I sit here with a notebook in front of me and the pen in my hand. This is what I was made for. In this I am complete. This isn't some cold lifeless keyboard (although eventually I will have to stoop to using one if my words are to be read). This is now my third attempt at putting these thoughts to words. The first two were miserable failures, so now I am resorting to more extreme measures. So here I am, heading to my River Jabbok (the swingset), for one last try.
Ok, so this is what I know: God is. I know this not through any of the so called "proofs". They fall short and they always will because they use the "stuff" of the universe (the mind, design, cosmology, etc) to try and define the existence of transcendence. It is a literal impossibility and any attempts to do so only weaken the cause of the one attempting it. The knowledge that God is, is a leap of faith. After all, it is impossible to know anything with absolute certainty and so I chose to ground my understanding of everything on One greater than myself.
The problem is, I can only know God if He chooses to reveal Himself to me. God has revealed Himself to me, and that is why I am confident in my knowledge that He is. But how do I share with others what God has revealed to me? In my blog "Understanding Revelation" I talked about four types, or levels, of revelation: reflective, testimonial, and experiential.
The question I have been unsuccessfully been trying to answer; the question I never properly framed is: "Are there universal truths to revelation?" Has God revealed Himself at a time, or in a manner that is universal to everyone and is beyond, even above, experiential revelation? Is there an authoritative revelation that validates our experience and knowledge of God? What is the Word of God?
There are three categories that lay claim to authority: 1) personal revelation, 2) corporate revelation, and 3) written revelation. By personal revelation I am talking about an experiential revelation that I attempt to share with others. Are they obligated to believe what God has so clearly and indisputably shown me? On the flip side, am I obligated to believe everything someone else tells me that God has revealed to them? What if two people claim revelations that are contradictory? To put it in context, Buddha has claimed a revelation about God. For that matter, so did Joseph Smith. By what authority do I embrace or reject their message?
By corporate revelation I mean the group of individuals who share a common set of beliefs. This can be as institutionalized as the Roman Catholic Church or as informal as a prayer group that meets at someone's house on Tuesdays (shout out to Father's Love!). It can be as rigid as a militant jihad cell, or as open as the Universalist Church. The problem is, does one corporate body have more validity than another? What if, like the RCC, these "revelations" change over time? Should I believe what they did claim, what they do claim, or should I hold out for what they will claim?
By written revelation I mean specifically "holy" scriptures (I suppose you could also lump in various theological works and even such ramblings as these blogs). Again, many questions arise. What gives one set of scriptures (the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, the Book of Mormon, etc) validity over the others? For that matter, what gives one interpretation more validity than another interpretation of the same set of scripture? Is not written revelation simply personal revelation in written form and given it's approval (or validity) through a corporate body? If so, does that not make it inferior to both personal and corporate revelation? Beyond that, what if my chosen written authority is self contradictory?
So the question remains, where does authority lie? What is the Word of God?
Your questions all seem to be omitting the one case when God became the "stuff" of this universe -- Jesus. So the answer to where does the authority lie, lies in the answer to whether or not Jesus was God. Their is quite a bit of evidence showing that he is. Therefore, I would say the set of scriptures that would have more authority than the others is the one that teaches Jesus as God -- The Bible.
I would also say that certain denominations of Christians may not have more authority than others... but denominations that go against what the Bible specifically says have no authority.
"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. C.S. Lewis,British author (1898-1963)
So, what makes one person's experience of God more valid than another? I'd say, government backing and very charismatic and dedicated individuals.
Where would Christianity be without Paul and Constantine? Paul took Christianity and made it more acceptable to the masses (circumcision wasn't appealing to Romans who considered it remarkably obscene). And then Constantine who made the religion official and turned Jesus into some sort of war god... I still can't make sense of that.
As far as your question about whether everyone experiences God the same way. Well, that's hard to know for sure. But I read this article about how there is a part of a person's brain that is designed to experience religion, called the 'god module'. So, then I suppose it could very well be the same for everyone. I want to note that some people use this as evidence that God doesn't' exist, that it's merely some sort of psychological experience. But I think it makes sense that God would equip humans with the ability to sense him/her/it/them.
I'm a little dissapointed since your first blog WHo am I is very analytical and insightful, ends up with an open question. On the other hand lets us draw our own conclusions. BTW I belive that Buddha himself never spoke of a God, people already belived in a God, so it was implied, but there is only 1 of the 4 main Buddhism "parts" ("ramas" is spanish) that actually prays to God or gods, not very sure... Anyway, I think that the way we would percieve God's revelation would vary significally due to cultural reasons, so the way we percieve God or God's revelation would vary depending on their culture, therefore it would be different, and depending on ethnic differences not everybody will belive just ONE revelation of God, which is why "The uncertainity helps make life an adventure."
God or no God, I do belive in a supreme being (my leap of faith) because I choose to, because I feel secure knowing someone's always keeping a balance in the world. I don't see God a up in a throne judging us or op there for that matter. He is pour creator and we do have his signature fingerprint (our feelings our souls)
My view is that God is like a Bag of rice (this theory I've picked up over the years of research and stick with it somewhere around where I was 17 yo) A bag of rice. The whole thing is GOD, if you open the bag and spread the rice all over the floor you're looking at the universe, every grain of rice represents one os us, every living being, animals, trees, even rocks, the stars, moons, we're all a piece of God, and we all as a Whole make up what God is. Thst's why even though I'm a wiccan I chose to follow Chist's mandament (excuse my english) One to replace the last ten. Love God with all thy body, mind, and heart, and Love thy neighboor like yourself. (personal traduction I know this in spanish) Jesus gave us a message of Love a great one in fact. Humans made religions out of that message, made rules, made groups which don't get along with each other, fanatism, etc.
God manifests all around us, I saw him when my cat has her kittens in my bed, I witnessed the miracle of Life. God manifests when I eat, breathe, even when I sleep in my dreams, with every feeling I get. I am God, you are God, we're all God, that;s why we should love each other. I think if Jesus came back today he'd do the same he did last time. Tell us to forget everything we were taught, critizize the church, politics within it, and the rules made by them, and make a new Reform (reforma in spanish [alteration says the dictionary]) and tell us : Love God with all thy body, mind, and heart, and Love thy neighboor like yourself.
Many Blessings Thanks for the journey
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