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#5.
Faith.
Head verses Heart.
pp. 45 - 47
A.--You remember our conversation concerning the nature of faith? Well, I have a
difficulty in accepting your presentation owing to the continual use of the word "heart"
in connection with saving faith. Your way of looking at it savours too much of the
"head".
B.--Let us have some of the passages which show this continual use.
A.--"If thou shalt confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. 10: 9, 10).
B.--That is one passage, certainly, and must be considered, but let us have the others
before we commence our examination.
A. (After a pause).--I do not seem to be able to discover the other passages. Yet I am
sure there are many.
B.--Perhaps the word translated "heart" occurs elsewhere under another rendering.
A.--No, that is not so, for Young's Concordance Index says kardia, heart,
158 occurrences, and that it is not translated in any other way.
B.--It looks as though you have imagined that there were many such passages, partly
because of your earlier conceptions as to "historic faith", &100: The truth is that this
passage quoted from Rom. 10: is the only one which makes the positive statement. I can
help you to add two more if we include the negative point of view. Heb. 3: 12 speaks of
an "evil heart of unbelief", and the Lord rebuked His disciples saying, "O fools, and slow
of heart to believe" (Luke 24: 25). but these hardly warrant your statement as to
"continual use". You will remember that Rom. 10: 9, 10 is contextually associated, in
verses 14-17, not so much with a miraculous interposition of God, but with such
arguments as:--
"How shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher?"
A.--What is your object in taking away the emphasis upon the heart, and transferring it
to the head?
B.--That is hardly a fair statement. You have read the only passage that there is in the
N.T. which speaks of believing with the heart, and the context immediately speaks of the
necessity of hearing and preaching in order to make faith possible. Without being