My Unusual Journal
My Unusual Journal 51
Hope and Faith – Do They Ensure Eternal Security?
In the believer's vocabulary “hope” connotes more than it does in the vocabulary of the unbeliever. Our hope in Christ is more than a mere wish; that is not what the Christian's hope consists of. Our hope is the firm expectation that what we are "hoping" for will assuredly come to pass.
Again, in the same believer's lexicon “faith” is an even stronger word. When we have faith that God will give us that for which we ask, we not only hope for it and firmly expect to receive it, but that which is not yet literally in our hands is already accomplished. It is, by the faith we have in God, in our hands before it is actually in our hands. Hope alone, the proverbial and dependable light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, cannot always sustain a worm inching along the tunnel in its wretchedness. The pains of the journey are too much to overcome; even the light we see far ahead at the end of the tunnel is not enough. But faith, “the substance of things hoped for,” transports the worm, in spirit, to the end of the tunnel so far away and sustains it despite the hard reality of the painful shards and searing embers through which it must burrow each day.
I can recall my father Bishop Karl F. Smith teaching a Bible class one Wednesday night. He made a statement, which I cannot quote verbatim because of my poor memory, but I do clearly remember the gist of what he said. The thoughts are his although the words are mine: “My faith in God,” he said, “is such that, although I have not yet reached heaven, in my mind I am there – it's a fact accomplished. I have no doubts about my getting to heaven however long away the actuality of it may be. It is already done.” He was ill at the time, yet there he was, hale and hearty, sitting with the saints in glory.
Now I'll take the liberty of explaining what he meant. My father was not saying he already had the joys and other rights and privileges of heaven while he was still on this earth, enduring what all saints must endure. If that were so, there would be no point in going to a heaven he already had attained here on earth. He was emphasizing the fact that he was as certain of one day being in heaven as if he were already there. He had the hope of heaven; that was the light he could always see far away at the end of the tunnel, assuring him there was indeed a better day ahead, but surpassing that hope of heaven, there was the power of faith.
Faith went a significant step beyond hope; faith carried him in his spirit to the far away opening of the tunnel before he had yet arrived there. Working together in the spirit of a believer, hope and faith are powerful spiritual “steroids” that will enable the one who has them to go through any obstacles and endure all difficulties. Hope and faith do not eliminate obstacles and difficulties; they make them not matter.
The exact date on which he made that notable statement about heaven is unclear in my mind; however I think it was in the late 1960's because I do remember it was at our church’s new building at 1200 Brentnell St. in Columbus, Ohio. The congregation moved there in the autumn of 1965, therefore the date of the statement had to be the latter part of that decade.
In the 1980's, some years after my father had died (1972) and finally had seen the fulfillment of his firm belief that he would become a resident of heaven despite the hell and high water confronting him, the late Bishop Arthur Brazier made a rather surprising statement. He flatly stated that Bishop Smith had told him on one occasion that he believed in Eternal Security. I never heard my father say that, but I know Bishop Brazier would not lie and I have to accept his statement. Did he misunderstand what Bishop Smith was saying? It's possible, but both men are now gone from our midst and there is no chance of interviewing either one on the subject. Now that would be quite an event, interviewing these two spiritual stalwarts at the same time – a meeting of the demigod Hercules and the Titan Atlas – not in combat, but to compare notes! But, despite man's stunning advances in all fields of knowledge, he has not yet been able to converse with one who has left this life.
Whether you believe in Unconditional Eternal Security or not –I must confess I am not yet a committed believer, being ambivalent on the matter – the evidence is abundant in the Bible that God does not wish to send any soul to hell and will go to great lengths to avoid that terrible disaster. He went to the extremes of divine love and sacrifice to save us and He will go just as far to ensure our continued salvation. I have not answered the question of Unconditional Eternal Security, but this will have to be sufficient at this time. Just “give diligence to make your calling and election sure”! (2 Peter 1.10)
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