Believers

Much in made in the Christian faith of the term “believer.” Christians are often called “believers” (as are Muslims in their faith), because they have accepted Christian doctrine that Jesus as their Savior, for example. Aside from the fact that in the original language of the Christian faith (Greek), the term “believe” does not mean exactly what it connotes in English (to believe in something), but to come to trust someone or something, to have confidence in someone, and thus to act in a trusting way—the whole notion of “belief in” (and being a believer) is mute when we realize that trusting someone (believing in them) is not about a theology or a creed or a belief system of some kind, but comes because we know them (and not because we have heard about them, or have been told that we ought to trust in them because someone else says so).

In truth, the knowledge that saves us (saving knowledge, or salvation) can never come from believing things about someone (in God, or Jesus, for example), but only from knowing that person directly, individually and personally.

Lovers of God are, by definition, knowers of God by force of direct acquaintance. The knowledge that saves us is accomplished by the soul’s actual birth into and knowledge of the hidden realities of the spiritual world that are experienced on the inside, and not accepted as beliefs about something on the outside. The inner truth, known and experienced directly, is knowledge of the reality of the divine Presence as lover and as friend. It is therefore “individual” because it comes to consciousness in each person which brings about the spiritual birth of that person into the divine Reality. By definition, then, spiritual truths are salvational truths, because they mean that a person is a knower and lover (a gnostic in its truest definition) and not simply a believer.