Faith is substantive.
People say, “Just believe it, and it will come true.”
This is not true.
If there is no truth in what you believe
It will not come true.
That is why faith is the “Substance of things hoped for
“The evidence of things unseen.”
There must be evidence.
If there is no evidence, then there can be no substance
To the hope, therefore, it is not faith.
Faith is not blind.
It is substantive
That there is evidence to believe
What is to be believed,
And that the things you hope for are true.
When hopes are true,
And there is substance to the hope,
And the evidence proves that the hope is true…
Then, there can be faith that what is hoped for is true.
Willing into existence something ex nihilo
Doesn’t work. There must be a tangible
String of real continuity.
It is what separates a mental illness
From mere anxiety.
The mental illness, there is no string of faith
To make the delusion real.
Or, rather, perhaps the faith in the delusion
Is that it is true, and that is your punishment.
Or, perhaps the delusion is positive,
And perhaps there is some faith
To believe the delusion,
And the delusion turns out to be true.
Rather, faith is convincing because of the evidence of substance
On which we hope for something.
It is why Christians are fundamentally wrong.
They cite Moses in Exodus.
But, could Moses have truly walked into those lands?
Was his people able to do so?
Were they able to conquer giants?
The answer is no.
There was no substance of good
In them, because they were all taken into idolatry.
Therefore, the movement into lands
Hostile, and filled with giant men would have been impossible.
Therefore, they all died.
Not because they didn’t move,
But because their hearts were given to idols.
Likewise, when you see a hope dangled out in front of you
And it is retracted,
The best measure of business is to assess that there was no faith
In the hope. There was no evidence of substance to be a reason to hope.
As, faith is logical—
It is not blind.
Rather, if faith is blind it leads to the kinds of issues we see today
Of men zealously trying to climb a corporate ladder
In order to garner the success they so desire.
Faith is not magic.
Faith, rather, is what is.
If something is believed so stongly
As to move a man,
It could very well be a delusion that moves him.
It is not faith.
With that, there is plenty of evidence
That Christ is the LORD.
My faith is built on moral observations
And nothing less.
The world moves,
Invisibly,
To the laws set in my holy scripture.
Men behave the way it predicts.
It tells me what I already know to be true.
It doesn’t invent a morality for me,
But affirms the one I already know.
Bad people are bad,
And must be destroyed.
Good people are good,
And must be blessed.
There are a lot of bad people who get nothing bad in their lives.
There are a lot of good people who get nothing good in their lives.
But, it’s up to good people
To make sure other good people stay good
By encouraging them,
And being there in their sufferings.
That is what separates a good Christian from a bad Christian,
Is that a good Christian will see the destitute
And have compassion on them.
They will read their law
And see violence was done away with
When Jehoakim and Manasseh broke the Everlasting Covenant.
No longer are we to slaughter infants in battle.
Rather, the patience of the saints is that they will not
Fight, nor lead a man into captivity.
Rather, it is Christ who will kill
On His second arrival.
And will He find faith on the earth?
B. K. Neifert 