Godless Faith

by Oleg Kostyuk

And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. (Matthew 17:14-20)

What happened to the faith of Jesus’ disciples? They were constantly with Jesus but they did not always have faith. Who, if not the disciples should have had real faith. Jesus looked in their eyes and told them: “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” I hear the same words of Jesus addressed to me. What happened to my faith? Where is my faith? Did I lose it?

In the book Gaily The Troubadour, published in 1936, Arthur Guiterman wrote the poem, which vividly describes current condition of our world:

First dentistry was painless; Then bicycles were chainless And carriages were horseless
/address>And many laws, enforceless. Next, cookery was fireless,
/ddress>Telegraphy was wireless, Cigars were nicotineless
/dress>And coffee, caffeinless. Soon oranges were seedless,
/drss>The putting green was weedless, The college boy hatless,
/drs>The proper diet, fatless,