I believe in God because he has revealed himself to all who are faithfully looking for him. I faithfully believe that there is evidence of God throughout the universe. However, in the known universe, I freely attest that there is absolutely nothing that proves beyond a shadow of doubt, that there is a God. However, I and many others, by faith, attest that there is a God.
A believer will tell you that it is strictly by faith that we come to the decision to believe in God by looking at pointers. Things that have no real explanation by itself but accumulatively point to an intelligent designer. We call him God. I freely admit that I do not have tangible proof and am running on faith alone.
With that said, there is a greater faith than mine and that is of those who freely decide that there is no God. They look at the same evidence and decide that there is nothing to our God. As a matter of fact, many do call God, "nothingness". They ask us how we could come to our conclusions with no real proof. They call it a blind faith.
The pointers I mentioned earlier are based on the belief that everything in the universe, known and unknown, the something and the nothing, points to something greater than man. I can show you how everything and the nothing points to something beyond our understanding. However, when those who do not believe make their decision on the known universe, it is a small sampling of the known universe.
Present scientific consensus states that only 5% of the universe is knowable matter. The other 95% is nothingness, Dark Energy or Dark Matter with little or no understanding what Dark Matter or Dark Energy or nothingness actually is. Based on that 5%, non believers freely decide and proudly proclaim that there is absolutely no God and are willing to risk their immortal souls on it. A decision based on a 5% sampling rate……
That my friends is a Faith greater than mine.
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ReplyDeleteCompletely agree ND. No person lives without faith of some sort. No one knows everything... we can only go by what is the best and hopefully the fullest explanation of the universe at hand. To believe there is a creator takes less faith for me as well, than it does to trust that there is no God.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder why God doesn't completely reveal Himself. For me it is possibly because this course of action encourages us to keep seeking Him, and it is that journey of seeking Him that He moulds us and shapes us into becoming like Himself.
I have been reading "Miracles" by C.S. Lewis lately. He addresses this very question asked by many. He states
"To some people the great trouble about any argument for the Supernatural is simply the fact that argument should be needed at all. If so stupendous a thing exists, ought it not to be obvious as the sun in the sky?"
He replies with an analogy that I find explains an aspect of the situation that fits well with my suggestion described before. He states
" When you are looking at a garden from a room upstairs it is obvious (once you think about it) that you are looking through a window. But if it is the garden that interests you, you may look at it for a long time without thinking of the window. When you are reading a book it is obvious (once you attend to it) that you are using your eyes: but unless your eyes begin to hurt you, or the book is a text book on optics, you may read all evening without once thinking of eyes....
All these instances show that the fact which is in one respect the most obvious and primary fact, and through which alone you have access to all the other facts, may be precisely the one that is most easily forgotten - forgotten not because it is so remote or abstruse but because it is so near and so obvious"
So, it is not that it is hard to grasp necessarily, but it is there should we want to see it or are interested in seeing it.
As Lewis goes on to say, it is not surprising that people get caught up in what they are seeing through the window and not thinking about the window itself. It seems to be the way that our minds work, to focus a majority on what we are thinking about rather than thinking about our thinking LOL. It is when we step back from gazing at the garden that we see the window. We must do this in order to develop a complete philosophy that is without "truncated" thought (Love those old words).
Shalom Daniel. I hope the last couple of years have been well for you and the family. I apologize for my absence. One day we can talk about it. It looks like a lot has happened with you.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the new addition to the family. She is beautiful. I like her name, Songs of Praise to the God who judges. Also, congratulations on the successful completion of your bachelors.
As for your comment, it does come down to our perception of our dimensionality and Gods. Your analogy of looking through the window reminds me of what Maimonides wrote. His window was tuned by the Spirit of God and he perceived that we live in at least ten dimensions, four knowable directly, the others are perceived by indirect means. Amazingly, it wasn't until the advent of Quantum Physics did modern day scientists come to this conclusion.
We have the ability to view Gods garden and his existence as long as we are willing to take that leap of faith. A great example of this is when Elisha and his servant were surrounded by the Syrian Army. His servant was very distraught until Elisha told him, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." He then asked God to clear the fog of the servant's window and he saw the mountain top filled with chariots of fire of the Army of God.
Imagine what is available to us if we only open our spiritual eyes.
It is great to have you back! I hope you have been keeping well, and those around you :) I would love to have chat with you sometime about "keeping the law". Some of my extended family have gone down the lines of saying that it is God's best intention for everyone to keep the Mosaic law and the feasts. They say Jesus never said not to follow the law, only that the law by itself (without Christ) lead to death. I might make a post about it in the near future for us to discuss...
ReplyDeleteThat could be one area of specialization you could provide some input in lol.
Yes my brother, we all know and even the demons believe that there is a God, but only a few know who that God is.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that you don't know who that God is, otherwise you would say who it is.
And thanks for the challenging comment you left on my blog.
Shalom Paul,
ReplyDeleteGod is God. There is no other with or without a name. He is our Father, Creator, Savior, etc. As I said in your blog, he is an infinitely dimensional and supernatural being. We try to put names on him to no avail. We try to define him but fall severely short. All we know for sure, without a doubt, is his Word is His Plan of Salvation for us, Y'shua.
Our salvation, provided by God, is Y'shua. That's what his name means. Salvation is only through Y'shua....no other because he is from God and God is part of him, one with him dimensionally.
The issue that I have with your postings is that you have made the gift of Salvation, God, instead of giving praise and thanks to Giver of Salvation, YHWH YIREH, Yahweh the Provider, who is the power of Y'shua.
As for the comment that only a few know who God is, I disagree. Everyone knows who God is. It is revealed to all through the evidence of his creation, even those who have not heard the good news that God has provided our Salvation through Y'shua. Romans 2.
I do agree that only a Remnant, in every generation, has the relationship with our Father at the level that God desires. It is not my place to judge your position in him and I hope that I never come across that way. However, it is my job to recognize your fruits and your message and present the Truth for your edification. It is your job to allow God's Holy Spirit to lead you into all Truth.
Thanks for your comment.
Daniel, I look forward to it.
ReplyDeleteN.D. You said " he is an infinitely dimensional and supernatural being. We try to put names on him with no avail. We try to define him but fall severely short."
ReplyDeleteWell brother, I do not think that I fall short in defining the God of the Bible. I have been posting for years on that subject.
The God of the Bible is the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth and beside Him is NO OTHER!
There is no other called 'Father' and no other called 'God' and no other called 'Holy Spirit' and no other called 'Son'.
If the Lord Jesus is not the FATHER, then the Father must be an 'other'.
Who?
If the Lord Jesus is not the Father, then the Father and the Lord Jesus are TWO. Then God is not one but two.
It is as simple as that.
If a person has a relationship with the Father and that Father is NOT Jesus Christ, then WHO is that Father he has a relationship with?
If everybody would know who God is, why don't they agree with me that this God of all creation is the Lord Jesus Christ?
I think they disagree because they think and teach that the real big God is someone else.
As to the gift; I understand that the free gift is 'eternal LIFE'.
Life from the dead is that free gift concerning salvation.
Kind regards
Paul
Not sure what your exact beliefs are Paul, but the Trinity is expressed in the scriptures. Many a time God the Son has conversations with God the Father.
ReplyDeleteI see the Trinity more like different manifest expressions of God. Maybe similar to as we are described in the New Testament, as one body made up of different parts or expressions. Jesus Christ is possibly God's way of giving us an example of how we can relate to God the Father.
Paul,
ReplyDeleteLet's start over and please bear with me. To see where I'm coming from, please answer the following questions for me. Let's keep it simple and build on it from there.
Conundrum #1
Can you kill God? or Can God die?
Conundrum #2
Can God and sin coexists in the same enitity?
Thanks ahead of time for you cooperation.
Keith
Daniel;
ReplyDeleteGod has created you in His image, one person and not three.
This God is the Lord Jesus Christ, and to us is only one God and that is the Father (1 Cor.8:6). When when you worship the Lord Jesus you worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), and when you have a relationship with the Lord Jesus, you have a relationship with the Father.
The trinity teaches that God is three persons and all those persons are one God.
No Doubt;
ReplyDelete#1 God is the Holy Spirit (John 4:24) who has clothed Himself in flesh Jesus Christ, and in the days of His flesh (man) sinful man did kill God on the cross and He died for our sins.
#2 God is the Lord Jesus Christ and sin cannot coexist in Him, for He is without sin.
Paul,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry brother, but that is not Biblical. God is eternal and everlasting to everlasting and sinless and will never die and experience sin.
Your answers reveal that you believe that God died and remained dead as a sinful being for three days approximately 1930 years ago.
According to the scriptures, Jesus was crucified upon the alter of God, the Cross. During this event, God withdrew himself from Jesus. This is when Jesus cried out, “My God, My God. Why has thou forsaken me?”.
Paul then tells us that the sins of the world were put upon him at this time. In fact, he states that he was made sin for us all.
Jesus could not be 100% God at this point in time because God cannot and will never exist as or with sin. It’s against his nature.
Also, this would make God a hypocrite, holding our sin against us while forgiving the same sin within himself, which is preposterous and blasphemous.
In reality, God withdrew himself and left the perfect Jesus to die as the ultimate sin offering. Again, God cannot do that.
As a side bar, the man part of Jesus feared the withdrawal of God and being made sin so much that he sweated blood in Gethsemane and asked if there was another way. Do you see God asking himself if there was another way? By the way, he did this because he was about to experience something that he had never experience in his existence, the absence of God, sin and death. Again, God will never experience sin and death.
Three days later, in fulfillment to scripture, and before the Body would naturally see corruption, God rejoined the man and together resurrected Jesus in a transformed body.
Later, on Pentecost, Jesus ascended to his rightful place, the right hand of his Father, where he makes intercession for us on a daily basis. Does God intercede for us to himself?
This reminds me of a sermon that I heard a long time ago. It was about the three things that God cannot do.
God cannot die.
God cannot sin.
God cannot make you love him.
Which leads to the two things he doesn't know.
God doesn't know a sinner that he doesn't love.
God doesn't know a better time to confess your sins and accept him as savior than right now.
Shalom