litmus test for faith

Ask PastorCarl blog          Litmus test for the Christian faith           4/2011                  

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Q:The reader, Jason, wants to know if Pastor Carl is an orthodox believer holding to the traditional view that Jesus was the true expression of God in human form being the second person of the trinity.

A:This has been an important issue for the church throughout all her history. The early creeds of the church; the Apostles from the 8^th century, the Nicene from the 4^th century and the Athanasius creed from the 7 /8^th century, tried to made clarifying statements to express the basic teachings of the church concerning the nature and person of Jesus the Christ, of the Father who is God and of the Holy Spirit, the advocate and comforter and who is the same as Jesus.. The necessity for doing this was that the Christian scriptures did not spell out these items or ideas in a clear didactic way.

The idea that there is only one God came from the Jewish origins of Christianity and it was clearly stated by Moses, “Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one” (Deut 6:4). This is called the “Shama” and it is recited daily and weekly by the religious Jewish community reminding them of their relationship to the true and only God...

Jesus and all his disciples were Jewish and prayed this prayer daily so how then did Jesus become a deity. The New Testament reveals that God is a complicated being. A DR G Vos, a 19^th century professor from Princeton Theological Seminary, wrote a book titled “The Self Disclosure of Jesus” in which he shows that Jesus  reveals his true identity as the  Messiah and  the son of the God as well as being a full human being during his earthly life which can be found in the New Testament. These ideas can not be deduced by human logic but can only be received as revelation. So the Biblical texts of both Old and New Testaments for the Christian church had to be understood clearly before the creed could succinctly express these truths. The New Testament language about Jesus raised these issues: Jesus called himself the Son of Man which is a reference to Messiah in the Prophet Daniel’s writings. Jesus said of himself he was the way, the truth and the life, he was the bread of life, he was the resurrection and the life, he was the living water, he was the door, he was the good shepherd. All references that only God would use to disclose himself. I know of no human who made such claims.  He also said “I am who I am” (John 8:58) which is how God identified himself to Moses (Exodus 3:14). Jesus could be charged with blasphemy, a capital crime in Israel, for making such a claim, and in fact the crowd was looking for stones to stone him at that point. They understood the seriousness of his words.

St John identifies Jesus as the Logos or Word who was God while at the same time saying he was incarnate, God in human form. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” ( John 1 :14) So is he god or a man? After the resurrection the disciple Thomas had to see Jesus for himself to be convinced he came back from the dead. When Thomas saw him he fell to his knees and confessed to Jesus calling him my Lord and my God.. Such words would not come from the mouth of a Jewish man unless something startling happened. Jesus accepted this worship and confession of faith.

The Holy Spirit is called God by St Paul and is the comforter who is the same as Jesus. There are many more texts and ideas of this nature that caused the church to clarify its understanding in these matters.

Almost on every pages page of the New Testament it talks of God in terms of the 3 persons; Father, Son and Spirit while never denying the idea of one God and never promoting the concept of three gods. The word Trinity was coined to express the New Testament’s ideas about the deity. Trinity being three in a unity or oneness; three persons yet one in being. Again not a logical concept rationally figured out but an idea received because the revelation says this is what is.

The church adopted these ideas as expressed in the 3 creeds and not to confess them meant in some circles you were excluded from the church.. There was much fighting about these creeds and Christians killed each other over the necessity of confessing them.

But these creeds did not stop the discussion of the trinity doctrine. In fact at the Reformation period John Calvin and Servetus debated these issue and eventually Servetus was burned at the stake for his heretical views.

In the 19^th century because the churches were fighting about the nature of God and the idea of Trinity, a split occurred and the Unitarian denomination was formed. People preferred to practice the deeds of the faith instead of using their energy to do battle with people who had a different understanding of fundamental truths.

I myself believe in the orthodox teaching of the church like the Trinity, the Deity of Christ and the place of the Holy Spirit as part of the Godhead but I do not believe that we are saved because we confess an orthodox creed nor are we lost because we confess a less than orthodox creed. Salvation is not understood by human rationality but it is a gift received by faith.  The ancient Christian church of South India (first or second century origins) and the Coptic churches of Egypt and Ethiopia, and the Middle Eastern churches do not express the same exact creeds that we do in the western churches. There is no scripture that says unless you make a faith confession correctly you can not be saved. If there was an early litmus test confession, it might have been the words “Jesus Christ is Lord.” This is the common confession the World Council of Churches recognizes as to what all Christian can say and it unites us as members of the Universal Christian Church. There is no absolute test or litmus test in scripture to assure someone of their faith. Through the ages Christians have created test for other to pass to be included in the fellowship. On the other hand trying to clarify doctrine and teaching is a good thing as long as it is used to help.

We are invited to believe in the true and living God and whomever God is willing to accept has salvation. None of us has the complete correct confession. The best expression of God will not be known until we are in heaven. In heaven I feel sure there will be many more surprises for us regarding the nature of God. The great news is God is gracious; God is love and loves us. The scripture says “Christ died for our sins but not ours only but for the sins of the whole world”( I John 2:1-3). So as far as I am concern everyone is invited and included in God’s plan for the salvation of the world.

No Formula for Faith

Q: What changes have you noticed in people’s religious viewpoints throughout your lifetime? For instance have you noticed people have become more or less self-reliant? More or less communicative? More or less community oriented? Do you think those changes make them pursue religious activities differently or impact their attitudes towards churches differently?

A: I have given some thought to your questions, and my response has to be anecdotal, because I do not have the sociological skills to give a more scientific viewpoint. I have the testimonies of people who believe in God, and I have my own experience and my observations. I did check out a few resources where your interests are discussed, for example NPR has a weekly program with Christa Tippet in which she interviews religious thinkers on such topics. Bob Abernathy has a weekly TV program on public television called Religion and Ethics. You can also check out The Pew Foundation, which does a lot of research and surveys opinions on the topic of religion in America. All three resources have archives which are available to the public.

Now for my own views: First of all, I do not believe you can create a formula that guarantees an outcome of “believing” or “not believing”. Every experience of life is unique. When a person has a spiritual life, it is determined by how that individual engages with the Divine and with other believers. There are commonalities in people’s faith experiences, but there is no formula for faith.

Most believers have a sense of “soul”—an inner sense of connection to God. At some point the believer’s heart or soul was awakened to the presence of the Divine and becomes aware of a spiritual reality. This awareness can bring some very fundamental changes to a person. It gives a basic security about life; the individual feels he or she belongs to the Creator of this vast universe. For some, the quest for spiritual connection includes an intellectual aspect, a rationality upon which to build a life. For others it is primarily experiential—having a transcendent encounter with God and finding emotional peace. These are not mutually exclusive experiences, and they can be complimentary.

Once the soul is awakened to God, a person of faith may choose to engage in service to others, or not; to engage deeply in community, or to engage deeply in solitary contemplation; they may focus more on how they speak about their faith than on their actions, or vice versa. And of course all of this can evolve and change of the course of a lifetime.

For some believers, finding their security in God frees them to give of themselves in service, and the institutional religious body offers such opportunity. Some give themselves completely over to a life of service, (e.g., Mother Theresa, Dorothy Day, and others less well-known.) Joining with other believers gives them a sense of community and strengthens their sense of mission. They may feel that finding a spiritual community enables them go on to become the person God intended them to be.

Not everyone fits this pattern. Some believers cannot fit into the cultural norms of a religious body, so instead they privately expressing themselves in ways that reflect their experience with God. And some believers find themselves in organized religious groups that do not offer real opportunities for service. These communities become overly concerned about doctrinal expressions and thereby ostracize others. Some may have social customs which are treated like religious precepts, which cut others out of their fellowship. Still other groups have moral codes which they feel must be imposed on others, even though the issues are not universally agreed upon.

So to try and answer your questions: it is “yes and no” at every stage of life. Many believers become more community-minded—as seen in the many synagogues, churches, mosques and temples—while others prefer to live isolated lives like the hermits of old. Many turn outward looking to be of service, helping people in their own community, as well as reaching out around the world through relief organizations. But others prefer lives of contemplation, like the monks and prophets of many faith traditions.

The psychologist Dr. Carl Jung once said, “I never met an integrated person under the age of 65”. By this I believe he meant it takes a lifetime to begin to put all the pieces of life together so it makes some sense. As people of faith age they tend to become more accepting, realizing everyone is just trying to figure life out. People who converted in their youth and found great strength in their early spiritual beliefs often later retreat from their insistence that everyone have the same experience. They come to accept other people’s spiritual experiences as valid without feeling threatened, and realize that only God can judge the human heart as to its truthfulness and validity.

There is so much more to say on these issues, but I will leave it to the experts who do the interviewing, tally the results, and write papers.