Alexander Whyte:
"Faith and the Intangible "
Alexander Whyte (January 13, 1837- January 6, 1921) was a Scottish divine. He was born at Kirriemuir in Forfarshire and educated at the University of Aberdeen and at New College, Edinburgh. He entered the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland and after serving as colleague in Free St John's, Glasgow (1866-1870), removed to Edinburgh as colleague and successor to Dr RS Candlish at Free St Georges. In 1909 he succeeded Dr Marcus Dods as principal, and professor of New Testament literature, at New College, Edinburgh.From “The Apostle Paul”
Faith and the Intangible …
“Faith is such a sovereign that she has a whole universe of things under her sole and sovereign sway. As the whole world of things tangible is wholly put under our sense of touch; and as the whole world of things visible is wholly given up to our sense of sight; and as that other world of things audible belongs to our sense of hearing, and to that sense alone: so is the whole unseen world, and all that it contains, absolutely delivered over to our faith. So much is this the case, that the whole spiritual and eternal world has as good as no existence to him who has not faith. To use words of scripture, they have no substance and no evidence to him who has not faith.”Consider these references:
Romans 1:17 Hebrews 11:1-6If biblical faith is such a sovereign, our senses and our slavery to them can be a tyrant! Think of the many ways we are held, limited and bound only by the world of sense. What we see, calculate, determine to be the boundaries of thought and practice. Church history is filled with the lives of people who allowed faith to rise above sense. A casual reading of Hebrews 11, the faith chapter… catalogs a long list of everyday people who were involved with everyday activity, but somehow broke from the pack by exercising faith in critical moments of their life.
“He that cometh to God must…” (Heb.11:6) “Must” is a word that does not suit the modern man. He is used to being pampered, catered and served. He sits smugly demanding the facts before he will make any decision. We can bend our backs in effort to supply vast amounts of evidence: Archeological findings, scientific discoveries, and apologetics…all in hopes of giving the unregenerate man something to “see” in order to help spark “faith”. Many of us have stayed up late into the night talking ourselves silly to someone who could not “see” because they had no faith. And yet, gospel faith is so simple that small children bounce into the kingdom of God everyday over many intellectuals. While Paul never said, “Be transformed by the removal of your mind…” He did say, “…the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God…they are spiritually discerned.”
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