In my last post, I presented two world view models, and over the next several weeks, we’ll explore the significance of these models in relation to our experiences, to how words are defined, to biblical terms for salvation, and biblical concepts for life.
May we begin by sympathizing with people who live with the conviction or assumption that red pyramid world (physical and temporal only) is the only world. This world view changes the meaning of words. For example, “faith” in this world has to do with what a person wishes were true or prefers to believe. Faith is a person’s own preference, something he/she feels; it is emotional, powerful, and often changing in order to provide for more happiness more of the time. People here trust in their belief in what their own faith tells them. Such a meaning makes challenges to a person’s faith useless and unwelcome.
What about another world of body and soul, time and eternity? In the Bible there is a single word translated in English as “faith,” “belief,” or “trust.” Just one word (“pistis”/”pisteuo” in Greek) that has to do with honesty about dependence. Notice the relationship between honesty and truth. The Bible invites and urges us to seek the truth, and honesty connects us to the truth. Honestly, we are utterly dependent on God for all things and on one another for most things. A living soul, based in truth, experiences life in a body and in time in a vastly different way than a person with a body and time only, especially because God assures us that He regenerates our everlasting soul to be ever-living. The meaning of common and essential words changes dramatically as we see things from the soul’s perspective. The first word we define differently is faith. What a difference in perspective we have when we know faith to be honesty about dependence, rather than “faith” as what a body wants to be true in a desperate lunge for a happiness that is tenuous and temporary.