Date: May 7 2022
Summary: An evolving note on my perspectives on faith as a practicing
Keywords: ##blog #faith #christianity #nicean #creed #archive
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A living note on my faith as a Christian
Saying you are a Christian is a loaded statement that colors a spectrum. It brings to mind the halls of a quiet countryside monastery echoing with billowing hymns to outraged shouts of damnation from a pulpit. Saying you are a Christian is strangely all encompassing and hollow simultaneously.
I am a Christian and this blog post is an overview of what I mean by that.
My faith as a Christian affects every aspect of my life as I view God as the Lord of All. I mean "Lord of All" as I view God is omniscient over what exists and what will be. He is the master programmer, the master engineer, the master author, the master – . And as a result of that, I view Him as the one source of knowledge and guidance.
I do not mean that one can learn everything from the Bible. There is no book in the Bible that contains Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion or the Central Limit Theorem. Rather, God communicates a framework through His Word, the Bible, that proves sufficient for every domain and has given us minds and bodies to go and explore His created world.
By God, it is my understanding that there are definite "right" and "wrong" absolutes set forth by a good and righteous God. A result of this I must address is the sad stereotype that unfortunately resonates all too frequently with the truth is the judgemental behavior found in Christian circles. This often has a cultural and historical aspect on how persons view religious institutions - I do not want to discuss that.
Instead, I endeavor practicing the ability to disagree with but accept others. Sadly, this is a skill that is all too-lacking - amongst Christians and beyond. I am perfectly fine discussing generally anything and perhaps most importantly, disagreeing over something. This is a pattern set forth by Jesus from the beginning. Jesus was not sent to those who agreed with him but those who so fiercely opposed Him that they killed Him and still showed compassion for his murderers.
And most important in my faith is my acceptance and trust in the person who is Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the World. Saving us from what? Ourselves. As I believe there are definite "right" and "wrong" absolutes, it would follow that there are consequences for when we pursue "wrong". And out of those consequences, the most severe is separation from God both now while we are alive and the eternity that our souls find ourselves in upon our demise.
And Jesus is that saving power - that bridge which brings us from that separation to eternity with God. As no one has ever done what is "right" except only Jesus who was both God and a person just like us. I trust that Jesus was killed around 30 CE, He was entombed for three days, resurrected proving that death has no mastery over God, and ascended to the right hand of God. In short, when Jesus said to the grieving sister Martha over the death of her brother, Lazarus:
Jesus said to her,
"I am the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;
and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.
Do you believe this?"
- John 11:25 - 26To which I respond: "yes". There are multiple omissions of my credo that I have left out here for brevity. I have further included a copy of the Nicaean Creed which I am in full accord with that can help fill in some of those gaps, succinctly:
Nicaean Creed
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
To leave off, please note: I am not a perfect Christian. No one is or can be. I try to follow God with confident steps; oftentimes, it looks more like a faltering walk. Yet, by the grace of God, I have courage that each day can be better and I can show Christ's love to others not through faux perfection of arrogance but the ordinary efforts of a common man with an extraordinary Savior.
Solil Deo Gloria – To God Alone Be the Glory.
Zelko, Jacob. Personal Perspectives on Faith. https://jacobzelko.com/05072022162026-personal-faith-perspectives. May 7 2022.