Faith is the problem.
Blind faith is dangerous. Faith centered around experiential knowledge is not. Faith comes by experiential knowledge, or as the Greek calls Gnosis, used many times in the New testament. Blind faith is the opposite of that. faith means to know something and act upon what you know. This is not what is taught in most churches, which teaches blind faith. Also, if you have to try your hardest to keep faith, you are operating in blind faith. Blind faith is emotional, and goes by what it feels instead of what it knows (Gnosis).
If everything worked out the way God sees it then the earth would be a perfect place. However there is an aspect that even God cannot go against, free will of humans. If he could, then he would have wiped us out a millinia ago and started over. -
I come from a religious background and had to take a lot of what I had learned and throw it out the window, and start a journey on my own. I have read the bible numerous times, and can clearly see that much of what I was taught is not in there, and what was in there, was twisted to fit a specific churches or persons dogma. Since these times, I have not only learned what the bible says, but the history behind it, the personality of the people of those times. I have learned alternative philosophy, science,other religions and peoples, especially those of the East, which despises blind faith. So when I say "faith is the problem" I speak of blind faith and not faith that knows by experience. This is the kind of faith that makes it easy to operate in. A small example: I have boiled water at a specific temperature, and now I know, that everytime I place a pot of water on the stove and raise it to that specific temperature, it will boil. This is experiential faith. I believe so strongly that water will boil at that temperature every time, that I do not even question whether it will or not.
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Very well said. You will be happy to know that your definition of faith is fully confirmed by a more accurate translation of the original Greek word 'pistis' which according to Strong's Exuastive Concordance means persuasion, credence or conviction. The original meaning implied a knowledge of the truth of a thing. Something that is as certain as the answer to a mathematical equation. It is something knowable in a real sense not something mystical.
ReplyDeleteAs was said in Acts 17:11 of the noble Bereans: "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." We are expected to question the 'faith' passed down to us and study to discover for ourselves whether or not they be true. Not just accept second hand hearsay or opinions.
Also check out the first century definition of the original Greek word that all English translations have called "Spirit." I think it goes hand in hand with what you are saying. The best modern translation of the word is actually mind or mentality. As in the mind of God .
There are actually many different Greek words used in different contexts with slightly different meanings but all translated into english as spirit. And this has happened with other word groups as well, not just the 'spiritual' family of words. So there are a lot of things lost in translation.