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FAITH THE TITLE DEED
Faith has lost its
meaning to us today. Today the word faith means kind of a hazy vague belief
of some kind in something or other; the word faith doesn't really mean
much. But in God's Word it means much more than that! It is the SUBSTANCE,
it is the "HUPOSTASIS", it is the TITLE DEED!
Nearly 400 years ago, when they were translating the Greek New Testament
into English, the translators ran into a puzzling problem: How should
they translate the word "hupostasis" in the 11th Chapter of
Hebrews.
They knew from the way this word "hupostasis" was used in other
Greek literature that it apparently meant something fairly substantial.
But just a few years ago archaeologists uncovered the burned ruins of
an old inn in Northern Israel. There they found a small iron chest ...containing
apparently the valuable papers of some Roman noblewoman who had been traveling
in Israel at that time, for the purpose of checking up on her various
land holdings, properties that she owned in Israel. In this little chest
they found that most of the papers were labeled with a big title "HUPOSTASIS".
All of these papers which had the title "Hupostasis" across
the top were, guess what?--TITLE DEEDS to her properties! But this was
long after the Bible was translated, so they didn't have the advantage
of that discovery.
If you want to turn to Hebrews the 11th Chapter, the word "substance"
is just as good and conveys the message and I'm quite sure it's sufficient,
but if you want to make it even clearer and more explicit, you can write
above that word "substance", in parentheses, "title deed".
Now faith is what?-THE TITLE DEED!
This Roman woman perhaps had never seen her properties she'd bought in
Israel, but she knew she had them and she could prove her ownership even
though she had never seen them.
A friend gave me a car once; I got the title through the mail. Though
I'd never seen the car, never driven it, didn't know what it was like,
I knew I owned a car. I knew I had it because I HAD THE TITLE in my hand.
If you've got real FAITH, even though you haven't SEEN the answer yet,
you've got the TITLE DEED to it! What you asked for is YOURS; your name's
written on it, and you will see it eventually-that's faith!
9. So how do you GET such faith? "FAITH COMETH by HEARING the WORD
of GOD." (Romans 10:17) HEAR and READ the WORD!--The FUTURE is as
BRIGHT as the PROMISES of GOD!--Believe it!
David Berg
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