Chapter 3 - Where Does Faith Come From?

"John answered and said, 'A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven'."

John 3:27

"Jesus is the author and finisher of faith."

Hebrews 12:2

 

Simply put, this Chapter goes into great detail to demonstrate that God is the cause of our faith, not us. You Have Nothing To Do With It (causally).

The Christian/Catholic church, on the other hand, states we as individuals have everything to do with it (causally).

Context:

  1. More than anything, I am writing this Chapter to establish the truth, not explain the implications. My purpose is to define how someone comes to experience faith in Jesus. The contents of this Chapter must be understood for the rest of the NT to be rightly discerned. (I cannot emphasize this enough.)

  2. I am not a Calvinist, have never been a Calvinist, and knew nothing about Calvinism until after the subject matter of this book was revealed to me through the grace of God. (That in and of itself is telling.)

  3. I encourage you to check the context of all referenced Scripture. I trust doing so will further establish the integrity of the message.

Now, I've broken down the remainder of this chapter into four parts:

Part 1 - Documentation of the 7 most straightforward Scriptures that tell us faith comes from God; therefore, is not a choice we're responsible to make. (I've referenced 50 other texts, along with my commentary, in the Chapter 3 Appendix.)

Part 2 - Paul's empirical experience of faith.

Part 3 - A (very) brief expose of the term “born again” and its relationship with "whosoever believing" in John 3:16.

Part 4 – Summary of Chapter 3.

The sole causal force of faith is God. Man can't produce; therefore, he is not responsible for producing New Testament faith. God does NOT offer people faith, then leave it up to them to accept or reject it. This concept is according to the flesh, man-made, and anti-Christ...it does not exist in the Scriptures.

 

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