Keeping Faith With God

Text: Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-10, 13-16

Focus: Faith

Function:

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

Among Christian Biblical Scholars, there is quite a debate as to who wrote the book of Hebrews.

Almost all the New Testament, is written in the trade language of the day, Koinẻ Greek except for Matthew, written in Aramaic, the common language of the Jews and the book of Hebrews which is written in classical Greek.

Classical Greek is difficult and writing with the style suggested that the author was highly educated. The Apostle Paul could fit that bill, but all the rest of his writings are in Koinẻ.

The Apostle Apollos, a latecomer to the apostleship, was also educated enough to have written the anonymous book. Then there was also the Apostle Prisca. Some wonder if the reason the authorship is kept secret is because it was a woman.

That is not worth arguing except to understand whoever wrote verse 3 understood both Classical Greek and philosophy.

Although the Greeks had their own mythology that involved Deities with Supernatural powers, at the core of everything, Greek mythology believed in materialism.

Materialism was also the dominant philosophy of the Age of Modernity that seemed to have ended sometime around 9/11.

Materialists believe that the first cause of everything is matter. Matter is and has always existed.

At the time that the Ancients were pondering the meaning of the universe, physics, astronomy, philosophy and all the other disciplines that have created the fabric of human understanding of life, the universe and everything when the scriptures were being written in Greek Culture, the dominant philosophy of the origin of the universe is that matter is the only thing that has always existed.

The Logic was simple and it went like this: Since it appears impossible for matter to create itself, matter itself must have always existed. Matter is the one thing that appears constant.

And for earlier man, that made sense. As mankind learned, tested hypothesis against experience, dominant theories have become so absolute that we accept them as fact.

We have the laws of motion, gravity, thermodynamics, electrical conductivity, physiology, and so forth.

All of that learning has happened because matter and the universe appears to be constant.

But, as we have learned, it isn’t constant, and it is in flux and we stand more and more in awe of it.

Some people worship it.

But then we learned that the universe that we know is at best, according to our ability to measure, somewhere around 4.5 to 5 billion years old.

We can see microwave radiation that confirms that it all began at one point in time. We theorize that this is one of many universes that have expanded in and out of existence forever and then we realized that perhaps the universe started out as big as it seems, but we wonder what happened before it?

What is outside of the universe? Everything material has a physical limit. The Universe is material, and although we cannot imagine an end to it, we can imagine something that is bigger than it. And we question ourselves that if we can imagine something, can it also exist?

It all gets dizzying.

Except, the same thing can be said for God.

When I was a kid I used to wonder who God’s Father was. And if God had a Father, who was His Father? And where was God’s Mother? And if They had parents, then somewhere, sometime, somehow someone must have been always there.

Again, the Greeks believed it was matter.

And we Christians, according to this text, believe that it is God.

I wonder if the Jewish writer/philosopher wrote this verse, believing that God created it all because he or she knew that the logic of God being the First Cause over matter makes more sense.

Matter is inanimate. Our theory of evolution, one of those things that most accept has been elevated to fact, -one in which many theologians like me see no inconsistency with this verse and the account of Creation in Genesis- states that somehow the inanimate became animate. SOMEHOW. Scientists have a plausible theory, but we lack any way to re-create it in a lab because of the statistical improbability of success.

Anything is statistically possible, but not statistically probable. And, our Scientific experience is that matter in of itself is dead.

We wonder if it is possible. If there is no Creator God, then it must be possible.

And again, matter could not have created itself. If we can imagine a “Father” to the Father God and that infinite chain of Fathers eventually going back to the One who always was, then we can also imagine a time before there was matter. It has to be, or it cannot be because it cannot create itself.

It is a logical dilemma. The Greek mind chose matter, the Jewish mind chose God.

And the reason seemed to be superior logic. Since matter cannot create itself, then something supernatural, that has creative ability, the ability to self-exist with divine power.

Something has to be supernatural enough to have always existed.

We cannot actually prove God.

But, logic makes more sense that God is the first cause since matter could not have created itself and there has to have been a time before matter existed. Right now, we know it has existed around less than 5,000,000,000 years.

By faith we understand. The author of Hebrews make an intellectual statement to the learned minds of his or her time.

And the Author goes on to describe in the chapter a litany of people who lived and died in faith, but then we see the story of Abraham:

I want to jump down to verse 8 and start reading

the phrases connected with why he is credited with having faith:

(God) ...called him to go… ...to a different country.

Now this is huge. The tribal family was the government and the only real system of defense and security. Anyone could have killed him and there would be no government to enforce justice on his behalf.

That was verse 8. Verse 9: by faith… ...he was a foreigner. He lived in tents… ...no permanent place here on earth, a different place was home to him, and it was not on earth. We see it in verse 10:

Verse 10: waiting for a city… a perfect city… ...the city of God… ...his divine reward. He lived for the Kingdom of God.

God changed his country of allegiance and called him to live by faith in a foreign land.

Verse 13. The author adds back in others from the list that I have left out. And again, this itinerant phrase is applied to them: “they admitted openly that they were foreigners and refugees on earth.”

Look at their bravery. They choose to side with the weak and the oppressed, the foreigner and the refugees. They choose to side with the refugees. Think about that. This is the legacy of those who have faith. This is the proof of their faith.

Verse 14, They all make it clear they are looking for a country that is not their own.

Our reward, our hope is not here. We too, live for a foreign country whose foundations are permanent, in heaven, set aside for us.

Verse 15. It is not an earthly place that anyone can return to.

Verse 16: “A better country.”

Every single verse describes the hope and inheritance of believers. This is where our reward and security lies. Why should we live in fear of what happens here on earth?

Why side with those who live in fear and preach fear?

We live by faith.

And, continuing to side with the marginalized and oppressed, speaking louder and clearer is what is needed from the church today.

We are the city of God.

We are the place where the stranger and the refugee is welcome.

And if we are to keep faith with God, then we must remember that we love God as much as the person we love the least.