Father, Son and Holy Spirit ...

Thursday, Sept 27, 2012. Why is faith a different perspective than “no faith”? Why do different religions have different perspectives? What does it change? What is going on?

What happens when people believe? …

Today, in the western world we often think that everyone should be free to have his religion - it is a human right to believe. That is very good! But also, pushing religion into the private area, does not necessarily fit to its role in human life and in human societies … Religions are not private, but they all have a social dimension, and when we want to live with different religions, we need to take care of that as well.

But my point today is not this social dimension, but the perspective for an individual. What is it that is changing when you come to faith? You could try to answer this with a general target point, i.e. for all religions. But I am not sure whether that is adequate. There are huge differences! And from a Christian point of view, Christian faith is completely different from other religions. Of course, Muslims say something similar, and you will need to look in more detail, to draw your own conclusions. Which faith fits reality? What is the case? I will talk about my own perspective, which is the Christian perspective.

What ever you think about faith, take a moment and follow me into the description which is worked out in the biblical books. God is the eternal father. He created mankind to live with him, but mankind has moved away from this and is now living independently - as we know it, with all the wars and quarrel. He tries to lead it back to its origin, but he wants to keep their freedom. He sends individual people to spread his message, and he sends Jesus, his son, who is like him, united with him in a deep and nearly mysterious way, to talk about him, to show his character, to die at the cross to show his commitment and to show that justice is desperately needed, for all of us.

Faith Perspective …

Jesus offers a new connection with the Lord. He offers to establish the old unity, through his death at the cross, and through the Holy Spirit. It is an invitation, which changes the relationship of an individual, as soon as it starts to believe. With faith, this link is connected and reestablished. It is a connection through the Holy Spirit, as described in detail in the New Testament, the second part of the bible.

So here we have the general description, but we also have the individual perspective of someone who moves from the “lost state” into the “found state” when he comes to faith. When this is reality, then those who come to faith should be able to experience the connection, to experience the Holy Spirit. And indeed, people of faith report all different kinds of experiences about the Lord and his spirit, from the early days of Christianity until today.

Faith is a complete change of perspective for the individual human. Coming back into the community with God is something which changes everything. Our goals cannot remain the same. God is the center of the universe. He is the center of our life. All we do will be grouped towards him. All our decisions, our thoughts, our feelings, will be influenced by this change of perspective. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts