What Must You Have to Please God?

Tom: Thanks, Gary. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him. If you’re new to our program, in this segment we have been selecting topics from Dave Hunt’s out-of-print book Beyond Seduction, and in particular we’ve been discussing significant doctrines that have been twisted around so that either they are taught to mean the opposite of what the Bible teaches, or at the very least, their corruption of God’s Word.

The doctrine that we’ve been focusing on over the last few weeks is faith. How important is it? Well, the Word of God tells us that “without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Furthermore, more than 100 Scriptures tell us that we are saved by faith. Obviously, then, if we have a wrong view of faith, we are in serious trouble, wouldn’t we be, Dave?

Dave: Well, I would say so. You quoted, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” You said there are more than 100 verses. Some of them are, “By grace are you saved through faith. We walk by faith. We live by faith.” So if we’ve got faith wrong, we are in serious trouble.

Now, the Bible tells us that we are to have faith in God; it never tells us that faith is some kind of a force. I think we have talked about that a bit. Faith is not something that I aim at God to get Him to do what I want. Faith is not—“if I can just manage to believe strongly enough then it will happen…” Then you don’t need God.

In fact, the idea that some people have of faith—it literally turns God into a placebo, because it doesn’t really matter whether God exists or whether He doesn’t exist, but this supposed belief in God activates a force within the universe and within yourself. You are given a sugar pill, and you really believe that it will work, and it does; so it turns God into a sugar pill. If I really believe in God—I mean, I believe that there is some force out there—and you know that there are all kinds of ideas, whether it’s mind science, Christian Science…

And then you get over into the positive confession—“If I just confess it with my lips, it’s going to happen.” The Bible doesn’t say that. So faith brings me into subjection to God’s will. Faith is the only way that I can walk with God, the only way I can be in touch with God, the only way I can be used of God. He expects me to believe what He said and to trust Him. Tom, that’s not always easy.

Tom: Dave, as we have been covering so much of what the so-called faith teachers, positive confession—some say, “name it and claim it; believe it and receive it,” you know, all these ideas—somebody would say, “Well, it’s not a problem. These are really good men, and they just have this slight problem.” But, Dave, you write in Beyond Seduction that those that are in the popular faith movement, or positive confession movement—in their teachings, they have a wrong view of faith, God, man, and redemption. We’re not hair-splitting here.

Dave: Mm-hmm. Now, Tom, they have picked up on secular ideas, unfortunately. Well, they got it from Norman Vincent Peale way back there. They got it from a few others—from Agnes Sanford, who taught that—in fact she said, “You can turn a murderer or a burglar or whatever—when they are confronting you in your house—you can tu it into a Christian just by positive thoughts.” So what happens is we begin to give our thoughts a power that they do not have. I’m supposed to have faith in God, what does that mean? Well, I’m trusting God that He will do this. I’m not going to bring this about.

I can remember, Tom—you know, they say a negative confession, that’s not good. My wife and I and our children on an occasion or two have gone behind the Iron Curtain back in the days of the Soviet Union. It was tough. They were mean. I remember when they ripped my wife’s purse apart trying to find some hidden [….] documents, you know, because in those days people were taking them out. The First Circle, written by Solzhenitsyn, or whatever, and they were—wow! I remember on one occasion coming in from Finland heading for—well, in those days it was called Stalingrad; now it’s called St. Petersburg, which it had been before—and they had just torn everything apart; they had laid it all out. And I can tell you what I said—I had been given things to take in. We had, for example, I think we had about eight fur coats for ladies—this was up in the north; these were wives of pastors who were in prison. Now, this was August; here are two people from California, and they’ve got eight fur coats with them in August [laughing]—that doesn’t make any sense! And I had a big—probably looked like a ghetto blaster, I guess, but it was for short wave, and you could tape and duplicate. It was pretty large and you couldn’t hide that, and I had gone through all my things before we came to this border and mailed them back—anything that would incriminate me. Then I noticed what—they are pulling all my papers apart and looking at each one meticulously, and there was an advertisement from my publisher, Harvest House, mentioning a book I had written. It’s called My Verim—that means “We believe” in Russian, and it said, “This book is translated in Eastern European languages to be smuggled behind the Iron Curtain!” [laughs] Oh, my goodness! And The Seduction of Christianity had just been written; I had a few copies of that. Well, they don’t speak English that well—Seduction of Christianity? And then I had a book that I was reading, The Arabs and the Beast, [chuckles] and Ruth had a novel—she’d read it several times, but she brought it along to read, Westward Ho—you know, we’re going to take people to the West! Tom, everything—it was like a Keystone Cops comedy. I remember standing there and saying, “Lord, I am the worst smuggler in the world—but this isn’t for me, but it’s for these people who need it.” We had Bibles, and we had tapes, and various things, and…“Lord, if You want it to go through, You have to do it. I can’t do it.” And the Lord did.

So it’s not if I can “just be positive.” No, that’s not going to do it. Now there are some people who believe that, but that is obviously false. We’ve got all kinds of things being positive.

And by the way, Tom, how can I be positive about something that I’m not sure is God’s will? How can I really believe that God is going to do this that I am asking Him to do unless I know it’s His will? So we pray according to God’s will; we don’t try to impose our will upon Him. So we’ve got false ideas of faith. The essential ingredient to faith is what I believe and in Whom I believe. Am I believing the Word of God? “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.” Well, I’m going to trust God.

Now, some of these people say, “Well, you make a positive confession of God’s Word.” No, it may not apply in my case, you know? There are all kinds of things that God says, but they don’t necessarily apply to me in this particular situation. So I just surrender myself into God’s hands: “Lord, You’re going to have to do this, because I can’t do it.” And this is a negative confession that these men say would destroy everything. No, we took everything through the border, and it was by God’s grace, not by our amazing faith.

Tom: Mm-hmm. Dave, that reminds me of George Müller—and of course you know his book Answers to Prayer, in which he didn’t want to turn to men for anything. Yet in the early 1800s—1830, around there—he had orphanages in the part of England that he lived, and it was amazing what he was able to accomplish. And somebody said to him—I think it went something like this—they said, “George, for all that you have done, you must be a man of great faith.” And his response was, “No, I’m a man of little faith, but it’s in a great God!”

Dave: Mm-hmm. That’s what counts. I’ll put George Müller up against anybody who claims they have faith—these faith teachers. And on one occasion—well, George Müller was in Bristol and he had…more orphans are coming in, and he has to get more land and build more buildings. And a man that had some property next to George was telling his friend, “Well, George Müller has offered me so much per acre, but I’m going to hold out for a higher price, because I know he needs this land; he’s got to have it.”

His friend looked at him in astonishment and said, “Don’t you know who George Müller is? If you don’t sell that to him at the price he offers, his God will make you give it to him.”

So that was the reputation that he had, but as you said, he didn’t call himself a man of great faith.

I remember when Hudson Taylor, who had started the work in China, was getting some bad publicity, and the donations dropped off; and he’s got these workers over there in China—they need some money. Now, that year God spoke to George Müller’s heart that He was going to give him some extra money to give to Hudson Taylor. It turned out to be fifty thousand pounds, which was a lot of money in those days—that would be over a million today, or probably several million. And it turned out that George Müller passed on to Hudson Taylor exactly the amount that he was short for that year.

We’re in God’s hands. When He does it, He gets the glory; we do not get the glory. It doesn’t happen because of our positive confession or, somehow, our great faith.

Tom: Mm-hmm. Dave, these other points—a wrong view of faith (which we have covered), a wrong view of God—it has to work out that way. If you’re saying that I know the way God works and I’m going to work that way—well, you’ve got a wrong view of God. Also that puts men in a position as many of them write and teach that we’re just little gods using the same faith that God uses, working it to our own ends.

Dave: Tom, it demeans God. We mentioned it last week, I think—mind science, science of mind. Everything that they do is based upon the idea that there is this universal mind—that God is some kind of a mind. And amazingly, this mind doesn’t have a mind of its own; it’s just waiting for us to give it some ideas to pursue it, to work out. So it does demean God that He now has become my servant—I can get God to do what I want Him to do if I follow the right techniques. And sadly, this has been the teaching of Pat Robertson, who says, “The Bible is not a theological book, it’s a success manual.” We talked about that a bit last week.

We have to be very careful, Tom, that we don’t set ourselves up as little gods. In fact, as you know, Brigham Young, speaking from the Mormon Tabernacle over there in the early 1800s, said, “We don’t blame mother Eve for eating the forbidden fruit: that’s how we become gods!” So Mormonism is, in fact, based upon the belief that the very lie that the serpent told, “You can become a little god,” is the gospel truth. The Bible says that destroyed the human race, separated us from God. Mormonism says, “Oh no. You know the old saying: ‘As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become.’” That is not what the Bible teaches. So they have really brought God down to the level of man—God is just an exalted man, and salvation in Mormonism is exaltation to godhood. So Tom, as we look at this—wrong view of faith puts me in charge; it demeans God and it exalts man, and God will not share His glory with anyone.

Tom: Dave, the last thing—how is it related?—they have a wrong view of redemption.

Dave: Mm-hmm. The Bible says redemption is for sinners. Robert Schuller, unfortunately, says, “Well, you couldn’t expect God to save someone who isn’t worth it.” Even other Christian psychologists have taught that, as you know—Bruce Narramore and others. “We need to build up our self-image. We need to recognize what good people we are.”

Robert Schuller in Christianity Today—he wrote a letter to them and he said, “The worst thing that you could do is to tell someone they are a sinner. They couldn’t then believe, unworthy wretch as they are, that God would love them, and that He would redeem them.” But the Bible says Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The only people who qualify for salvation are sinners. If you are not a sinner, what is there to save you from? If we are sinners, we are under the judgment of God because of our rebellion against Him, and we need to be delivered from that. But God can’t just, you know—you think positive thoughts, and then He will wave the penalty aside. That’s not going to work. There has to be a payment of the penalty for our sins, and that’s what Jesus did on the cross. It had nothing to do with how positive I am. In fact, Tom, we often say it: Positive? If you’re talking about chemical bonding—you know, positive and negative chemicals—you’re talking about magnetism, or something else like that, then that has some meaning. It has no meaning when it comes to morals, when it comes to spirituality, when it comes to God and redemption.

Tom: Or truth.

Dave: Truth, yes. I suppose Jesus was very negative when He told the Jews, “Except you repent, you will all likewise perish.” I guess you would say Jeremiah was very negative. They were all saying, “It’s going to be okay, guys. It’s going to be all right. The Babylonians won’t get here.”

Tom: Peace and safety, peace and safety!

Dave: Right, Ezekiel talks about that: “They say peace and safety when there is no peace. They seduce my people, saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ when there is no peace.” So that’s not going to help. I have to submit to God’s will; I have to want Him to be Lord of my life, and that’s a big burden you’re delivered from, Tom. You don’t have to carry this around now. I don’t have to build up my self-esteem. Jesus, in fact said—one of His most powerful statements; I mean, they all are—in John 5. He said, “How can you…,” He’s talking to the rabbis, “how can you be men of faith, you who receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes from God alone?”

One of the things that really gets me, Tom, when I’m being introduced somewhere: “Dr. Hunt.” I tell them, “I’m not even a nurse.” We always have to build men up. I don’t want to be built up. I don’t want to receive any reward from men, because then the Lord will say, “You had your reward.” I’m not worthy of any reward from the Lord, but what we do, we are not doing it to impress people—all the awards and the dinners and plaques, and this and that, and the honors that are passed out to men. Jesus said very clearly, “If you do not seek the honor that comes from God…” He didn’t say, “seek the honor that comes from God and men”— He said, “you must seek the honor that comes from God alone.” So if you seek the honor that comes from God and men, you’re not going to get honor from God. And Jesus Himself said, “I receive not honor from men.”

Tom: Dave, we mentioned people that influence the word-faith teachers. You mentioned Mary Baker Eddy last week, Agnes Sanford today, we have E.W. Kenyon, the New Thought crowd, so on and so forth—and that’s a concern, but more of a concern is when they twist the Scriptures, when they take verses—and folks, the name of this program is Search the Scriptures Daily; that’s our exhortation; that’s our encouragement. Don’t just buy into what we are saying: we’re giving you information, but you need to check things out from the Scriptures. So if people would just look at these verses and see how they are handling them…

I give you a couple of examples: we mentioned a couple of weeks ago about speaking words—somehow there is power in speaking words, and they go to the verse and see, “God said, Let there be light and let the earth bring forth grass,” and all of these verses that they are using to reinforce the idea that speaking—there’s power in speaking. What about that?

Dave: It didn’t happen because God spoke the words, it happened because it was God who spoke the words. And, Tom, the bottom line is it’s a desire of man to be in charge and get control of his life.

Tom: Another verse, Proverbs:18:21Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
See All...—this is Solomon writing: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue….” They use that one, Dave.

Dave: Well, it’s—no, you can bring people to life by speaking it, or you can curse them to death by saying that, as well. He’s talking about—he’s a king, and those who have authority over others, they must be very, very careful how they use that authority, because death and life is in the power of the tongue—especially in those days when a ruler would say, “Take the guy out and kill him,” or would pardon him. You know, like Pharaoh pardoned the baker. But the kings or the emperors could pardon someone, or condemn them. When Herod says, “Bring me John the Baptist’s head on a platter,” well, they do it. So death and life is in the power of the tongue. It doesn’t mean you and I can create death or life by speaking the words.

Tom: One verse that, to me—I’m just stunned, but we hear it from them continually, and that is Hebrews:11:3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
See All..., and this is related to faith. The verse goes, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” See, Dave? God used faith. By faith—that’s the way He did it.

Dave: No, it doesn’t say “we understand that God framed the worlds by faith,” and that’s what these people turn around to say. No, it’s by faith in God’s Word that we understand that He framed the worlds by His word. You couldn’t figure that out, Tom; you couldn’t fathom it, you couldn’t understand it: that God can speak things into existence? But by faith we believe that. So it’s by faith that we understand.

But they would tell you, for example, in Mark, where it says, “Have faith in God,” they twist that around, as well, and say, “Have the God-kind of faith.” What kind of faith does God have? Well, I’m supposed to have faith in God. In whom does God have faith? Some higher God? No, He has faith in the power of His words. Come on! Where do the words get any power from? This is the Word of God, and that’s why His words have power, because when He speaks, He has whatever He wants. He doesn’t get what He wants by speaking it. And yet, Tom, it’s such a perversion of Scripture. And it’s out there in the business world, Positive Mental Attitude seminars, success motivation techniques, and so forth.

I remember a young man telling me once, “Well, in my high school class they’re teaching me, “Decide what you want to be. Write it on a piece of paper and put it under your pillow and think about it.” Well, that’s nonsense. That’s superstition. You might as well believe in the tooth fairy or something. But serious people believe this, because somehow there is power in the mind, the mind of man. That is not true!

Now Solomon does say, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” There are some connections between our emotions and our body, but you’re not going to change everything. You’re not going to heal diseases.