The idea of Beliefs Examined

If “belief” is the acceptance that something is true, arriving at that acceptance must coalesce and fuse from a myriad of very diverse and complex influences that slowly form into what we hold as a “belief”. I suspect most beliefs evolve gradually from a thousand (figurative) life experiences. When a belief forms in our mind, we may only be aware of a few obvious influences that we can apprehend. Below the surface of consciousness, many events and conditions that comprise our personal history bear their unique pressures to shape our reaction to the world around us, and one may see a “personal belief” as one way in which we react to our world. Beliefs are not facts. A personal belief in our mind is more personal than a simple verifiable fact. While we largely expect facts to remain unchanged, we accept that our beliefs are more transient and evolving; growing dynamically as we are exposed to more facts and experiences. Facts in our mind are objective, impersonal, cold, and simple while our beliefs are subjective, personal, vital, and a complex amalgam of major and minor influences; diverse, and varied as the personal experiences on which they feed. Where facts are effective, beliefs are affective. Belief amends impersonal facts with personal subjectivity and emotion. Frequently two people will share identical facts and arrive at opposing beliefs because facts are not the only constituents in the development of a belief. If a belief compels me to be fervent or emotional about some issue or event, I may be able to verbalize some basis for my enthusiasm, but it is doubtful that I understand fully how that belief found its shape within me.  For instance, I may believe strongly in compassion for my fellow man and especially for others who are in different circumstances than I. This strong belief is generated from a weaving of influential facts and personal experiences. Perhaps I was raised by very compassionate parents who taught me the importance of compassion. Or perhaps I was once in similar circumstances so I recognize and empathize with the plight of others from personal experience. There surely are many possible strong and weak influences that may inform a particular belief. 

If “belief” is the acceptance that something is true, then the sharing of a belief is an expression of what one thinks is right, or how they think the world should operate. When a person expresses a belief to another, they relate to one another in some of the knowable and expressible elements of the belief. They may hold the belief in common, but below the surface, the underpinnings of the belief may be very different. The constituent elements may be a weave of strong or weak, important or unimportant, deeply held or loosely held elements. These root elements are difficult to compare, largely because they are difficult to isolate. When a person states a personal belief we know that the influences that formed that belief are probably many, broad, deep, historic, unique, and largely unknowable. Ardency in a belief may indicates some source influence or influences that render the belief difficult or frightening to let go of, or even compromise. It is not uncommon for two people to discuss some subject, each introducing their beliefs, and quickly discover their beliefs are in opposition. If civil discussion ensues, often the two find they are in agreement over much more than they originally thought at levels below the surface. That on which they still disagree can be assumed to be tightly bound to something personal even if it can’t be isolated or verbalized. This is where Love will triumph. When beliefs between people collide, Love expresses acceptance that the other person believes differently not because they are less intelligent or less informed, or less valuable, but because they have a different history. Love can recognize that opposing beliefs are built from life experiences not held in common. Love finds no need to degrade a person because their beliefs developed from different stuff; Love does not determine the value of a person based on their current beliefs or how those beliefs developed.

If “belief” is the acceptance that something is true, then it is assumed that what people state they believe is what they accept to be true. Truth, however, has eluded mankind for at least as long as history records his actions. Prophets proclaimed it, philosophers sought it, and Pilate acknowledged he didn’t recognize it. By its very definition, truth demands to be objective; a subjective truth is no truth at all. We may be mistaken about something, but the truth does not subject itself to how I perceive it. It remains what it is without regard to how it is perceived. When an idea is subjected to personal preference, the very subjectivity renders the idea something other than truth. It may be an opinion, a theory, a postulate, a wish, an idea, a fantasy, but it can never be a truth. Truth is sometimes accused of being subjective when people disagree on a truth’s validity. Truth may be elusive because different people rely on different means of verifying truth for themselves. When truth is questioned in the mind, an acceptable arbiter must be summoned.  Sight and senses, logic, scientific investigation and experimentation, personal experience, trusted testimony, or supernatural revelation have all been called on to validate truth. If the natural man relies on his own sense of logic to verify his ideas, and the spiritual man relies on revelation to verify his, it is not hard to conclude why their attributions of truth often collide. Not everyone can accept revealed truth. The ability to believe revealed truth is properly called “faith”. Faith, as I have learned it, is simply accepting God at His revealed word. For instance, I believe that Love is personified in the Lord Jesus, but as far as I can tell I don’t believe that because my logic supports it, or because it is provable by experimentation, but because it has been revealed. If one is compelled to reject the existence of God or the deity of Jesus, then one will naturally reject the validity of His revelation, and therefore any truth that relies on revelation as the arbiter will be rejected. That is not to say one can only rely on faith or on logic, but not both, as if faith is illogical. Faith and logic are not in opposition to each other. Faith simply accepts the revealed logic of the super-natural environment; an environment that is not apprehended by human senses. The person of faith accepts the testimony of one found to be reliable in the same way the natural person accepts the testimony of their own sources. Faith is not genetic or innate, but comes only in the form of a gift; it is an imputed aptitude. It is special in that it is the kind of gift always offered to those who don’t deserve it, and one that can only be obtained through humble petition.

If “belief” is the acceptance that something is true, and truth is not objective but personal, then an expected and common artifact is for both spiritual and natural persons to attach unfair and derogatory labels to persons whose beliefs oppose their own. While some labels are intended to be  simply descriptive, too often labels are weaponized; they are used as a form of propaganda to degrade and negatively characterize a perceived enemy. The reaction to degrade those with whom we disagree seems to me to be natural and primal.

Love, by contrast, is unnatural. Love seeks the welfare of others, even of enemies. It is an act of love to recognize that the opinions and beliefs of others are developments of a personal and unique history. To follow the God of Love is to purpose to be a testimony of His love. It is incorrect to think that acceptance of another person with contrary beliefs requires a compromising of one’s own beliefs.  As I survey my own development of beliefs, I recognize that I believe differently now than I once did. Both now and then however, I thought I was right, but I am grateful for those God used to challenge my thinking. The fact that my beliefs have changed informs me that it is possible for me to believe things now that I may not always accept as true. That is why I am, as far as is possible with me, forming my beliefs based more on objective Truth; that which does not change; revelation that continues to demonstrate unsurpassed rightness and stability.  Faith compels me to react to others in grace. Therefore, I am exercising my faith to grow in my reaction to others by purposing to demonstrate the same grace to others that I have received from above. I no longer think it is possible, by clever debate and cunning logic, to change the beliefs of another; beliefs that have developed from complex sources and have become precious. I was accepted by God when I didn’t deserve it; when I was in opposition to God, so I can accept those who oppose my current personal beliefs.  I know the One who changed (is changing) my beliefs and I know He will change anyone who simply seeks and asks for the gift of faith that He is offering.

This is my testimony. 

An anticipated rest.

There is a winding road in upper lower Michigan that takes many anxious vacationers to the beautiful dune lined shores of Lake Michigan. As you travel west on this road over the hilly terrain, the many dips are over taken by many more climbs which cause your car to gradually rise and rise some more until at one single point you are so high you can see Lake Michigan far off in the distance.  You know are still many miles away, you guess it may be twenty or so, but it could be further. For a brief instant your eyes take in the vast blanket of blue water blending into the azure horizon very far off. It is a breathtaking view, before you can stop and enjoy it, as soon as you take your next breath, the road immediately drops beneath you and you find yourself back under the dark canopy of tall pines. You steel your resolve and drive harder for what seems like eternity as you try to patiently endure the rest of the trip.  Gritting your teeth through each twist and turn, you rise and fall as if you are in the front car of a rollercoaster, except this one you are responsible to navigate along the treacherous serpentine track.  Every bend frustrates your strengthening desire to just drive due west. That frustration and anxiety tighten your grip on the wheel, tense the muscles in your gas pedal leg, and encourage your thrust as you imagine yourself driving your little chariot directly into the sharpened shadows of the trees, as if charging the cheval de fries in a great battle to “take the lake” in the name of Vacation.

Focused on the triumph of arriving, you may not even notice that something of the beach has already gently crept into the vehicle. An aura, a feeling, a sense of the shore has slowly enveloped your surroundings. You may not even realize that the air has gotten cooler, the sun seems gentler, and the unmistakable marine air has gradually invaded the air conditioning system. You know! You know, not by sight, but by all your other senses that you are certainly getting closer to the lake. There are times along the trek while climbing a high and difficult hill, you hope upon cresting it you may catch another quick assuring glimpse of the water, but you never do. Hill after hill, it’s always the same view on the other side; more road, more trees. It’s not until the adrenaline begins to fade, and you start to be resigned to the drudgery of the drive that you smirk around another bend just like the previous thousand, and suddenly realize that you have arrived only a few short feet from the sandy shore.  

Arriving at your long-awaited destination, the trial of the trip instantly fades. You turn off the AC and roll down the windows. Your aching muscles, over-tensed by hours of anticipation, melt into emancipation. The drone of the road noise is replaced by the welcoming cries of gulls and the peaceful splashing of the waves against the beach. The young passengers of your car instantly stop crying as complaints turn into cheers and boredom gives way to excitement. Body odor, stinky socks, and the stench of stale fast-food are swept out of the open car doors, replaced by the unmistakable fragrance of Lake Michigan air. Everything shouts vacation! The trauma of the past few hours disappears; instantly forgotten being cast into the icy blue depths of the lake (Micah 7:19). Your whole focus changes; you cannot wait to change clothes and wet your knees in the clear refreshing waters of rest and relaxation. This has been my experience; maybe it has been yours too.

I have taken a life lesson from that experience realizing that much of what we encounter from day to day is very similar. By Faith in the risen Christ Jesus, our Loving Father has given us a brief glimpse of our final rest, a coup d'oeil of that vast blue blanket of heavenly bliss. From the vantage point of being raised-from-the-dead in Christ, standing on The High Rock of new birth, we are briefly awed by the splendor and grandeur of imputed righteousness and eternal life in the Kingdom of God.  But then, without warning, the road dips and the trees rise quickly around us, shadows encompass us, the pressures of life oppose us, and for the rest of our earthly trek we press harder on life’s accelerator knowing that we are approaching what we cannot see, but by faith still know with certainty. Unsure of how long it will take us to get there, we are tempted to become bored, discouraged, or succumb to a complacency that borders on apathy. Our frustrated anxiety may even cause us to see how easy it is to act like children and begin to fight among ourselves; throwing cold french-fries in the face our brother or sister, or surreptitiously taking up more room on the seat than is legally ours just to aggravate someone else in an effort to relieve our own tedium.

But we are also the driver; we are supposed to be leaders, examples, models of hope. We pray, we hope, and we try to encourage others while disguising our own personal angst. We intentionally remember that glimpse of heaven; we feel the bread melt afresh on our tongue, we sip anew the purple cup, and we urge our own minds to be re-motivated by that hope. His Hope enables in us a better attitude than one of servile endurance of our parochial hardships. Our hope actually transforms us; renews our mind to actually relish our sufferings, bringing us to a frame of mind that actually delights in traveling the difficult road to glory. Counting it a high privilege, we consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us when we reach the sandy shore.  (Romans 8:18) We have seen our goal; we are fully assured (Col 4:12). We know are well packed; our beachwear is waiting for us to put it on (2 Corinthians 5:2). “… flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, this is a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.”  (1 Corinthians 15:50-52) Our road is long, but not interminable. We are assured there is a bend in the road that, even though it may look like all the others, when we come around that final one we will be instantly changed. Everything will change when we are greeted with our great reward, “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”

“The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Corinthians 15:53-58)

Sweet victory in Christ, on the sandy-soft shore of His Love, clothed in His eternal righteousness. 

Can you smell the Lake air? Can you feel the enveloping heavenly environment? Are you excited? It will not be too much longer now.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor (your patience) is not in vain in the Lord.