Insufficient Faith
by
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Dad didn’t remember being airlifted to the battlefield hospital. He didn’t remember the two different surgeries when they first removed his kidney and then reopened him to close leakage. He didn’t remember the five units of type O blood they needed to give him.
What he does remember is waking up as a chaplain was going from bed to bed, sharing the gospel. Dad had been in the Marines nearly a year and said, “This man was the first chaplain I met who was actually a Christian!” Lieutenant Douglass Anderson, who enlisted right out of seminary, from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Amazingly, many of the men in the recovery room were not interested in what the chaplain had to say but dad was impatiently waiting. When the Lieutenant asked dad, “Soldier, if you would have died in battle yesterday, do you know where you would have gone?” he answered quite loudly, “Yes, I do sir. I would have split hell wide open.”
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About the Book
Insufficient Faith introduces James Bakker, a man who makes a profession of faith to be a Christian early in life. For years, he lives by this faith but discovers the distinction between holding to a faith that does not bring true salvation and receiving Jesus Christ in a way that radically changes his life.
The author, John Terpstra, weaves into this story the insights he has gained from nearly four decades serving as the pastor of the same church and seeing firsthand how people come to discover the differences between insufficient and sufficient faith.
Insufficient Faith challenges people who have an insufficient faith to question and examine themselves to see if they be in the faith, as Paul admonishes in 2 Corinthians 13:5. The novel also causes believers to present the gospel the way they must present it to follow the charge given in Colossians 4:3–4.
Jesus did not commit Himself to the multitudes who believed Him to be the Christ because He knew they were unbelieving believers. They remained spiritually dead. Insufficient Faith tells the story of a man who had an insufficient faith and who, for years, was an unbelieving believer. Could it not be true that Bible-believing local churches have such people as members? Could it not be true that others who were attached to local churches but have left the church did so because they had an insufficient faith? The answers to these questions will emerge from the pages of Insufficient Faith.
About the Author
Pastor John Terpstra, a seminary graduate, has served as the pastor of the same church for thirty-seven years. His rich history of experience in ministry shapes his writing. Terpstra currently lives in Barron, Wisconsin.