“Give me an unbeliever—let me know that he doubts God’s word—let me know that he distrusts his promise and his threatening; and with that for a premise, I will conclude that the man shall, by-and-bye, unless there is amazing restraining power exerted upon him, be guilty of the foulest and blackest crimes.”
-Charles Spurgeon
I was reading this quote from Charles H. Spurgeon this morning and I find myself in full agreement with him. Much of what I see in today’s world stems from unbelief.
I posted a story on New Mexico News and Views this morning about a woman who was teaching her preschool son to help her shoplift. She had taught him to take what she handed him and put it under his blanket in the stroller.
Making national news, of course, is the Anthony Weiner story. Here is a (now former) congressman behaving lewdly, using technology to advance his perversion. Telling blatant lies to the point of almost literally making a federal case of it.
Before we pick up our stones, I would like to point out that this unbelief is systemic. We are all infected by the same disease. This is not to say we should ignore its symptoms and allow evil to flourish. But rather we should recognize that we have, in our society, encouraged unbelief (the chief among sins) rather than nurtured belief.
Our faith and obedience wans as we ignore or even rebuke the full teaching of the Word of God. If faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, is it no wonder that unbelief abounds. Many of our churches have stopped teaching from the scripture. Social driven sermons that are far from the ways of God and more closely resemble pop psychology, Dr. Phil or Oprah and are leaving so called Christians without a fear and reverence for our Lord Jesus Christ, making him just a philosopher rather than God incarnate.
Pastors and their churches who not only ignore the Old Testament (or worse preach against its use at all, i.e. we are no longer under the law) and pick and choose verses from the New Testament like a meal from a buffet, are guilty of taking away from the Word of God making their disciples twice the sons of perdition as themselves. By the way, I believe in using the whole counsel of God, reading and teaching from both the New and Old Testaments.
This lack of biblical faith due to a lack of scripture creates the worst kind of Christian. Spurgeon put it this way;
“In fact, if there can be one sin more heinous than the unbelief of a sinner, it is the unbelief of a saint. For a saint to doubt God’s word—for a saint to distrust God after innumerable instances of his love, after ten thousand proofs of his mercy—exceeds everything.”
How can faith replace unbelief if the Word of God is not read or preached or even taught, what hope is there for mankind?