Monthly Message, November 2022
We humans do not know much of ourselves. The things we really know are the familiar things we repeatedly observe. Most of what we believe at any given moment we do not observe, such as our belief in Europe or the Far East. But we have built a fabric of beliefs about many things we do not now sense perceive, and we live our lives in this web of present knowledge firmly located in a web of present beliefs.
So we have at least two kinds of ideas: Things we presently perceive (our knowledge) and the web of beliefs which gives meaning and reality to the imaginations in which we hold all of our present perceptions. The Greeks called these two kinds of ideas physics (the things we sensorily perceive) and metaphysics (the unseen reality beyond the seen reality). It turns out that most of our important ideas about the reality of the universe are metaphysics, not physics. And metaphysics is the realm of faith, the things we believe but cannot prove, that give understanding to the things we can see and prove.
Every normal human being has a metaphysics which he or she believes but cannot prove. Some people have a better metaphysics than others, and this enables them to better predict the future and better explain what is going on in the realm of the things that can be seen. Since no one can prove that their metaphysics is correct, we may conclude that every human being lives by faith in something, and that something is their metaphysics. Faith is trusting in something you cannot prove.
Not all faiths are equal. Some are much better for helping the believer to get what they want than are others. Politics is largely the activity of trying to affect the faith of other persons in order to gain power for the politician. Much so called general education in colleges is the attempt to enlarge and control the faith of others to affect their politics. Every charismatic political leader is adept at manipulating the faith of other people.
But to the main point of this discussion: Faith of all kinds and for all persons is built by sequences of choices. Each normal human being lives by faith in a metaphysical structure he or she has built and maintained by daily choices. And I assert that each of these choices is controlled mostly by the heart and not the mind of the individual. In other words, people believe and act as they want to, and they adjust their metaphysics to justify what they want and want to do.
What is the evidence that the heart and not the mind controls persons’ metaphysics? Just watch as smokers deny that smoking is harmful. Many know the rational evidence that smoking is harmful, but because they want to smoke, they disregard that evidence and smoke anyway. Many know that deficit spending by the government is bad for the country, but they support it anyway because they want the short-term benefit that it brings. Many know that stealing is wrong, but do it anyway because they want to, etc.
Now the real point of all this is that faith in Jesus Christ is not for everyone because many just do not want to be like Christ. So they do not build a metaphysics which allows Christ to redeem them.
They would rather be like the non-believers and relish their favorite sins than to repent and become a blessing to all around them as Christ is. Some don’t mind being partly like Christ, but they trust in themselves to fashion a life that brings them all the satisfactions they desire rather than the pattern of the true Christian.
So the conclusion is that many people have all the evidence they need to fashion a solid testimony that Jesus is the Christ, but have no testimony of his divinity and power simply because they do not want to live the way he commends. They build testimonies or webs of understanding to self-justify their rejection of the moral standards Christ enjoins upon his faithful followers.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a moral test to all who hear or know it. Hearing about Christ from books or the testimonies of other humans is a partial test, but the full test comes only when the Holy Spirit bears witness to the individual that Christ is the only pattern of character which can be blessed with a fullness of knowledge and power unto all eternity, which is the only full salvation from this fallen world.