About the Faith

 

1 Luke reports that on one occasion, Jesus asked himself: "... when the Son of man returns, will he find the faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8) With this words he did not question if he would find people who said to believe in him, but if he would find people who lived according to ‘the faith', practicing in spirit and truth his teachings, that is, the faith taught and spread by the apostles, personally and through their writings.

 

2 In fact, after the violent persecutions that brought death to some of the apostles and so many disciples, the Christian-Jewish communities split from the ‘goim’ or gentile nations communities, breaking the unitary spirit of the Congregation of God. Besides, during the first two centuries A.D. the apostolic faith was partially obscured by the gradual assimilation in the Church’s doctrine, of some traditional distorting philosophical concepts, just as the apostles foretold. Paul writes: “…the time comes when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and avoiding to hear the truth, they will turn to false stories”. (2Timothy 4:3)

When the apostles were gone and their authority was no more a restraint, the metaphoric interpretation of the Scripture through Neo-platonic postulates, divided Christians and generated for a long time, violent discussions and much resent. During the forth and fifth centuries, in an attempt to defend the universality of the established creed and fight the propagation of sects, the Church adopted some measures that lead her to a rigid and harsh dogmatism.

 

3 The apostle Paul declared for the disciples of his time and for the future believers: “Christ is the same, yesterday, today and for ever, so don’t let yourselves be turned aside by different reports and teachings”. (Hebrews 13:8..9) These words expressed his deep concern for the fact that, already in his days, some of the disciples of high scholastic instruction, considered themselves superior to the apostles and spread their own theories on doctrinal issues.

Troubled by this, Paul wrote: “...when someone comes preaching you a different Jesus from the one we preached to you, or in regard of receiving a different spirit of the one you received, and accept a good new that differs from the one you accepted, you listen with pleasure! I price myself of not being less in anything to those superlative-apostles, because if I am not so skillful in my speech”, for so they said of him, “in knowledge I certainly am, as in all circumstance we proved in your presence...” But “...these false apostles are deceitful workers that disguising themselves into apostles of Christ, and this is not surprising, for also Satan disguises into an angel of light, it is not then amazing, that his servants disguise themselves into servants of righteousness. Nevertheless, their end will correspond with their deeds”. (2Corinthians 11:4-6, 13-15)

 

4 Furthermore, the apostle Peter warned Christ’s disciples and wrote: “…just like false prophets arose among the nation, false teachers will also arise among you, and will secretly introduce destructive heresies, rebuking the Lord who rescued them and bringing upon themselves a prompt destruction. And many will follow their corruption, and because of them, the way of truth will be despised, for in their greed, they will take advantage of you by untruthful words…” (2Peter 2:1-2)

 

5 The result of their activity is nowadays obvious, for in our world there are more than six billion people, and millions of them adhere to one of the numerous confessions that declare to observe the faith taught by Jesus and his apostles, even if they disagree in teachings and practices.

However, the true faith is only the healthy and unadulterated teaching of the apostolic period, and being an outcome of the spirit of God, needs not additions and is forever the same. For this reason, Paul urged Christ’s disciples “not to go beyond what is written, so no one may feel superior to other”, (1Corinthians 4:6) and pleaded them to remain in the true faith with this words: “Check yourselves up to see if you stay in the faith...” (2Corinthians 13:5) “for there is only one Lord, only one faith, only one baptism and only one God...” (Ephesians 4:4-5)

 

6 The apostle John wrote to the Jewish disciples: “Beloved, I do not write you new teachings, but the ancient ones you had from the beginning. Those ancient teachings are the message you heard, and are for all, ever in effect...” (1John 2:7) And he reports in the Apocalypse book, these words of Jesus for his Congregation: “I do not put upon you any other burden than to keep on firmly to what you already have until I return”. (Apocalypse 2:25) This command is thus binding until he returns in his kingdom, but we only obey it if we seek with thirst the unpolluted water of the teachings of the true faith, the only acceptable for Jesus followers. At the conclusion of John’s vision, Christ sends a message to all his disciples of all times, and says: “I Jesus, sent my angel to inform the Congregation about these things; I, the source and the offspring of David and the bright star of morning. The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’ and anyone who hears, say, ‘Come’, and anybody thirsty come, he who longs for it, drink liberally the water of life”. (Apocalypse 22:16-17)