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(#AmazonAdLink) My book, (#AmazonAdLink) What is Hell? is now available (#AmazonAdLink) on Amazon. I am doing a series of podcast studies that focus on some of the content from the book. The studies look at the eight key terms that are often equated with hell, and about a dozen key passages that are thought to teach about hell.

If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, (#AmazonAdLink) What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

They key phrase we are looking at in this study is the word gehenna.

Does Gehenna refer to everlasting torment in hell?

The word gehenna is a Greek transliteration from the Hebrew “Valley of Hinnom” (or Ge-Hinnom) which was a deep gorge to the southwest of Jerusalem. It was also called the Valley of Tophet.

The valley has a sordid history. It was a place of idolatry, injustice, and spiritual infidelity. It was here that child sacrifices to Molech were performed in the days of Ahaz and Manasseh (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6; 23:10).

Furthermore, when 185,000 Assyrian soldiers died during their siege in the days of King Hezekiah, the bodies were piled in the valley of Hinnom and set on fire (Isa 30:31-33; 37:36). Jeremiah built on this history and said that if the Israelites did not turn and follow God, something similar would happen to them (Jer 7:30-34; 19:2-13). And indeed, after the slaughter of the Israelite people by the Roman military in 69-70 AD, this is what occurred.

But it was not just the history of prophecies of this valley which made it a place of horror. In the days of Jesus, the valley was used as the city dump.

The valley of Gehenna was not only filled with garbage, refuse, and sewage, but also with dead bodies that people were trying to dispose of (due to crime, sickness, poverty, or shame).

City officials occasionally sought to get rid of the garbage and also cover the stench by igniting the refuse on fire. But since there was so much garbage, and since more was added every day, the fire never really died. It burned day and night, seemingly forever and ever.

Even in places where there was no open flame, the piles of refuse would still smolder for weeks on end, sending constant billows of smoke and ashes into the air.

Yet not everything in Gehenna burned. As is the nature of flames, they go where they will, sometimes leaving entire sections untouched. In these areas, worms and maggots went to work on the refuse and corpses that were left behind.

Furthermore, as is the nature of all city dumps throughout the world (even to this day), the sick and poor often scavenged through the garbage looking for things to eat or sell. Some of these were undoubtedly lepers in various states of disease and decay who might have lived in the rock tombs on the lower end of the valley.

Imagine Going into Gehenna…

With all this in mind, imagine what it would be like to “take out the garbage” on a typical Jerusalem morning.

As you haul your cart of trash down the hill into the valley, you first become aware of the smoke that rises continually from the dump. It is acrid and oily from the burning trash and causes your eyes to smart.

But soon, not even the smoke can cover the stench that rises from rotting food and corpses on a hot Middle-Eastern day. The smell is so bad, you struggle not to vomit and retch.

But the smoke in your eyes and the smell in your nostrils are not the worst of it. As you descend down into the pit, it becomes harder to see. The sun turns blood red due to the smoke and there is a constant gloomy haze that surrounds you.

But this is a blessing in disguise, for what you do see is difficult to forget. On your left there is a mangled corpse. It is missing some limbs and is half-burned from the fire. The remaining half is crawling with maggots and buzzing with flies.

You avert your eyes, only to see a ragged leper stumbling through the smoke while eating a moldy piece of fruit he has pulled from the trash. He is missing his nose and an arm and appears to be a walking corpse.

Horrified, you decide you have traveled far enough into the pit. You dump your trash as quickly as possible before retreating back up the slope toward Jerusalem.

As the smoke recedes and the sun brightens above you, you peer back over your shoulder at where you left your trash, only to see half a dozen walking corpses shuffling toward your pile of garbage as fast as their mangled feet will carry them. They are eager to be among the first to dig through what you have left behind, hoping to find a bit of food or clothing that will get them through another day.

You shudder and pick up your pace to leave the nightmare valley behind and return to the land of the living.

Gehenna in the Days of Jesus

In the days of Jesus, this is what came to mind when someone used the word “Gehenna.” The term conveyed “a sense of total horror and disgust. … Gehenna was a place of undying worm and irresistible fire, an abhorrent place where crawling maggots and smoldering heat raced each other to consume the putrefying fare served them each day” (Fudge, (#AmazonAdLink) The Fire That Consumes, 161-162).

Therefore, since Gehenna was a literal place outside the walls of Jerusalem, the word should not be translated in our Bibles.

We do not translate “Jerusalem” as “City of Peace,” “Bethel” as “City of God,” or “Gilgal” as “circle,” even though that is what those place names mean. So also, we should not translate Gehenna as “hell” or any other word.

It should be left as it is, thereby alerting the reader to the fact that the text is referring to the valley called Gehenna outside the gates of Jerusalem. Translating it as “the Valley of Hinnom” would also be fine.

But even if we leave gehenna as “Gehenna,” we are still faced with the question as to whether Jesus had something more in mind than the physical and literal Valley of Hinnom when He taught about gehenna.

In other words, when Jesus spoke about gehenna, was He only speaking about the Valley of Hinnom, or was He using the imagery, history, and inherent horror of this valley to teach His listeners about the experience of some people in the afterlife?

The Symbolism of Gehenna

When the various texts are considered (cf. Matt 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:8-9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:5; Jas 3:6), the answer becomes obvious. Jesus (and James, who is the only other person in the New Testament to speak about gehenna), is indeed using the Valley of Hinnom in a symbolic way, but not to teach about what happens to some people in the afterlife, but rather to teach about what can happen to some people in this life.

People who are sent to the Valley of Hinnom (usually because of crime or leprosy) lose their friends and family, and face a life filled with horror, decay, and destruction.

The warnings about gehenna are given by Jesus so that we do not destroy our health, life, family, friendships, and reputation in this life. God does not want us to live in the Valley of Death, but to instead enjoy everything God has given to us. In his book, Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright says this about gehenna:

When Jesus was warning his hearers about Gehenna he was not, as a general rule, telling them that unless they repented in this life they would burn in the next one. As with God’s kingdom, so with its opposite: it is on earth that things matter, not somewhere else.

His message to His contemporaries was stark, and (as we would say today) political. Unless they turned back from their hopeless and rebellious dreams of establishing God’s kingdom in their own terms, not least through armed revolt against Rome, then the Roman juggernaut would do what large, greedy and ruthless empires have always done to smaller countries (not least in the Middle East) whose resources they covet or whose strategic location they are anxious to guard.

Rome would turn Jerusalem into a hideous, stinking extension of its own smoldering rubbish heap. When Jesus said “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish,” that is the primary meaning He had in mind (Wright, (#AmazonAdLink) Surprised by Hope, 176).

Gehenna is NOT hell

Therefore, a word that is commonly translated as “hell” in the New Testament, gehenna does not in fact refer to a place of burning torture or torment in the afterlife.

Instead, the word gehenna refers to a literal place outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Jesus uses the history and imagery of this place to warn His disciples about what can befall them in this life if they do not follow His teaching and take steps (sometimes drastic) to protect themselves and their loved ones from the devastation of sin.

When Jesus speaks about gehenna, He is not warning about hell in the next life, but a hellish existence in this life. We will see more about this in future studies when we look at the actual New Testament texts in which the word gehenna is used.

But for now, we have a few more New Testament words to look at which are often thought to be references to hell. We will look at the word hades next …

But whatever hell might be, it is not an eternal garbage dump where God sends some humans to rot and burn for eternity. The word gehenna in the Bible teaches nothing of the sort. It was a literal valley outside of Jerusalem that symbolized the death and destruction that can come into people’s life NOW, if they refuse to follow the ways and teachings of Jesus. The symbol of gehenna tells us nothing the afterlife.

Do you have more questions about hell? Are you afraid of going to hell? Do want to know what the Bible teaches about hell? Take my course "What is Hell?" to learn the truth about hell and how to avoid hell. This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

What is Sheol? Is it hell?

By Jeremy Myers

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If you want to learn the truth about hell and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, (#AmazonAdLink) What is Hell?

Also, if you are part of my discipleship group, there will be an online course about hell as well.

In this study, we look at the word sheol.

The Hebrew word sheol is the most common word in the Old Testament that is used in reference to the state of the dead.

Curiously, however, the word appears only one time outside of the Old Testament, where it means ‘grave.’ So when it comes to understanding what the Old Testament authors meant with the word sheol, we are limited to its usage within Scripture itself.

Thankfully, there are numerous passages which guide our definition of this word.

The Meaning of the Word sheol

The word sheol occurs sixty-six times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and a few of these are occasionally translated as “hell” depending on which Bible translation you are reading.

Yet “hell” is not a good translation of any of the occurrences of sheol in the Bible.

The Hebrew bible never indicates any form of punishment after death, so this translation is inappropriate. This is seen in a variety of ways.

For example, both good men and evil men go to sheol (cf. Gen 37:35; Num 16:30; Jon 2:2).

Since it is not a place only for wicked and evil people, for even the righteous go to sheol, it cannot be equivalent to the modern concept of hell. Some teach, therefore, that sheol was a special “holding tank” or “intermediate state” for all people who lived and died prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that after the resurrection of Jesus, people no longer go to sheol, but are immediately sent to either heaven or hell.

Texts such as Matthew 27:52, Ephesians 4:8-10, and 1 Peter 3:19 are used to defend this idea.

However, when all the references to sheol are considered together, it appears that the most likely definition of the word is also the most literal translation.

The word sheol means “grave” or “pit.”

When Hebrew authors wrote about sheol they were thinking about a hole in the ground in which dead bodies were laid. It does not represent any sort of afterlife experience.

When adjectives are used to describe sheol, it is portrayed as a wet, dank, dark, dusty, musty hole.

Support for this understanding is found in the fact that the Hebrew word bor is often used as a synonym for sheol, and bor is literally a hole dug in the ground (cf. Isa 14:11-20).

And much like any grave, sheol is characterized by the presence of worms and decay (Job 17:13-16; 24:19-20).

There is not a single Old Testament text which speaks of sheol as an eternal place of suffering and torment for the unregenerate dead.

Even when New Testament authors quote Old Testament texts which speak about sheol, they do so in connection with the bodily resurrection of people from the grave (cf. Psa 16:10; Hos 13:14; Acts 2:27; 13:35; 1 Cor 15:55).

The idea is that their bodies went into the ground, and at the resurrection, their bodies will come up out of the ground, and be made whole and complete once again. So even the New Testament supports the idea that sheol is simply “the grave.”

And since all people die and go to the grave, it makes sense for the Old Testament texts to speak about all people going to sheol.

The Old Testament, therefore, does not have much to say about the afterlife for either the righteous or the wicked. All it knows is that when all people die, they are put down into a grave, into sheol, where worms and decay destroy their bodies.

As such, the word sheol has nothing whatsoever to say about “hell” and should not be translated as “hell” in any of its uses (contrary to KJV texts such as Deut 32:22; Psa 16:10; Prov 9:18; Isa 14:9-10).

The best way to translate all uses of sheol is “grave,” and it literally refers to a pit or hole dug into the ground in which dead bodies are laid. When used metaphorically, it can refer to depression, sorrow, or loneliness, which are emotions often associated with death and burial.

So what is sheol?

The term, sheol, therefore, is the theological opposite of the life that God wants and desires for His people.

Since God is a God of the living, not the dead, then sheol represents the experience of those who are not functioning as God desires, whether it is because they are dead and buried in the ground, or because they are cut off from community due to loneliness and depression.

There is not a single text that describes sheol as a place of suffering and torment in the afterlife for the unregenerate dead.

So the Old Testament teachings NOTHING about hell

The word sheol is the only possible Old Testament term that can refer to hell, and since it does not, this means that the Old Testament teaches nothing about hell. (The image of fire might refer to hell in a few passages, but we will discuss this in a later study. … or you can just (#AmazonAdLink) get my book on hell …)

This helps us realize that if the doctrine of hell as a place of suffering torment is correct, then God left humanity completely ignorant and blind to this idea for most of human history.

If it is true that the vast majority of people from the days of Adam to the days of John the Baptist will end up in a place of burning torment forever and ever, wouldn’t it have been loving for God to at least warn people about such a potential fate?

Yet there is not a single such warning in all of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Yet despite the complete silence in the Hebrew Scriptures about eternal conscious torment in hell, people today continue to hold to the doctrine, primarily because they believe it is taught in the New Testament.

As we will see in future studies about hell, nearly all the evidence provided for the doctrine of eternal torment in a fiery hell comes from the New Testament.

But again, if this is truly the case, then was it just and right for God to not warn a single person prior to the birth of Jesus about the eternal torment that awaited them in eternity?

Was it Right For God to Fail to Warn Billions of People About Hell?

Is it conceivable that the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ could watch billions of humans fall into a pit of eternal suffering and torment while never saying a single word of warning about it to those who were alive?

If the traditional doctrine of hell is true, how could God have overlooked or neglected mentioning it in His revelation to humanity for the majority of human history?

People often say that it is loving to warn people about hell, just as it is loving to warn people about driving off a cliff. But if this is so, why did God not warn people about hell for most of human history?

Is God unloving? To ask the question is to answer it. God is infinitely loving, and would not have failed to warn the objects of His love about such a potential disaster.

Therefore, the only other rational conclusion is that such a disaster does not exist. God didn’t warn people because the warning was not needed.

Nearly all the evidence provided for the doctrine of eternal torment in a fiery hell comes from the New Testament. But if the Hebrew Scriptures do not teach the concept of eternal torment in hellfire, it is legitimate to ask whether the New Testament does.

Maybe we have misunderstood what the New Testament teaches about hell as well.

The New Testament contains seven terms which are thought to refer to hell. They are: abyss, gehenna, hadēs, outer darkness, tartarus, the Lake of Fire, and the image of fire. We will consider all of these, along with several passages from Scripture, in future studies.

If you want to learn the truth about hell, and what the Bible actually teaches about hell, make sure you get a copy of my book, (#AmazonAdLink) What is Hell?

I will also be teaching about hell in my Gospel Dictionary online course:

I interviewed Frank Viola about his book, ReGrace, and he accused me of heresy. ??? (He was joking. I think.)

By Jeremy Myers

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(#AmazonAdLink) This is a BONUS episode of my One Verse Podcast. In it, I interview best-selling author, Frank Viola, about his new book, (#AmazonAdLink) ReGrace. This book shows how Christians can get along with each other, even when we disagree with one another.

The book goes into some of the shocking and outrageous theological views that were held by several of the greatest Christians in history. This should not cause us to shun or condemn them, but simply to realize that we ALL have some crazy ideas.

Frank Viola has some crazy views … and so do I.

And you do too.

This book shows that we ALL have some crazy theological views, and so rather than condemn each other as heretics, let’s learn to live and laugh together.

By taking a humorous look at some of the crazy views of theological giants like C. S. Lewis, Marin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Augustine, Billy Graham, and others, Frank Viola shows us that all of us have some views that could be condemned as heresy by somebody.

But that’s no reason to get all worked up, frothing at the mouth, while we seek to burn people at the stake through our keyboards.

Instead, it’s an opportunity to show grace toward others, as we want them to show grace toward us. Most of all, charging people with heresy might be the biggest heresy of all.

This book shows how. It’s humorous, lighthearted, and instructive.

So let’s learn from each other and laugh with each other as we all enjoy the ride of following Jesus in this great adventure.

Links Mentioned in this Interview with Frank Viola

You can get (#AmazonAdLink) Frank Viola’s new book, ReGrace, here.
Download the first five chapters for free here.
Subscribe to Frank Viola’s new Insurgence Podcast here.
Visit Frank Viola’s website here

Here are some of the things I have written in the past about heresy as well.

How can Christians find Fellowship? A discussion with Richard Jacobson (Hebrews 10:25)

By Jeremy Myers

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Millions of Christians have questions about church and how to find true Christian fellowship. In this podcast interview, Richard Jacobson and Jeremy Myers discuss how to be the church and why Hebrews 10:25 does not teach that all Christians must attend a church service on Sunday morning.

Church fellowship is critical, but there are a variety of ways God leads us to find this fellowship.

Links mentioned in this discussion with Richard Jacobson:

Richard Jacobson’s website: Unchurching.com
The (#AmazonAdLink) Unchurching book on Amazon
The Unchurching Comic book
Richard Jacobson’s Animated Explainer Videos on YouTube
The Unchurching Facebook Group
Support Richard Jacobson on Patreon
Richard Jacobson’s TED Talk:

Do you ever feel like an outcast? Listen to this discussion about Mark 1:40-45 with Eric Nevins

By Jeremy Myers

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I sat down with Eric Nevins today to discuss Mark 1:40-45, a passage where Jesus interacts with a leper. If you have ever felt like an outcast, or that people reject and despise you, you will really enjoy this discussion of the interaction between Jesus and the leper in Mark 1:40-45.

If you have a podcast and want to “trade” interviews, you can contact me here and join Eric’s Christian Podcast Association here.

Resources Mentioned in this Podcast Discussion of Mark 1:40-45

The Website of Eric Nevins
Halfway There: The Podcast of Eric Nevins
The 8-Day Experience in Mark 1:40-45
The Christian Podcast Association Facebook Group
Eric Nevins interviews Jeremy Myers (2018): Jeremy Myers and How God’s Faithfulness Shattered His Religion
Eric Nevins interviews Jeremy Myers (2019): Jeremy Myers and the Experience of Faith
My study of the parallel account in Luke 5:12-16

You can also watch the video below:

You can have a Relationship without Fellowship, but it’s not what God wants (1 John 1:6-7)

By Jeremy Myers

4 Comments

There are many words in the Bible that often get confused with the concept of “gaining eternal life.” The word “salvation” is the primary word of this sort, but the word “fellowship” is similar. Often, when people read in Scripture about “fellowship with God” they think it is referring to having eternal life or being born again.

But the word fellowship does not refer to gaining eternal life, but to the experience of life within the family of God. This is especially true for the word fellowship.

The word fellowship is a translation of the Greek word koinōnia (2842). “Fellowship” is a good translation, but not if we think of “fellowship” as what typically happens on a Sunday morning in most church buildings.

Your Church is Not Really a Fellowship

Though many churches call themselves a “Fellowship,” the people who gather there are not often good examples of genuine fellowship. The term refers to a friendship, a community, a partnership, of having common interests, desires, goals, directions, and even possessions.

The term “fellowship” is a favorite expression for the close, intimate friendship that exists between a husband and wife, and also for the unity one experiences in the context of brotherly love. So the word fellowship is not about gaining a relationship, but rather about maintaining the friendship, love, and unity within a relationship.

Relationship vs. Fellowship

To understand how this works, it is helpful to think of our relationship and fellowship with God as we think about these with other person.

There is a vast difference between being born into a family, and having a positive experience within that family.

For there to be a positive experience in a family, certain things need to happen. Everybody in the family needs to participate, help out, contribute, love, forgive, and work together as a team.

It is a lot of work to maintain harmonies and loving fellowship within a family.

Sometimes the friendships that are to naturally exist within a family begin to break down. A son might rebel against his parents. Parents might abuse or neglect their children. Such activities will result in a loss of fellowship, friendship, or “togetherness.”

It is even possible for families to be so broken that people who are related to one another by blood might not see or talk to each other for years at a time. In some cases, family members might spend most of their lives apart, such as when a parent abandons a child or gives them up for adoption, or when a child runs away from home and severs all contact with his or her family.

But note that even in these situations where the families are severely broken, this does not cause the relationship itself to stop.

From a biological, or “blood relative” perspective, children are always related to their parents, and vice versa, even if they break off contact for years at a time or never know each other at all. This is not an ideal situation, nor is it the way God intended families to function, but it is a very common situation for many people.

We could say that in such situations, while the relationship itself continues to exist, there is no fellowship or friendship between the separated family members.

They are related, and nothing can ever erase that relationship, but they do not have fellowship.

Even if someone changes their last name, considers their family members as dead, or gets legally-binding court documents to change their identity, the biological fact of the relationship remains unchanged and unchangeable.

This is exactly how it works with the family of God.

Once a person is born into the family of God, they cannot be unborn. Once a person is in the family of God, they have entered into an unbreakable and unchangeable relationship with God and with every other member of the family.

Even if this person says they hate God, hate Christians, and wants nothing ever to do with God or His people ever again (just as nearly every teenager says or thinks from time to time about their own parents or family), the fact of the relationship remains unchanged and unchangeable.

The relationship is eternal even if the fellowship is not.

But again, this is not God’s ideal, and this is not what God wants or desires for the people who have an eternal and unbreakable relationship with Him.

God desires both relationship and fellowship with and between His children.

This also is the healthiest and happiest way to live within the family of God. This is why the Bible contains so much teaching about how to have fellowship with God and with one another.

In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that most of the Bible contains teachings of this sort. Though the word “fellowship” is not always used, the vast majority of Scripture is not about how to join the family of God or be born again into the family, but about how to live within the family of God so that we can have the healthiest and happiest relationships possible with God and with each other.

So when the Bible talks about fellowship with God, it is not telling non-believers how to gain eternal life or join the family of God, but is instead telling believers (people who are already part of the family of God) how to enjoy and fully experience their relationship with God and with other Christians.

One key passage that is helped by this understanding is 1 John 1:6-7.

Fellowship in 1 John 1:6-7

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If someone confuses the two concepts of fellowship and relationship with God, then passages like 1 John 1:6-7 will be radically misunderstood.

When people think that 1 John contains “Test of Life” then they read 1 John 1:6-7 as teaching that if we claim to have eternal life and a relationship with God, but we walk in the darkness by sinning, then this proves that we are a lair and do not actually have eternal life.

This is a very dangerous teaching.

In fact, since John goes on to say that we all still sin (1 John 1:8), then if John is saying that the presence of ongoing sin proves that a person really isn’t a Christian, then nobody is a Christian.

Thankfully, a proper understanding of the word fellowship helps clear up any confusion about this text.

John is giving instructions about fellowship with God rather than about gaining or keeping a relationship with God. He says that if we claim we are friends with God, but we walk in sin and darkness, then we’re lying, because God only walks in the light.

One cannot walk in the darkness and also be a friend with God.

While a person can be a child of God and walk in the darkness, such a child is living in rebellion and is not abiding with Christ or living in fellowship with God. If we walk in the darkness, we obviously cannot be walking with God, because God does not walk in the darkness but in the light.

But if we walk in the light, then we will obviously be walking with God—going where God goes and doing what God does, because God walks in the light.

Walking in the light, however, leads to fellowship both with God and one another, as Jesus works to cleanse us from sin and help us live in unity and peace with each other.

This is a much more encouraging and helpful message, as it does not lead to doubt and fear about our standing with God or eternal destiny, but instead helps us move forward in our life with God on the basis of His infinite and undying love for us (1 John 4:7-19).

Fellowship vs. Relationship

Recognizing the difference between fellowship and a relationship is key to properly understanding several passages from Scripture. To see this difference, it is helpful to consider the difference between these two words in our normal, everyday relationships.

It is quite common for people to have a biological relationship with someone without participating in any fellowship with them at all.

It is not uncommon for some related family members to go days, weeks, months, and even years without eating meals together, celebrating holidays together, or even speaking to each other. In such tragic situations, the relationship still exists, even though fellowship is absent. Even where there has always been a complete lack of fellowship, the relationship remain intact and nothing can dissolve or break it.

It is the same in our relationship with God and other Christians.

All who have believed in Jesus for eternal life are part of the family of God. These relationships exist eternally and cannot be broken or dissolved. But this does not mean that all who belong to the family of God will live and exist in fellowship with God and with each other. For that to happen, we must seek to live in peace and unity with each other, while extending love, grace, and forgiveness toward others.

This is the only way to experience fellowship and friendship within the family of God.

Does this understanding of the difference between relationship and fellowship help you make sense of 1 John 1:6-7? There are other texts in the New Testament that are helped by this as well, which I discuss in my online course, The Gospel Dictionary.

Understanding the Gospel requires us to properly understand the key words and terms of the Gospel. Take my course, "The Gospel Dictionary" to learn about the 52 key words of the Gospel, and hundreds of Bible passages that use these words.

This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

Even the Demons Believe (James 2:19)

By Jeremy Myers

24 Comments

Almost every single time I write a post on my blog or on Facebook about how we receive eternal life from God by faith ALONE, someone brings up James 2:19 and says “But even the demons believe!”

In this current series of posts on faith, I have previously taught about James 2:14-26 with a focus on the concept of “dead faith.” But in this final post on faith, I wanted to focus in on this famous verse of James 2:19, and show why people who quote it do not understand what James is saying.

(Note: ALL of these posts on faith are drawn from my book, (#AmazonAdLink) What is Faith? So if you want them all in one place, along with an extended discussion about the nature of faith and how to know you believe, just get the book.)

Let me give you an example from Twitter… By the way, I dislike Twitter Debates. It is impossible to discuss anything tangible on Twitter.

demons believe James 2:19 — This picture is ironic in so many ways. It misquotes the text in several ways to reinforce a misapplication of the text itself. But this is what often happens with James 2:19.

Here is some of what we said on Twitter:

Note that I didn’t tweet the same thing to him over and over and over… he responded multiple times to one of my tweets, and I don’t know how to get rid of that when embedding a Tweet into WordPress… if anybody knows how, let me know!

@jeremyers1 No because as James 2:19b says "the devils also believe, and tremble".

— J.D. Elliott (@jde4zion) January 28, 2013

@jeremyers1 The point is that if she believes a lot about Jesus, but not his resurrection is on par with the devils that had no faith N God

— J.D. Elliott (@jde4zion) January 29, 2013

@jeremyers1 Brother we're arguing over semantics. The devils know who Jesus is. In Luke 4:33-34 they called him out by name. And they…

— J.D. Elliott (@jde4zion) January 29, 2013

@jeremyers1 tremble at the hell that awaits them for opposing the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The point that I'm making is as Paul…

— J.D. Elliott (@jde4zion) January 29, 2013

@jeremyers1 written in 1 Corinthians 15:12-17 that if she doesn't believe that Christ was resurrected then her faith is in vain, and she…

— J.D. Elliott (@jde4zion) January 29, 2013

@jeremyers1 as Paul said 1 Cor 15:17 she is "yet in your sins".As you said she believes in Jesus, but "not in his resurrection" is vanity…

— J.D. Elliott (@jde4zion) January 29, 2013

@jeremyers1 Because as James 2:19b says even "the devils also believe, and tremble".

— J.D. Elliott (@jde4zion) January 29, 2013

So what does James 2:19 mean?

Here is what I was trying to say on Twitter, which didn’t get stated very clearly at all:

People believe millions of things. I believe that this chair I am sitting in will hold me up. I believe that the earth orbits around the sun. I believe that my children love me. I believe that coffee is a delicious beverage which helps me wake up in the morning.

But none of these beliefs, even though they are correct, will give me eternal life by believing them.

The same holds true when it comes to beliefs about God and Jesus Christ. I can believe a lot of things about God and Jesus. I believe that God exists. I believe that God consists of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that God created all things, that He is holy, righteous, loving, and good. Regarding Jesus, I believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, that He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead. I could go on and on.

But guess what? Just as believing that the earth orbits around the sun does not give me eternal life, so also, none of the beliefs I have just stated in the previous paragraph will give me eternal life by believing them.

The Bible is pretty clear that to receive eternal life, you don’t just need to believe. You have to believe in the right person for the right thing, namely, you have to believe in Jesus for eternal life (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

Eternal life is not given if I believe in Moses for eternal life. Nor is it given if I believe in Jesus for infinite wealth.

If I believe in Moses for eternal life, I am believing the wrong person for the right thing, but if I believe in Jesus for infinite wealth, I am believing the right person for the wrong thing.

According to Scripture, we must believe in Jesus for everlasting life.

So, what do demons believe?

Believe it or not (ha ha!), demons are probably more correct in their theology than most humans. Though I cannot be certain, I assume that demons believe that God exists as the Trinity, and that God is holy, righteous, and good, and that Jesus was God incarnate, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead.

In fact, demons probably know more about God than we do. Demons probably have better theology than many Christians. That is, demons probably believe more accurate truths about God than many Christians do.

The problem with demons, however, isn’t in what they know about God, or in what they believe. Their problem is that they don’t like what they know about God and believe that they can rebel against God and win (this is where their beliefs are wrong).

When it comes to the book of James, and James 2 specifically, lots of people quote James 2:19 out of context. They hear a pastor, professor, teacher, blogger, or evangelist say that to receive eternal life, all you need to do is believe in Jesus for it, and the objector says, “That’s not true! Even the demons believe!”

Right.

Of course demons believe. Humans believe things. Demons believe things. Even animals believe things. We have three cats. When I get up in the morning, one or two of them is always there in the kitchen, looking at me, expecting me to either feed them, or let them outside to do their business. They believe that I am the one who can make these things happen for them.

But so what? Do cats have eternal life because they believe in me for food and that I can open the door? Of course not! So also, demons believe many things, but they don’t get eternal life simply because they believe.

When it comes to receiving eternal life, it is not simple belief that matters, but believing in the right person for the right thing.

So yes, demons believe. But the real question is “What do demons believe?”

More specifically, what is James 2:19 talking about? What is the argument? What is the point?

James 2, Faith, Works, Demons, and Abraham

Below is a super brief synopsis of how to understand James 2:14-26.

James is writing to believers.

First, James is not writing an evangelist pamphlet telling people how to receive eternal life. He is writing to believers about how to live as followers of Jesus and function within the church.

Many scholars and pastors have noted the numerous parallels between the book of James and the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Just as the Sermon on the Mount is the discipleship manual of Jesus, so also the book of James is a reworking of the discipleship manual for Christians under the pastoral care of James.

He is not telling these believers how to receive eternal life, but is writing to them based on the assumption that they already have eternal life, but need some advice on how to look and live like Jesus in the world.

James 2:14-26 deals with living a profitable Christian life.

The issue in James 2:14-26 is not about gaining or proving that one has eternal life, but rather, living as a profitable servant of Jesus Christ. James mentions profit several times (cf. James 2:14, 16) and the opposite of profit–being dead or useless (James 2:17, 20, 26).

The “profit” he is talking about, of course, is not monetary gain, but living as an energized, successful, fully-committed, faithful, generous, loving, caring follower of Jesus Christ. None of us want to live useless lives, but profitable lives that are useful to God and His rule and reign on earth.

In James 2:14-26 we are told how.

Don’t just pray and believe God; Do Something!

The main point of James 2:14-26 is that believing God can do something is good, but if we really believe God can do something, we will personally seek to be part of the solution.

Specifically, if you see someone who is hungry or without clothes, it is okay if you tell them you are going to pray for them, or if you believe that God can provide for them. But more than just pray for them, and more than just believe that God will give them food and clothes, why don’t you actually be an answer to your own prayers and your own faith, and give them food and clothes!?

That is what James is saying: “Don’t just believe; Do something!”

This is why people get so upset at Christians when we are faced with a troubling situation, or a dire need, and our only response is, “I’ll pray for you!” or “My thoughts and prayers are with you!”

When people are homeless, jobless, hungry, sick, dying, struggling, they don’t need thoughts and prayers. They need Christians do actually do something. This is exactly the point that James is making as well.

James is saying, “When someone is in need … don’t just believe that God can provide for them … YOU provide for them. Don’t just tell them you’ll pray for them …. Instead, you provide for them.”

Do you see? The “believing” (or faith) of James 2:14-26 has nothing whatsoever to do with eternal life. The person is believing that God can give food and clothing to the hungry and the naked. There is nothing here about believing in Jesus for eternal life, and you do not get eternal life by believing that God can clothe and feed someone. Nor do you get eternal life by giving people clothes and food.

Again, eternal life is given to those who believe in Jesus for it.

Now, if James had stopped writing at James 2:16, there never would have been the misunderstanding about the relationship between faith and works in this passage. Everybody would have immediately recognized that James wants us to do more than just pray for people and state our belief that God can help them. We should actually do something for those in need. This point of James is pretty clear in James 2:14-16.

But he goes on to write James 2:17-26, and this is where all the problems with this passage enter. In the rest of this passage, I am not going to work though the entire passage in detail, but just provide a few of the highlights, and point you to the text of a sermon I preached on James 2 several years ago, and I also have a shorter version in Podcast episode 124 when I discussed James 2:14-26.

But here is the main argument of James 2:17-26.

1. Faith Without Works is Dead

The word “dead” does not mean nonexistent, but useless, unproductive, unprofitable. Someone may still have faith, but if that faith is not put into action, it is not doing anybody any good. It does not help those who are hungry and without clothes, and it does not help the person who has the faith. Since the context of this passage is about profitable faith, then “dead” faith is unprofitable faith.

So we must never say “Dead faith is no faith” for that is absolutely not true. Dead faith exists, it is just unproductive and unprofitable.

2. The Objector States His Opinion in James 2:18-19

Someone does not agree with what James is saying, and begins to state an objection in James 2:18. On this, every Bible translation agrees. Where Bible translations do not agree is where the objection ends. If you compare Bible translations on where they put the second set of quotation marks, you will see that they are all over the place.

However, Greek did not have quotation marks, and so authors used other methods to show where the objection ends and the refutation begins. They indicated this by calling the objection foolish (cf. 1 Cor 15:35-36; Rom 9:19-20). In this way, the objector in James 2 is saying everything in James 2:18-19. (See my article on “Epistolary Diatribe.”)

Therefore, the statement “even the demons believe, and tremble” is NOT from James, and is NOT in support of his argument, but is from someone who does not like what James is saying, and is objecting to the point James is making.

In other words, when we quote James 2:19, “even the demons believe” we are siding not with James, but taking the side of someone who disagrees with James.

The basic point of the objector is that he believes there is no connection between faith and works. James says that if we have faith, we should do something with it to live profitable and useful lives. The objector says,

That’s rubbish. The two are not connected at all. Take the cardinal theological belief of Judaism as an example: the belief that God is One. The demons believe this, but it doesn’t affect their behavior. All they do is shudder, but beyond this, this still rebel against God.” So their faith does nothing for them.

Note, by the way, that faith in Jesus for eternal life is NOT what demons believe.

Sure, we can assume that demons believe that if people believe in Jesus for eternal life then those people will receive eternal life, but the demons themselves cannot believe in Jesus for eternal life, because eternal life has not been offered to them by Jesus.

But this is not the belief of demons that James is writing about. The only thing demons believe in this context is that God is One, which is the central and most important belief in Judaism.

The Masterful Refutation by James

In the rest of the passage (James 2:20-26), James refutes what this objector said.

He notes that the objector used the most important belief in Judaism, so James says “Oh yeah? Two can play that game,” and to prove his point he uses the most important figure in Judaism: Abraham, the father of faith.

And he uses a particular event in the life of Abraham to prove that Abraham’s faith led him to obey God and perform certain actions, which in turn, allowed people to recognize that Abraham was truly God’s friend.

It is important to note that the event James is referring to takes place in Genesis 22, many years after the initial faith of Abraham in Genesis 15.

Whenever Paul refers to the faith of Abraham, he is referring to Genesis 15, when Abram was declared righteous by God. But James is referring to the events in Genesis 22, when Abraham was declared righteous by men, that is, they saw what Abraham did, and said, “Wow. He truly does believe in the God he claims to serve, and look what happened as a result! He truly is the friend of God!”

James then goes on with the knock-out punch. He has proven his point with the Forefather of Faith, Abraham, so he now takes the opposite extreme and shows how his point applies to the foreign, sinful, prostitute Rahab.

Rahab also believed something about God, and when the spies came to her, she acted on what she believed to deliver and rescue them. If she had just believed in God and done nothing, she still would have had the faith, but it would have done nothing to deliver her, her family, or the two spies. But because she acted on her faith, her faith became profitable.

James has proved his case and proved the objector wrong. If all you do with faith is believe, that is well and good, and it is still faith, but to truly be profitable, effective, energizing, and helpful in your own life and in the lives of others around us, you must act on what you believe (James 2:26).

This is the meaning of James 2.

Eternal Life IS received by Faith ALONE in Jesus Christ ALONE

So don’t let anyone tell you that faith is not enough when it comes to receiving eternal life. Of course it is! Jesus Himself promises it!

But when it comes to helping others, and getting rid of sin in our lives, and clothing the naked, feeding the hungry (James 2:14-26), taking care of orphans and widows (James 1:27), controlling our tongue (James 3:1-12), etc., etc., etc., just believing that God can take care of these situations is not enough.

Faith is the beginning, but in all these areas where God calls us to get involved, we must do more than just pray; we must do more than just believe. We must do something!

What do you think of this explanation of James 2:14-26, and especially the statement in James 2:19 about the faith of demons? Does it help this passage make more sense to you?

Does it help it fit better with what we read in the teachings of Jesus and the writings of Paul? Has it cleared up in your own mind some of the confusion around the role of faith and works?

Let me know in the comments below, and if you want more clarification, get my book, (#AmazonAdLink) What is Faith?

This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

“Faithfulness” is not a good translation of pistis (Titus 2:10)

By Jeremy Myers

16 Comments

There are Christian books and teachings out there which say that the Greek word pistis is best translated as “faithfulness” or “allegiance.”

If this is true, then rather than eternal life being gained by believing in Jesus for it (and not by works of any kind), eternal life is instead gained by living a life of faithful obedience and allegiance to Jesus.

But is eternal life gained by allegiance to Jesus? No. This is a gospel of good works, which is no gospel at all.

Indeed, I believe that there is not a single use of the Greek word pistis in the New Testament which is properly translated as “faithfulness.”

Yes, The BDAG Greek lexicon does list six verses where pistis can be translated as “faithfulness,” but not all English translations of these passages translate it in such a way.

In fact, “major contemporary English versions translate pistis as ‘faithfulness’ or ‘fidelity’ in only three or four New Testament verses” (Brindle, “Faith in Christ Does Not Mean Faithfulness or Fidelity“). And even in these three or four verses, pistis could arguably be translated as “faith” (Matt 23:23; Rom 3:3; Gal 5:22; Titus 2:10).

Let me show you why this is so, and then we will consider a sample verse from Scripture which helps illustrate this view.

Note: The following is drawn from my book, (#AmazonAdLink) What is Faith?

Faithfulness vs Faith for the Greek pistis)

For numerous reasons, it does not seem best to understand the word “faith” (Gk., pistis) as “faithfulness.”

While there does initially seem to be some evidence for this understanding in various biblical and extra-biblical contexts, such a view opens the door for a works-based approach to gaining, proving, or keeping our eternal life, and so should be rejected.

After all, if pistis can sometimes refer to allegiance, loyalty, or ongoing obedience, then there is nothing to stop someone from saying that most references to faith in the New Testament carry this idea, and therefore, eternal life is not gained by simply believing in Jesus for it, but instead by living loyally and obediently to Him.

This is indeed what some argue (see, for example, Michael Bates, (#AmazonAdLink) Salvation by Allegiance Alone).

Yet once we properly understand that faith is a conviction or persuasion that something is true, we are then positioned to better understand the various texts in English Bibles which translate pistis as faithfulness (Matt 23:23; Rom 3:3; Gal 5:22; Titus 2:10).

When studied in their contexts, we see that these controversial passages do not require for pistis to refer to loyalty, allegiance, or ongoing obedience, but could instead refer to a persistent and ongoing faith.

Faith is like a light switch. When it comes to the various truths we can believe, faith is either “On” or “Off.” If it stays “On” for a long time, then it is persistent faith.

Not all beliefs stay “On” all the time. We often change our beliefs due to new evidence that is presented to us. Sometimes we change our beliefs as we learn more about God through Scripture and in fellowship with other believers.

In such instances, we turn away from falsehood and embrace the truth, so that our network of beliefs comes to more closely match what is actually true.

We can also stray from the truth and fall into dangerous and unhealthy teachings. It is not uncommon for true believers to fall prey to false teaching so that they come to deny the truth and turn instead toward lies and deceptive ideas.

But as long as a Christian maintains a belief in what is actually true, their belief is persistent. This persistent faith is which Scripture invites us to strive and long for.

Therefore, the texts that seem to require a translation of “faithfulness” are not referring to allegiance and obedience, but to this ongoing and persistent faith. It is a faith that remains.

The “Faithfulness of Jesus” is His Ongoing, Persistent Faith

This is even true when the Bible refers to the faith of God or the faith of Jesus.

It is not necessary to understand these texts as referring to the faithfulness of God or the faithfulness of Jesus.

Since faith is the knowledge, conviction, or persuasion that something is true, then it is obvious that both God and Jesus can have faith.

Indeed, the Trinitarian God is the only being in the universe who has perfect faith.

All other beings in the universe do not have perfect knowledge of all things, and therefore, do not believe or know all things. Only God’s faith is eternally perfect and persistent.

Since faith or belief is the conviction that something is true, God knows everything that is true, and therefore, believes it and will always believe it.

Furthermore, He even has faith toward us. He knows what is true about us, even when we do not (Rom 3:3-4). He also knows what will be true about us, and He speaks these things to us so that we might be inspired by His testimony toward us to believe these things as well.

God wants us to live as He sees us; not as we see ourselves. God believes in us and invites us to believe in Him so that together, our belief will bring God’s vision of the future into reality.

Faith vs. Faithfulness in Tricky Bible Texts

This understanding helps clarify some of the tricky texts which seem to require “faithfulness” as a translation of pistis.

Such texts do not refer to allegiance or ongoing obedience, but to an ongoing and persistent belief.

And this belief can lead to other beliefs as well. For example, once we have believed in Jesus for eternal life, this does not mean that faith has no more place in the life of the believer. Just as we have received Jesus Christ, so also we must continue to walk with Him (Col 2:6). And how is it that we received Jesus? By faith. So we are to continue our life with Him by faith as well.

This is not only true because ongoing faith gives us the best life possible with Jesus, but also because other truths we can believe depend on continuing to believe previous truths.

Remember that all of our beliefs are interconnected like a vast Excel spreadsheet.

Many of the more advanced truths and ideas on this spreadsheet will not be discovered and cannot be believed unless we maintain our belief in some of the earlier, foundational truths.

In other words, future faith builds upon our former faith. Believing simple and elementary things allows us to later believe more difficult and hard things.

This is what Paul means when it talks about going from “faith to faith” (cf. Rom 1:17) and when he refers to faith as a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). As we walk with God in faith and by the Spirit, we grow in our faith and come to believe things that draw us closer to God and make us more like Jesus.

So regardless of which stage of faith we are talking about, faith does not involve ongoing obedience.

Faith does not begin with simple belief and then end with allegiance and loyalty.

There are no works in faith, for faith is the opposite of works. While faith can lead to works, the presence or absence of works do not necessarily indicate anything one way or another about a person’s faith.

In all cases, faith is simply being persuaded and convinced about what we have been told.

When we believe in Jesus for eternal life, we are persuaded that Jesus, as the author and finisher of our faith, loves us, forgives us, and freely grants eternal life to us, not because of anything we have done but simply and only because of God’s grace toward us.

No commitment to allegiance or ongoing obedience are required.

Therefore, the word pistis is not ever properly translated as “faithfulness.”

Faith vs. Faithfulness in Titus 2:10

Of the various passages that sometimes use the word “faithfulness.” as a translation of pistis (Matt 23:23; Rom 3:3; Gal 5:22; Col 2:6; Titus 2:10), I have already briefly considered Romans 3:3, Colossians 2:6, and Galatians 5:22 above.

In Matthew 23:23, the NKJV properly translates the Greek as “faith,” so let us consider the final text, Titus 2:10, here.

The first thing to note about Titus 2:10, is that it fits within the broader context of Titus 2. And Paul begins in Titus 2:1f by telling Titus to teach and encourage others to have sound doctrine and godly practices. In other words, Titus is to call others to proper beliefs and behavior.

And then Paul goes through various categories of people among whom Titus ministers. He gives instructions for older men (Titus 2:2), older women (Titus 2:3), young women (Titus 2:4-5), young men (Titus 2:6-8), and servants (Titus 2:9-10).

In each case, Paul encourages the various groups to watch their life and doctrine closely … that is, their beliefs and their behaviors. As for the beliefs, the older men are to be “sound in faith.” The older women are to be “teachers of good things.” The younger women are to be careful not to blaspheme the word of God. The younger men are to have integrity in their doctrine.

The bondservants are to have “good fidelity,” which is the controversial phrase. I propose it should be translated as “good faith” (as in the NAS).

Three lines of argument from the context show that this should be translated as “good faith” instead of “good fidelity.”

First, the word pistis is already used in the context. At the beginning of this section when he gives instructions to the older men, and most English Bibles translate this word as “faith.” The use of the same word here at the end of this section creates a nice frame for the entire section. By using pistis at both the beginning and end, Paul shows that he desires both proper beliefs and proper behaviors from all.

And since pistis is best translates as “faith” in Titus 2:2, then it seems that it should also be translated as “faith” in Titus 2:10.

Support for this idea is found in the next phrase of Titus 2:10, where Paul goes on to write about the doctrine of God our Savior. This is the second reason “faith” is the best translation for pistis in Titus 2:10. The following phrase refers to doctrine.

What are you to do with doctrine, or theology, other than believe it? Doctrine is taught so that it can be believed.

Thirdly and finally, then, we know that Paul does not mean “faithfulness” or “fidelity” with the word pistis in Titus 2:10, because he has been referring to beliefs and behaviors of all the various groups of people throughout this passage. If the reference to pistis in this verse also refers to allegiance, fidelity, or faithful obedience, then Paul’s instructions to the servants is only about their behavior and not about their beliefs at all.

But shouldn’t servants also have proper beliefs? Of course they should! And just as Paul encourages the previous four groups of people to have good beliefs and good behaviors, he gives similar instructions to this final group, the servants. The word pistis must refer to the beliefs of the servants, while all the preceding terms refer to their behaviors.

Conclusion

It is not helpful to translate pistis as “faithfulness, allegiance, or fidelity” in any passage in the Bible. When Scripture wants to use terms for obedience and dedicated allegiance, it has good words to use in those cases.

But pistis always refers to faith or belief, and includes no actions or obedience whatsoever.

Don’t allow good works to sneak in the back door of the gospel by thinking that pistis can sometimes refer to faithfulness or ongoing obedience. Such a gospel is no gospel at all, for if we receive eternal life by ongoing, faithful obedience to God, then no person would ever receive eternal life, for no person can ever be “faithful” enough.

Thankfully, good works do not help us earn or keep the free gift of eternal life. It is freely given by God’s grace to anyone who simply and only believes in Jesus for it.

Get my book, (#AmazonAdLink) What is Faith? to learn more about faith.

This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

Bob Dutko Interviews J. D. Myers about Faith

By Jeremy Myers

What is childlike faith? (Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:14; Luke 18:17)

By Jeremy Myers

8 Comments

(#AmazonAdLink) I have previously written about faith like a child here, but in light of the release of (#AmazonAdLink) my new book on faith, let me revisit the idea of childlike faith.

Some Christians say that they don’t need reasons or explanations for what they believe, because they have “faith like a child” or “childlike faith.”

When they say this, they mean that they don’t ask questions about their beliefs, nor do they wonder if what they believe is true. Childlike faith is often described as a faith that does not doubt, question, or seek explanations; it just believes.

But this is not childlike faith.

So what is childlike faith?

In seeking to understand what childlike faith actually is, let us look at four reasons why the lack of desire to ask questions is not “childlike faith.”

1. Those with “Childlike faith” sometimes look down on those who ask questions

First, while it is completely fine if a person does not want to ask questions about what they believe or seek answers about why they believe what they do, they should not look down upon those who do ask questions. Nor should they prohibit people from doing so.

Some who claim to have “childlike faith” wear it as a badge of honor, seeming to indicate to others that their unquestioning faith is superior to those who ask questions and seek explanations.

For this reason, “childlike faith” could actually be called “arrogant faith” for those who claim to have it sometimes look down on those who require reason, logic, and explanations for what they believe.

People who have this attitude will often say “I just believe the Bible” or “God says it, I believe it, that settles it.”

In reality, they don’t “just believe the Bible.” They believe a particular interpretation or explanation of the Bible, and often claim to “just believe the Bible” when someone comes along and presents a different perspective or explanation.

When faith is thought of as “blind faith” or a “leap into the void” in a way that does not require reason, logic, or explanation, those who are able to maintain this sort of faith sometimes have the tendency to look down on those who require reason, logic, and explanation for their beliefs.

Of course, the opposite is also true. People who use reason and logic to support their beliefs often condemn those who don’t for having an “ignorant and uneducated faith.” This is not good either.

So if a person does not want to ask questions, there is no requirement to do so.

Many people do not enjoy the “life of the mind” and should not be expected to engage in such practices.

However, this preference should not be equated with childlike faith.

Those who do not seek to dive deep into theology and seek answers to questions should not look down on those who do seek such answers as having a “lesser faith” (and vice versa).

So rather than say that a faith which does not question is “childlike faith” it might be better to simply call it an unquestioning faith.

This is the second reason that childlike faith cannot be equated with the lack of desire to ask questions.

2. Children ask LOTS of Questions

Childlike faith is not about the avoidance of questions, for children ask many, many questions.

As any parent will tell you, the unrelenting barrage of questions from a two-year old can become quite exhausting.

Therefore, it could easily be argued that true “childlike faith” is actually a faith that asks lots of questions.

So the desire (or lack of desire) to ask questions has nothing to do with whether or not a person has childlike faith.

3. Children always have reasons for what they believe

The third reason that a faith which does not ask question or seek explanations cannot be called “childlike faith” is because there are explanations and reasons for what a child believes … even if they themselves are not aware of what those reasons are.

In other words, children do not believe anything without reason. The most common reason that children believe what they believe is because someone they trust told them what to believe. Children often simply believe whatever their parents and teachers tell them.

Therefore, true childlike faith is not an unthinking faith, for the authority of the person who teaches is a factor that faith takes into consideration.

Something similar occurs whenever a person has a so-called “unquestioning faith.” They do not believe without reason; they simply have not thought through what the reasons and explanations for their beliefs might be.

Instead, they believe what a pastor or teacher taught them, or what seems to be the “plain reading” of Scripture (though careful, contextual studies of the text often reveal that the “plain reading” is not the best reading).

There is nothing wrong with not knowing exactly why you have the beliefs you have, but a lack of understanding about why should not be confused with a lack of explanation. There are explanations for why you believe what you believe, even if you don’t know what these explanations are.

And that’s okay.

Nobody has a complete explanation and understanding for why they believe what they believe. \

But everybody, over time, naturally and normally grows in their understanding and gains explanations for their beliefs. While initially, a belief might be gained because “I learned it in Kindergarten,” this belief will either remain unquestioned and unchallenged throughout life, or it will be challenged and questioned.

If it is challenged and questioned, the belief will either be supported and affirmed, or disproven and denied.

But nobody’s beliefs all stay the same throughout all of life. Instead, everybody matures and grows in what they think and believe. This is normal, natural, and just as God intended.

Just as children grow and mature, so also does faith. This is the way God made humans, and this is the way God made faith.

4. The term “childlike faith” is not found in the Bible

Which brings up the fourth and final reason that unquestioning faith cannot be equated with childlike faith. And it is this: “childlike faith” is not found in the Bible.

There is no such thing as biblical “childlike faith.”

When people refer to “childlike faith” or “faith like a child,” they have in mind the sorts of things Jesus says in Matthew 18:3, Mark 10:14, and Luke 18:17, where He teaches that the kingdom of heaven belongs to little children.

But in these passages, Jesus isn’t talking about faith. In fact, He doesn’t mention “faith” at all. Instead, Jesus is talking about entering the kingdom of heaven, and He encourages His listeners to humble themselves like a child and receive Him like a child (Matt 18:4-5; Mark 10:14) if they want to see the kingdom of heaven.

In other words, there is something essential about the childlike perspective for the person who wants to see the kingdom of heaven.

But what is Jesus talking about? What is this childlike perspective that Jesus has in mind?

What does Jesus mean in Matthew 18:3 about entering the Kingdom like a child?

To begin with, it is critical to recognize that the kingdom of heaven is not eternal life. The phrase “see the kingdom of heaven” does not mean “go to heaven when you die.”

Similarly, “Seeing the kingdom of heaven” is not the same thing as “going to heaven.”

The two concepts of entering (or seeing) the kingdom and going to heaven when you die are not equivalent in the Bible.

It is important that we recognize this, because Jesus says that seeing the kingdom of heaven requires humility. If seeing the kingdom of heaven was the same as going to heaven, then the good work of personal humility would be required for entrance into heaven after death.

But eternal life is received by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47); not by living humbly before God.

Good works are not required to gain entrance into heaven.

What then is the kingdom of heaven?

In the Gospels, the phrase “kingdom of heaven” or “kingdom of God” refers to the rule and reign of God in our lives now on earth. It is about God’s will being done on earth, as it is done in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

All the kingdom imagery and terminology in the Gospels is not about “leaving earth and going to heaven when we die” but about “heaven coming down to earth while we live.”

Seeing the kingdom of heaven is not about life after death, but about living and experiencing God’s life in this life here and now.

This is what Jesus has in mind when He teaches about becoming like a little child. Experiencing the life of God in this life requires humility like a little child.

In what way? Not by remaining ignorant, for God gave us Scripture so that we might learn, grow, mature, reason (Isaiah 1:18), and become students, disciples, and followers of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Timothy 2:2).

Instead, becoming like a little child means that we maintain the wonderful and beautiful characteristics and qualities of children that life in this sinful world tends to beat out of us.

Like what?

Like tenderness of conscience.

Openness about emotions and feelings.

Creativity and imagination.

Wonder and awe.

Joy.

Eternal hope.

Playfulness and humor.

Trust.

Easy forgiveness.

Undying love.

Boundless exuberance and energy.

Always thinking the best about life and other people.

Being willing to learn and grow.

These are the sort of qualities that tend to define children, but which get stripped out of people as they encounter the sin and brokenness of this world.

As adults, we get bored with flowers, bugs, and sunsets. We lose delight in talking with others about nothing.

We become jaded and disinterested.

Adults hold grudges, harbor fears, and stay angry.

Adults refuse to forgive.

Adults remember slights.

Adults lose hope because their hopes have been dashed and destroyed so many time.

Adults do things “because they’ve always been done that way” and have trouble imagining anything different.

But children do not behave in any of these ways. Nor did Jesus.

One of the things that attracted people to Jesus is that He was “childlike.”

Does this mean He lacked wisdom and understanding? Far from it. Jesus was “childlike” because He was full of the wonder of life, the hope for humanity, and the beauty of creation.

Jesus lived in awe of life, awe of God, and awe of humanity.

And this awe was contagious. People who saw how Jesus lived began to see how life should be lived. Jesus revealed how God intended life to be lived. In other words, those who begin to live life like Jesus are those who begin to see heaven come down to earth.

They begin to see the rule and reign of God unfold in their own life with all its beauty, majesty, glory, and creativity. This is what Jesus Himself lived, and this is what Jesus invited others to live also. He taught that if you want to experience God’s life in this life (the kingdom of heaven), then you need to become like a little child once again.

Do you want to enter the Kingdom like a child?

If so, then ask questions. Lots of questions.

But also have fun. Laugh. Play. Imagine. Sing. Dance. Hope. Dream. Forgive. Create. Trust. Live life to the full. Be excited. Be adventuresome. Be tender of heart.

And most of all, love. When you live this way, you will become like a little child, and will see the kingdom of heaven rise again in your life.

This course costs $297, but when you join the Discipleship group, you can to take the entire course for free.

Does Gehenna refer to everlasting torment in hell?

Imagine Going into Gehenna…

Gehenna in the Days of Jesus

The Symbolism of Gehenna

Gehenna is NOT hell

The Meaning of the Word sheol

So what is sheol?

So the Old Testament teachings NOTHING about hell

Was it Right For God to Fail to Warn Billions of People About Hell?

Links Mentioned in this Interview with Frank Viola

Links mentioned in this discussion with Richard Jacobson:

Your Church is Not Really a Fellowship

Relationship vs. Fellowship

Fellowship in 1 John 1:6-7

Fellowship vs. Relationship

Note that I didn’t tweet the same thing to him over and over and over… he responded multiple times to one of my tweets, and I don’t know how to get rid of that when embedding a Tweet into WordPress… if anybody knows how, let me know!

So what does James 2:19 mean?

So, what do demons believe?

James 2, Faith, Works, Demons, and Abraham

James is writing to believers.

James 2:14-26 deals with living a profitable Christian life.

Don’t just pray and believe God; Do Something!

1. Faith Without Works is Dead

2. The Objector States His Opinion in James 2:18-19

The Masterful Refutation by James

Eternal Life IS received by Faith ALONE in Jesus Christ ALONE

Faithfulness vs Faith for the Greek pistis)

The “Faithfulness of Jesus” is His Ongoing, Persistent Faith

Faith vs. Faithfulness in Tricky Bible Texts

Faith vs. Faithfulness in Titus 2:10

Conclusion

1. Those with “Childlike faith” sometimes look down on those who ask questions

2. Children ask LOTS of Questions

3. Children always have reasons for what they believe

4. The term “childlike faith” is not found in the Bible

What does Jesus mean in Matthew 18:3 about entering the Kingdom like a child?

Do you want to enter the Kingdom like a child?

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