Pekka Ervast explains how the Christendom believes that God's rightful wrath was reconciled through Christ, so that he who now in faith receives God's mercy, won't go to eternal damnation but has everlasting life. And this dogmatic belief rests upon the wrong conditions, which have no basis on reality! God does not hate; There is no eternal damnation.Yet there is evil and there is need for salvation: brokeness of soul, lonelyness and hopelesness of heart, tiredness and depression of mind, pain of ignorance and sinfulness.
Faith is not merely regarding something as true. Faith (in Greek "pistis") is a trust, devotion. Living faith in Christ is to adopt Chirst in spirit, to receive God into one's soul, resurrection of the Crucified Saviour in man's bodily being.
First we have to seek for the truth, to purify one's mind and soul out of idols of superstition and prejudice, and fulfill them with correct ideas of development of human life and its purpose. Real faith won't stop in itself. It will constantly grow. It's only the beginning of the road. Christ in man will save him, but man must "watch and pray" (or meditate and pray). The deeds that are born out of faith are the guardian angels of faith.
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Heb.11:1 NIV)...Pekka Ervast translates the Greek text: "Faith is hypostasis of what we hope for and proof of invisible deeds." Hypostasis means "material ground". Strong faith helps people gain even material things, how much more the heavenly and invisible! Only the faith (the will) makes the substance of the invisible world to move. The invisible is always before visible. God's will is done first in heavens and then on earth. In faith man creates, then the creation manifests. Faith is a proof that man does invisible deeds. Man who has faith is spiritually always in action. He creates paradise and heaven around him, he lives in eternal bliss.
Faith is awakened when there is no more contradiction between reason and feeling, when one finds an answer for the question of life that will satisfy both his reason and feeling. Faith is based on knowledge or understanding, if it is to be alive. Blind faith is dead, and it always demands man to supress something in himself. True faith on the contrary frees the soul, makes mind peaceful and fulfills the whole person with joy. How could we really believe in something or trust in something we don't understand or don't know, asks Pekka Ervast.
Faith or pistis leads to knowledge or gnosis. Faith has nothing to do with doctrines. It has to do with the living force, the life itself. Faith is born in a stable, in a manger: we see the Son of Man, God's image of future perfection of man, and at the same time we see how far we still are from that perfection. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt.5:48 NIV): We can hear this as a promise of future. "What is impossible with men is possible with God" (Lk.18:27 NIV): Only God in man can go beyond the limit.
Faith is not merely regarding something as true. Faith (in Greek "pistis") is a trust, devotion. Living faith in Christ is to adopt Chirst in spirit, to receive God into one's soul, resurrection of the Crucified Saviour in man's bodily being.
First we have to seek for the truth, to purify one's mind and soul out of idols of superstition and prejudice, and fulfill them with correct ideas of development of human life and its purpose. Real faith won't stop in itself. It will constantly grow. It's only the beginning of the road. Christ in man will save him, but man must "watch and pray" (or meditate and pray). The deeds that are born out of faith are the guardian angels of faith.
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Heb.11:1 NIV)...Pekka Ervast translates the Greek text: "Faith is hypostasis of what we hope for and proof of invisible deeds." Hypostasis means "material ground". Strong faith helps people gain even material things, how much more the heavenly and invisible! Only the faith (the will) makes the substance of the invisible world to move. The invisible is always before visible. God's will is done first in heavens and then on earth. In faith man creates, then the creation manifests. Faith is a proof that man does invisible deeds. Man who has faith is spiritually always in action. He creates paradise and heaven around him, he lives in eternal bliss.
Faith is awakened when there is no more contradiction between reason and feeling, when one finds an answer for the question of life that will satisfy both his reason and feeling. Faith is based on knowledge or understanding, if it is to be alive. Blind faith is dead, and it always demands man to supress something in himself. True faith on the contrary frees the soul, makes mind peaceful and fulfills the whole person with joy. How could we really believe in something or trust in something we don't understand or don't know, asks Pekka Ervast.
Faith or pistis leads to knowledge or gnosis. Faith has nothing to do with doctrines. It has to do with the living force, the life itself. Faith is born in a stable, in a manger: we see the Son of Man, God's image of future perfection of man, and at the same time we see how far we still are from that perfection. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt.5:48 NIV): We can hear this as a promise of future. "What is impossible with men is possible with God" (Lk.18:27 NIV): Only God in man can go beyond the limit.
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