FAITH
OR BELIEVE
CHECK IT OUT
By John W. White
The purpose of this tract is to show that the
salvation experience of Acts 16:31
is by the aorist tense of the
verb
believe and not by the noun
faith. To graph the action of the
aorist tense you would use a dot. You can make
shipwreck of the faith.
You can not make shipwreck of the
aorist
tense of the verb believe,
either you believe or you don’t. The
struggle begins when you find out that faith and works go together as shown in
James 2. There is no contradiction with Romans. The conclusion is you are
saved by the aorist tense of the verb
believe and that you please God by
living by the noun
faith.
Acts 16:30-31 “And
brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31. And they said, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
Ephesians 2:8 "For
by grace are ye
saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the
gift of God:"
James
2:14 “...
Though a man say he hath faith, and
have
not works? can
faith save him?"
ACTS
16:30-31:
There should be no
question as to the subject of this passage of scripture. This is the only
passage in the Bible with “saved” in
the question and “saved” in the
answer. The answer is simple and to the point.
Acts 16:31
“...Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved...” The verb believe
is in the aorist tense. You graph the action of this verb with a dot (·). By using the aorist tense of the verb, salvation
occurs at once when one believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not hard to
be saved. Jesus Christ made it simple and easy to be saved by His death on the
cross. If the verb believe were in
the present tense, which is graphed as a line (¾),
denoting continuous action, then as long as one continued to
believe he would continue to be saved. As soon as he stopped
believing he would then need to be
saved again. After one has believed, dot (·),
that act can not be reversed. You
can change your mind but that does not reverse the fact that you
believed and were brought into the
family of God. It is like the act of murder, once it has been done, changing
your mind about what you did can not reverse the murder and bring that person
back to life. I am thankful that Paul used the aorist tense and not the
present of the verb believe. The
only time the noun faith is used in
Acts 16 is in verse 5, referring to the churches.
Ephesians 2.8
“For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not
of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” This passage seems to say that we are saved
by grace through faith. Grace and
faith are not mentioned in
Acts 16:31, so how are they used in
this passage?
See GRACE CHECK IT OUT
The first question is to whom is this verse
written? The word saved will help us
to determine the answer. Saved is a
perfect passive nominative
participle used as an adjective to
describe the subject, ye, implied by
the second person plural of the verb
eijmi. The perfect tense is graphed with a combination
of the aorist tense and the present tense, or a (·)
and a line (¾) and
therefore it would looks like this: (·¾). The
perfect tense expresses the continuance of completed action in the past. Those
referred to in verse 8 are those who have been saved in the past and are still
saved at the present. Salvation is not being dealt with in this verse but His
grace and what it will do for those who are saved. In
Ephesians 2:7 “That in
the ages to come he might show the
exceeding riches of his grace in
his
kindness toward
us (eJgw) through Christ Jesus” it will be the power of
Christ that will get the credit.
The verb ye are is a present active
of
eijmi. In the English language the verb “to be” does not
have tense but in the Greek it does and the tense is reflected in the way that
it is translated into English. In the parable of the sower we see how the
present active of
eijmi is
translated in Matthew 13:21
“Yet hath he not root in himself, but
dureth [eijmi] for a
while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and
by he is offended.” It is very significant that the action of the
verb
eijmi can continue
for a while, then stop because
of persecution. The verb
eijmi
in the present tense is translated “dureth.”
What Ephesians 2:8 is saying is this: “Having been saved, ye endure by grace
through faith.” Verses 8 and 9 of Ephesians 2 are not dealing with salvation
because the perfect passive of
so>zw plainly states that salvation occurred in the past
and their salvation continues to the present. The gift of God in this verse is
grace and not salvation.
What is the grace of God according to 2
Corinthians 12:9 “...My grace
is sufficient for thee.... the power
of Christ.” How do we get the power of Christ. The answer to this question is
in Romans 5:2 “...we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand...” If ye
make shipwreck of the faith, then grace will not be available for us to endure
in times of testing. We need the grace of God if we expect to serve Him in an
acceptable manner. Hebrews 12:28
“...Let us have [present active subjunctive,
may we have] grace,
whereby we may
serve [present active subjunctive] God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear:” If we can not access the
grace then we can not expect to “...receive the reward of the inheritance: for
ye serve the Lord Christ.” Col. 3:24
Grace must reign. Romans
5:21 “So might grace
reign through righteousness ...”
Grace does not reign just because we are saved. The verb
might reign is
subjunctive and indicates that
grace might not reign. Grace reigns if we continually come to the throne of
grace as in Hebrews 4:16
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may
obtain
mercy, and
find grace to help in
time of need.”
Faith, a noun, gives substance and evidence to things
not seen. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith is the substance that allows
us to please God. Hebrews 11:6 “But
without faith it is impossible to
please
him...” Only the just, obedient, can live by faith. Faith gives
substance to grace. Romans 5:2 “...we
have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand...” If we do not
access grace by faith we will not have the power of God we need to endure.
There is a time when the verb
believe and the
noun faith are the same,
and that is when the verb
believe is used as a present active
participle. A participle can be an adjective or a noun. When the participle
has the definite article the before
it, the participle is used as a noun. The following three verses are the only
verses that have both the present active participle of the verb
believe with the article and the
noun faith.
[The following passages deal with the righteousness
of God that was imputed to Abraham when he believed God in Genesis 15:1,5,6.
Abraham had already been saved and walking with the Lord for over 10 years.
God told Abraham about his reward and family heritage.]
Romans 3:22 “Even
the righteousness of God which is by
faith of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe [present
active participle]: for there is no difference:”
Romans 4:11
“And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the
faith which
he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all
them that believe [present active
participle], though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be
imputed unto them also:”
Galatians 3:22 “But
the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by
faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that
believe [present active
participle].” The ones believing are the ones who are being faithful and are
living by faith. You can be saved and not live by faith or not be faithful in
your walk.
The ones Believing can stop
believing just as the one
holding [present active participle]
faith can release that hold on faith as in
1 Timothy 1:19 “Holding faith,
... which some having put away
concerning faith have made shipwreck:”
The releasing of our hold on faith causes us to make shipwreck of the faith. We need to
have or to
hold [present active participle] on to faith. To put away, depart
from, and make shipwreck of the faith is to stop having or holding to faith.
The present tense of the verb believe
can also be stopped as in
Luke 8:13 “...these have no root, which
for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.” The
present tense is something you can do for a while then stop. The aorist tense
is something that you do and it is over and done.
2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine
yourselves, whether ye be in the
faith; prove your own
selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you,
except ye be reprobates?” How can
we tell if we are living an approved life pleasing God? We have a clue in
1 Corinthians 13:2 “...though I
have all faith, ... and have not
charity, I am nothing.” This is
“...faith which worketh by
love.”
Galatians 5:6 Faith is
shown by the poor widow in Mark
12:42-44 “...she threw in two
mites... into the treasury: 44. ...she of her want did cast in all that she had,
even all her living.” She forced her
self to trust the Lord to fill her barns by honoring Him with her substance.
Proverbs 3:9, 10
“Honour the LORD with thy substance... so shall thy barns be filled
with plenty...” This is faith when we honor His Word with our obedience when
it may cost us everything. John 14:15 “If ye love me,
keep my commandments.” The verb
keep is in the present tense. If we
stop loving in the present tense,
then faith will not be effective. You can not please God if you are being
disobedient to Him no matter how much faith you might have.
When we have passed the test of faith, we receive praise, honor, and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ as found in
1 Peter 1:7-8
“That the trial of your faith...
might
be found unto
praise and
honour and glory at the
appearing of Jesus Christ: 8. Whom
having not seen, ye love [present
active indicative]; in whom, though now ye see
him not, yet believing
[present active participle], ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory:” If we have praise, honor, and
glory at the judgment seat of
Christ what does that mean? This is receiving the end of your faith as in
verse 9 “Receiving the end of your
faith, even the
salvation of your souls.”
James 2:14 “What
doth it profit, my brethren, though
a man say he hath faith, and
have not works? can
faith save him?” We are saved by
the aorist tense of the verb believe
and not by the noun faith. The
salvation in James is not the same salvation offered to the jailer in Acts
16:31. The salvation in the book of James has already been defined in
James 1:21 “Wherefore
lay
apart all filthiness and
superfluity of naughtiness, and
receive with meekness the engrafted
word, which is able to save your souls
[yuch>,
also life].” This is the praise,
honor and glory of 1 Peter 1:7.
Works in James are works of love which makes faith
profitable. 1 John 3:17-18
“But whoso hath this world’s good,
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels
of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”
1 John 4:20 “...for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how
can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
James 2:21 “Was
not Abraham our father justified by
works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?” Abraham’s faith
was tested when God told him to offer up Isaac.
Hebrews 11:17
“By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac...”
Abraham loved God and was obedient in offering Isaac as a sacrifice, and
this act of faith pleased God. James
2:23 “And the scripture was
fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed
God, and it was imputed unto
him for righteousness.” Abraham was
already saved when he believed God for this imputed righteousness. This event
took place in Genesis 15:6 long
after he had left Mesopotamia. Abraham was saved in
Acts 7:2 “...The God of glory
appeared unto our father Abraham...in Mesopotamia.”
What Abraham believed is found in
Genesis 15:1 “Fear not, Abram: I am
thy shield, and thy exceeding
great reward.” and
Genesis 15:4 “...he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels
shall be thine heir.”
Abraham “Staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief; but was
strong in
faith, giving glory to God;
21. And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also
to perform. 22. And therefore it was
imputed to him for
righteousness.” Romans 4:20-22
Salvation is on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
If anything is added, it says that what he did on the cross was not enough.
New birth is on the basis of the
aorist tense of the verb believe in
Acts 16:31 “And they said,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved...” This salvation
can never be forfeited because it is not based upon what we do after we have
believed. You can not make shipwreck of the aorist tense of the verb believe.
Either you believe or you don’t. Soul salvation, on the other hand, is on the
basis of approved faith and obedient works of love. “Praise, honor, and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ,” salvation of the soul, can be lost if our
faith does not pass the test. We fail the test of our faith when we make
shipwreck of our faith.
We are saved by the
verb,
believe, and we live by the
noun,
faith. Hebrews 10:38
“Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man
draw back, my soul shall have no
pleasure in him.”
Romans 14:23 “...for whatsoever
is
not of faith is sin.”
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