Who is God?

[Postmaster]

I apologise if this topic was ever started before, but I think this question crosses every monotheists mind sooner or later.

Do you think God is an approachable guy? Would we ever be able to have a 2 way communication with him in the after life? Will the mystery of God be infinite, but after death he will be more clear and closer to us? Will he look like a human? Also to a Christian will God be Christ?

Just some more of my many curious questions.

 

[iBrian]

Somehow I can't help that asking if we can converse with God directly, would be like asking if an ant could converse with the sun.

Of course, there are different ways that the ant could feel that the sun is communicating with them - with warmth and light for a start - but somehow I doubt that this would be a balanced dialogue.

2c.

 

[truthseeker]

Do you think God is an approachable guy?

I think the answer to that depends on how you are spiritually raised to view God. People have many different relationships with God - My own relationship with God varies in view of myself and vice versa. I find God to be very approachable. Dauer (hope he's having a great time) started a thread about a rabbi advising a teenage boy to include God in masturbation and we discussed that a bit. It opened my eyes to including God in just about everything that I do, regardless of purported sinful behavior. If I am doing something that I would not want God to be a part of, then I conclude that I probably shouldn't be a part of it.

Would we ever be able to have a 2 way communication with him in the after life?

That's a good question. I was talking about that with my cousin yesturday. I'm not that eager to die to find out though.

Will the mystery of God be infinite, but after death he will be more clear and closer to us?

I don't think God is all that much of a mystery. The mysteriousness of God is trying to visualize Him into something that we are physically familiar with. There is another kind of understanding that is not weighed by scientific method. We all have that understanding but we don't trust it because it is hard to get others to relate to it.

Maybe I can pitch in another penny later to equal Brian's 2c.

 

[Postmaster]

To be honest if the existence of God was so clear to us, I think we would be bleached and blinded by his power. Imagine if all humans new God existed for fact, like if he spoke to us like we were in the big brother house or something. What would be the point of our existence? There would be know need for question seeking, there would be no need for a free will choice because we would believe all the Abrahamic laws as truth and be scared crapless about breaking them.. People wouldn't care if they were going to die, because they know they will be going to a greater place, people wouldn't function as they should, because they would be corrupted by his power, bleached by knowledge of his existence.

It's like the sun I suppose, we can't live without it, but if we get too close we are destroyed instantly (so we believe).

 

[Faithfulservant]

Do you think God is an approachable guy? Would we ever be able to have a 2 way communication with him in the after life? Will the mystery of God be infinite, but after death he will be more clear and closer to us? Will he look like a human? Also to a Christian will God be Christ?

Just some more of my many curious questions.

Again... I appreciate Postmasters thoughtful questions that I believe most people think but never voice..

Yes I believe God is approachable.. I believe He wants us to approach Him with trust and love. I believe I have a two-way conversation with Him now In the afterlife I believe all the barriers barring us from having that two-way conversation will be gone and it will be a lot easier to grab His ear. I believe that all mysteries will be revealed when we are no longer bound by our puny dimensional outlook. I believe that we are the image of Jesus.. He is the image of what we WILL be. Yes I believe that God will be Christ just as God will be The Father and God will be The Spirit. The image I have in my mind is in Revelation just as John saw.

 

[Postmaster]

Very interesting FS I like this a lot "He wants us to approach Him with trust and love" he wants us to appraoch him with trust and love.. To me this sums it up It's all out there for us, God has been calling us and talking to us since man could hear. All we have to do is hear indeed.

 

[path_of_one]

I'm pretty much with Faithful Servant on this one...

"Is God an approachable guy?"

Yes. I agree, He wants us to come to Him. I believe the deepest part of ourselves is a divine spark that longs to come to God. The breath of life that animates each of us yearns to be with God, and God in turn loves His creation and reaches out toward it incessantly.

"Two-way Communication?"

Sort of. I experience this direct communication now, too. But I also see Brian's point. It's a dialogue, but rather lop-sided. Mostly me asking for guidance and strength and peace, and God listening and then directing. God seems to not get much out of these conversations except my love and praise and worship, but I think that's all He really wants. After all, He already knows everything, including my own thoughts!

"Will the mystery of God be infinite, but after death he will be more clear and closer to us?"

I think so. There are moments in life that He has been more clear, closer. And the few OBE experiences I've had where I left into visions He was the most clear and close I've ever experienced. I think He will ever be a Great Mystery, since I will never be anywhere near equal to Him. But, I do think that in spirit form we understand, and more importantly experience, more of Him and in a much more direct way. I think that we still have free will in that form though.

"Will he look like a human? Also to a Christian will God be Christ?"

No, I do not believe God will look at all human. At least, He never has to me yet, and since in my experience God is a Spirit beyond time and space, He doesn't do the body thing. However, I have experienced a vision of Christ and it was much more physical than the other visions I've had of God, and I believe Christ greets us in a form that we understand Him, at least during life. After death, I don't know if Jesus remains in that form or not. Perhaps it depends on the needs of the individual and their expectations, because I do believe that all who love and follow Him are embraced by Him. How that embrace "looks" I do not know.

 

[DrFree]

Proposal: God is to the universe as you are to your body (and as I am to my body).

A more local version: Gaia is to the earth as (etc....)

 

[Awaiting_the_fifth]

Imagine if all humans new God existed for fact
...
There would be know need for question seeking,
...
we would believe all the Abrahamic laws as truth
...
People wouldn't care if they were going to die, because they know they will be going to a greater place...

Sounds Great.

 

[mee]

so who is God ?Psalm 83;18 (KJV)tells us

 

[wil]

so who is God ?Psalm 83;18 (KJV)tells us

Love that....but I think that is King James Version of God. (sorry couldn't help it) Be still and know that I am God, in him we live and breathe and have our being or Jesus- Ye are Gods...

namaste,

 

[Tao_Equus]

Do you think God is an approachable guy? Would we ever be able to have a 2 way communication with him in the after life? Will the mystery of God be infinite, but after death he will be more clear and closer to us? Will he look like a human? Also to a Christian will God be Christ?

Just some more of my many curious questions.[/QUOTE]


If there is a universal conciousness, and my gut instinct says there is. then I think its so far removed from us that meaningful communication that we understand would not be possible. Brian used a good analogy in the ant and the sun in which we see it is possible for the sun to communicate it has presence but the ant has no means to have any dialog. But these ideas are born from isolating God as an entity somehow removed from us. If on the other hand we are ourselves a constituent part of God then our comunication is like that of the brain telling the leg to take a step in order for us to walk. Its a constant yet unconcious communication. And we are at each and every moment engaged in God's plan, if indeed God has one.

I Had a traveling companion some years ago who was in the way he dressed and looked very like the blonde haired blue eyed christ of much christian iconography. One day we walked together into a village high in the mountains of southern mainland greece, about 20 miles from Sparti. The village was only reachable on foot and donkeys were still the most sophisticated form of travel. As we walked into the village a group of 4 women took one look at my friend and started crossing themselves and one even fainted. One of the freakiest experiences of my life. People see what they want to see is my point. In the moments when our mortal toils are drawing to a close I think we will see either our greatest hopes or our greatest fears, depending on the psyche of the individual. A simple explanation for many near death experiences.

 

[wil]

Do you think God is an approachable guy?

I think you have to take the 'guy' out as to me that is just creating God in our image...

I helped a former Assistant Surgeon General to the US (under C. Everett Koop) open a healing center (massage therapy, accupuncture, natural healing treatments (like qi gong/reiki) and herbs, vitamins etc...

We had a new video we wanted to watch and walked in at closing time one day to review it. The cashier told us the video player was acting for the past couple days, many tried but no one could watch a video.

We plugged ours in and sat down...it started playing, she looked up as she was cashing out and told us it'll start stuttering and be unwatchable soon. She was right, about 5 minutes in it went all jumpy, I tried the tracking, cleaned the heads, and put the tape in and out. We got a couple more minutes and then it went haywire again.

As we are sitting there Bill calmly says something along the lines of, "God, I know you've got a lot on your plate, I know there are bigger things and bigger concerns in the world, but I also know this won't even take you a second, or maybe you could delegate it, some angel could handle this for us. Our vcr won't play, and we'd really like to see this tape."

The tape immediately played...and that was about 6 years ago and the player is still in use today. No 'in Jesus name', no bowed heads, prayed hands, lotus position, or amen...

Just the faith the size of a mustard seed. I could tell you a bunch more...of times when I had no faith...just going through the motions...but with instant results...

Approachable??? How could that not be...we are in the midst.

namaste,

 

[taijasi]

I believe we should think very carefully about love & praise & worship. The question is not one of whether G-d deserves these or not. That's silly. But I believe it's more along the lines of: What does G-d expect of us?

Wouldn't the answer be that G-d simply expects for us to do our best to fulfil our Purpose ("Be all that you can be"), given our current understanding of each other, the planet/system, and ourselves?

... and part of our Holy Purpose I can hear someone thinking ... is to love God. No. If so, you tell me what kind of G-d this is.

My understanding (extremely limited as it may happen to be) is that, simply speaking, our highest purpose is to Love. period This doesn't distinguish between self, other, not-self, etc. It doesn't mean "anything goes," but it does mean that if I am to fulfil my purpose here, at least one qualification is that I do my best to love unconditionally.

This does include G-d, but we should think very carefully about the "jealous G-d" idea, or about any being that insists/demands (like a small child having a temper tantrum) things of us. And yes, to hang a human face and human personality on G-d and just assume that such a being is no different than any other of the 60 (sic) billion human Souls ... is patently absurd, imho.

Can we talk to G-d? Yes, go outside, look toward (but not at) the Sun. He is blinding, is He not? For a reason - or rather, due to being in a place we won't reach for quite some time! And yes, the ant has as much chance of grokking G-d right now as we do. But he doesn't flip out about it, and I sure don't see him sitting in a pew on Sunday. Does G-d love the ant less? No. The sun does not diminish his lightrays and warmth for the ant, nor will he do so for us.

Does that give us free reign to `do as we will,' ie, to make our own law? No. Karma is. The law of Love is. The law of cycles is. But even this great being we call G-d didn't create these cycles. He is but subject to them as we are - answering at a much higher level, since He has attained on a far higher turn of the spiral than have we. But the root law is the same.

Oh, you mean, can we have a two way conversation with SUPREME G-d. Why always the transcendent? Now the relationship would be more like one of the teeny little subquarks in your fingernail ... expressing its gratitude to the entire Milky Way Galaxy. Yes, that's the Spirit! But don't fall off your horse if the Galaxy doesn't stop what it's doing and diminish itself so completely that it can walk inside your fingernail and shake your hand and give you a hug.

By the way, that's what wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, friends and teachers are for. And these people (and animals, and other kingdoms) are all the proof of `G-d' that anyone should need. And the God immanent (or Christ presence, in the case of some people) ... is most definitely someone and something with whom/which we may communicate. In fact, we do so all the time, whether we know it or not, and whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. And that goes for everybody.

As above, so below; as within, so without. Damn was that Hermes on to something!

-Andrew

 

[mee]

Love that....but I think that is King James Version of God. (sorry couldn't help it) Be still and know that I am God, in him we live and breathe and have our being or Jesus- Ye are Gods...

namaste,

King James version says this at psalm 83;18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

 

[wil]

King James version says this at psalm 83;18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

Oh I know it, read it, have it in a bunch of versions...four different in two parallel bibles... Lord in some, Yahweh in others...we left old Elohim behind in Genesis...I was just naming some other locations that give more to God than I am that I am......ommmmmmm.

Yes, go outside, look toward (but not at) the Sun. He is blinding, is He not?

Are we capitalizing He for the Sun...surely we are not looking up to find G-d. I really respect the not saying or printing the name concept....tons of validity there...and exactly what the discussion is revolving around...but even the 'who is' is leading to be a anthropormorphic human type being setting us back to Thor and Zeus...and other Sun Gods..

Would we ever be able to have a 2 way communication with him in the after life?

I think those with ears...inner understanding have two way communcation now. That still small voice doesn't speak in words or answer questions for me as a conversation would...but my knowledge of things I know not of....increases in manners I know not how...but I sure know where it came from...and to quote Gleason....How sweet it is!

namaste,

 

[Green Knight]

For me this leads on to the most obvious question 'What is God'. God the creator of all, the universe etc. Yes, I can handle that. But what of divine beings? Other Gods like Zeus, Hera, Osiris, Krisna, Vishnu? Or lesser divine beings such as Angels, the virgin Mary. Who or what are they? What about the Sun? Does it have a consciousness? Could it also be a divine being? Also the God of the Christians and/or Jews is this the same God who created all/the universe of which we are such a tiny tiny speck. If so why didn't he send his Son to the Chinese, India, South America? There is a passage in the bible Matthew 15 21-28 where a Greek women approaches Jesus to help heal her daughter. Jesus initially rejects her pleas and says to her 'The children (jews) must first be fed! It isn't right to take away their food and feed it to dogs'. Is this what a Son of the Creator of all would say? Sounds much more likely he was the Son of the Divinity of the Jewish people if he was a Son of a Divinity at all and not just a prophet.