Christian Theism

[mitchellmckain 0]

What makes God, God?In the question, "what makes God, God?" the word "God" is both subject and predicate and so to answer this question you must first explain what this predicate means and only then give the requirement that the question asks for. For example, a rather common simple minded approach is to say that the predicate means that the being who is called God must be obeyed. And a typical statement of requirement is that God created us. However, I do not believe that this typical simple minded approach is valid. I repudiate both predicate and requirement. I repudiate the predicate because I do not think our relationship with God is all about obedience. I repudiate the requirement because I do not think that being one's creator entitles one to obedience or to being called God. Mary Shelly's novel, "Frankenstein" is a rather eloquent illustration of this. Oh and the film "Blade Runner" addresses this question too. It is easy to think of many example of a similar nature. In my view the meaning of the predicate God, which best captures the universal religious meaning of what it means to call something God, is that the being called God is worthy of worship. And in my view the most fundamental requirement of such a predicate must be that God is the ultimate good, such that no righteous cause can properly stand against Him. In other words, any cause against God must be based on lies or misunderstandings that are no fault of His. It seems to me that only such a being could possible be worthy of worship. I think this is as about as close to a definition of God as you can get. This serves the most important task of a definition to identify what one means by the word. The only thing to add to this would be a theology, which is a description of those attributes which I think are applicable to the God I believe in. Accordingly, God is a self-existing (uncaused) infinitely (with no limitations) perfect intellegent personal being who is therefore omnipotent and omniscient within the limits of logic (both the obvious ones of which we are aware and others which we may not be aware). But of course no description of a person would be complete without a description of what they choose to do, for the content of a person's will and what they have chosen to devote themselves to, is much more truly what they are in essence than anything else. In the case of God, the answer to this is found in His act of creation and His motivation for it.God being complete in Himself without any need of any kind is naturally and purely motivated by the desire to give of His infinite abundance to another and therefore He set out create other beings apart from Himself with which He could have a relationship and to which He could give without limit. However I do not think this is as trivial a thing as we might imagine, for the question is how could God create something which He would not control so completely that it would be no more than an extension of Himself. Well first He created the angels who would act according to rules independent of His will, but these being designed by Him were limited by the very nature of their creation, and so God went a step further to create beings whose very existence was based upon rules operating independent of His will and this is the nature of the physical world. This is what made it possible for God to create beings not by design but by relationship with living entities that participate in the process of their own creation. In this way, God created finite beings with infinite potentiality, which means that they would be suitable for an eternal relationship with Him in which He could give of Himself without limit. Thus God nurtured life in this world and raised up a creature who had the capacity for communication and He adopted two of these, Adam and Eve, to be a parent to them and to teach them that they were persons, and in this way bringing to life the human mind, just as human parents have done with their children ever since. But because Adam and Eve refused to be responsible for their actions when they disobeyed God but instead sought to blame God, He removed Himself from their lives for their own good. The Bible tells this story and the continuing efforts of God in the role of teacher and parent, to help His children, human beings, realize the infinite potential within them. Finally He came to earth in human form, known by the name of Jesus, to reveal Himself most fully in a way that had the capacity, for those who are willing, to pierce the lies and delusions which inundate our lives, in order that we may have the kind of personal relationship which Adam and Eve originally had with Him, so that in this relationship God could more fully continue His parental role in helping us to grow in spirit and to receive (as we become ready to recieve them) the neverending gifts that He has been waiting to give us. Thus God is the creator of the universe and all the living things within it. As I said before this by itself does not make Him God, and it does not reveal his essence either unless you consider His motivation for doing so. But this motivation has been very much obscured by the things that have happened, for mankind with his self-deceptions and delusions has quite often made this world a hellish place for man. Thus it has become necessary for God to pierce this obscurity with a revelation of Himself, and by what He has revealed, the answer to what God has chosen to devote Himself to is LOVE. This is why we can say that, "God is love." This is His essence and this defines Him more truly than anything else because this is what God has chosen to devote Himself to. One of the most peculiar things about this infinite God whose nature is so incomprehensible to us, is that since God has made it quite clear what it is that He cares about, we can know Him - and in fact know Him better than we know most people, because people are made complex by internal conflicts - conflicting motivations and feelings. But there is no such complexity in God. For however basically incomprehensible His infinite nature may be to us, He is NOT conflicted. His love is absolute and pure. And it is by this love that I know Him. It is for this love that I worship Him. And it is by Christ on the cross that I know this love most clearly. But this gospel having revealed this love to me, has transformed my perception of the entire universe and I see His love everywhere within it.

Edited May 27, 2008 by mitchellmckain (see edit history)

[iGuest 3]

lose nothing as a christian?Christian TheismReplying to iGuest-------------------------------------------------------------If you're right and we christians are wrong, we lose nothing.But if we're right and your wrong, you lose everything.-krystal-------------------------------------------------------------We have wasted our life, if we Christians are wrong. We couldHave enjoyed money, sex, power, fame, and all the other goodStuff.But we don't think we are wrong, we love God, because heFirst loved us. We want to know him more. This means that ourLives are no longer about ourselves. We live for others, justAs Jesus did. We chase after the goodness that we see in God.Hmmmm... Well maybe.