Why do new believers have no root and their faith not hold?
They have no root because they are taken into further revelations of Scripture without first understanding what went before. Expecting them to grasp advanced truth without background produces ignorance, so their faith does not hold. The learning process is slow, requiring patience, repetition, and building on foundational truths.
Les explains that this is like expecting a child to jump into a university calculus class without ever having arithmetic in school. In the same way, people are taken right into the further revelations of Scripture without any concept of what went before, and then we wonder why they have no root and why their faith does not hold. They do not understand anything; it is ignorance, and we are all guilty of expecting people to latch onto these things without background. Paul says all these things in the Old Testament, and the Gospels hooked to the Old Testament economy, were written before time for our learning—not for salvation, not for doctrine. That learning process is slow for most, taking time and repetition, repetition, repetition, then moving a little deeper and repeating more.