual person....hostile...intellectualistic. I'll just confess that. It's a sad and terrible thing that that's the case....You can embrace a system of theology and not even be born again."

 

[Revmitchell]

If salvation is not easy believism then salvation is a work. Salvation is easy because it is not a work. ". . . Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." -- Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30.

Easy believism is a term that refers to an ascent to some facts as the basis of salvation but no committment to God.

In other words wanting the gift but not the giver.

 

[Jerome]

The 'Scotch Baptists' were known for this:

[pdf] Book review, The Works of Andrew Fuller: Volume 9. Apologetic Works 5. Strictures on Sandemanianism. Edited by Nathan A. Finn. General Editor, Michael A.G. Haykin.

p. 244-245

"Fuller wrote...[of a] dispute between himself and Scotch Baptist Archibald McLean (1733–1812)....the Scotch Baptists had developed out of the Sandemanian movement"

"Fuller perceived a drift in McLean’s theology that would lead to hyper-Calvinism if remaining unaddressed....Whereas 'McLean argued for justification by intellectual assent to the facts of the gospel...Fuller argued for justification by ‘believing with the heart’'."

[This was not all the Baptists in Scotland, but a sect denominated 'Scotch Baptists'. Its adherents in Wales were the first to take the name Reformed Baptists.]

Charles Spurgeon in his sermon "Work for Jesus" recalls how Fuller dealt with these argumentative folks:

"I remember that when Andrew Fuller had a very severe lecture from some Scotch Baptist brethren about the discipline of the church, [the Scotch Baptists were a splinter group: "A plurality of elders or pastors in every church, is a distinguishing feature in their order....they consider a church incomplete without a plurality."] he made the reply, 'You say that your discipline is so much better than ours. Very well, but discipline is meant to make good soldiers. Now, my soldiers fight better than yours, and I think therefore that you ought not to say much about my discipline.' So the real thing is not to be for ever calculating about modes of church government, and methods of management and plans to be adopted and rules to be laid down, which it shall be accounted a serious breach to violate. All well in their place, for order is good in its way. But come, now, let us go to work. Let us have something done."

 

[Reformed]

Interesting, who believes this?

Charles Ryrie and Zane Hodges come to mind.

P.S. Also, Dave Hunt, although Hunt was no theologian.

 

[Steven Yeadon]

Interesting, who believes this?

I know Liberal Christians and their theologians such as those in "Moderate Evangelical Christianity" say that if you just think one way, confess it publicly, with no change in behavior they consider you Christian and going to heaven.

 

[Revmitchell]

Charles Ryrie and Zane Hodges come to mind.

P.S. Also, Dave Hunt, although Hunt was no theologian.

Can you quote them?

 

[Steven Yeadon]

I am not asking this question in the blind. I have an opinion about it but I am interested in the opinions of others. So, the question is:

Is intellectual faith alone sufficient for salvation?

Not if their faith is dead. Deeds in no way are the cause of our salvation, but the bible makes clear having faith leads to a change in how you do things. Right deeds and words and thoughts follow faith. That only makes sense if you are lost in sin and worldliness and embrace Jesus Christ, His Father, are given the Holy Spirit, and truly believe in the Judgment and the Resurrection and the scriptures. Your world was shattered, how can your behavior not be?

Those that say mere intellectual assent go to heaven with no change in our interaction with God must heed James 2:19,
You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

Its not like Satan didn't even go to the point of misquoting scripture to Jesus in the wilderness.

 

[37818]

Easy believism is a term that refers to an ascent to some facts as the basis of salvation but no committment to God.

In other words wanting the gift but not the giver.

I am sorry. To deny easy believism is to in fact deny salvation to be a free gift. 2 Corinthians 5:17. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4. 1 John 5:1. Romans 6:23. Those who think they got saved or stay saved by doing are lost, Matthew 7:21-23.

 

[JonC]

Easy believism is a term that refers to an ascent to some facts as the basis of salvation but no committment to God.

In other words wanting the gift but not the giver.

Is "easy believism" really as much an issue as people suggest? (honestly asking, not a rhetorical question)

The reason I wonder is so many seem to attribute "easy believeism" to people like Billy Graham, yet I know many people (mostly of a generation older than I) who were saved by that message. I wonder if some do not use the term to refer to a practice that does not suit their theology, and perhaps even point to abuses of evangelistic practices.

 

[Steven Yeadon]

I am sorry. To deny easy believism is to in fact deny salvation to be a free gift. 2 Corinthians 5:17. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4. 1 John 5:1. Romans 6:23. Those who think they got saved or stay saved by doing are lost, Matthew 7:21-23.

What do you mean by easy believism? Do you disagree with my post #29?

 

[Deacon]

Charles Ryrie and Zane Hodges come to mind.

P.S. Also, Dave Hunt, although Hunt was no theologian.

Zane Hodges surely did have some ‘out there’ ideas.

Rob

 

[Noah Hirsch]

I am not asking this question in the blind. I have an opinion about it but I am interested in the opinions of others. So, the question is:

Is intellectual faith alone sufficient for salvation?

Intellectual faith is not repentant faith. Repentance is necessary for salvation. Therefore, intellectual faith is not the faith by which we are saved and justified.

 

[Noah Hirsch]

If salvation is not easy believism then salvation is a work. Salvation is easy because it is not a work. ". . . Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." -- Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30.

Saving faith is the gift of God given to His elect. Men in their unregenerate state can come to certain kinds of faith, but not to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Saving faith is wrought in the heart of the elect sinner in regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

Because of the corruption of men’s hearts by nature they cannot come truly love God. The disposition of the heart of the unregenerate is such as he does not love God, but he hates God. He is at enmity with God.

“because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be: and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:7-8 ASV)

If we read on to the next verse it becomes evident that the mind of the flesh is a description of the unsaved person: “But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Romans 8:9 ASV)

“Now the natural man receiveth not the things of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man.” (1 Corinthians 2:14-15 ASV)

“No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day.” (John 6:44 ASV)

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my ordinances, and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27 ASV)

“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh; and will give them a heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 11:19-20 ASV)

“and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following [after] them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.” (Jeremiah 32:39-40 ASV)

 

[Noah Hirsch]

What do you mean by easy believism? Do you disagree with my post #29?

But if one looks to some decision or choose they made in the past, their choose to follow Christ they are looking to something they did. It is no grounds of assurance of salvation that one made a decision sometime in the past. Not only am I against easy believism because of how it tends to unholiness, but I am also against it because it tends to self-righteousness. We should look to Christ alone not to any decision we made in the past.

 

[Reformed]

Can you quote them?

I used to have copies of "Absolutely Free" (Hodges); "So Great Salvation" (Ryrie); and "The Reign of the Servant Kings" (Dillow) but those books are no longer part of my library. I do have a copy of this anecdote from Zane Hodges that he told about a friend who left the Christian faith. The name of the church was left blank to protect the members of the church:

"I have a friend, and more than a friend, a man who labored with me side by side in the ministry of God’s Word in the little group that has become __________ Bible chapel and this friend has fallen away from the Christian faith. He graduated from Bob Jones University and from Dallas Theological Seminary. And about the time when he and his wife left Dallas his wife contracted a very serious illness which over the years got progressively worse until she was reduced to being a complete invalid, and after the death of his wife I visited my friend (who now lives in the Midwest and who teaches Ancient History in a secular university).

And as we sat in the living room together, face to face, he told me very frankly but graciously that he no longer claimed to be a Christian at all, that he no longer believed the things that he once preached and taught, and the situation was even worse than he described because I heard through others that in the classroom on the university campus he often mocked and ridiculed the Christian faith. As I sat in that living room I was very painfully aware that it was impossible for me to talk that man into changing his mind. It was impossible for me to talk him back to the conviction he had once held. It was impossible for me to renew him to repentance. You want to find someone harder to deal with than an unsaved person? Find a person like that….

Oh how disgraceful for a man to have known the truth and proclaimed the truth and then to deny the truth! He has put the Son of God to an open shame! Well you say, “I guess he’s headed for hell, right? I guess he’s headed for eternal damnation. He’s renounced his Christian faith.” Wait a minute. I didn’t say that, and neither does the writer of Hebrews. Let me remind you that Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” And He also said, “He that cometh to Me I shall in no wise cast out.”… God’s will is that He lose no one (John 6:37-40 ). He has never lost anyone and He never will! And I grieve because my friend and brother has lost his faith but Christ has not lost him. He has lost his faith but Christ has not lost him! Do you believe in the grace of God?"

If you look at the last paragraph (above), it seems that Hodges did not consider the words of the apostle John:

1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.

Joseph Dillow is a name I forgot to mention in my previous post. In his book, "The Reign of the Servant Kings" he wrote, "It is possible for a truly born-again person to fall away from the faith and cease believing." Again, like Hodges, this seems to contradict 1 John 2:19. If a person completely falls away from the faith, they are apostate.

 

[Reformed]

There a few things at play here. 1. At its core, the Gospel message is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2. True conversion changes the individual in the inner man. New understandings, behaviors, and affections take place. The new Christian truly is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Great Commission did not just say to make converts, it said to make disciples. While a disciple has to first be a convert, the two are really inseparable. Converts are disciples and while we cannot expect a new disciple to parse Greek on day one, the journey to Christian maturity starts immediately. Baby steps? Yes. But forward progress nonetheless. This is why the local church is so important. The local church is the nursery for a new believer.

 

[Ziggy]

Billy Graham's friend and former colleague Charles Templeton similarly lost his faith just like the friend of Zane Hodges. Unlike Hodges though, Graham never said Templeton was still supposedly saved, though he did pray he would repent and believe once more. Templeton never did.

 

[Iconoclast]

I am not asking this question in the blind. I have an opinion about it but I am interested in the opinions of others. So, the question is:

Is intellectual faith alone sufficient for salvation

When people have only an intellectual faith in the historical facts of the gospel it shows itself in all manner of errors.
They deny bible truth can be known, they relegate everything to a theory.
Sometimes they want to only see their own ideas, as they believe everyone else is wrong.
There is a craving for novelties.
The set aside historic beliefs for obscure ideas offered by obscure persons.
They do not readily accept biblical correction but instead boast of their own self righteousness.