Believe, Believe In, or Follow God? — A Journey Begins 🥾

This isn’t just a word study. Of course, we need to look at the words. But then, as the title implies, we also need to understand those words. More importantly, we need to understand them from God’s point of view. So really, this is a journey into the heart of faith, trust, and obedience. Are we supposed to Believe God, Believe in God or Follow God?  

Are those three sets of words all different?  Or do they all mean the same thing?  Well, it depends.  When were you born?  What culture do you live in / come from?  Most important, are you willing to learn what they meant when they were said?  In some cases, that’s almost two thousand years ago.  In others, several thousand years ago.  We need to look at what they meant when they were said, in order to understand what they mean today.

Believe, Believe In, or Follow God? — A Journey Begins

Let’s begin with four verses to illustrate the question.

An Old Testament/Old Covenant “follow”

First, two verses from the Old Testament:

Obviously, this is an offer of life or death. But remember, this is Old Testament. Old Covenant. What did it really mean? Was is for that time only, meaning physical life or death? Or was it a foretelling of the New Covenant where the life-or-death choice was an eternal one?

With only these two lines to go on, honestly, we really don’t know do we?

A New Testament/New Covenant “believe in”

Now, with the answer to a huge question hanging in the balance, let’s look at one very familiar and one probably not so familiar verse from the New Testament.

Assuming we’re more familiar with the New Testament in general, and with this passage in particular, we know this is about eternal life and death. But where’s the word “follow”? it’s not there! What do we read instead? ” …whoever believes in him…”. “Follow” has been replaces with “believe in”, not just here bot all over the place.

Salvation is by faith alone. All we need to do is believe. We don’t even hang onto the two words in “believes in“. In our western culture, where it’s ingrained in us that there’s one best answer, we don’t even seem to be able to, pardon the intentional pun, believe in “believes in“. We’ve got to get it down to one word.

But at what cost?

This is a life or death, eternally forever, kind of question. But when we reduce God’s words to fit into our culture, are we losing so much that we don’t even understand the ground rules any longer?

Dialectical vs One Best Answer Thinking

This concept of “Dialectical vs One Best Answer Thinking” is something that’s been embedded in my writing for a while now, but I think it’s time to elevate it – name it – and make it more obvious.

The simple reality is that, unless we accept that our Bible was derived from Israelite/Hebrew/Jewish people, culture, authors, and even a Jewish Messiah, we can’t begin to understand many of the things written in it.

As long as we insist of the western concept that there’s always “one best answer” to every question or problem, things will get lost in the translation.

Why? Because our English (or other) translations assume “one best answer”. When the Hebrew and Greek words that are so full of nuance are translated, they go from multi-dimensional to one dimension.

Then, when we go from stringing pearls, which the Rabbis, including “Rabbi Jesus”, did, we lost the fact that many verses/passages/books(scrolls) are “hidden” inside one verse. Why? Because we just don’t recognize them. Often times that’s because we don’t know the Old Testament – they’re Scripture – or more properly, a segment of their Scripture since we dropped much of it from ours.

And then, we don’t look at context. Why not? Because we don’t know it. How can we? There’s so much “lost in translation” that we can’t be expected to understand the context.

But wait. God does expect us to understand it, doesn’t He? He gave us a mind. He gave us the ability to do all those things. Or are we saying the people 2 thousand years ago could do things we can’t? Sorry it that’s a but shocking and rough, but right now, I can’t help but wonder about that.

I know, we’re busy. But isn’t our life so much easier that theirs was? I look back at my own life and wonder – were my priorities wrong all along? And I have a really hard time saying, “No, I was right to not get into any of this until I retired because all that stuff before is more important than knowing God and living with Him in the next life.”

How about you? Is everything you’re doing more important than understanding what God said? Especially about things as important as the difference between (1) believe – as in I believe 2+2=4; (2) believe in – as in when I use math I believe in 2+2=4 enough to use it in formulas; and (3) I believe in 2+2=4 so much that I live my life according to it?

Of course, that’s so simple and obvious, because it’s in line with the one best answer thinking. But substitute Jesus and everything He taught, modeled, and commanded us – and things get downright messy with the one best answer approach.

To us in the western world, A+B=C. But in the middle eastern world, and in Jewish thinking from Biblical times through to today A+B=AB. That’s not A*B – it’s AB. In other words, A+B= And B together. It’s just not what we’re taught or how we think.

And yet – we need to.

So please. as we go through this series, try to come to grips with this. It’s how the people thought back then. It’s how Jesus taught. It’s how Paul, John, James, and the other Apostles wrote. If we want to understand what they taught and wrote, and what the people understood, then we need to try to think the same way.

Is the difference between Believe, Believe In, and Follow really that important?

Lord, is it time for me to go home?

Lord, is it time for me to go Home?
I said, “After all the times I would have welcomed a ‘Yes’ answer, I feel like I have more to offer here”.
If you’ve read anything I’ve written about my past, you would know that’s shocking.

Read More

That last segment may seem bit strong. It is, but for good reason.

You see, back in early 2017 I was in the hospital for a week.

I was actually sick for three weeks before that, but due to stubbornness that I’d get better and then a misdiagnosis, I had an experience you can read about in if you’d like to.

It was a week in the hospital, followed by five more weeks with a battery operated IV drip machine “attached” to me.

Details are in the adjacent inset box.

That night changed so many things.

One of them is the way I write.

We’re Ready to Begin the Journey on Believe, Believe In, or Follow God?

What we’ve seen so far is that words like “believe,” “believe in,” and “follow” carry far more weight than our modern ears often give them. They are not just semantics — they shape how we understand life, death, and eternity. If we reduce them to fit our culture’s “one best answer” mindset, we risk losing the richness of what God intended.

The journey ahead is not about quick answers, but about rediscovering the depth of His words and the way they were first spoken.

Hope to see you in the nest segment, Are We Supposed to Believe God?