Why Luke 18:8 Exists
We all have faith, down to the rocks. There is not a soul or created being without faith. It is not that faith is rare, it is the kind of faith that Jesus can see that is questioned.
If a person had no faith he would not get out of bed in the morning, he would not plant or build. The poverty of some who live in subsistence culture and as hunter/gatherers are not poor because they lack intelligence.
The people who live in slums or who do the drudge jobs are not somehow less worthy than the men in the corner offices. However, this world rates people based on their accumulated assets. But the difference between the rich and the poor are not what people think it is. Neither group has any faith.
The poor lack aggression. They tend to be more fearful and protective of what they have. The poor are more about avoiding threats than being a threat.
This is why so many people remain hunter/gatherers or undeveloped. They want a better life but they hope everyone rises up as well, because they fear their neighbor and do not want to be seen as more successful than the rest of the community, because their neighbors represent a risk to them.
There are others who are more aggressive. They also see their community as a threat but they move one step forward and see the fear of their neighbors as an opportunity.
They become in one way or another, gatekeepers. They stand between their neighbors and something their neighbors want. The do this as a business or as a politician. Regardless they have no more faith in others than do their poorer neighbors. The difference is one responds to their lack of trust with fear and avoidance, and the other with aggression even if it is exhibited as covert hostility. These are the people who smile and exhibit friendship only so they can get you to lower your guard to make it easier to defraud you.
The right maligns the poor, and the left malign the right. It is a false flag operation because both groups are without faith. But without faith nothing can be rectified. How can any solution work if you see the ones with whom you need work, as the enemy?
The unforgiveable sin is our lack of faith which makes everything else impossible. There cannot be salvation without faith. We cannot build the church if we are devoid of trust.
If we do not have the church, we do not have the guidance of the Holy Spirit who works through the church. If we do not receive the Holy Spirit, how can we be forgiven?
Christians were taught to understand salvation as a totally personal thing between them and God. The church was viewed as just a place for Christians to go. At best the church was considered a spiritual thing, or what Plato would have called a Universal. But the church is not of this world, it is not physical. It cannot be composed of buildings or people. Nor is the Holy Spirit individually in each Christian. It is in the church. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am also.
Jesus sent the Comforter. But how does he comfort us other than to guide us into the sacred truth manifested as the church.
Truth is not a data point, it is a creation, it is visible or is visible when it bears fruit.
How is this done? It is done through the church imbibed by the Holy Spirit. He guides the church and, in his guidance, we bear fruit.
But how does the Holy Spirit guide the church?
We are guided as a body of believers in Christ. He guides the church, not the intellect of individual believers. We need to act as a body neatly fitted together. If we are neatly fitted together, we do not act as if we were each of us sovereign and individual identities.
The church then is a mechanism by which the truth may be made manifest and be a beacon of light to the world.
Without faith there is no church.
We ask how the church is built, or what is the measure of the churches increase, the answer is the level of faith we have. Or, the intensity of our faith. This can actually be measured as it is congruent with our activity and the amount of value we add to the creation of God.
Many Christians have rejected the idea of the Prosperity Gospel. But to do that requires either we believe that following God does not lead anywhere and has no visible result or that God does not give us what we ask for, because everything ask for has value to us. The prosperity gospel is nothing more than a belief we do better through faith than through corrosive doubt.
Indeed, despite how it is portrayed and often used, the prosperity gospel is based on the idea faith in God has benefits that can be seen and measured. The error those who preach this makes is in making it a physical thing tied to personalities, rather than a faithful church.
Doing some rite or making a purchase does not make one prosperous. The church working together is what bears fruit. When Jesus questions academically if when he return will he still find faith, he means will he find a church embracing the faith enough to create truth. If he does not find truth, how can he see faith.
Unfortunately, Christian’s have limited their view of faith to a belief in the saving grace of Christ. But how do we have faith in Christ and fear of the church?
How do we have a fear of the church if the church is the manifestation of truth? The only way there is no faith on earth is if there is no church and no truth because all those who were supposed to compose the church all went their own way, thinking that they were individually blessed by the spirit and had no need for other Christians.
Naturally every Christian will asset there is no fear of the church. If there is no fear, why the division, why are we under the law. If there was not a pervasive fear within the church, why do we look to the state to administrate our relationships.
If we do not fear those of the church, we do we buy insurance? We say we do not fear but the truth that is manifest is a truth that conveys a deep mistrust of Christian for Christian.
If the church does not trust the church, the church will begin to mimic the world because the physical world represents fear.
This is why the world is legalist. Because the law regulates fear and mediates risk to attempt to alleviate fear those who think they are at risk will gravitate towards legalist systems and solutions.
To understand this better, think of a community in which everyone works, that is unemployment is zero.
This community will have a zero-risk element. If everyone works and no ones represents a liability to any other member then there is no risk present for no one will represent a threat of loss to any other member.
If we all work, we all eat by the work of our own hands. If we all work, then no one is at risk from others. Therefore, we can all cooperate, we can all work together. There is no need for the law or the state.
That is all the difference there is between damnation and salvation, between being flesh and representing risk, and being spirit and representing love, faith and truth. The difference is people who pay their way and people who make claims against what others produce.
A simple comparison of the difference between a person of the flesh and of the spirit can be found in the difference between a parasite and a specialist. If one is not a parasite one needs to specialize to survive. This brings us once more to the issue of trust. How can we specialize if we do not trust? The level of specialization is directly proportionate to the level of trust in society.
The society that does not trust is a society that will remain primitive and undeveloped. Conversely, where there is trust, there is development. That is the impact Christianity has had on the world and why the Christian world is more developed than other parts. Christians are able to trust each other more than other people. Faith is what it is all about. Without faith, there is nothing.
When Jesus asks will he find faith, he is literally asking if civilization will still be around when he returns. And there you have the issue of Armageddon.
Do we have faith enough to build a better and more perfect union, called the church, or will everything be destroyed because faith has finally been destroyed? The answer is in the level at which you trust your fellow believers.