The title of this piece is about two phenomena put in an apparently non-sequential order. But the phenomena in question are physical as well as spiritual in nature. The consideration of family ecosystems with attending personal experiences and that of others, indicated that two or more individuals born in the same family unit, turn out with different behavior characteristics, belief systems and perception, is proof that belief and faith are not inherited phenomena. On the contrary, there is suggestion that they are not intrinsic component of an individual make-up or gene, but extrinsic, from a source outside the individual.
However, this extrinsic source is not nature [otherwise referred to as nurture], unless nature is synonymous with a supernatural Being or Source. If it were nature, then it follows that all individuals exposed to this same natural environment would posses identical behavior characteristics, belief systems and perception, which is not the case. Therefore, nurture does not explain belief and faith. Even though it might partly explain belief, but it does not provide an explanation for faith.
Nobody lives forever, everybody born of a woman dies. In addition to this, when Paul said in Romans 3:23; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, this includes those who are born this very moment. This seems beyond human comprehension, but it is God’s truth, which explains why some or all individuals of a family unit end up with belief in God, but no faith in God or faith bestowed upon them by God. This was succinctly put by Paul in Romans 12:3; For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
Thus, this indicates that God has chosen those that He gives measures of faith, and this has nothing to do with the family unit an individual is born into and is not inherited. However, what is inherited is sin, all the way from Adam and Eve. The Scripture confirmed this in Genesis 3:20; Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. And the curse on Eve in Genesis 3:16; To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” While the curse on Adam was stated in Genesis 3:17-19; To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
In light of this, the meaning of the words of the Holy Spirit through King David in Psalm 51 verse 5 can be understood; Surely, I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. This in turn provides the backdrop for Paul in Romans 5:12; Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people, because all sinned.
Having understood how an individual is sinful at birth, and that it is God Himself who chooses those He bestows measures of faith to, which is synonymous to those that are saved, as testified to by Jesus Christ Himself in John 17:6; “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Then, Peter’s testimony under the influence of the Holy Spirit is brought into light in 1 Peter 2:9; But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. This selection is a culling of those that receives the gift of Salvation. They had been chosen even before they were born.
They have been chosen to receive the Gift of eternal life which is according to Jesus Christ in John 17:3; Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. The ramification of this gift is elaborated on, by Paul in Romans 5:15-17; But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
