Out of all the Systematic Theologies on my shelf, I have a special love for Berkhof. When you read this work, you get a sense that Berkhof was both theologian and pastor. What he writes is not terribly difficult to read, though it will have you thinking for some time. This book, in my opinion, is a must have for every library.
Here is a sample on faith. He writes: "The certainty of this knowledge has its warrant in God Himself, and consequently nothing can be more certain. And it is quite essential that this should be so, for faith is concerned with spiritual and eternal things, in which certainty is needed, if anywhere. There must be certainty as to the reality of the object of faith; if there is not, faith is in vain. Machen deplores the fact that many lose sight of this fact in the present day. Says he: “the whole trouble is that faith is being considered as a beneficent quality of the soul without respect to the reality or unreality of its object; and the moment faith comes to be considered in that way, in that moment it is destroyed.”
I could not agree more; especially in the wake of Oprah's sermonic finally yesterday. Sure, she made reference to GOD and even mentioned Jesus. But then she quickly began speaking of God as if He were impersonal and entirely subjective, using the pronoun "it" instead of "Him". It was strange. This subjectification is not uncommon in our day as Berkhof and Machen observed. It seems one only need faith, and it doesn't really matter what or who the object of that faith is.
Sure the object of Oprah's faith may be God, but if the object is not exclusively Christ the Lord, it ceases to be true, certain faith. I am convinced it is for this reason that faith is so commonly misunderstood. The masses who place their faith elsewhere cannot see how one can be certain at all. And this is understandable. Without Christ, there is no certainty whatsoever.
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