Unbelievable
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 KJV
Faith – We don’t have to revisit the modern dilution of this text. That’s already been done. But just a reminder. When the NASB and the NIV and others choose to render this verse something like, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” they follow Melanchthon’s suggestion to Luther and turn the whole subject of faith into some kind of mental assent. Faith becomes that inner, warm, fuzzy feeling that convinces me I must be right. Baloney! This is not biblical faith. Biblical faith isn’t about “assurance.” It’s about evidence! And that means it takes intellectual guts to understand it. The very last thing the Bible asks of us is a faith in faith, a blind leap into the irrational.
Blind faith is intellect’s most deadliest foe. Intellect that would surrender to faith has forfeited its very nature. True faith is intellect’s most vital partner. To travel beyond its boundaries, intellect must find a vision that transcends itself. That is the meaning of true faith: A perspective that surpasses the field of intellect’s vision, a sense that there is something not only unknown, but unknowable; something before which all our knowledge is an infinitesimal point of nothingness. And so, the mind that fears faith will choose a truth which is most comfortable, while the mind that has found a partner in faith will choose truth that is absolute.[1]
Faith begins with the word ‘aman, found in the derivatives emunah, ‘amen and emeth. This is a decidedly Hebrew word which is ultimately about reliability, trustworthiness and security. In contrast to human behavior, YHVH is totally reliable. In other words, He never breaks a promise. Therefore, His word is the epitome of trustworthiness. Jepsen notes: “Anyone who was not prepared to take God’s promises seriously perished.”[2] What does it mean to take God’s promises seriously? The text is replete with examples, from Abraham to David. To take God’s promises seriously is to act upon them. It is not to assent to their correctness or recite their formulations. It is to do what they require. The biblical text is a collection of the evidence of God’s unwavering promise-keeping. It never asks us to believe as a matter of sheer willpower. It does not require abandoning reason in order to leap into the mystical void. It provides story after story, event after event of God’s continuity. Ultimately, this characteristic of God must also become a characteristic of those who claim to follow him. “ . . .: ‘emeth is that on which others can rely. To this extent, ‘emeth involves a personal relationship, it is not merely an objective fact.”[3] Until our lives reflect absolute reliability in all our relationships, we have not yet embraced the fullness God has in store for us.
Topical Index: ‘aman, emunah, ‘amen, emeth, faith, reliability, Hebrews 11:1
[1] Maamar Bayom Ashtei Assar, Chabad.org, “Daily Dose: Intelligence Liberated”
[2] Alfred Jepsen, ‘aman, TDOT, Vol. 1, p. 304.
[3] Ibid., p. 313.
I have been reflecting recently on how all our institutions are constructed upon the basis of Greek certainty: Our educational, religious, medical, legal and social contracts are about the agreement with MENTAL constructs. We ‘pass’ each other through these realms with tests that measure mental compliance to statements that are transmitted mentally. This is a society so thoroughly grounded on Cartesian dualism, where the experience of the mind is so completely and insidiously divorced from the experience of the body, that we will disbelieve(!) bodily experience over what we have been ‘taught’ mentally. Thus, people can walk out of the halls of education, religion, medicine, law and other institutions with pieces of paper that assure them of a slot in reality that may or may NOT actually match that reality, but, because they have not been given the tools of logical examination of experience, they have no way of ascertaining for themselves if, in fact, they are actually functioning in that reality.
I just about went crazy trying to implement, in these mental institutions, a mental construct for reality that was NOT MATCHING my experience in that reality. For example, I went to church and ‘learned’ love, but that learning did not cross over into my reality. This is not to say that the WORDS we learn are ‘wrong’ models of reality; it is to say that to put it in the mind is not the same thing as to put it into practice.
I could bore everybody with copious examples of how we crippled eunuchs end up – because we have not been given or modeled the basic tools to learn from experience – repeating the same actions over and over expecting different results in all these areas, with no basis for change. Because learning from experience in reality was never on the tests, we don’t know to recognize its legitimacy in life.
We already chose to be limited to learning from direct experience in the Garden, but I think we have been falling for the temptation ever since to avoid the implications of that limitation. The attempt to foster the intellectual vanity of thinking we can bypass the limitations of that choice is, I believe, to blame for a large part of our woes in modern society. I think the Garden has taught me that we learn from experience (or, vicariously, from the experience – “witness” of others). Period. Everything else may all be vanity. Thoreau wrote that institutions spring up from lulls in the wind of truth, but that the wind will eventually blow them down again. I want to ask, what institution has ever lasted on this planet?
Skip, the experience of thought in the mind is a real experience, no doubt. We need to be as vigorous in our thoughts as we are in all our other actions, and I believe that we have been told in no uncertain terms that the secret intents and thoughts will be judged one day, too. However, if we for ONE MINUTE forget that those thoughts are actual extensions of larger realities; forget that all thought has a corollary in reality that will manifest in the physical, bodily realm, too, and so forget to include the injunction to “test everything” – and, no, I don’t think that just means to run it through another mental battery – we will have gone nowhere. If thought does not work in reality, it is vanity. I would like to say, if you want to convince me, get it out of its box. I want to see it run around on its own legs before I buy it.
Here is the new way I have been learning; think a thought – go act on it. If the action does not match the thought, adjust and rethink according to the feedback loop reality provides. Humility is the art of remembering that we are linked to the dirt – to the experience of the earth around us. A mental construct can sound oh, so right, but that might just be because we were conditioned in one of those mental institutions that we have built for ourselves because if we forget about the humus part we may merely find ourselves in another Tower of Babel, suffering from scrambled speech. I think history proves that that tower was just another mental institution, too.
Having now read your words dear sister I marvel now , as I always have, how when hearts are joined in community they begin to share a rythem together. Perhaps the spirit lead me to post before reading acknowledging that my life has proven your words and experiance are true to real life? My mother’s intelectual, highly educated, superior “Greek” thinking actually wrecked our lives, it was wrong. But I was lead into true Life and that now is along a Hebraic Torah honoring way with the Messiah of Isreal . My testimony is that it is a true, real and trustworthy way to find real life “and that to the full”. And the following is also true. When as a young architecture student I traveled a summer through Italy ending my trip in Athens. On the ship from Brendissi to Corfu I met another young traveler actually named Michael Fortune. He told me ” I will walk hundreds of miles to hear a true word from The Man” As Michael and I where walking about the Isle of Paxos near the town of Logos he said. ” The secrets to life are simple and they are on your own hand.” He then closed each finger into his palm starting with his pinkie saying” You must see when you look, listen when you hear, speak when you talk, and do as you think”. Closeing his thumb over the four fingers makeing a fist he declared “but you must do it.” I know now to actualy do it takes all ones heart and faith…The rest of my story can be found on worksofwordsdotlive. Titled “my story -years of walking in the word” you will need the password ” jahh” to acess it.
Hi Laurita,
You mention “vanity” several times in your post. A footnote in my Bible defines vanities this way: literally vapor or breath as symbols of worthless, vain things.
Good word and extremely valid today and always. The preacher/teacher in Ecclesiastes speaks many times to the fact that “all is vanity.” Mentions that there is “nothing new under the sun” not to mention “a time for everything.” I remind myself of these things often when I get preoccupied looking around me at the ways of the world currently. The author of Ecclesiastes was a very wise man in my opinion.
The book is summed up with–In the end though the only thing that matters is “Revere God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole man. For God will bring every work into judgment, concerning every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.”
Friends, I love that the Hebrew aman that is so close to the English amen “let it be so” for in Yahovah it is so. My heart is full of gratitude this day for it is so. He is so, we share that desire for the reality of his wholeness and completeness to be revealed without illusion, delusional or distraction. I confess I have allowed my self to be distracted with what was on my heart and mind and not honored the direction of the conversations Skip has initiated. I have not always honored each of you by reading carefully your contributions before I post. (Sorry Laurita even this am). But I have grown so to appreciate this forumn, it’s intents and the fruit of it in my life. Yesterdays’ discussion on “who is the heritic”was profoundly encouraging because I have walked through life with a gift of faith. When I was four my mother abandoned our family. My parents subsequently divorced and I was reunited with her a year or so later. The good news is she was a real beliver if confused between faith and actions. A jewish girl who went to u.c. Berkeley and learned to think in all the modern ways. I can tell you my experiance is it makes one crazy…Yet she had taught me that God was real. I clung to him like a flag pole in the hurricane that hit our life when she left. He has never forsaken or abandoned me. I cling to him with all my being. He also clearly and obviously lead me onto this Hebraic path of faith . I know it is his way at least for me. Glad to share it with you all and will endeavor to be more acurate to the direction of our conversations that I might develop the revelation of Yahh that he is leading us toward rather than run off into the daisies of my own intrests. ..Shalom friends. Our life is in our faith that life is because he is faithful.
A prayer to keep close now that Skip has defined FAITH.
Daily Prayer
“O Father, I pray—
for faith to believe that you rule the world in truth, justice, and love;
for faith to believe that if I seek first your kingdom and righteousness, you will provide for my needs;
for faith not to be anxious about tomorrow, but to believe that the love you have given me in the past will continue into the future;
for faith to see your loving purposes unfold in all that is happening in our time;
for faith to be calm and brave in the face of any dangers I may meet with while doing my duty;
for faith to believe in the power of your love to melt my hard heart and totally remove my sin;
for faith to put my own trust in love rather than in force, when other people harden their hearts against me;
for faith to believe in the ultimate victory of your Holy Spirit over disease and death and all the powers of “darkness;
for faith to learn from any sufferings that you call me to endure;
for faith to leave in your hands the welfare of all my dear ones, name immediate family, then relatives and friends.
I am still stuck on this being more info on the mind,conditions and symptoms of an orphan …
https://skipmoen.com/2009/12/loneliness/
Blind faith-hmm. A phrase I do not like and can be used to hammer folks on the head when they do not conform to Christian doctrine. I so agree that one must have eyes open. Scripture even says to be watchful and not let the day sneak up on us and catch us unaware.
God provides us with tons of examples of His faithfulness to deliver what He says He will. Nothing blind there!
If I trust or do not trust I will eventually die… Not really a very reliable argument.
I agree with the fact that faith is about what is.
What is happening is faith manifested.
What I do, reveals my faith not what I am trusting or hoping for.
Maybe we should approach this scripture with what James said faith is. Show me your works and I will reveal your faith. Faith without work is dead.
Is hope not the conviction that something will be… should certain things be in place. Like what we sow we will reap. Or rather what we commit to will manifest. If we keep knocking the door will be opened. If we keep seeking we will find. If we keep gathering we will accumulate.
The work that James refers to could be what our habits reveal is what our real faith is. Not what we obey because we trust if we do obey things will work out…
Action defines faith. I like that view.
Are the Greeks wrong. No, they just started understanding that all begins in the mind. Once revealed in actions, when sustained becomes our lifestyle. Our lifestyle determines the results we experience…
God provided two principles that determine a trust relationship:
Tithing and he will…
Serve by aiding others without expecting a reward and we have gained…
Very timely TW thank you Skip.
“FAITH IS…..” what? JUST “substance” of things hoped for? JUST the “evidence” of things not seen?
True “substance” is meant to result in true “assurance”, right? And true “evidence” is meant to result in true “conviction”. Is that not correct? A faith that is one of “substance” and “evidence” only but lacking “assurance” and “conviction”, is certainly not a superior faith, is it? Not to me.
I would argue that these are not mutually exclusive concepts, nor that one set of words to define faith are, in and of themselves, more effective ways of defining faith than the other. We can, of course, erroneously separate these concepts in our minds and our “practice of faith”, whereby we are only imagining we have “assurance”, and it is, in fact, not based upon true “substance”, or only imagining we have “conviction”, and it is, in fact, not based upon true “evidence”. In such a case, we will be, therefore, self-deceived and our evaluation of ourselves, as to how well “our lives reflect absolute reliability in all our relationships”, will be based upon vain imaginations. However, again, I would say these concepts of “substance” and “assurance”, and “evidence” and “conviction”, are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
To have true “substance”, one should then, also, have true “assurance”. However, we can have true “substance”, but lack true “assurance”. Can we not? But we cannot have the later without the former. Any “faith” that is based on something that does not have true “substance” is not true faith. It is mere presumption. And any claim to have true “substance”, but then lacking “assurance”, is not true faith either, is it?
And to have true “evidence”, one should then, also, have true “conviction”. However, we can have true “evidence”, but lack true “conviction”. Is that not so? But we cannot have the later without the former. Any “faith” that is based on something that does not have true “evidence” is not true faith. It is mere false conviction. And any claim to have true “evidence”, but then lacking “conviction”, is not true faith either, is it?
This may be getting a bit silly, but would you rather be a Jew who claims to have “evidence” and “substance”, but who lacks “assurance” and “conviction”? Or would you rather be a Christian who claims “assurance” and “conviction”, but who lacks “evidence” and “substance”? Should we not seek to have both?
This, again, does not seem to be just a battle for the truth, to me. It seems, to me, to be a battle for Judaism over and against Christianity, for whatever reason, I do not know, though I can imagine. But I do know this, I’m not jumping on the bandwagon, no matter how much intellectual integrity is being claimed in the fight, especially if that claim of “faith” includes a denial of the “substance” and “evidence”, or the “assurance” and “conviction”, of Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel.
And about this statement, “Until our lives reflect absolute reliability in all our relationships, we have not yet embraced the fullness God has in store for us”, I would ask this question:
Who is it that will evaluate whether or not our lives are reflecting the absolute reliability in all our relationships? Is it to be those with whom we have relationship? Surely not with all certainty. For isn’t it even the religious Jews who would say that even Yeshua, the Messiah, does not reflect the absolute reliability they seek and that even He does not embrace the fullness God has in store for His Messiah?
I agree it’s a worthy goal of our faith to reflect such “absolute reliability in all our relationships”, but it will not be until we see Yeshua, the Messiah, Himself, as He is, that we can hope to give such a reflection of “absolute reliability”, and it is for that day that we are to be seeking and living. But this is the substance, assurance, evidence, and conviction that is faith, the “hope of glory”, Messiah Yeshua, by the Ruach ha-Kodesh, in us, that purifies us even now. Yes. Him in us, the indwelling Ruach ha-Kodesh, this is the Substance, the Assurance, the Evidence, the Conviction that is faith. This is the Substance, the Assurance, the Evidence, the Conviction that is faith. And in the end, it will be YHVH alone who will be that judge, and not we ourselves, or another.
“Loved ones, now we are God’s children; and it has not yet been revealed what we will be. But we do know that when it’s revealed, we shall be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. [1Jn 3:2-3]