UsagiTsukino wrote: ↑Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:23 am
Sorry it’s just I want to understand God. But I guess we will never be able to
"Listen, philosopher, to what I tell thee: we believe, that the Almighty God from out of nothing did create by His Word and His Spirit both heaven and earth, and all the world both visible and invisible. The Word is the Son of God, Who didst come down upon the earth on account of our sins; he wast born of a Virgin, He lived amongst mankind, and suffered and died for our salvation, and then He arose, having redeemed by His sufferings the Original Sin, and He hath resurrected with Him the human race. We believe, that He is One in Essence and Equal-in-Dignity with the Father, and we believe this without any sly rationalisations, since it is impossible to grasp this mystery by human reason" - St. Spyridon
You'd think after a measly 1500 years, that we'd take the hint from this passage. But don't let an old Christian quote like that stop us
We can gain a better understanding by firstly looking at some attributes of God...(
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=40899&p=199474&hili ... le#p199474)
(bible)
(i) God is the creator [Bible]
(ii) God created us in his own image [Bible].
(iii) Grace is also an attribute of God (Ex. 34:6; 22:27; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2) [1]
(iv) God is not a respecter of persons. (Rom 2:11; )
(v) God is not biased. (Eph 6:9)
(vi) God has no partiality. (Deut 10:17, Job 34:19, Acts 10:34)
(vii) God is Good (Mark 10:18)
(viii) God is the lawgiver and judge (James 4:2, Isaiah 33:22,see 76 other versus
http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/God,-As-Judge)
(ix) God is Love (John 4:8)
(x) God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit (John 5:7)
(xi) God is perfect (Matt 5:48)
(xii) God is Fair and Just and the Justifier (Psalm 25:8-14, Rom 3:25-26)
(xiii) God is Eternal (Psalm 90:2; 1 Tim. 1:17)
(xiv) God is Unchanging (Mal.3:6; James 1:17; Heb. 6:17)
(xv) God is everywhere present (Jer. 23:24; Psa. 139:7-10; 1 Kings 8:27)
(xvi) God is all knowing (John 3:20; Psa.147:5; Heb.4:13)
(xvii) God is wrathful (Exodus 15:7)
(xviii) God is Truthful (Titus 1:2)
(xix) God does not sin (Hebrews 6:18)
(xx) God does not change ( James 1:17)
(theology)
(i) God is beyond the grasp of human reason (St. Spyridon)
(ii) God's greatest gift to man is life
(iii) God's greatest gift to man is love
(iv) God's greatest gift to man is reason
(v) God's greatest gift to man is to have a child ( - Little Hamster)
(vi) God's greatest gift to man is eternal life in heaven
(vii) God is Holy
(viii) God is impassible
(ix) God is Infinite
(x) God is all-powerful
(xi) God is all wise
(xii) God is simple
(xiii) God is self-existent
(xiv) God is merciful
(xv) God is jealous
(xvi) God is freedom
(xvii) God is not a Vending Machine ( - Little Hamster)
(mysticism)
(i) God is the 'First Cause'
(ii) God has a 'will-pleasure' (not a desire) to express Itself in Itself as Creation i.e., to manifest his total wisdom, total love and total almightyness everywhere [ref]
(iii) God is the everlasting life/light [ref].
(iv) God has Manifested himself within himself. [ref]
(v) God is Absolute Beingness
(vi) God is Omnipresence, Multiplicity (as an infinite number of Holy Monads) and Self-sufficiency
(vii) God as Absolute Beingness, manifests itself as the Logos and the Holy Spirit, 'and these three are one'.
Let's examine (ii) God created us in his own image. There is a hint here that we share some attributes with our creator, maybe share in his divine nature ?.
Psalm 82:6 I have said, “You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High. But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fall.”…
UsagiTsukino is
a God ! Yes, Christian mysticism would refer to you as a
man-God whereas Jesus was the
God-man. (There is a significant difference between the two - but we'll try and 'reason' this one out later). As a God, does that mean we should walk around like a tosser and trash the place, doing damage, causing suffering to all ? Is that an attribute of God ? Is that really an expression of our divine nature ?
Now, what if we want to get married, have children? Have we pre-destined ourselves to such a fate ? More importantly...what if we wanted our children to go to university and become great scientists or great philosophers? Are they predestined to do that or do we help them along in that direction
and then let them make the choice.
Together with scripture, Looking at our relationship between us and our children is always a good starting point to understand our relationship between God and us - That is why point (v) - God's greatest gift to man is to have a child ( - Little Hamster) was given to me by the HOLY SPIRIT.
Incidentally, I mentioned this Great revelation (of a child being the greatest gift) to my wife and she said "Yeah, just about all women know that instinctively anyway"
(edited about 50 times /sorry)