In His lesson known as the Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8), Jesus concludes by asking the question, “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” What prompted that rhetorical question? It is clear that Jesus was stressing the problem that He knew many who believed in Him throughout the ages would face—the temptation to stop believing when we don’t get what we ask for when we want it.

I believe it was the late R. C. Sproul who said that, “The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe the God we believe in.”

Many claim they believe in God. And of course we know that we live in a world of millions of gods. But I can assure you that the Jesus who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” is not even slightly interested in the millions of gods. If He was, He would have spoken about them. Yet He spoke of no other gods because no other gods really exist.

This is our belief as Christians, and we must guard that belief with all of our hearts, because if that is not true, then the Christ who said He was the only way cannot be true. But we know infinitely better.

Now that we have that clear, we have to consider the reason Christ asked such a poignant question as when He comes, will He find faith on the earth. R. C. Sproul alluded to it quite succinctly. Do we believe the God we believe in?

In this episode of the LiMP, I will seek to share with you some details on what I like to call the sevenfold faith that helps us to go beyond just believing in God, and to the level Christ continually tried to get the disciples 2,000 years ago of literally believing what God said...