What Exactly is “THE TRUE FAITH”?

Each religious group claims to have the true faith, and they spend their time and energy to prove their faith to be true and the faith of others to be false. The members of each church give so much value to holding on to the true faith, that they are expected to sacrifice their lives for it. They point out the example of the ancient fathers who died as martyrs to uphold their faith.

As long as we are within a community as its part, we blindly believe whatever our community asks you to believe. But if we happen to step outside our community, we take an objective perspective, and we ask the basic question of what exactly is faith, and why it differs from one community to another. Most of those who stay within a community have never had a chance to take such a stance, and those who do are looked upon with suspicion. They are blamed to have left the true faith! Here, taking the risk of being called a heretic, I am stepping outside my faith community and looking at faith with an objective perspective. What exactly is faith?

Is faith the same as belief? Often faith is seen as a synonym of belief, and the people within a community are called believers. So let us first see what belief is. It is an assertion without any evidences. A fact, however, is an assertion supported by evidences. A belief exists supported by the people who hold the belief, but a fact exists even if no one holds it. Why does a belief exist? Because the truth of it remains unknown. So, can we claim a belief to be true? Not at all. A belief can neither be proved true nor false. It has no evidences either way. Once a belief is proved true with the support of evidences, it get promoted to a fact. So if someone claims that his belief is true, how would we respond? It simply means that he believes his belief to be true.

If a certain belief is believed widely by an entire community, it gets elevated to the status of a fact for the members of that community. For example, the catholic church members all over the world believe that as soon as people die they go to a place called purgatory to get purified. For them it is a fact, but for the outsiders, it is a mere belief without any evidences. Such a belief about afterlife exists because no facts are available about afterlife. We are ignorant about what happens to us after death.

Living in this world as a part of it, we cannot have an objective knowledge of the world. We can never go outside the world and observe it objectively. Also we are limited by the limited number of senses with their limited powers. We can expand the power of our eyes using a microscope or a telescope, and it opens before us a whole new world. Thus we can be certain that the world we know is only a part of the real world. We have facts about the known part of the world, but we have only beliefs about the unknown part of the world. We know our past, but the future remains unknown. So we have facts about our past, but only beliefs about our future.

The world exists within time-space limits, and it keeps changing according to time and space. We imagine that the world exists so depending on something that exists beyond these limits because we can understand something that changes only in relation to something that does not change. Anything that moves has to be related to something that does not move. The world and everything in it change according to time and space. So we assume that the world depends on a changeless reality that exists beyond these limits of time and space. Although we assume its presence we honestly admit that we know nothing about this reality. As we exist within time-space, we can neither understand nor imagine anything beyond these limits. About this changeless reality also, we have only beliefs. Although we have given names such as God to this changeless reality, we honestly admit that we have no facts about this reality, which is why we don’t treat Theology as a branch of science.

Although we know nothing about this changeless reality, we make certain positive assumptions about it. We make these assumptions about the changeless reality relating it to the changing world. The following are such assumptions:

1. It knows everything about everything. But we, existing within time, gain more knowledge as time goes.

2. It does everything right, for it knows everything. But we, with our limitations, are prone to errors.

3. It has all abilities. But we have only limited number of abilities.

4. It has no beginning, and no end. But we begin and end.

About how the world is related to this changeless reality, we have certain assumptions.

1. The changeless reality, existing beyond space-time limits, cannot be limited by anything. So the changing reality exists within the changeless reality as its part.

2. Although the changeless reality appears different from the world to us, looking from the perspective of the changeless reality, the world is one with the changeless reality, and not a separate entity.

These assumptions about the changeless reality are not blind beliefs; they are assumptions derived from the observed facts.

These assumptions help us to live our life overcoming the limitations imposed on us by the world. Without the presence of the changeless reality, we are driven by fear--we are afraid of the unknown, of death, of committing errors. But by acknowledging the presence of the changeless reality, and by trusting on it, we are no longer driven by fear, but by confidence. Although our knowledge is limited, we are within the changeless reality, that knows everything. Although we commit errors, we are within the changeless reality that does no errors. Although we are beings with death, we are within the reality that is deathless.

This trust in the changeless reality that helps us to live a life of confidence is the TRUE FAITH. This is not a mere belief that varies from one community to another. Out of this grows a meaningful life of confidence and love.

This true faith is asserted in the traditional worship of the religions when they repeatedly affirm that God is omniscient, holy, almighty and immortal. The changeless reality is referred to as God, Alla, Yahweh, Brahma and other similar names. Being omniscient, God knows everything about everything, which makes God Holy, that is free from committing any errors. Also God is almighty, that is having all the possible abilities. God, being beyond space-time limit, is also immortal.

Whereas the true faith unites people, their religious and other beliefs divide them. Faith evolves out of in-depth understanding, but beliefs are superficial. It does not need any effort to hold a belief, but it takes committed search to discover faith and a meaningful and successful life based on it.  

Conclusion

The words faith and belief have often been used as synonyms, which is why Faith has been mistaken to be a mere belief. A belief exists about anything unknown to us, and it is foolish to live or die for our beliefs.  By the term TRUE FAITH we mean our trust in the changeless reality on which our changing world exists, and by which we are able to live a life of confidence. We don't live for our faith, but once we discover it, it serves as a strong foundation on which we can build up our life. This reminds us the parable of the two houses-- one built on sand and the other built on rock. Most of the people build their lives on the sand of superficial beliefs, and their lives collapse when they face storms. The wise ones dig down to discover the rock of faith, and build their lives on it.

Are we Slaves to our Beliefs?

Recently I wrote an article reflecting on how the concept of Trinity might have originated, and a reader responded saying that it is a mystery which our church fathers have presented to us, and all that we need to do is to accept it as such blindly without even thinking about it. This reader thought that my attempt to understand the concept of Trinity was similar to reinventing the wheel. It has already been explored and explained well enough by the fathers, and so we don’t need to waste our time and energy to do so. This reader believes that the beliefs we have inherited from our fathers need to be blindly believed, and any thinking on them is not only futile but also harmful, for there is a possibility that we arrive at different discoveries and conclusions, which is a disservice to the fathers.

The general understanding among Christians is that a Christian is someone who holds certain beliefs, which are believed to be true facts. However, the various Christian churches cannot agree on which are those beliefs. That is why we have hundreds of divisions within Christianity. What some Christians believe as true beliefs are not so for others.

Beliefs are jealously protected by the priestly class in each community. If you cannot blindly believe a certain belief of your community, and you openly express your disagreement, then you will be excommunicated. Sins like murder and rape are pardonable, but a deviation from the established beliefs is unpardonable. Beliefs, elevated to unchanging doctrines and dogmas, are believed to be inherited from the very apostles of Christ, and questioning a belief is the worst crime someone can commit. If beliefs are to be blindly accepted, there should not be any thinking at all, and so thinking is discouraged and even prohibited in the Christian communities. I have yet to find a Christian church that is an exception to this.

This situation seems to be as old as Christianity although we don’t see it in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not teach to hold on to a set of beliefs, but soon after his time, there slowly developed a set of beliefs which were transferred from generation to generation. In the fourth century, Constantine made Christianity the imperial religion, but soon the emperor had a headache facing the fights within Christianity on which was the right belief about Trinity and about the divinity of Jesus. Fearing that the empire may not stay united because of this fight, he called a meeting of bishops to decide upon which was the true belief. Of the two separate beliefs, one belief was declared right, and those who held the other belief were excommunicated. As this was not the right solution to the fight of beliefs, the fights continued creating headache to the successors of Constantine. This fight of beliefs continue to this day all over the world, and Christianity continue to split into hundreds and thousands of pieces, each piece claiming to have the right belief on various matters.

We human beings are supposed to be free, but in Christianity, we have allowed some beliefs to rule over us. We have made ourselves the slaves of some beliefs. We die and kill for our beliefs. During Jesus’ time the members of his community had made themselves the slaves of certain rules such as Sabbath and purification, and Jesus asked people to get out of such slavery. He declared that Sabbath is for Man, and not Man for Sabbath. If Jesus lived among us today, he would declare that Beliefs are for Man, not Man for Beliefs.   

So let us make an attempt to understand beliefs. What exactly are they? Once we understand the truth of beliefs, we can make use of them rather than be slaves to them.

What are Beliefs?

We understand the world around us with our mind and with the senses. As we get to know little by little, the area we know advances, and the unknown area recedes. In spite of how much we advance, there will always be the distinction of known area and unknown area. We can speak of what we know using facts, but about the unknown area we use our beliefs or opinions.  

 A piece of information can be either a fact or a belief. A fact is supported by evidences, but a belief is supported by the people who believe it. A belief does not exist if there is no one to believe it. A belief is expressed by an opinion.

This does not mean that a fact is true, and a belief is false. A belief is also believed to be true although it lacks evidences. A lot of information come to us in the form of beliefs or opinions. Later, when they are supported by evidences, they get promoted to facts.

Let us see some examples from the well known story of Jesus healing a blind man. The Pharisees questioned him about the healing. (John 9 : 24-25) They said about Jesus:

Give glory to God, we know that he is a sinner!

The one who was blind replied:

I do not know whether he is a sinner! One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see.

The one who was blind honestly makes a clear distinction between what he knows and what he does not know. Such a distinction comes out of honesty, and any honest person will make such a distinction. “I was blind, but now I see” is what he knows for sure. But he honestly admits his ignorance of whether Jesus was a sinner or not. He had no way of knowing that.

The Pharisees are not honest though. They claim “We know that he is a sinner”. Do they really know? If they were honest, they would have said “We think that he is a sinner”. They thought Jesus was a sinner because Jesus healed sick people on Sabbath. According to them, Sabbath was to be observed by total rest, and so any activity on Sabbath was a sin.

Whatever we know for sure can be expressed as a fact, but whatever we are not sure can be expressed only as a belief or opinion. There are always areas more unknown than known to us. So we always make use of beliefs and opinions than facts.

Although we speak a lot about God, we must honestly admit that no facts are available about God. So we always use our beliefs.

Also when we speak of the unknown, we speak of it relating it to what is known to us. Although we know that God is unlike anything in the world, we speak of God relating to things in the world just because we have no other way.  

Beliefs vary from person to person, and also from time to time. I had certain beliefs of God in childhood. As I grew older, my beliefs kept changing. I do not think anyone else shares the exact same beliefs as mine. Although we all use the word God, we all mean different things by that word.

Before going further, let me summarize what I have said so far. Always we have known and unknown areas before us. We use facts to speak of known areas, but beliefs to speak of unknown areas. Beliefs vary from person to person and from time to time. To speak of God, purpose of our life, etc. mostly we use beliefs because facts are not available.

What is Faith?

Jesus advised his disciples to have faith at least as little as mustard seed. St. Paul included faith in the three things that last, the others being hope and love. He also claimed that we live not by sight but by faith. He devoted an entire chapter to talk about people who lived their life by faith (Heb 11). Now the question we ask here is this: What exactly is faith? Is it the same as belief?

Faith seems to be a wider view of life, for it takes into consideration what the inner eye sees as well. With the outer eye, we don’t see God, we don’t see how we are related, and we tend to live in fear, anxiety, and depression. But with the inner eye, our vision gets wider and deeper. We see God, we see how we are related to one another, and the purpose of our life, which helps us to live a meaningful life.

Paul claimed that we get saved not by good works to please God, but by faith. By this he probably meant what Jesus meant in his story of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying. According to the Pharisee’s evaluation, he deserved to be rewarded and the tax collector deserved to be punished by God, for he lived following the moral code of his community. But Jesus asserted that in God’s sight, the tax collector was to be rewarded, and not the Pharisee. God used a different standard to evaluate them. God saw their understanding that lay deep down within their hearts. The Pharisee believed that there were two kinds of people in the world -- righteous and unrighteous, but the tax collector believed that God alone was righteous, and all human beings belong to the same category-- unrighteous. This understanding of the tax collector helped him to come to God’s presence with repentance, and also to live in peace with his fellow beings.

Thus faith is the understanding that lies deep down within us, and it is a set of beliefs which provides a foundation for our life. Faith exists at the very foundation of our life, and our life depends very much upon it. Jesus advised people to have a life with a firm rock-like foundation, not a sand-like one. It is very important to have a very good understanding of our life as the basis upon which we can build up a fruitful life. If our faith is firm and positive, our life also will be so. Jesus advised people to critically evaluate what kind of beliefs they had as the foundation of their life.  

The quality of our faith will be exhibited in our deeds, words, and attitude, just as a tree will be identified by its fruit. One doesn’t have to verbalize what he/she believes. This is what Jesus taught. But, later, faith couldn’t be exhibited in their deeds and words. James deals with this problem in his epistle. He went to the extent of saying that faith without corresponding deeds is dead. When faith couldn’t be seen in deeds, they started verbalizing what they believed. That is when all the fights based on beliefs started in Christianity, which still continues.  

 How may we deal with beliefs?

So what should be our attitude toward beliefs? Imagine that you are like a gatekeeper letting in people identifying them. Facts and beliefs approach you. Facts are on their own, and you cannot stop them. How about beliefs? Beliefs are of three kinds:

1. Beneficial

2. Destructive

3. Neither beneficial not destructive

4. Not sure which of the above group they belong to

So what will you do with them? Accept the beneficial ones, reject the destructive ones, and ignore the ones that are neither beneficial nor destructive.

We need to be extra careful with the fourth category. Most of the beliefs we inherit from our parent-generation may belong to this group. We just have to patiently make an effort to understand them. We are not supposed to discard them even if we do not understand them.

Many of the beliefs spread by the Pharisees were destructive, and so Jesus advised to reject them. Pharisees believed that Sabbath should be observed by doing nothing, and this rule was a burden for the common people. Jesus substituted it by a beneficial belief -- Sabbath should be observed by doing good deeds. Pharisees held the destructive belief that God favors good people, but Jesus substituted it with the beneficial belief that God loves all people in the same way.

I think we need to follow the example of Jesus, and weigh and measure every belief we come across. If Constantine had known this in the fourth century, the history of Christianity would have been different.

  We defined faith as a set of beliefs that exist at the foundation of our life. We have inherited faith from our parents and from the community we belong to. As children, we blindly accept them, but as we grow older, we need to critically evaluate our faith to see if they consist of beneficial beliefs, destructive beliefs, or beliefs we can ignore.

 I think we should not allow our difference in beliefs affect our relationship. A belief that disrupts our relationships is destructive. In spite of whatever we believe, still we are brothers and sisters. We are all children of the same heavenly father. Constantine couldn’t think in this way.

That God alone is omniscient is common knowledge. No human being has all knowledge. Whatever we know, still our knowledge has limit. Whatever we think right can be proved wrong later. If all people can agree on this one point, we will not fight and divide based on our knowledge and beliefs.

I think we need to feel sorry for all the divisions we caused by placing too much stress on our beliefs. If our heavenly father loves all people in the world as children, we should be able to treat all people as our brothers and sisters regardless of whatever they believe. 

Conclusion

We examined the role of beliefs in our life, especially in the history of Christianity. We allowed beliefs to enslave us, and as a result, we get divided into hundreds of pieces based on our beliefs. It is high-time we realize our foolishness and examine our beliefs critically instead of blindly accepting them all. Let us all realize that God alone is omniscient, and humbly admit our ignorance. Let us not sacrifice our precious relationships for keeping our beliefs.      

John D. Kunnathu

The Story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector-- A Fresh Look

An essay competition was given to a group of students in a school, and the essays were evaluated by two different evaluators. Their task was to find the best essay. However they couldn’t agree on the best one; each of them picked a different essay as the best. The one who organized the competition wanted to know why they couldn’t agree, so she talked to them separately, and found out that the evaluators used different criteria to evaluate the essay. One focused on the form of the essay, but the other one focused on the content of the essay. 

I mentioned this story to talk about the well-known story of the Pharisee and Tax Collector praying. It is presented as a test. Two people appeared there for a test. They will either pass or fail in the test. Two different people evaluate with two different results. According to one evaluator, the Pharisee passed, but according to the other one, the tax collector passed. Why? They used two different criteria. 

The subject matter of the test was how they live their life. Who was living his life in the right way? One was right, and the other one was wrong. 

The first evaluator used the criteria of doing good deeds that are widely accepted in that society to define the right way of life- such as pray, give tithe, and give charity. The Pharisee scored very high, and the Tax Collector scored very poor. 

The other evaluator used a radically different criteria -- their understanding of life, the foundation upon which they build up their lives. The two examinees had two different understandings of life. The Tax Collector scored high, but the Pharisee scored very poor. 

So how was their understanding of life different?

According to the Pharisee, there are two kinds of people in the world- righteous and unrighteous. The righteous do everything right, but the unrighteous do everything wrong. That is why he compares himself with the tax collector and proves that he is righteous, whereas the tax collector is unrighteous. The job of God is to find out who is right and who is not-- be a good judge. 

According to the tax collector, God alone is righteous, and all people in the world are unrighteous. That is why he prays, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!” He does not compare himself with others, for all people belong to the same category. God does not have the role of a judge here, for all people belong to the same group. God merely forgives and accepts those who approach Him seeking forgiveness-- God is gracious. 

God alone is righteous because God alone knows everything. With our limited  knowledge, whatever we do could be wrong. What we see as right could be really wrong. 

With this understanding of life, the tax collector can forgive others and seek forgiveness for his errors. He can keep growing in righteousness. As this understanding spreads, our earth can slowly become more heaven-like. 

However, the understanding of the Pharisee keeps him self-righteous, unable and unwilling to forgive or seek forgiveness. If this understanding persists, our earth continues to become more hell-like.  

In the first view, the evaluator was the same as an examinee, and so he was scored favorably. So it was a case of self-righteousness. In the second, the evaluator is none other than God. Jesus, the storyteller, and the tax collector within the story share the same views. So we may name the first one self-righteousness, and the second one God’s righteousness. The first view claims “I am right”, but the second one claims “God alone is right”. 

Romans 3

After Jesus, I think it was St. Paul who understood the importance of this distinction for the first time, and expounded it in detail in the letter to the Romans. What Jesus said as a story was explained by Paul in the form of an essay. In chapter 3 he speaks about the two different criteria -- following the law, and faith, which is nothing but our understanding of life. He argues that God alone is righteous, and all people are unrighteous- the same thing the tax collector understood. He also speaks about the grace of God, which was revealed through Jesus who willingly chose the cross.  

Romans 3 is a very difficult passage to understand. A satisfactory translation is yet to be made. Because of the complexity of this passage, it has been interpreted in diverse ways. During the Reformation, Martin Luther developed his theory of “salvation by faith alone, not by works” from this. He argued that we gain salvation not by doing good works (as the Pharisee claims in the parable), but by faith. But what exactly is “faith”? Luther interpreted it as trusting God. Later others interpreted it to mean believing certain things, such a Christ died for us. According to one interpretation that became widespread in the evangelical world, God declared death-sentence to humanity, and the Son, Jesus, took upon himself this death-sentence and appeased the anger of God to save humanity. Such crude theories have made Christianity a laughing stock to the rest of the world. 

I have tried to understand this chapter relating it to Jesus’ teachings in the parables. Hence I understand the term faith as our understanding of life. I understand grace as the same attitude of the prodigal son’s father toward him. While the older son wants a judging father, the father was really gracious toward the younger one. Jesus’ death on the cross was not to satisfy the judgment of God but it reveals the grace of God.  

Conclusion

This was at the heart of Jesus’ teaching, but unfortunately it was eventually misunderstood. If this understanding can be regained, it has the power to transform Christianity as well as the world.  

A Foundation on Rock

Summary of a Bible Study

 

Let us imagine this situation. You get a transfer to a new place, and you go there and make arrangements to settle down there. You find a house to rent. You see two similar houses side by side. Both look beautiful and convenient. One is occupied, and so you like to rent the other one. You agree to rent it out with its owner, and you return promising to get back in a week. During this one week something unexpected happened. There was a very bad hurricane with extremely powerful winds and a very heavy rainfall. Trees fell, houses collapsed, and vehicles were swept away. It took several weeks for life to get back to normal. You return to your new place of work, and you go to the house that you were planning to rent. But to your surprise, you don't see a house there. The other house, which was occupied, is still there. You go there and inquire about the house that was there, and they say that it was swept away by the hurricane. Your curiosity mounts. You ask, "Well then, how was your house spared?" They patiently explain to you how their house was constructed differently. They knew that such hurricanes would come, and they wanted their house to withstand them. So they made sure it had a firm foundation before building the house up. They dug the ground deep until they saw rock. Then they built a foundation starting from the rock. The hurricane swept away all the sand from around the house, but the house stayed there right on the firm foundation. The other house was made without a firm foundation. They did not take the possibility of hurricanes seriously. They dug a little bit and placed a superficial foundation right on the sand. The hurricane swept away the sand from around and underneath, and the house was swept away along with it. 

 

This story sounds familiar, right? Actually this is a very old story told by none other than Jesus Christ.
 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Mat. 7: 24-27.

 

A house is the life we build up. A hurricane is any kind of difficulties that can challenge our very existence. Do we want our life to withstand the hurricanes, or be swept away by them? We have the choice to build our life upon the underlying bed of rock or on superficial sand. There are different kinds of sand. Our wealth, comforts, health, our loved ones, and our reputation are some of them. All of these are good as long as they are placed around our life. But none of them can take the place of the foundation because we lose our life if we lose them. If none of them can take the place of our foundation, then what do we choose as our firm foundation? We choose God. We need to dig deep to discover God, and then build up a foundation on God. No matter how powerful a hurricane is, God cannot be swept away, and if our life is founded on God, it stays safe.

 

Health, wealth, comforts, loved ones, and our reputation are all good, and all people need them. We can have all of these to provide extra support to our life and to decorate our life. But none of them can take the place of foundation. Having faith or trust in God means having our foundation in God. With our trust in God, our life needs to be directed by God's will. Our life needs to be driven by God's purpose. We may receive health, wealth, comforts, loved ones and reputation gratefully as God's gifts, but none of these can be the purpose of our lives. God wants us to grow to more maturity aiming the perfectness of God, and we need to bear the fruits of love, joy, and peace.

 

Job and his wife are classical prototypes of those who trust God and those who don't. They lost everything-- health, wealth, comforts, loved ones, and reputation. Job's wife suggested that they commit suicide. She had her life founded on these, and she couldn't think of a life without these. But Job didn't have any of these in his foundation; he had his life on God. Job argued that he began his life as a baby without any of these, and at the end when he leaves the world, he won't take any of these with him. So these are all optional, and they don't constitute his essential being. But his wife thought that health, wealth etc. constituted her essential being.

 

Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios tells us about his sufferings in his autobiography. When he was a child he narrowly escaped death from a snakebite. His classmates made fun of him at the age of four by calling nicknames such as yellow frog and hammerhead. In high school, he lost his mother to mental illness. Later he lost one of his brothers too. Although he passed the school final exam with third rank in the state, he was denied the opportunity to go to college. In his twenties, he had the opportunity to go to Ethiopia as a school teacher. There he caught chicken pox, with which he had to live in complete isolation for three weeks in a closed room. He used to hold a Bible class for the high school students he taught in his home, and a jealous supervisor accused him for being homosexual. He was called to the head office of the Ministry of Education, and his contract was almost going to be terminated. Because his autobiography remains unfinished, we are so unfortunate as to lose the opportunity to hear about the sufferings he had to go through during the rest of his life. He tells us that he used each of his sufferings as a stepping stone to climb higher. He became one of the most influential people in the world. He became a world leader who could influence the life of the humanity. It was his approach to his sufferings that probably helped him to climb higher and higher to such great heights.

 

The story of Job and the real life experiences of Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios should inspire us to face the challenges of life. We need to face our sufferings and misfortunes positively. Let us have our foundation on God, and grow higher and higher.