Back in the mid-1800's, there was a song written that had the refrain, "Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee 'til death." The faith that this song was talking about was what can be called, the "system" of faith. By "system" of faith, I mean all those things that Christians are to believe and obey, as it was revealed in the Bible. This is why the Bible was given to us--there are truths that we need to know and believe, and commands that we're expected to obey.
And we can know what they are. In Ephesians 4:3, 4, Paul wrote, "that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ..." The word mystery used here is just referring to something that is hidden--when it is revealed, it isn't a mystery anymore. Paul said that as they read what he had written earlier in the letter, they would understand what had been revealed to him about the Christ. Words have meaning, and he expected what he had written to be understood.
Its this "system" of faith that Jude spoke of in Jude 3, when he wrote, "Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints." Christians are to contend for the faith and stand against those who would corrupt the church.
Look in Galatians 1:22-23. Here, Paul the apostle recounted that he, "...was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but only, they kept hearing, He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy." The churches in Judea up to that time hadn't seen Paul, but kept hearing that this fellow that had tried to destroy the faith--this "system" of faith--was now preaching it!
Now turn in your Bible to Acts 6:7. Here, we find that "The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith." They were obedient to that "system" of faith--again, it's all those things that Christians are to believe and obey.
In this sense, the faith of our fathers (that's to say, those who have gone before us) is something that Christians should, even must, be willing to give everything for--including our lives.
In Matthew 10:34-38, Jesus taught, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me."
Now, when Jesus said that He came to bring a sword, He wasn't talking about physical violence; this is clear from passages like John 18:11. There, Peter took a sword and cut off the ear of one of those who were taking Jesus prisoner, but Jesus said, "Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" Later, in verse 36, Jesus told the man acting as his judge, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm."
Christianity isn't about physical warfare at all. Contending for the faith isn't fighting physical battles; but it can mean division--at times, even within families. At times, "A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD". But if instead, we reject Christ because of our families--if we don't obey his word because it might hurt their feelings, or make them angry, or even cause them to disown us--if we reject him, we will ourselves be rejected in the end. Jesus tells us that in Luke 9:26: "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."
So, in this sense, we must hold to the faith of our fathers.
But often, it seems that we don't hold to the faith of our fathers, but rather we have faith in our fathers themselves. We don't hold to the faith revealed in scriptures; but we hold to the faith of our parents. We hold to that which we've always been taught. We just assume that what we've always done is acceptable to God, simply because that's what we've always done. Perhaps we've always believed the way we have thinking that, "we've never had a reason to doubt our teacher before."
If we call ourselves Christians, we must ask ourselves, "why do we believe what we believe? Why do we worship the God of Heaven the way we do?" The fact is, if we haven't studied these issues from scripture--and I mean scripture; not simply reading commentary on scripture, or listening to a preacher talking about scripture, or reading a newsletter that happens to contain scripture--if we haven't studied the issue from the scriptures themselves, our faith is in men, and not in God who made man. Commentaries are good, and can help us to understand the scriptures better, as can preachers and newsletters--but none of them are inspired. The Bible alone is the very word of God, and we need to compare the words of men with what it has to say.
Why is it important to reflect on our beliefs? It's dangerous not to! We can have a great zeal for God and still not be acceptable to Him. Turn to Romans 10:1-3. Paul wrote, "Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them [i.e. the Jews] is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." He loved the Jews--after all, he was physically Jewish himself--but he knew that they were not right with God. Like them, we can be zealous for God, but lack knowledge--and as a result, stand condemned.
We can also sincerely believe that what we are doing is right, and not be pleasing to God. When defending himself before the Jews, In Acts 23:1 Paul was able to say, "Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day." But that didn't mean he had always acted in accordance with the will of God. Now, he never acted against his conscience--whenever he did something, he did it thinking that he was doing what God wanted him to do. In fact, he said in Acts 26:9-11, "...I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities." Also, in chapter 22:4, 20, "I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons..." and, "...when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him." His conscience was clean because he thought he was doing what God wanted him to do, but it was trained improperly. Because he had done these things, he wrote in 1 Timothy 1:15 that he was the foremost of sinners. When Paul was committing these wicked acts, he was not right in God's sight. You see, sincerity and a clean conscience simply do not guarantee that what you are doing is right in God's sight.
Look in Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" There will be those at the end of time who really think they did great works for God--but they'll be surprised. They were doing things that God didn't authorize them to do; they were practicing lawlessness, and it's not possible to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven and not obey its laws.
Imagine that there is a man who comes to meet with a congregation of people. Now, currently, these people are not acting in accordance with God's will; but they are willing to listen to the man, and everyday, they compare what he says about the Christ with what the scriptures have to say. Because of their honesty and willingness to study, many of them come to believe what he has to say. They've come to a proper understanding of God's word, and it is scripture alone that was the standard used to determine whether what he said was truth or falsehood.
It is possible for us to understand what God wants us to do, and we can learn in by studying the scriptures alone! How do I know it? The scenario we've just imagined actually happened; and it's recorded in the Bible, Acts 17:10-12. Read with me: "The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men." The teacher was the apostle Paul, and many of the Jews believed him--but it wasn't simply because he told them so; rather, it was because what he said about Jesus agreed with the scriptures. They came to a proper understanding of God's word, and it was scripture alone that was the standard used to determine whether what he said was truth or falsehood.
Friends, there is nothing wrong with holding on to, and contending for, that "system" of faith as revealed in the scriptures; in fact, we're commanded to do so. But to do so, we must study God's word--the Bible. If we have faith in our fathers rather than the faith of our fathers; if we don't compare what we have been taught to the truth of Gods word, it may be that we will practice error until the day we die--and in the end, we'll hear the words "I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS."
Paul had a special friendship with a young man named Timothy, and considered him his "son in the faith". He wrote to him in 2 Timothy 2:15: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." We also need to be diligent to present ourselves to God as unashamed workmen--by being able to accurately handle the word of God. We can only do that if we study it. As a good friend of mine once said, "you need to get your head into the Book, and the Book into your head."
