After having many classes and sermons on faith, one question that I have never seen asked or answered in any of them. Will we always maintain our faith and why can’t I move mountains?

Some will argue that the question has been answered because they claim the bible tell us that we can lose or turn away from our faith. They claim this because of Luke 22:23 states that Jesus is praying for us not to lose our faith. Others will argue as Peter did when Jesus told him that he would deny Christ three times before the cock crowed that they would NEVER lose their faith. I believe you should answer the question with Yes, everyone loses their faith, its when that matters.

The World Book Dictionary by Thorndike Barnhart describes faith as: "a believing without proof; trust; confidence, the evidence of things not seen ( Hebrew 11:1) Now faith is the substance of things hope for, the evidence of things not seen." KJB

The King James Bible contains the word faith 247 times in it. Many of the verses you could replace the word "faith" with "knowledge", "righteousness", and or the "Word of God". No place in these verses will you find any where that the word faith referred to anything after death. (Death here is referring to our spirit leaving our earthly bodies.)

The word "faith" appears twice in the old testament, Deuteronomy 32:20 and Habakkuk 2:4. Both of these verses you could replace "faith" with "belief in God".

The verses containing faith in them begins in telling you how to obtain faith, that is by hearing the Word of God. Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (KJV)

Other verse continues with the process of our faith by the Lord praying for us Luke 22:32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. (KJV) to keep the faith until the appointed time which is until His return. Luke 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (KJV)

If we follow the Apostle in their thinking and that is when some thing don’t go our way we think that we need to have our faith increased. In Luke the apostles asked the Lord for Him to increased their faith. Luke 7:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. In verse six the Lord replied and told them what they could do with faith the size of a mustard seed. Mustard seed to most of the apostles was the smallest item that they knew of. Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

So the question is, if the Lord tells us that with faith the size of a mustard seed we could move mountains, why can’t we move mountains then? Is our faith smaller then a mustard seed or is there some other reason or other matter involved?

Yes, there is another element in the mystery, doubt. Matthew 21:21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. KJB So the Lord tells you that if ye have faith and doubt not then you could move a fig tree into the sea. The Removal of Doubt

The bible tells us that upon us accepting Jesus as our Savior our spirit is reborn, that of a baby. To bad the body isn't reborn at the same time with different wants. So now you have the mind of a baby telling a full grown body no when he or she sees things that are not his. The old flesh is trying to do what it use too do with the old Spirit. You now have the spirit reborn in Jesus Christ and the flesh just as old as it was. The old flesh or the doubt in us.

Rom 10:17 starts us out by telling us that we have to hear the Word of God to obtain faith. Then Jesus is praying for us so we won't loose out faith and continue on by telling us that all we need is faith the size of a mustard seed. Then Jesus continues on telling us that with  our faith we can do great things: ie: move trees, move mountains, heal the sick and save the lost. We must have the faith with out doubt. God's Word continues on telling us that the only thing greater than faith is Jesus Christ Himself. We no longer have to fight to maintain our faith upon Jesus return. We all lose our faith then because we no longer need it, We have Jesus Christ Himself.

To refresh or define the word of faith. Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hope for, the evidence of things not seen." KJB We could list the substance of things we hope for that being that Jesus Christ is real, that He is the Son of God, He came to earth as both man and God, He rose on the third day. We have the evidence of things not seen. This would be the Bible and all the artifacts that is gathered in locations around the world.

The word faith is used 247 times in the King James Bible. Twice in the Old Testament. Then twelve times in Matthew, five times in Mark, twelve times in Luke, fifteen times in Act. Thirty nine times in Romans, seven times in 1st Corinthians, seven times in 2nd Corinthians, twenty two times in Galatians, eight times in Ephesians, five times in Philippians, five times in Colossians, eight times in 1st Thessolonians, Four times in 2nd Thessolonians, nineteen times in 1st Timothy, eight in 2nd Timothy, five times in Titus, two times in Philemon, thirty two times in Hebrews, sixteen times in James, five times in 1st Peter, two times in 2nd Peter, one time in 1st John, two times in Jude, and four time in Revelation.

NONE of these verses describes any time period after Jesus’ return. The reason is we don’t need faith any longer, we are with HIM.

NOTE: This list will not be the same as the above list, some of these verses have the word faith in it more than one time.

Deuteronomy 32:20
Habakkuk 2:4
Matthew 6:30 8:10 8:26 9:2 9:22 9:29 14:31 15:28 16:8 17:20 21:21 23:23
Mark 2:5 4:40 5:34 10:52 11:22
Luke 5:20 7:9 7:50 8:25 8:48 12:28 17:5 17:6 17:19 18:8 18:42 22:32
Act 3:16 6:5 6:7 6:8 11:24 13:8 14:9 14:22 14:27 15:9 16:5 20:21 24:24 26:18
Romans 1:5 1:8 1:12 1:17 3:3 3:22 3:25 3:27 3:28 3:30 3:31 4:5 4:9 4:11 4:12 4:13 4:14 4:16 4:19 4:20 5:1 5:2 9:30 9:32 10:6 10:8 10:17 11:20 12:3 12:6 14:1 14:22 14:23 16:26
1st Corinthians 2:5 12:9 13:2 13:13 15:14 15:17 16:13
2nd Corinthians 1:24 4:13 5:7 8:7 10:15 13:5
Galatians 1:23 2:16 2:20 3:2 3:5 3:7 3:8 3:9 3:11 3:12 3:14 3:22 3:23 3:24 3:25 3:26 5:5 5:6 5:22 6:10
Ephesians 1:15 2:8 3:12 3:17 4:5 4:13 6:16 6:23
Philippians 1:25 1:27 2:17 3:9
Colossians 1:4 1:23 2:5 2:7 2:12
1st Thessalonians 1:3 1:8 3:2 3:5 3:6 3:7 3:10 5:8
2ND Thessalonians 1:3 1:4 1:11 3:2
1st Timothy 1:2 1:4 1:5 1:14 1:19 2:7 2:15 3:9 3:13 4:1 4:6 4:12 5:8 5:12 6:10 6:11 6:12 6:21
2nd Timothy 1:5 1:13 2:18 2:22 3:8 3:10 3:15 4:7
Titus 1:1 1:4 1:13 2:2 3:15
Philemon 1:5 1:6
Hebrews 4:2 6:1 6:12 10:22 10:23 10:38 11:1 11:3 11:4 11:5 11:6 11:7 11:8 11:9 11:11 11:13 11:17 11:20 11:21 11:22 11:23 11:24 11:27 11:28 11:29 11:30 11:31 11:33 11:39 12:2 13:7
James 1:3 1:6 2:1 2:5 2:14 2:17 2:18 2:20 2:22 2:24 2:26  5:15
1st Peter 1:5 1:7 1:9 1:21 5:9
2 Peter 1:1 1:5
1st John 5:4
Jude 1:3 1:20
Revelation 2:13 2:19 13:10 4:12

                             Richard L. Brown