The sad truth is that thousands of Christians are taught to have faith in their faith by unscrupulous preachers. When these people aren't healed or don't receive what they fervently prayed for, they become angry with God. Many never return to Christianity.
I happened upon one of these wicked teachers while surfing the shortwave dial a while ago. He raved on and on about how faith is a substance and that we could grow it. According to this man, Christians lacked health and wealth because they didn't exercise faith in their faith.
What the teachers of this nonsense fail to realize is that faith means trust and that trust in itself is redundant. It must be placed in something or somebody capable of fulfilling it. After all, we trust that the money in our pockets is always worth what the inscriptions on each denomination says. Likewise, we trust that our police force will come and arrest criminals. Faith in God is the same. We place our trust in him and he gives us what we need.
As for those naive followers who place their faith in their faith, they should be pittied. They don't know any better but the preachers often do. The Bible says that teachers have the stricter judgement. That radio preacher and hundreds like him will have to face God's wrath on Judgement Day for the people they misled. Likewise, they'll have to suffer the consequences of using Christ's name as a pretext to fleece the flock.
The house church leader who conned me into believing his abberant doctrines will have his own strict judgement to bear on that final day. So will his devoted elder who chided me regularly regarding my supposed lack of faith. I'm glad I now know that the power bar of belief has to be plugged into a power source, not into itself.
I wrote extensively about that house church in my newly-published memoir, How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. Please check it out at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm.
Wonderful and insightful analogy. Thanks, Bruce.
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