Original Date: 6/4/2010.  Bumping up to get this one ahead of "What I cannot Pray", which is a good article, but I'd rather that this one get prominent front page placement for a while.

An earlier article of mine was entitled "Stop Sinning!"  It was aimed at the section of the professing "church" who believe that the goal of the Gospel is to help men to stop sinning.  That it is not is the subject of that article.  The subject of THIS article is another angle, very similar.

The subject matter of the message of Jesus is not merely that you believe.  I know very well that Jesus' Himself repeatedly told us that what is required of us is that we believe.  And in spite of my other article entitled "Disobedience Is Not Sin", I still feel the need to explain a bit.  One reason I feel such an urge is the fact that even so-called "belief", or "faith" has itself been hi-jacked and transformed into empty, meaningless jargon in these days.

I was not really surprised to see "works of righteousness" be co-opted by modern society.  Eventually, I expect every aspect of Christendom to be so counterfeited - and so completely that literally everyone will be deceived by it.  That's precisely what Jesus said: "When I come back, faith (real faith) will be almost completely eradicated from the face of the earth."  I'm just a tad amazed at how fast it is happening. 

The central theme of my blog is, and always has been, "Hearing, Believing, Trusting!"  And that earlier article of mine showed how "hearing" is open to all, but "believing" is not.  

But a new twist on an old trick is now leading millions in the "church" to the conclusion that they actually do "believe."  The new twist is simply a redefinition of the concept of "belief" that fits with the new "culturally sensitive" gospel being preached (if you can find anyone willing to use such a word anymore).  The whole idea of "believing" is now being redefined in such a way that the unrepentant, God-hating masses of people all over the world can now console and comfort themselves in the deluded idea that they are "believers."

And yet, there is that third step...  That step that lies beyond belief.  It's not a retraction on the need for belief, but rather it is to history what prophesy is.  Prophecy, rightly done and rightly interpreted does not took forward - it looks backward!  I know that almost everyone believes that it does.  But it does not.  No prophecy given by God's prophets in the Bible was ever used to foretell events, or predict anything about the future at all.  Prophecy was always used to confirm present events as being the work of God.  For a good example, take a look at the advent of Pentecost in Acts.  Peter looks back to prophecy to confirm the present event: This that you are seeing right now was what the prophet Joel spoke hundreds of years ago.  That is how you can know that it is of God... 

Prophecy is used only to confirm the present.  It never reveals the future. 

Note that I am not talking about places where God says "This is what I am going to do..."  He often told the Israelites that he was about to do something to them.  Or He occasionally had a specific bit of knowledge to be given to a specific man for a specific reason.  That's a rare kind of prophecy which I am not speaking of.  I'm talking about God's mysterious words.  Like a prophecy that said "out of Egypt have I called my son...".  There's no way to take that and look forward with it.  There are bazillions of people coming and going to and from Egypt.

This "third step" I am talking about works that same way.  This third step confirms the second that came before it.

That having been said, let me talk to you about a third step "beyond belief".

It is, of course, the very central theme of my entire site:  TRUST.

The tagline/headline of the site is, and always has been, "Hearing, Believing... Trusting!" 

It represents a progression... It starts with "Hearing"... specifically, it starts with hearing the Gospel! 

It does not start with the hearing of any other thing.  It does not start with hearing about better family relationships.  It doesn't start with the hearing of worship music.  It really doesn't even start with the hearing of bible reading, or praying, or spiritual meditation, or missional street ministry, or door to door witnessing, or taking care of the poor and the fatherless, or the homeless, or building houses for poor people in Haiti.

It starts with, and only with, the Gospel, which actually begins with the Old Testament. All of the Old Testament is nothing more than God's work of drilling into your head the fact that mankind is sinful and unable to keep the demands of the law even to the smallest, minutest level.  Sinful... irreversibly, irrevokably, and without a single exception.

The Gospel continues with the New Testament, namely that all men, specifically YOU, have sinned against God, willfully and deliberately.  And God will not, and indeed CANNOT forgive that sin.  However he will forgive you by averting the punishment of that sin onto someone else who is strong enough to bear it in your place.  And that would be Jesus Christ, and absolutely no one and nothing else.  God in His mercy has made a way for you to be forgiven of that sin through the sinless perfection, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.  And He came and exactly did that.

THAT, and only that, is the Gospel.

The first step, Hearing, is open to all.  In fact, Christians have a commandment from the Lord to spread that Gospel far and wide over the entire world. 

That is the summary of "Hearing."  If you've now heard that (and you now have), then there is, for some of you, a progression to the second step, "Believing".  This is a harder step, as it is one over which you have little or no control.  This is where the concept of "gift" comes in.  Hearing the Gospel is easy.  Anyone can do it.  It is God's plan that everyone does.  However... 

Believing it is quite another matter.  For more on that, I recommend "Leading the Horse to Water".

TRUST is the final step, where you more than merely believe, but fully trust God to do all that He has said He will do.  It also means that you CEASE to trust in yourself.  And that is MUCH more tricky than you might believe.  Self-Trust is VERY easy to fall into.  It is, perhaps, the singlemost dangerous trap that a Christian must be on guard against: self reliance.

Sincerely trusting in God is the very opposite of trusting in anything that you do.

Faith is the combination of all three, in order.  You hear.  Then (some of you) believe.  And if you truly believe with that Faith that God gives, then (and only then) you trust. 

I no longer like to use the word "believe" whenever I can substitute for it the word that really sums up what it means, and that word is "Trust."

Sooner or later, you must get past your claims of belief and start trusting.