ANNOUNCER: A question from Nahum 1:7. Is this verse saying that trust and belief are the same thing? Can they be used as synonyms? What might be the difference? Friend, we thank you for joining us today. This is Grace in Focus, a radio and podcast ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. There you can find out about our online seminary with full scholarships available for students maintaining good academic standing. This happens of course because of our generous donors and you can earn an MDiv degree. Applications and registration being accepted now for our fall semester. Get all the information you need at faithalone.org/seminary. 

And now with our discussion of the day, here are Ken Yates and Kathryn Wright.

KEN: Kathryn, we got a great question. It came from an interesting verse, probably one that we probably don’t look at too often. 

KATHRYN: It’s not John 3:16?

KEN: No, it’s John 3:16. First of all, let’s read the question and who’s it from? 

KATHRYN: So the question is from Charlie and he was asking about trust in Nahum, a tiny little book back in the Old Testament that we probably flip over more often than we should. And the question is about the idea of trust. When it talks about trust, is that saving faith? 

KEN: Or is it synonymous with faith?  

KATHRYN: Is it synonymous with faith or you know, believe is trust in the Lord, 

KEN: To say believe in the Lord, trust in the Lord, are those the same thing?  

KATHRYN: And so in this passage is that what the prophet is referring to. 

KEN: Okay, let me read the verse in Nahum chapter one verse seven. It says, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who trust in Him.” So the question is, is that saying He knows those who believe in him? Is the trust there the same thing? 

And just a little bit of context in Nahum. Nahum is talking to the Assyrians and, or he’s talking about the Assyrians. And God is about to destroy them because of their wickedness. And they had oppressed His people for a long time. And this is a word of comfort to the Jewish people. God’s saying, I know what they’ve done to you. And then he says, the Lord is good. Now, obviously he’s not talking to the Assyrians. If you read the previous verses, he says, I’m a warrior, I’m coming against you. It’s not looking good for you guys. In fact, it isn’t good for you guys. But then he says to the Jews, the Lord is good. He is a stronghold. You can go to Him. And that’s when he says, basically, you can rely upon Him, even though they’re being threatened by this unbelievably strong nation at that time. And he says, and the Lord knows those who trust in Him. 

So Charlie’s question is, is trust and believe the same thing. And the answer is no. And this is an important question for a number of reasons. Because first of all, a lot of times you’ll hear evangelists use the word trust basically synonymous with belief. I mean, how many of us have heard, trust in the Lord, and He’ll save you, you know, talk about from hell. I placed my trust in the Lord. And I’m talking again of evangelists who are talking to unbelievers. 

In English, we have a problem because when we use the word trust, okay, first of all, the word believe means to be convinced something is true. 

KATHRYN: You either believe it or you don’t, In the famous words of Ripley, you either believe it or not. 

KEN: Believe it or not. And here at GES, we stress the fact that believing in Jesus means that we are convinced that He gives us eternal life. We know it’s true because He promises us. But that’s not the way we use the word trust. 

KATHRYN: I mean, some people might. 

KEN: Sure, you can. 

KATHRYN: You can. It can be used synonymously. 

KEN: Like these evangelists I’m talking about, they may mean I’m just using it as synonymous with belief. 

KATHRYN: But they may mean something else. That’s what—

KEN: We don’t know. 

KATHRYN: We don’t know. And so the issue is that trust is often used with uncertainty.

KEN: Right, we don’t know. We might say that a lot of times we use the word trust and what we mean as I hope. 

KATHRYN: Yeah, I gave the Sunday school because we talked about it in Sunday school that if I gave my car keys to my teenager, you know, if I had a teenager, and I say, well, I’m trusting you to bring my car back safely. No, that’s not certain.

KEN: Yeah, you’re going to stay up until that teenager comes home.

KATHRYN: I’m going to hand it over with shaking hands. There’s a lack of confidence, which is the opposite of what we want to proclaim when we’re talking about the offer of eternal life. We want people to have assurance and we want them to be convinced that that Christ gives them and not just hope that he will. 

KEN: Yeah. And it’s interesting in the Gospel of John when the gospel’s presented, it’s the only evangelistic book in the Bible. He doesn’t use trust, he uses believe, 99 times, it’s not trust. And so they’re not the same thing. 

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KEN: And so when we come to this verse here in Nahum chapter one, the Lord knows those who trust in Him, what’s the background here? But in this case, what does trust mean? We would say, 

KATHRYN: Well, can I add one more thing about the evangelistic part? Where you see this, I think where it really becomes a concern is when you hear someone say something like, I don’t know if I have eternal life, but I’m trusting in the Lord for it. 

KEN: I mean, that’s so horrible on so many levels. 

KATHRYN: But you hear that, you hear people speak of it. And it’s also in the future, like I hope I get it and I’m trusting that in the future I’ll get it. There’s an implication of that as well. So that’s why we’re making this distinction of how are we using it just colloquially and within our churches and it’s problematic. And so because of that, because of the uncertainty and the doubt and the fact that people are using it in this way, and because it’s not used in the Gospel, John, we encourage our listeners to use the biblical term, which is believe. 

KEN: Yeah. In fact, we would do more than encourage. We would say, don’t use trust. And hopefully just this short discussion here, you can see that in English, at least, that’s very problematic. If an unbeliever hears that, what does he hear she think when trust in the Lord? So it’s a problem. 

So when we get to a verse like Nahum 1 where this springs up from, what does the prophet mean when he says the Lord knows those who trust in Him? Well, in that context, it’s pretty clear, right, that who are you going to rely on in these difficult times. 

KATHRYN: In this situation, in warfare. 

KEN: That’s right. You’re going rely on who? He says, the Lord is a stronghold. You can rely upon Him. And the problem is that the Assyrians were unbelievably powerful at this time. And what the Lord was doing is I know that you’ve got this strong nation coming up against you, but I’m a stronghold and you can rely upon Me. 

KATHRYN: Which is difficult. 

KEN: Unbelievably difficult. And because what would you be tempted to do if you were Judah at this time, I would be tempted to say, hey, can Egypt help me out? 

KATHRYN: Which we know they did historically.  

KEN: How about our surrounding neighbors? I’m going to rely upon them to come to my defense. I know the Lord says He’s a warrior and He’ll fight for us, but I don’t see the bows and arrows, His bows and arrows, but I see the bows and arrows of Edom. I see the chariots of Egypt. And I’m going to rely on those things to help me out in this time of difficulty,

And so there the word trust has the idea, very, very strong idea of who are you going to depend upon or who are you going to rely upon? And it’s not believing a fact, what you’re saying is, this is my best option here. Okay, I’ve got these different options here, I can rely upon these other countries to get me through, to defend our nation, but I’m not going to go to them. I’m going to rely upon the Lord to do this. And He hasn’t told me how He’s going to do it. He’s just saying, trust in Me, rely upon Me. 

KATHRYN: Yeah. We were talking about Abraham and Isaac as another example, when the Lord told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham had no clue what was going to happen. 

KEN: Yeah. He thought he was going to kill his son.  

KATHRYN:  And we’re told in the New Testament, he thought that the Lord was, he just kind of came up with a theory, okay, that the Lord’s going to resurrect him. I mean, that’s an option, which we don’t, we know that’s not what happened. But that Abraham, that it wasn’t a fact to believe, it was a process in which he had to trust and obey, come back to the, he had to trust and obey that the Lord knew what he was doing, even though he couldn’t figure it out. He was like, okay, well, I know the Lord’s good. 

KEN: And that’s Bingo, because here in Nahum 1:7, that’s where it starts off. The Lord is good, okay. And by the way, in Nahum, the name for God is Yahweh, it’s repeated over and over again. He’s made a covenant with the nation and He is their covenant God,

KATHRYN: Which is what the name Yahweh means.  

KEN: And so it is, I know He’s good. So I’m going to trust in Him here. I’m going to rely upon Him. And by the way, we talked about this, before we answered this question. In these instances, trust involves work. 

KATHRYN: That’s what I, when I said it was difficult. I mean, think about Abraham there, how difficult or when you’re going through a troubled time like Nahum or another example, I was thinking is Psalm 34 when we’re told that, you know the famous verse, taste and see that the Lord is good, there it is. 

KEN: Which is very similar to Nahum 1:7. 

KATHRYN: Yeah. And in that context,  before that, he talks about times of trouble. And then he says, blessed it is the man who trusts in Him, that’s a hard thing to do when you’re going through times of trouble, which is what is spoken of there in the Psalm 34, times of trouble, Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your son, Nahum, you’re you know, this, this massive empire that’s been oppressing you, I’m going to, I’m going to defeat them, trust in me and this is sanctification stuff.  

KEN: And in Nahum, for example, how is God going to do this, let’s say I’ve been a little village is, I don’t have the promise that my village is not going to get wiped out, only that God is going to be good to the nation. Okay, he’s going to deliver the nation. Okay, fine. But is my house going to get burned to the ground?  I don’t know. I’m relying upon Him, even if that happens. And as you mentioned, even if Abraham has to kill his son, okay, God is good, He’s going to fulfill his promises. It’s not the same thing as believing something that God has said, this is what I’m going to give you or this is what I’m going to do. It’s I’m relying upon it involves work, we should not use it in evangelism. 

Well, great question, Charlie, remember, keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: Colossians 1:4, how are redemption and forgiveness connected? Come back and join us, In the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.