The Non-Faith Approach to Life - The Nuts & Bolts of the Bible Message Concept 6

Sixth Basic Concept

The "Dictionary of Scripture and Myth" by G.S. Gaskell defines the Tower of Babel as "A symbol of the false conception that the highest truth may be reached through the exercise of the lower mental faculties." It also references "speech" and under that subject states that brick symbolizes "superstition" instead of stone which symbolizes "spiritual knowledge" and slime symbolizes "craft" instead of mortor which symbolizes "affection". It then proceeds to give a more thorough explanation of the story.

Personally; I feel there must be a form of reversal in the symbolism offered. We have previously discussed that each individual has a male and female aspect. Craft is more of a male aspect and superstition would be a female aspect since it is related to beliefs. In the same way affection or love would be a female aspect and spiritual knowledge would be a male aspect. Since it is love that binds spiritual relationships, I would consider the slime to be superstition; and, therefore, the craft would be brick. In my mind this unifies the Scripture message to a greater degree than the explanation given in the Dictionary mentioned above.

Recognizing the differences between superstition and craft and affection (love) and spiritual knowledge may be a little difficult because I am certain all of us have at times in our life experienced both sets of these states of mind and heart and believed we were "okay" while we were in a superstition and craft state of heart and mind. In either case each state of mind is an expression of our male and female aspects.

We are introduced to this story before that of Abraham because superstition and craft is the non-faith approach to spiritual growth. If we accept the life-styles concept of an individual, we should assume that all of us have a mixture of life-styles with some based on the non-faith approach to spiritual growth and others based on the faith approach. To assume we are complete--full of faith--in all the life-styles we have obtained through the years and still utilize is just one more way of practicing the non-faith approach. I prefer to use the non-faith designation for all that is not of faith, which is an aspect of Truth. When an individual has few life-styles that grew through the faith approach to growing spiritually, that person is left with accomplishing what they can through.the only tools they have developed--their false beliefs (superstition) and their craftiness. An individual can use purposeful lies and half truths to get many things in life through the williness of others to believe them. The fact that the lies and half turths can serve the intended purpose for many years certainly does not prove that the resulting way of life has any worth, though. Eventually, the house of lies and half truths will crumble under its own weight. Is it any wonder that Jesus used the symbolism of a house built on rock to illustrate the wisdom of building our spiritual being on the foundation of a true understanding of the spiritual reality--Christ?

Unfortunately, we may have built a house of lies and half-truths even when we do not purposely do so. This is the ultimate deceit of the self-serving nature, and all of us most likely have life-styles built in this way. I know I had many, and I am not going to be so vain as to assume I have completly eliminated all of them yet. This is even after I have been practicing the concepts outlined in the "Search for Truth" document for years. I feel I will know when I am complete; and I certainly do not know that yet. Half-truths can be very easy to accept because they usually appeal to our self-serving nature and do have an element of truth in them when applied to the correct purpose. To illustrate my point, I will take one concept and illustrate the two approaches. The non-faith approach will be presented in this writing. The faith approach will be in the next.

In John 11:25 - King James Version, Jesus stated, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." This statement can be taken literally, and an individual can believe that Jesus, as a separate person, is the Son of GOD and is his savior. Jesus's physical death on the cross was GOD's Way of providing for Man's sins to be forgiven if the individual just believes that Jesus's sacrifice truly provides that salvation and responds to the invitation in the way provided. In a sense, they see themselves as a sinner needing a savior separate from who they are even after they have accepted the invitation. Anyone believing this interpretation of Jesus's statement or one similar to it is living a half-truth. This belief may be okay as an initial belief but only if that individual grows beyond that understanding. To not grow beyond it is definately building any resulting life-styles through the non-faith approach.

Obviously, there are many more ways to practice the non-faith approach than the faith approach; so this one example is similar to describing one particular snow flake in a snow storm (Matt 7:13-14).

The faith approach unifies Scripture and is unlikely to appeal to the self-serving nature because it will result in the death of that nature.