Faith and Hope
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen.
We live in hope.
Hope is neither right nor wrong true of false, we hope to
be healthy to live long, and to prosper – We hope that our
church will be healthy that it will long be filled with the
life of God.
All this is Hope
not Faith. In the Word of Faith movement Hope is spat
upon as if it is unclean. Hope is treated as a whim of the
backslidden. And yet we see in this verse that Faith is spawned
from Hope. Hope is neutral There is a righteous hope and an unrighteous hope.
Elpizo or Elpis in the Greek is translated as hope.
The word Elpis is more than what we might associate hope to mean. The word
carries the meaning of expectation, and belief. The word actually
carries in it the thought of the past present and future of
a given person or object.
Hope is based on the past performance and present performance
of a person or object and from that there is created an expectation
of the future performance of a person or object
The antonym for
Elipis in the Greek is Phobos
fear. If we study
out the verses that have Elipis hope in them, we will discover that quite a few of these
verses also contain Phobos Fear in them. It seems
that the fear of the Lord is linked with Hope in God. There
is an aspect that when God speaks, that when God does signs
and wonders, we see that in some it brings forth praise and
worship and in others it brings forth great fear. We have
doctrinally in the last hundred years stated that fear is
not of God. And that fear is of the Devil. We have decreed
that the conviction of the Holy Spirit is condemnation and
is of the devil. We have taught that if the moving of the
Spirit does not abide by our manmade rules of denominational
etiquette we will declare it of the devil. We have said or
loaned ourselves to some very bad things these things do not
simply disappear even when we man them to. Even when we say
they are gone.
One
of the Synonyms for Hope is the Greek word Mneme – it means: To remember, to
recollect, to make a memorial or monument.
This building a memorial of the acts of God this testimony
of his work of salvation in our lives, within the Church,
within the Gospels and Epistles and within the Law and the
Prophets stirs up and builds up hope but if we are to let
the spirit of God have his way it will build up a fear in
us as well.
Fear worketh repentance,
and repentance opens our ear to instruction, and instruction
allows us to ask rightly and receive of God’s hand instead
of asking amiss.
Elpis is used 78 times in the Greek
Septuagint and it is used another 54 times for various other
Hebrew words. You will not be able to simply take a Strongs’
Concordance and look up Hope in the Law and Prophets, the
translators have done an incredibly bad job with this word
and inserting in the place of the word Hope anything according
to their whims.
Isaiah 8:17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from
the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. – (I will hope in Him)
Isaiah 33:2 O LORD, be gracious unto
us; we have waited (Hoped) for thee: be
thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time
of trouble. (Septuagint: The seed of the rebellious
is gone to destruction but our deliverance was in the time
of affliction)
Proverbs 23:16-19 Yea, my
reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. Let
not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the
LORD all the daylong. For surely there is an end; and thine
expectation (hope) shall not be cut off. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and
guide thine heart in the way.
In this verse we can see the
past and present performance of hope guiding the heart -- we see the rejoicing when our lips are not
asking amiss.
Proverbs 24:14 So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou
hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation (hope) shall not be cut off. (fail thee)
Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed
is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
(Shall be)
Psalm
39:3-4 3
My heart was hot within me, while
I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
4 LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of
my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
(Septuagint. 3 And he put a new song into
my mouth even a hymn to our God many shall see it and fear
Phobe-thesontai (To cause to treasure up fear)
and shall hope in the Lord
Actual Greek: 3 and He Enebalen
(thrusts upon) into my Stoma (Literally Mouth to give
utterance, to be given a command of speech, or to be given
a faculty of Language) Kainon (Newly created, new in
species new in character new in mode) umvov (song of
praise) to my God, Many shall see it and Phobethesontai
((Treasure up fear) and Hope Epi kurios (within the
Lord)
(Septuagint 4 Blessed is the man whose
hope is in the name of the Lord who has not regarded epe-blepsien
( To gaze upon) vanities Mataiotetas (Vanity, corruption,
error, false teaching) and false Psuedies frenzies
(Manias)(To utter divine oracles)
Psalm 39:3 And He thrusts upon
me uniquely created utterances, languages, and songs of praise
to my God and many shall comprehend it (comprehend it as a
sign) and treasure up fear, and Hope in the Lord.
This
is the verse that Paul used to teach the following.
1Corintihians 14:22 Wherefore tongues
are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that
believe not:
There
are those who were comprehending the signs as David spoke
these unique utterances and languages and there were those
who didn’t these were for signs for the unsaved in David’s
court now the saved Jews only hear unintelligible utterances
and they needed interpretation. Incidentally David was not
only a prophet but he had the prophet Gad by his side from
before he was king and then later Nathan was also as his side.
I am confident that Paul was aware of a tradition that prophet
Gad and Nathan on occasion did some interpretation of tongues.
And I am confident also that hidden in the mistranslations
of the Law and Prophets at least one incident had been recorded
for us.
I
Corinthians 14:14-16 For if I pray
in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth (To speak for another,
eulogies and life), but my understanding is unfruitful. What
is it (For) then? As I pray (speak for another, eulogies and
life), with the spirit, I can also pray (speak for another,
eulogies and life), also with my understanding also: as I
sing with the spirit, and I can also sing also with my understanding
-- it is (all) the blessing of the Spirit.
1Corinthians
14:39 Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to
speak with tongues.
Psalm 39:4 Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord who
does not gaze upon vanity (the corrupt traditions and doctrines
of men), nor their false oracles (regardless if their source
is an angel of God, an apostle, a prophet or a famed teacher.)
Galatians
1:7-9
But (if) there be some that trouble you, and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed.
Now that we have
defined hope according to scripture we are now going to look
once again at Faith.
Faith is different that hope. Hope
as we have seen comes from building a memorial of God it comes
from recalling his acts and deeds. These deeds can be called
up from our lives, in our church, in recent or ancient church
history, and from the word of God.
Hebrew 11:1 Now faith is the substance
of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is the sub-stance Upo – the underside of a solid object (Implies
subservience. Stasis -- to build, to stand, to set in place,
to place as a pillar
When
we speak of Faith we can not help but bring up the words belief
and obedience
What
Paul is doing here that is not clear in the English,. Paul
is actually comparing the two main qualities of Faith in scripture.
First that is invisible, and its second quality is
that it makes the invisible visible.
1) Faith is the unseen that lifts the things hoped for, and makes
visible the things that are invisible.
Hebrews 11:2 For by (Faith) the elders obtained
a good report.
The
way this verse is translated it refers to the 12 spies of
which 2 obtained a good report.
(en) In (outos) this {that which was invisible becoming visible}
the ancients obtained witness.{or had witness bore of them
(By they father).} We see that the writer of Hebrews
is speaking of a Faith that is unseen (and that of itself)
causes manifestation and by its manifestations the Ancients
obtained witness outside of themselves.
The writer of Hebrews
says earlier:
Hebrews 2:4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders,
and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according
to his own will? Because
of poor translation, we have not been able to see that the
writer is still speaking of the same subject that he was speaking
of some 9 chapters earlier.
So that in Chapter
2:4 the writer says God bearing them Witness and in Hebrews
11:1-2 the writer of Hebrews says Faith bearing them witness.
