Faith and Democracy.
The three levels of faith are
· Faith in Self
· Faith in Others
· Faith in God
In a democracy, for man’s liberty to flourish, the government must provide an environment for all three levels of faith to flourish. The reason is simple
· A democracy is built on self-reliance
· We are all God’s Children and God gives his gifts generously. One reason God distributes his gifts evenly throughout the world is so we can help each other. All good gifts are from God.
· All truth comes from God, and only the truth can make us free.
Democracy, like a three-legged stool, is rendered useless if even one leg of the three levels of faith is crippled, broken, diminished, or removed.
“13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13)
When one thinks of faith, one naturally thinks of faith in God. Christians think of faith in Christ as the greatest, most indispensable part of one’s life which in itself is an act of faith. But here is the great paradox of religion: When one asks which level of faith can one ignore in the temporal world and still get rich in the temporal world—ego-centric faith (self), ecto-centric faith (others), or theo-centric faith (God)—, it is paradoxically, by design, theo-centric faith. And therein lies the great difference among the three types of faith.
“3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3)
Theocentric faith alone produces prophets. Ultimately Christianity will prevail, and everyone will have to bow to Christ. Only those who can look him in the eye will be happy about it.
Of the three levels of faith, egocentric, ectocentric, and theocentric, only theocentric encompasses all faith. The power of God is unlimited, and faith in God, the primary law of agency, gives us access to God’s power. Egocentric faith may bring about great riches, ectocentric faith may bring about astonishing results, but only theocentric faith can bring about miracles. As the cart must follow the horse, miracles must follow faith. Neither the cart nor the miracle is self-propelled.
The laws of God, however, are boundless, and faith gives us access to the power of God’s laws. That is when miracles occur.
The law of faith requires an invisible God. For faith to develop Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden. Even when Christ is cut out of the equation, ego-centric faith and ecto-centric faith are sufficient to thrive in a temporal world. If it were otherwise, we would all serve God for money. We would be good for the sake of profit as children threatened by Santa Claus. And Swe would not develop faith in God.
