I recently asked the question of a few of my friends, “what is the heart of witchcraft?” One, cited rebellion and pride. Another, rebellion, pride and fear. Another, control. I myself felt a strong inclination toward manipulation.
What followed in the different instances was a connection of these ideas or roots. Is the root of pride fear? Is the root of rebellion and manipulation control? Do we as humans often seek control to assuage our fears?
But I had a motive in asking my original question. There is a practice in the Church that reminds me of witchcraft, and here I quote my original postulation:
“Here is the rub. I consider Faith Theologies to basically be witchcraft. I believe it starts from a fear base that desires control (rather than trusting). This desire for control leads to creating formulas rather than trusting in relationship – thus scripture says ‘ask’ and faith theology says ‘claim.’ Or it turns faith into the idea of ‘power’ rather than simply trusting. Prayer becomes a + b = c, guaranteed. Having or doing a + b always yields c as a formula. It is more like casting a spell than speaking to, petitioning and trusting a God you are in relationship with – an inability to come to terms with not having power and control, and having to totally, one hundred percent trust, rely and depend on someone else. Even a return to being saved by works instead of faith because it makes faith itself into a work. But we are saved by grace, not faith. And grace is a free gift we have no control over and which we cannot take or earn, but only receive.”
“If a + b always equals c, and we have a and b, then we do not need God!”
There is much more detail that could be expounded upon, but here is the gist: ‘a’ can equal a promise from God, ‘b’ can equal faith, and ‘c’ can equal a desired result.
There is a bit that can be said of each. Regarding ‘a;’ what has God promised? There are several scriptures from which different ideas can be formed. John 14:13 “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” James 4:2-3 “…You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Mark 10:35-45 gives a good illustration of James’ passage.
Regarding ‘b;’ it is simple to understand ‘b’ as symbolizing faith. But remember where faith comes from, Eph. 2:8 “it is the gift of God-.”
Regarding ‘c;’ a desired result? A car? A house? To be debt free? Physical healing? Spiritual healing? A place of leadership as James and John requested? Does physical disease ever lead to spiritual healing? What are proper priorities, and what are misplace priorities?
God both invites us to understand him, Isaiah 1:18 “come now, let us reason together,” and at the same time lets us know that we cannot understand Him, Isaiah 55:9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Insert: 1 John 4:10 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Is it possible that an all powerful God which we cannot control loves us?
What is proper relationship with Him?
Matthew 21:22 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
If trust and faith and belief are the same, then is our faith the kind of faith that ‘claims’ or the kind of faith that ‘asks’?!
Give me your thoughts?
Tags: Chris, Christianity
I’d just like to tell everyone that there is a guy at church that when he read chris’ essay said something like, “That’s the greatest mathmatical argument against faith theology ever…”
I’m learning more and more that it is about the motive, it is about relationship, and it is about God. I hope my faith is not simply “Blind Faith”, but a faith based out of relationship with God alone. God told Abraham verbally His promise “for” Abraham, and Abraham believed God and that was the great faith that Abraham is credited with. Jacob wrestled with God and was reduced to great faith. I’m finding more that the “real” faith that I possess in my own life comes from my relationship with God and Him “reducing” me to have greater faith, not the formats, phrasologies, and beliefs of the huddled masses. It’s like my dad said, “So if everyone else jumped of a cliff, you telling me you’d do the same thing. I raised you better than that.”
Chris,
Here is the formula example you provided:
a+b=c
‘a’ can equal a promise from God, ‘b’ can equal faith, and ‘c’ can equal a desired result.
I think most faith theologies have adopted a slightly more complex formula:
(a*b)/(1+c)=d
‘a’ equals what you want from God, ‘b’ equals your measure of faith, ‘c’ equals the amount of sin in your life and ‘d’ equals the end result.
The ‘out’ in faith theologies…when things don’t go as ‘claimed’ is to blame either the person’s lack of faith or sin in their life.
If you have no faith, then what you want will be multiplied by zero and you won’t get what you want regardless of a sinless life.
If you have vast amount of faith, with the effects of muliplication you can overcome some amount of sin, but only up to the amount that you have faith.
The +1 is simply to acknowledge that none of us lives a perfect life (and besides…you can’t divide something by zero)
I think God’s formula probably looks more like this:
[a((b*c*d*e*f*g*h*i*j)/(k*l))]* ∞ = ∞
a = we ask God for something
b = with “Belief” – Matthew 21:22 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
c = Its for a “good gift” – Matthew 7:9-11 “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
d = Others support the idea – “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.”
e = Your desire is to bring glory to God – John 14:13 “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.”
f = You ask in Jesus’ name – John 14:14 “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
g = You remain in God and His words remain in you – John 15:7 “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”
h = The request will ‘bear fruit’ – John 15:16 ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”
i = It’s according to His will – 1 John 5:14 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
j = If we know He hears us – 1 John 5:15 “And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.”
k = Not with wrong motives – James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
l = If we don’t disobey His commands – 1 John 3:22 “…and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.”
∞ = The power, the wisdom, and the will of God
You guys are using logical math. I think most church concepts of faith theology fall more into statistical mathmatics. For example, a precedent is set in the Bible (or somewhere else) that everyone can heal the sick. So in a congregation of 124 people, each person has the potential or ability to achieve this act (of couse subjective interpretation decides what is considered healing or not healing) and each congregation member will react differently and have differing levels of the gift of healing. The highest level of healing would go to any one of the 124 members, The secon highest level of healing to any one of the remaining 123, members, the third highest level of healing to anyone of the remaining 122 members, and etc. Since each person could heal; however, a statistical permutation could be used:
P(n,r)
125*124*123 = 1,906,500
There are almost 2 million possiblities that anyone member could be the highest healer in the congregation. The larger the congregation, the greater the possibility. This great variance allows for great hope and great numerical excuse for any one member not achieving anyone of the top three positions.
The great thing about math is that when you are trying to be vague it is very incriminating!
love the formulas guys!