Chapter 15
Faith Faith IN THIS WORLD AFFLICTED WITH SIN, most people are not in touch with their true selves. God cannot easily be felt or experienced. Truth cannot easily be understood or practiced. Relying on ourselves, we wander aimlessly in a sea of vain desires and false conceptions. Human beings need a star to guide them through the darkness, a map by which to navigate in uncharted waters. This is faith. Faith begins with belief in the tenets of religion and effort to orient our life in accord with God’s commandments. A religion’s creed may be only a few words, yet those few words can rightly guide us into a relationship with God. As we go deeper, we realize that our faith itself is a gift of God. It is the way God provides out of His love to reconnect with fallen human beings, who are in no condition to save themselves. Here is St. Paul’s distinction between faith and works. A similar doctrine was taught by Shinran, the Japanese Buddhist saint who placed his faith in the ‘Power of Another.’ This is pure faith, uncontaminated by self-seeking. There are no grounds for pride, even in one’s ability to have faith. Father Moon affirms that as all people are contaminated by sin and stem from a sinful lineage, no one can possibly pay off the debt of sin by his own efforts. Hence the only proper basis for a relationship with God is to rely on God’s gracious love for us, His children. Faith matures into a mutual relationship with God, characterized by trust and faithfulness (Heb., emunah). As we strive to live the way that God would have us live, we can overcome adversity knowing that God is faithful to us. Yet as we relate to God as our Subject of faith, we can ask whether God can equally count on our faithfulness to Him. People are so double-minded, vacillating between faithfulness and faithlessness from one day to the next. To become the sort of person whom God can trust to remain faithful through any adversity requires absolute integrity and self-mastery (see Chapter 12). God searches out such people, to whom He assigns great missions. Father Moon calls us to “absolute faith.” This is the unshakable faith that remains firm despite the vicissitudes of life. It is not compromised by the believer’s personal preferences. Opposition, tragedy and loss can shake a person of weak faith. The pleas of family and loved ones cannot turn back absolute faith. Like Peter, who denied his lord, in a crisis the person of weak faith runs away or even loses faith altogether. But with absolute faith we can move mountains, overcome any adversity, and even triumph over death.
1. Belief—the Starting-point of Faith For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3.16
Faith… is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day, and to believe in divine destiny, both the good and the evil thereof. Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 2 (Islam)
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