That sounds like a whole different debate topic. And probably a good one.
God is unquestionably 3 persons (Father, Son our Lord Jesus and Holy Spirit) in one God. He does communicate with us, but our ability to hear Him has to do with our willingness to listen. God says you have to come as a child to Him, in other words not try to conform Him to how you think the world is, but if anything fit your world view to His truth in His word.
As we learned to understand speech and communicate with our parents as a baby, we have to start over again to communicate with God, figure it out and learn.
God isn’t a he. God is a being which transcends time, space, and certainly sex. Holy Spirit, too. Jesus, on the other hand, is a man. A jewish dude from the province of Judea, born around 3 BC. Supposedly he wasn’t much of a looker. Liked baked fish.
As to the difference betwen what we want, what we need, and what we think we need. Well, from God’s perspective, we don’t bloody well need much, and much of what we do need can actually be pretty painful us. I like to call it the "burned fingers: need. Just about everyone I’ve ever known has burned their fingers on a stove as a child, once. The sad part about human bings is that we usually just plain don’t believe until we pee on the electric fence ourselves. That said, God isn’t exactly “in control”. We humans are allowed to totally screw up the place, although he will push and pull everything he can in order to bring things back to where they ought to be. And of couse, Satan is running around trying to gum up the works, which God allows for reasons we don’t understand.
God is male according to scriptures, with the power to create life, create reality, and to be worshiped. Scripturally men have this ability, and so do fallen angles (demons), women and Holy angels do not have those characteristics.
Now you can make the case that the first man (Adam), before woman was ‘taken out’ of him contained both male and female characteristics, but God called that combined human Adam (meaning man), perhaps God is better defined as such a combined being, but He would still be male just as Adam was male before woman was taken out of him.
Well, I’m a former believer, raised as a kid as a believer, so I don’t see why I can’t answer. I still have my memories.
When very young, I saw him as a person who was omnipotent. When a little older, through my teens, I saw him as an invisible force permeating everything, and taking any form he pleased. When I prayed to him, I assumed he gave me permission to imagine him as whoever I wanted, because my puny human brain wasn’t built to see the true him.
Yes, I called him “him.” “It,” seems disrespectful, though I knew he was beyond male or female.
As far as communicating with us, I assumed he was speaking to us every moment, but didn’t want to make it easy for us. You don’t get the ability to understand what he’s saying until you earn heaven.
I figured he spoke to people in the bible because they were stupid primitives, and he had to tell us something we’d understand.
God would have to give us some absolute standard for us to refer to. He created humans and knew what language would develop, and made us so the language contained the words He wanted to have it in, and the Word existed before the world.
You have to understand, I was raised & educated in Catholic school, where we were taught the bible and evolution simultaneously, more or less leaving it up to us how to reconcile the two. I figured he set the world & evolution in motion, then waited for us to develop the ability to understand words, gave us his instructions, then stepped back again, leaving it up to us to prove ourselves to him. Or disappoint him. Freedom of choice and all that.
Thanks for the interesting thread and responses.
If I may ask another question, could those who answered yes to question two give some examples of God communicating - either personal or historical.
thanks
Well, the way I was raised, you insult God when you demonstrate ignorance about what he created. God communicates with us by giving us the laws of physics and saying “figure it out.”
The relationship between a Lord Jesus and a person is personal, how He will speak to you may not be the same as how He speaks to me or how He may speak to another. If yo are looking on how He speaks to you don’t look at how He speaks to another as He may not want to talk to you that way.
Historical/biblical you can have:
-‘Word of knowledge’ a word or phrase just comes to you, some have reported this word or phrase just materializes inside their head, sometimes visual or audible.
- through His servants and prophets
- visions
- dreams
- possibly sometimes through an enemy (demon) as they sometimes are forced to say what God wants them to.
- once through a talking ass (donkey)
- through Angels
- Jesus Himself in person
- casting lots
- weather
- Father Himself
- ‘signs and wonders’
and a broad category through His Holy Spirit who can talk to you in so many ways. One way of looking at it is God is always talking to us in every method, but we need His Spirit for us to understand it. Many get the Spirit to speak to them in reading, meditating on the Word.
I have personally experienced many of the above, thanks be to God, it is really wonderful and it is available to anyone who truly seeks Him, Praise be to our Lord Jesus!
There are numerous historical examples, so I’ll leave those to Wiki and others. But personally, His communications with me have been by the means that I can best describe, perhaps, as “adjusting my understanding”. It’s reminiscent of the what happens when you finally understand the principle that has made, say, a math problem just outside your reach. The brain lights up, and you have this “Oh, I see!” sensation. And now the math problem is easy to solve. It’s sort of like that.
Is God a “person”? No. That is too limiting. “God” is, imo, an intelligent force, but not a “person” as the term is commonly understood.
I’ve always seen “God” as an energy, an intelligence, but more like the sum total (and more) of All That Is.
The Bible (which I do not base my perceptions upon, but which I refer to as a reference) says that God is ALL. And that “His eye is on the sparrow”. And that God is “within”.
That’s pretty close to my views; God is that energy, that consciousness which resides in every atom, every creature, all-seeing and all-knowing because “It” is within and surrounding everything that exists. In that sense, we are all within God and God is within us. There can be nothing outside of or isolated from God.
And yes, I think it is possible to have a “personal relationship” with this force and for it to communicate and respond.
Were they a perfect image of God before the Fall?
No God is not a person but I do think God communicates.
Currently with acknowledged very limited understanding the best analogy I have is the one in the Bible about the head and the body in 1 Cor 12
The whole chapter is pretty good. The cells of the body have identical DNA as the brain yes? We can classify the cells as different but they are all part of the greater whole and they do communicate.
personally, I’d second what Liberal said. Sometimes inspiration is a moment of clarity that feels like tapping into the source of knowledge rather than gaining or achieving it. I’ve also had some startling moments when an inner voice seemed far to clear to be just a thought and depth of insight, understanding, and a sense of great peace of mind and joy came unexpectedly.
You mean in late summer?
This.
In the more dramatic occurrences in my personal life, preceded by long intense sessions of prayer, at the end of which was a profound sense of “You have been heard. Go home and get some sleep and wait”.
I’d also compare it to tuning in. Prayer and meditation can help clear the mind of life’s day to day clutter and focus our thoughts and emotions on some particular issue that we need to address. I’m also intrigued about the way my attention is brought around to something that needs addressing. I’ve often thought life will bring you what you need to progress and we must pay attention so we don’t miss it.
I want to thank you for making sure non-believers don hijack this thread.
Anyways, I believe the member “Kanicbird” provided the best answer to your question. The Catholic Church recognizes the “trinity” when we speak of him.
This is not just a Catholic belief, most of the major protestant religions believe it as well. His “being” is expressed in “three” persons. The father (he), son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. For atheists or agnostics, its very difficult to try and explain this concept. I have a hard enough time just getting them to believe they have a spirit.
I believe GOD only listens to those who come to him with humility. Hence, this is why atheists have a hard time seeing his prescence in their life. If Atheists were more humble, I think that would open the door for them.
And yes, God is a “he.” The Holy Bible makes many references to “HIM.” Its only recently when people have tried to change God to fit “their” image of him. Again, this is where the human EGO starts interfering.
Not cool. I wanted nonbelievers to refrain out of respect. That doesn’t give you leave to attack them when I’ve asked them not to hijack.
What, in your view, does it mean for God to be a “he”?