In our first article on Ephesians 2:8 we demonstrated that the faith mentioned therein is evangelical. We did so by relying upon the analogy of faith as our guide and from no quarrel that God uses the gospel in calling His elect (2 Thes. 2:13-14). In our most recent effort we narrowed our thoughts to consider the actual flow of the subject of faith traced in the Ephesian letter until we reach this precious passage. We saw that it is the inevitable position of those occupying the anti-means (i.e. conditional time salvation) position that the Apostle Paul must not be speaking of a necessary faith in 1:13, despite the fact that it is sandwiched in language suggestive of eternal salvation. Upon coming to Ephesians 2:8 it has to be assumed that a different faith (one not instrumentality wrought) is under consideration from that of 1:13, as the new birth is definitely the topic, one which cannot be labeled unnecessary. Means Baptists, and of course anyone else who agrees with them on instrumentality, however, do not so partition the Word of God. Rather, they see a consistent unchanging faith progressing from its original mention in 1:13.
To the average Christian reader who does not see “kinds” of faith for God’s elect, the question must arise: “If the faith which comes by hearing is not the kind of faith under consideration in Ephesians 2:8, what kind of faith is?”
Let me answer that as a former teacher of conditional time salvation and one well acquainted with how it partitions the Bible.
I would have to say that the prevailing view under this scheme is that Paul is treating of a subconscious, or seed faith. This is the ridiculous assertion, nowhere mentioned in the Bible, that God’s elect have faith of a sort, but it never reaches the point of consciousness. It is some sort of metaphysical substance that lies dormant within the “regenerated” child of God, yet it never reaches his mind and heart. The consequences of such a claim is tremendous! When it is remembered that even the devils believe and tremble (James 2:19), the advocates of this system are claiming, whether aware or not, that the “faith of God’s elect” is below that of these wicked agents in multitudes of cases. It is in this manner that the subscribers to this doctrine can essentially point to any character in the world and consider the possibility that he’s a “believer” in Christ. He just doesn’t know that he believes.
This is time salvation’s “new creature” in Christ!
Perish the thought!
Despite this prevailing opinion, there is another interpretation of Ephesians 2:8 I fear is gaining a foothold. The latest novelty on this prized passage is that no faith of any sort from the sinner’s viewpoint is under consideration, whether evangelical or non-evangelical, conscious or subconscious. Rather, it is a faith which God has in His Son, or that which the Son has in the Father. The text is thus to be read as:
For by grace are ye saved thru…the faith God has in Christ, or vice versa.
Now the reason behind this is very simple once one understands the doctrine of time salvation. The subject of faith naturally introduces the doctrine of justification. Since it is the chief aim of the forementioned heresy to land as many men in heaven as possible, regardless of their character, justification has to somehow be explained in a way that would put unbelievers in the class of the regenerate. The first solution to this dilemna came in the form of subscribing to the notion of seed faith mentioned above. That would be the ticket to say of many unevangelized heathens who were in truth unbelievers that they were believers somewhere deep down inside! The newest solution to this dilemma is to claim that justification has nothing to do with any kind of faith of the sinner (Rom. 3:28,30; 5:1-2; Gal. 3:24,26), but instead the “faith of Christ” (e.g. Gal. 2:16; Phil. 3:9), as if justification takes place via a faith that Jesus has! This is a novelty which I’ve already refuted, and one which even some current Primitive Baptist conditionalists cry against, thus creating a division within their own ranks on this important point.
Having come to this position that God or Christ has faith in the other from passages speaking of justification, I suppose it was only a matter of time that this idea began to spread as well to blanket those places in which faith is connected to regeneration, most notably Ephesians 2:8, a place where the traditional handling of the text has always been to interpret it as referring to seed faith.
I can personally speak to the confusion this has created. Not long after leaving the denomination I was visited by two of my good friends. One maintained that seed faith was taught in Eph. 2:8; the other, God’s faith in Christ! Despite their lack of agreement on this point, they were both united in their objection that evangelical faith is under consideration, and this was actually the only thing that mattered. In hindsight I look at this confusion and am currently reminded of the place where the Lord said “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech”.
I cannot speak, however, to how widespread this view is or if it shall grow. I can only hope that it will be curbed by the Lord. There essentially is no reason why it must be promulgated. The persuasion, though faulty, that regenerated souls have faith below the level of consciousness is more than enough to meet their objections to evangelical faith being taught in Eph. 2:8. It has always been the primary answer given as to what “kind” of faith is under consideration in those plethora of passages in which faith is united with eternal salvation. As to the reason why this latest invention has arisen I can only guess that it has to do with what lies at the root of the time salvation scheme itself: the separation of the subjective from the objective. The more and more it can be said that nothing is expected of the creature for salvation, the more and more does it appear, according to this system, to be “of the Lord”. Moving away from seed faith to God’s faith in Christ (or vice versa) it can now be said that sinners don’t have to believe in Christ, not even on the subconscious level!
This is all so tragic. The remedy to this modern-day confusion on faith lies in a simple submission that…
“…Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17)
And to a return to what our learned Baptist forefathers recorded long ago:
“The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word” (1689 London Confession of Faith, Chapter 14, Article 1)
We make a plea to our friends to put substance back into salvation. It is far more honoring to our Lord to announce a salvation in which sinners really do “come to Christ” on their plod towards heaven, than one which says they may go there in a state of mental oblivion.
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