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Summary
What are the different types of faith? The discussion explores the distinctions between saving, historical, temporary, and miraculous faith. Saving faith, as described in the Bible and the Second London Baptist Confession (Chapter 14, Paragraph 3), is uniquely transformative, involving belief in, reception of, and resting upon Jesus Christ as Lord. It may be weak or strong but is fundamentally different in nature from other types of faith. Historical faith involves acknowledgment of biblical truths or Jesus’ identity without a personal commitment to Him. Temporary faith appears genuine for a time but ultimately lacks perseverance and is not saving. Weak faith, though small like a mustard seed, still leads to salvation, as it trusts in Christ’s finished work. The panelists also reference Pilgrim’s Progress and the parable of the sower to illustrate how individuals may outwardly respond to the gospel yet lack the genuine, enduring faith that brings salvation.
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Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
faith, hat, good, temporary, confession, covering, weak, church, saving, preaching, sister susie, historical, circumcision, wear, commends, paul, nature, chapter, grew, paragraph
SPEAKERS
Pastor Jim Butler, Wim Kerkhoff, Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick
Wim Kerkhoff 00:08
Is there different types of faith, for example, temporary, historical or saving? Because another one that gets often put out there is miraculous faith, or faith in miracles, right? Faith in miracles. The four I got, grew up being taught is those four temporary, historical, miraculous and saving.
Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick
I mean, I didn’t understand the nature of the question.
Pastor Jim Butler 00:33
Okay, are there more than, what are the differences. Saving faith is different than a historical or a temporary faith. And I think the Bible furnishes us examples of, you know, historical faith. I think at some points along the way in John’s gospel, some of them seem to be tracking that Jesus did sort of cross off the list, all that was necessary for Messiah. It seems to me, at least at certain points, it was probably within the last six months. So, I don’t know, 11 ish, maybe John chapter 11, somewhere in there. It seemed like some of them started to kind of get it that, yeah, He could actually be the one that the prophets and Moses wrote about. That didn’t put them in the category of saving, you know, temporary faith. You have persons that make a profession, they seem to be good for a while, but they’re fake. And then the genuine saving faith is those who, by grace, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, as He’s preached in the gospel and as the confession uses the metaphorical language of belief, is receiving and resting upon him, and that faith that is alone is accompanied by all other saving graces. So it’s not a dead faith. It worketh through love. But yeah, that’s qualitatively different than the temporary or the historical. You know, somebody might be in that. I think there are those people, you know, I’ve read, studied all the religious systems, and if any of them are right, it’s Christianity. And, you know, they say they have no reason to doubt that Jesus was who He said He was. Don’t believe it in the sense of, I’m going to lay my, I’m going to receive Him and rest upon him. So yeah, I think again, we don’t see those terms applied, but I definitely think we see the concepts involved in Scripture.
Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick 02:31
No, my brain’s working a little bit better. Chapter 14 of our confession, paragraph three, does say, this faith, although be different in degrees and may be weak or strong, talking about saving faith, yet it is in the least degree of it different in the kind or nature of it, as is all other saving grace from the faith and common grace of temporary believers. So, weak faith is still saving faith. We can also distinguish between the act of faith and the object of faith. We’re the ones who believe, but the object of faith is Jesus Christ, and so we look to Him. We believe upon him. We have faith in someone, faith in Jesus Christ. But one who has a temporary faith has not done that. They have not looked to Christ by faith, because it is different. So the confession does highlight that. And even a weak faith, maybe many times assailed and weakened, yet it gets the victory, growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith. So paragraph three is hopeful there.
Pastor Jim Butler 03:33
Yeah. Like Machen has a good point in his, What is faith? And he makes the comment that weak faith will not move mountains, but there is one thing at least that it will do. It will bring a sinner into peace with God. Our salvation does not depend upon the strength of our faith. Saving faith is a channel, not a force. If you are once really committed to Christ, then, despite your subsequent doubts and fears, you are His forever. That’s a good statement. Weak faith will not remove mountains, but there is one thing at least that it will do. The opposite of, you know, the faith, yeah, like the confession says, it can vary. It grows. It’s fed, it’s nourished, it’s built up. But if there is even, you know, mustard seeds worth, and you look unto the Lord Jesus Christ, that’s the mustard seeds worth that you need. Yeah.
Wim Kerkhoff 04:35
Yeah. Just because I just finished reading Pilgrim’s Progress, Part Two recently, there’s characters like that, weak faith, feeble faith, and halt, halting, and whatever. But they get to the river and they cross, somehow.
Pastor Jim Butler 04:46
They do. The Lord is good, yeah.
Wim Kerkhoff 04:50
And we have the parable of the sower as well, the seed falling in hard ground, whatever. It’s like, people can go to church. Hey, that was a great sermon. Is it really impacting the emotional and the week later, it’s gone. They never come again. Yeah.
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