By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
The “Name It and Claim It” theologians have it all wrong.
Noted speakers and authors such as Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, and others advocate that if you have enough faith bad things will not happen to you and you will prosper.
Evidently these “experts” are not reading the same Bible I read.
Scripture is crystal clear. Faith will not make us immune to suffering. Christians will have troubles and difficulties in our life. If someone tells you otherwise, run in the other direction as fast as you can. They are deceiving you.
In fact, biblical faith is the complete opposite of what people like Osteen and others proclaim.
Faith does not keep you from having problems or having to endure suffering. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is what gets us through the pain and suffering.
When people are taught to identify counterfeit money, they do not study the fake money. They thoroughly study the real money until they know it so well that they can readily identify the fake bills.
This issue of the Baptist and Reflector has several articles and columns about what faith is all about.
I had the opportunity of meeting some people from Front Street Baptist Church in Statesville, N.C., last week. In October of last year, six of their senior adults and 12 others were seriously injured in a bus accident near Dandridge (see story on page 1). Marvin and Sandy Boyer were two of the survivors who returned to Tennessee to thank those who helped them last year and to glorify God.
Sandy Boyer is adamant that her faith is stronger than ever despite the fact she still has a lingering injury from that accident and her husband almost died and was in a coma for months before God worked a miracle in his life and he is now on the road to recovery.
They suffered in an extraordinary way yet they are on a mission for God. They are convinced that “He spared us for a reason and that is to tell the story.”
May their tribe increase.
Throughout this issue you will find people who have undergone difficulties and trials. But you don’t need to just read these stories in the B&R. Our churches are filled with people with similar stories and testimonies.
Bad things do and will happen to Christians. Faith won’t prevent it but it will see us through.
