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Which Will It Be: Faithing Jesus or Believing Christianity?
In recent times the words “belief” and “faith” have come to be synonymous. But they really are two different words and in my experience they show up as two very distinct expressions.
Believing in modern times has become asserting, if followers of a cult or mass movement mentally assent to certain doctrines, practice, certain rituals or use certain language they will be personally vindicated from all guilt, their frustrations from injustice relieved and that their future will turn out. At its core believing seeks certitude through reason or understanding.
Faithing is a way of being true that transcends the reason’s need to understand or be right about its self, God or the world around it. Faith is “subjectivity.” Which is distinct from the subjectivism of believing that something is true because one says it is. The subjectivity of faithing anything is a state of confidence, which affects one’s way of being with others, especially when one doesn’t know exactly what to believe! It is the kind of subjective discipline that causes one to think abstractly by engaging in the inward practice of discovering the truth for one’s self.
Which is distinct from believing tradition, orthodoxy or expertise.
Faith moves in the opposite direction as belief. Faith imagines the truth, while believing seeks the objective evidence to ratify tradition and calls that The Truth!
Subjectivity concludes in faith–an inexhaustible passion that is both rationally uncertain and paradoxical. Faith calls for risk, which objective certainty detests. But this is the distinctive mark of faithing Jesus. Faithing Jesus means to wager everything on the journey of becoming true or making the truth one’s own; it therefore, requires a leap! It is not a matter of believing something there is no evidence for, but a leap, like committing oneself. “The leap” is a decision to commit one’s being totally to a God whose existence is rationally uncertain and whose redemption is utterly an offense to self-preservation!
According to Soren Kierkegaard, all proofs for the existence of God are futile. To try and prove God’s existence by means of a purely neutral, objective reason is completely backwards because it subordinates the eternal to the temporal. Apologetics is to believing as commitment is to faithing because commitment subordinates the temporal to the eternal. “Here am I Lord, send me!” God is known by way of passionate, undivided commitment. He is, an individual. He is, involved!
Faithing Jesus has nothing to do with believing doctrine and orthodoxy. This is precisely how Christianity has substituted understanding for relationship. Faithing Jesus is a life lived with and for others. “Proofs” are not only unconvincing, but irrelevant. God is spirit and therefore can only be known by spirit, in a spiritual, subjective, inward way. Christ isn’t a movement He is a relationship!
Believing is rooted in the reasons one uses to reduce the risk that life is! One knows of Jesus, but doesn’t live with Him.
Faithing is the how of one’s existence; it is decisive. Faith is revealed through commitment and commitment is the will transcending reason’s dominance!
Faithing or Believing, which will it be?
I absolutely understand the concepts put to bat in this episode. Belief leaves us comfortable, but faith is uncertainty? I almost want to say that and then I do want to say that. Sometimes I want to say things that sound true, but I can’t come up with good evidence to show them true to someone so I don’t say them. Is that a similar conflict?
I would adopt faithing, though you could not convince me to. I could only tell you that the experience of the orchestra, director and audience is so much more than the score or music theory itself. I absolutely love music theory, but I love it because of the practice it’s put into. I love how we follow those rules and we do what is supposed to be done. I love how we break those rules and envisioning something that we might have never seen before.
Did God plan for us to eat the fruit in the garden? Did he intend for us to fall? Did he have a plan for that? These are those questions I’m asking. Yes, they have been asked before, but the point is we should not be afraid of them. Though God designed the world to be a certain way He has chosen (I believe) to engage with it the way that we have chosen or made it to be. He has chosen to be with us. It all centers around choice.
I won’t make you love me because I can’t. I simply demand that you love me with all of who you are.
We have to love the tension of mystery if we desire to be faithers.
The tension of mystery can drive us buggy when we’re at the height of it.
At these moments we get to simply be, put aside our judgements of how life ought to be, and then keep our eyes and ears open to glimpses of God here and there. He’s quick how he moves in and out of the tension of mystery.
In the mean time, we root like crazy for each other – “Hang in there, baby!”
Hi Dan,
I am trying to be clear about what it is you’re getting at. So a question may help me.
Do you believe the propositions you put forth in the above post are true?
Hi Brian,
Sure, no problem. I don’t “believe” what I have written here is “the Truth.” Much like I don’t “believe” that what I am told about the “Truth” anywhere near the actuality of what a concept is seeking to communicate. In other words, the map is never the territory. What I wrote is an expression of what is true in my experience of a condition I have noticed that arises in me as well as others. The condition is thinking that because I have made a mental assent to an idea or I create an conceptual understanding, I am “believing,” the way the word “believe” is used in the scripture. So, to facilitate the qualitative aspects of my experience, I turned faith into a verb “faithing” instead of using believing.
Thanks for the great question. What were you thinking?
Dan
So I take what your saying that, these days, we should “believe” the biblical way…which is like committed and alignment of ones whole life toward the object of that belief. Is that on point?
I was also asking myself, “who/what is Dan having a conversation with?” Obviously, it is a blog but I wonder who your thoughts are directed to in particular?
Actually, I am not telling anybody what they “should believe.” I will leave that up to the experts. I am just inviting people into an exploration on what it is they are experiencing and thinking about what I am writing about. I appreciate your weighing in.
Which “biblical way” are you talking about? There are 20,000 denominations in the United States all claiming to have the “biblical way.”
I have been told many conflicting things on what the bible says about how I “should live” life.
I am committed and aligned with loving others as I would have them love me.
I am writing to anybody interested in transformation. It is on the “About” page of the blog.
I’m sorry Dan. I left out some words in my post that got us off my point. I meant to say “consider the word “believe.”" I took your post was about belief and faith. So that is what I was asking about. It seems to me that you are asking readers to consider a distinction about faith and belief. I was inquiring about that.
I was honestly just inquiring about what you meant by your post.
So I’ll try again. For example: You wrote “Faithing Jesus has nothing to do with believing doctrine and orthodoxy. This is precisely how Christianity has substituted understanding for relationship. Faithing Jesus is a life lived with and for others. “Proofs” are not only unconvincing, but irrelevant. God is spirit and therefore can only be known by spirit, in a spiritual, subjective, inward way. Christ isn’t a movement He is a relationship!”
I don’t understand what you mean here. I take from this,(what I am making up)if one were to think there are good historical reasons to hold a belief about God revealed in Jesus, then that person is somehow not “faithing Jesus.” Is that what you mean?
My general comment is that there is no way to prove (like in a mathematical sense) historical events. Thomas asked for some evidence that the Jesus who appeared to him was the same one who was killed by the Romans. The evidence, hole in the side of Jesus, wasn’t proof- could have been someone else with a wound like that. My point is that Thomas still had to believe in faith like all the rest of us do.
This is what led me to ask “who are you talking to?” In other words, who, in your mind, is out there claiming or collecting “proofs.” I assume these, so called, proofs are about Jesus but who is offering them?
I apologize again for the mix up on my last post.
Brian,
I appreciate your taking the time and energy to clarify the question.
My point here isn’t that having historical beliefs keeps you from a life lived with Jesus, but that they aren’t a necessity or even a prerequisite for such to happen. In fact, one can be quite versed in scripture, Christian Orthodoxy, pray and read the bible and miss the heart of faith.
I believe Jesus makes this point in the parable of The Good Samaritan.
Dallas Willard deals with this point elegantly in The Divine Conspiracy. I believe it is in the Chapter on The Beatitudes.
Dan
I pulled this out of your original blog about faithing:
“It is the kind of subjective discipline that causes one to think abstractly by engaging in the inward practice of discovering the truth for one’s self.”
Could you give me a recent example from your personal lif of how you faithed this way?
Hanto
Hanto,
Yes, in fact, I have been practicing this inward discipline on where I stand with regard to Islam.
I hear what the press says, what Islam says, what the anti-jihadists say and I am taking all I have seen, heard and read and searching out where I stand on this issue.
My blogs on the issue are part of that practice.
thanks,
dan
Hi Dan. Not here to gain or lose favour. I couldn’t help but post seeing the interesting conversation above. I hope I give everyone some contrast or clarity in sharing my opinions and biases on the topic at hand. I hope I give you, Dan, a preview of the passion in my convictions, part of the core from which my purposes stem.
**To anyone reading this, please understand that my perspectives are quite strong, and there is never the intention to offend.**
I’ll begin my post with an admission to my lack of experience when it comes to active participation in any of the denominations of Christianity. I will use my observations of Faith and Belief on a general sociological level. If a statement is not applicable to Christianity, please be welcomed to present your differing perspective.
~~My Religious Background~~
I have been involved in a form of Buddhism as a youth, not by choice. Since my ‘departure’ from that sect I had first dwelled my belief on atheism, with a couple of interjected moments of ‘desired faith’. By that I mean I had presented myself to places of worship, hoping to fill the void I felt with Christianity. When those particular communities proved unsatisfying, I returned to atheism with an unidentified question mark in my subconscious.
In the past 3-4 months I have found my sense of spirituality. It does not follow any identifiable religion and has yet to take form or proper explanation, but from this stance I believe myself capable to explain this feeling of Faith that I have, despite the unknowns. The non-religious yet spiritual evolution of my nature allows a unique perspective.
~On Faith and Belief~~
As mentioned above, I cannot add or comment on Christian religious experience, so, in its’ stead I will comment on the 2 mindsets of approaching new religions doctrines, titled above.
“The subjectivity of faithing anything is a state of confidence…” DT (as quoted from the above text.)
I’ll start by extrapolating from that statement with my personal definitions: I believe Both Faith And Belief, in this context, are states of confidence. Specifically, they are differing levels, with the former having inner spiritual confidence and the latter lacking it. Religion, as with everything, is interpreted on an individual level dependant on the psychological propensity of the individual.
Belief-
A state of mind seen in many (I daresay the majority) of religious followers who have low self-confidence on a spiritual level. The substance of their spirituality is based on the semantics of their denomination/religion. And, as the substance precedes the person’s motivations, we can see examples of people who follow a religion, yet are empty of faith. The term ‘belief’ thus becomes an oxymoron, as it represents belief with suspended disbelief. Here are some examples:
-People who find the need to argue the reasons why their religion/denomination is ‘more true’ than someone else’s;
-People who join or stay with a religion, not because of true belief, but to abide by local social pressures within the family or community, and gain social acceptance;
-People whose main reason for choosing a religion/denomination is for the conveniences of that group. (ie ‘I want to be polygamous and still be told I can ascend to Heaven)
-People who refuse to consider questioning the validity of their chosen religion/ denomination (ie blind faith).
The above examples are not to be taken as judgment that these people are bad people. It only serves to point out that they have failed themselves in their own search for faith because they have placed their ego before their faith, before their spirituality. Because the majority of people do not have a value system based on selected personal principles, they often adopt a value system endorsed or imposed by others (this being an apparent example of their lack of self-confidence spiritually, and often on a more general level as well). This is religion stemming from the mind, which is susceptible to the limitations of the mind’s tendency to rationalize and succumb to popular opinion as truth. In a non-destructive level, we see denominations of a religion that vary in beliefs. In a destructive level we see the mad cult-like acceptance of doctrines led by the likes of Warren Jeffs and Adolf Hitler.
There is no fault in adopting moral values from religious teachings. I’d be the first to admit that one of the few remaining sources of principle-based living in this millennium is organized religion, the others being psychology in post-secondary education, and the personal development (self-help) industry. In fact, of the three sources, it is the most widespread. The purpose of pointing out the flaws of a Belief mindset is that it is at the mercy of its non-judgmental characteristic.
Faith-
To have true Faith—Faith in the face of adversity or uncertainty—first requires the individual to have a high level of self-confidence. It must be pointed out though that strong self-confidence does not always guarantee Faith. One can have strong confidence in ability, career, or study, but lack confidence in the area of spirituality. I contend that this is because the question is too great for many to chance being wrong. The questions of “If there is an afterlife, what is it?” and more importantly “Who controls it? Does He/They judge me in the present?” shakes us on a fundamental level. When we eventually do get to ‘find out’, it’ll be too late to make readjustments; simply put, we’ll be dead.
Humans are naturally afraid of the unknown. If you believe in evolution, it is a survival mechanism to not make decisions when facts are lacking. In addition to that, when it comes to spirituality, no one has empirical evidence. Religious texts, if not fabricated, are prone to lose meaning with translation over time. Not to mention the practice of revision of the text for convenience (of the reader and the reviser). And how dare I even consider questioning the validity of my source of peace of mind? What if I anger the very God from which I gain solace? Or even worse, what if I find out it’s a sham? In the everyday, the average person would refrain from bringing to their conscious such possibly disheartening questions.
To do so requires the seed of high self-confidence. By definition, it is to draw from within oneself peace of mind and fortitude—to be confident in self. On this level, it requires grounded-ness that underlies the extraneous motivations of the flesh and of the mind. A man of Faith is thus a man who is willing to ask the tough questions of his heart, knowing that whatever he finds in his questioning will be in alignment with the truths from which his core is built on. To question is not to devalue; to question is to compare what is being presented to the existing truths in one’s conscience, whether it is mindful or on a subconscious level.
Having Faith can then be described as the result of this process. If remaining true to oneself, it becomes a continual process. In today’s culture of political correctness and indecisiveness, the general populace is unable to go through the process of making decisions for themselves and living by those decisions. They’d rather go with the truths that another person has supposedly tested without doing so themselves, and if that is the case they will not find the contented-ness that comes with having true Faith. It is a peace of mind, a “state of confidence” that comes only when one has risked it all to find the truth. To he who has that courage, he gains the reward of resting with ease on a pillar of strength that remains unmoved and unscarred, despite the deepest scrutiny. And, in the process of resting, that pillar of confidence becomes him. It is both the reason and the product of his Faith.
~~Closing Thoughts~~
It may seem counter-intuitive that such confidence can be had in the presence of ambiguity or uncertainty. That is because Faithing is not about quantity of fundamentals; its about quality. It can be seen as ‘questioning everything that you can’ and finding the answer in the returning theorem to be without blemish. The theorem may not be concluded, but of what can be verified it certainly resonates in your core, like a tree whose roots extend deep into the ground. In contrast, Believing is to accept without question, which would include the ideas that are doubtful or even wrong. In this imagery, it would be like a tree whose roots are many and expansive, but ultimately shallow. My last point is this: Faith or Belief is not really about making a choice. It is simply about the presence or absence of self-respect, the latter of which neither serves oneself nor those around him. To not live in the process of Faithing is therefore a sign of disrespect to God’s gift of life and free will.
William
Very well put – I thoroughly enjoyed your post. I love your insight and logic.
You have a system to your way of being, or so it seems, that breeds confidence. Your confidence comes through in the clarity of your words as you write.
I especially liked this comment in regards to faith:
“It is a peace of mind, a “state of confidence” that comes only when one has risked it all to find the truth. To he who has that courage, he gains the reward of resting with ease on a pillar of strength that remains unmoved and unscarred, despite the deepest scrutiny. And, in the process of resting, that pillar of confidence becomes him. It is both the reason and the product of his Faith.”
I’m assuming you’ve risked it all up to this point in your life in order to be so clear in your thinking. You seem to have no doubts.
My hat goes off to you.
Thanks
Heh. You’re too kind. In the spiritual sense, I’ve not risked it all, not like Dan has from his experience above. If one was atheist like me, the only risk is being wrong in the absense of God/spirituality.
For those who grewup with a religion, then finally risk that religious foundation by testing it and questioning it after 20, 30, 40+ years of practice, THAT would be risking it all. I’ve risked it all in other areas, but I’ve been spared the need to do so in the spiritual sense, and that is the hardest thing to do.
I am thankful that I am blessed with many wise people in my life from which my knowledge comes from. The people in my life, the people I’ve gotten to hear on stage like Dan, the people from which I’ve read. Mike Murdoch said that he’d gladly pay $1000 for a book, because you are purchasing the wisdom accrued in that man’s life.
To have access to so much wisdom from the people in the past thousands of centuries is a blessing that we have in this day and age. We must cherish it and use it well. Personally, I feel like I’ve been born 100 yards from the finish line… If I dont finish, then shame on me.
I commend you for participating in the conversation that Dan has opened up. You are risking your knowledge by hearing his ideas, and it takes great courage to do so. In doing so, we invite the possibility to gain in the questions he brings up, while experiencing the pain of the question. Confidence comes not from only from quantity of information, but moreso quality. Quantity is important to see the big picture. Finding Quality is to use that big picture, focus on the Truths that work, and working them into your life.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing your opinions and risking judgement of them. Thank you for bringing the courage to sit at this table questioning what’s being said. Your presence is valuable in the individual perspective you have, and that value is only shared when you speak your mind.
Thank you for giving me confidence in my message and telling me it has value. Confidence is best grown when it is shared. Let us share that confidence and use it to tackle the greatest questions of the lives… then use the truth found in the question to bring courage and quality of life to the people around us.