IS IT GOOD TO BE A RELIGIOUS PERSON?

COMMENT:
Is it good to be a person of faith? Well, how about this… There are many faiths in the world. We Christians believe that there is only one God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jews also believe in one God, but they believe there is only one Person, the Triune JHWH, who loves them and has chosen their nation as His own. Muslims also believe in one God, except that He is called Allah, hating the Jews and calls for the killing of infidels. Hindus believe there are many gods. Buddhists believe that the question of God does not is important, especially if one reaches nirvana, that’s all that matters. Agnostics believe that no one can in any way to know if a god really exists or not. Atheists nevertheless firmly believe that no God nor gods exist. And the Rwandan Hutus believe just as firmly that if they eat a forest dwarf, they gain an extraordinary ability to navigate the bush – which is why to this day they have slaughtered and eaten most of the pygmy population on their land… Good gallimaufry, eh? And there are many more of those beliefs!

The world encourages us to treat all of these beliefs as equal. Every man according to has some beliefs, no one’s beliefs are better or worse, we have all beliefs and opinions therefore accept them with equal respect and tolerate them equally. We Christians, then, are even more prone to add, as it were, “after all, they’re religious people too” (except atheists, of course), because “in something they’re up” and that’s great, because first of all that’s why they get saved after death, since they’re already believing people they are, aren’t they? Just… Imagine this situation: four friends get together and want to go to the movies. One believes, that the movie The Shack is showing at the Smile Cinema for 10€ at 8:00 p.m., another beliefs it’s at 4:00 p.m., the third believes it’s at 4:00 p.m. it’s at the Partisan Cinema for 15€ and the fourth believes it’s free and therefore doesn’t take any money with them. Are their beliefs equivalent? Of course not! Either one arrives too early, or the other too late, or one arrives at the wrong cinema, or the other doesn’t go to the film because he can’t afford the ticket. Only the one who believes the right information – that is, the truth, and therefore his belief is true – has no problem. The others, at best, have issues and inconveniences, at worst they miss the film altogether…

The Hebrew and the Greek word for faith (the Scriptures are written in these languages) both have the meaning of certainty – something that we have convinced ourselves is true and so we can make it absolutely reliable and unreservedly accept it. In other words – faith is only faith in the Christian sense if it is true. Faith in something that is not true is worthless, even harmful – and from the perspective of Scripture Holy Scripture, it is therefore no faith at all, for certainty cannot be false or untrue! It is not important that I am a “religious person” and “believe in something” – I must believe truthfully and truly! Only then is it is true faith, and it has value – precisely because of the truth I accept by it and that is all that matters! That is why Jesus said: “If you continue in my word, you will truly be my disciples, 32 knowing the truth and the truth shall make you free” (Jn 8:31-32 ). Notice, not “believing something will set you free” but “the truth will set you free”! He also says that “foolishness … defiles a man” (cf. Mk. 7:22-23). He also says the parable of the virgins, where the wise enter the wedding and the unwise – in the original, literally foul, dull – stay out, in the darkness. In the parable of the sower, he repeats that while the evil heart does not understand the Word of God, a good heart is one that not only hears it, but truly understands it. And it neither not to mention Peter, who loves Jesus, sincerely wants only the best for Jesus – and yet his Jesus rubs it hard in his face, “Get out of my way, Satan! You are an offense to me, for you have no sense of the things of God, only of the things of men” (Mt. 16:23 )! In other words – your faith is false because it does not correspond to God – and that makes you, Peter, though caring and loving, my Satan, that is, an adversary and enemy of God, because out of ignorance you pursue things that are contrary to God!

As we can see, it is extremely important that we not only “believe in something” but that our belief is clear, understood, clear and certain, indeed true, that it be a true vision and understanding of the world, of ourselves, of life, of God, of everything as it really, truly, and objectively is. In this, however, we are also many Christians are reprehensibly reckless! How many times have you too surely heard someone, even a Catholic, say: “I believe it this way…”, “I think it’s somehow…”, “I feel this way…”, “To me, it’s this way I was taught and this is how I believe it…”, “It’s good enough for me…it suits me…” – without verifying it in any way, if that’s really the case! In that most important question of life and death, eternal life and eternal death, in that the only thing Jesus is talking about: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and himself lose or destroy himself?” (Luke 9:25 )-they are blithely content with feelings, with assumptions, with uncertain conjectures and superstitions, and they don’t mind at all that they have no certainty! Terrible, isn’t it? Let’s be therefore very watchful and attentive, lest perhaps we ourselves fall into something so reckless!