“Faith without works is dead,” we read in the epistle of Apostle James. The translations I have encountered render the word πίστις as “faith” (that is, the authors of the translations interpret πίστις as referring to faith, not trust!?). But such a reading is incorrect! Because faith by definition is life, it is knowing God, who is Life, it is dwelling in the “third heaven.” Therefore, life (faith) cannot be dead (with works or without!). Thus, faith without works being dead is absurd! Therefore, in this context (the epistle of Apostle James), the word πίστις indicates trust (and fidelity). So it should be read: trust without works is dead (or: fidelity without works is dead)! Indeed, since trust presupposes verification, that is, the works of trust, then if there are no works, there is no labor of verification—such trust is dead, that is, it does not lead to faith (knowing), to life! Similarly, we argue about fidelity, which without works (of fidelity, responsibility) is dead! You might say: what’s the danger in reading it as—faith without works is dead?! Great! Because the task of every hypostatic creature is to become a believer, that is, to know God, to partake of the Holy Spirit, to be a living organic member of the Church (the Hypostasis of the Body of Christ), then from this incorrect statement, the declared may think about himself that he is a believer (that is, he has already reached the goal, or is already near the goal!?), deceiving himself that he performs the commandments, does good deeds. What a great delusion—Christ does not know (knew) by the Holy Spirit (even for a moment, to be faithful to this meeting—knowing), and calls himself a believer, because he performs the commandments, does good deeds (see Part I), and according to Scripture, faith without works is dead. There are works, even many good deeds—means my faith is alive and great!? What a delusion, what folly! The entire Protestant world loves this (incorrect) quote to confirm their faith, or to accuse others of faithlessness! They are sincerely convinced (by Scripture!? Which was incorrectly translated to them!), that they are believers, that they have already reached the goal—though they are far from God-accepting humility, which is born in the rightly declared Church from the knowledge of their own weakness and poverty to do good deeds, which they cannot perform! Therefore, those who have not experienced the Holy Spirit, have not met Christ (even for a moment) face to face, are at best trusting, that is, declared, moving towards the Church, baptism by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ (the parish!). Therefore, works are not an indicator of faith, but, at best, of trust! And there is still a long-long way to the meeting with Christ—from the depths of knowing one’s own perdition, godlessness, weakness, which will make me able to fully trust Christ, to surrender to Him without any hope for myself, my own strengths, which will make us able to merge into the flow of hypostatic life in complete freedom and love (absolute self-sacrifice and acceptance in the tonality of absolute kenosis)…
“We walk by faith, not by sight,” we read in the synodal translation of 2 Cor. 5:7. It should not be translated as “by faith,” but by trust or fidelity! Because faith is indeed vision, knowing (the realization of the expected and assurance (vision) in the unseen, that is, seeing what was not seen before, being in the realm of trust). The danger of the incorrect reading is obvious, and its fruits are felt in the delusion of the declared…
“Πίστις comes from hearing,” we read in the letter to the Romans in the tenth chapter. In the Synodal translation (and others known to me), the word πίστις is translated as indicating faith (but not trust): “faith comes from hearing.” Since, to find out which reality the word πίστις (faith or trust) points to, one needs to listen to the context: “… For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on the one they have not trusted? And how can they trust the one about whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without a preacher. And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of peace, bring good news of good. But not everyone has obeyed the Gospel. For Isaiah says: Lord, who has trusted what they heard from us? Thus πίστις comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I say: Did they not hear…”. From the context, we see that there is no talk of faith, but of trust! Therefore, it should be read: “trust comes from hearing”! You might say: what is the danger of this incorrect translation? The first: that it is incorrect! The second: people, reading the Bible or listening to sermons and, as a result, receiving rational knowledge about God, might call themselves believers, that is, Christians, by Scripture (faith comes from hearing)! This substitution of concepts has led to a catastrophe: a pagan, a godless person without a conscience by Scripture (as he is convinced) calls himself a believer (just because he agrees with the assertion that God exists, and generally says “amen” to all Orthodox teaching, agrees in the rightness of every dogma of the Church). Thus we hear from the mouths of hierarchs (who often have no connection to the Church, or at best are declared) about millions of faithful (believers) of a certain patriarchate, that is, about millions of Christians—and this all “by Scripture” (they do not understand that Scripture does not talk about this!). One word was translated incorrectly—and what a great harvest of delusion and substitution of concepts!