Why do people lack root and their faith not hold when taught further revelations without background?
People lack root and their faith fails because they are led into Scripture’s further revelations without first understanding what came before. The learning process is slow, requiring patience, repetition, and foundational background. Without that groundwork, they cannot grasp the truth, remain ignorant, and have nothing solid to hold them.
Les explains this with the illustration of expecting a child to jump into a university calculus class without ever learning arithmetic. He says that is what is done spiritually: 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 or why their faith does not hold. Romans 15:4 says the things written aforetime were for our learning, not for salvation or doctrine. The Old Testament, and the Gospels as hooked to that economy, provide background. Les teaches that the learning process works through patience and comfort, and for most it is slow, requiring time, repetition, and moving deeper little by little.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.