aladenheim
New Member
A Different Look at God, Faith, and Religion
According to the Bible, in Mark, it was said that the folly of the Pharisees was their reliance on the word of God in letter: they twisted, and accepted without question, and so were denied entrance to Heaven.
Over thousands of years of interpretation and translation, meaning has been added, and meaning has been lost. For even a short message passed between ten will contain slightly different adjectives at the end than at the beginning. The Protestant movement, in part, denounced the Catholic belief of inerrancy of the Scripture. However, the movement didnt go far enough.
What is disturbing is that some of the simplest and yet most important messages have been lost or countered with snappy quotations of various verses. What has been established is a sharp line between this human concept of religion and the purest hope of faith. The sacred, invaluable concept of life has been turned into merely a test. The idea of man-kind as guardians of the world and carriers of the Breath of God is lost in the idea of the glory of God and imperfection and worthlessness. Absolutely nothing saddens me more than when a young man or woman falls prostrate and proclaims that he or she is nothing compared to God.
Finally, the true beauty and perfection of the world has been marred by fundamentalism: a repeat of the mistake of putting religion before faith. We see its effect in the world today: the idea that science is wrong because there isnt enough God in it, and so fundamentalism helps to hide the seamlessness of the world, for God and science are not so different.
It is my utmost desire to attempt to correct some of these half-truths and maybe plant a seed of hope in the hearts of those who just let life pass them by. This is our chance to shine, not foreplay to the better eternity in Heaven.
Creation
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
A key idea in Judeo-Christianity is that the world was created by the Word of God. God spoke, and from ideas, nothingness became a universe: just space; and then in space appeared particles, which formed the glorious beauty of the stars, and the planets, and the Earth. Light and darkness; water and earth: all from the Word of God, and so in some way, God has presence in these things.
The Bible often uses the metaphor of God as a being, for it is much easier for one to wrap his mind around something that is physical. However, this metaphor of physicality was just the start of the problem of fundamentalism, and helped fuel the separation of science and faith.
It was (and sometimes still is) widely believed that literally, the being God created the world in seven days. The same people claim that through genealogy, the age of the Earth could be traced back to about 5000 BC. The denial of evolution is, too, representative of the problem of religion in that tradition, custom, and the exact interpretation of religious writings becomes paramount to fact.
If people will believe that the world was created in 144 hours in spite of evidence to the contrary, then why is it so difficult to imagine the possibility that God gave the universe a form, and then guided it with nudges, and so the worlds were created over billions of years?
In fact, this key idea displays the true beauty of science, because over the thousands of years of recorded history, the curious have attempted to understand the world in terms of measurable and physical quantities, and they have been successful. The world makes sense, because God created the world. There exists physics because God gave the entities of the world physical properties. Perhaps God is truly, in the purest sense, energy: the light and spark of the world that allows for motion; for life; for existence.
People who understand science perhaps truly understand God better than any of the rest of us, because they experience His effects on the world every day. If human beings were meant to simply listen to stories from a book and accept that as the sole truth, then why do we think? Why do we speak? Why do we learn?
Why do we exist?
Why Are We?
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Well, why do we exist? It isnt an easy question. Some people say we exist for the glory of God. The Bible does contain many references to this, but what exactly does it mean?
There are two key meanings for glory in this context. One is great honor, praise, or distinction accorded by common consent; renown.[1]. The other is majestic beauty and splendor; resplendence.
A famous example of humans as tools for the glory of God is in Isaiah, where God decrees bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
Now, if we accept that God is everything and has a presence everywhere, then for God to declare that we were created for His glory in terms of the second definition of the word, majestic beauty resplendence, then all God is saying is that mankind makes the world beautiful and vibrant. Thats not so bad.
Unfortunately, many believe that glory refers to the other definition: in other words, God created man so that someone would praise and honor him. It is a command to align our lives with His eternal goal. He created us for His glory. God's great aim in creating and governing the world is that He be glorified. I created you for my glory. I formed you, I made you, said Pastor John Piper in his sermon notes[2].
Piper, in later sermons, continues to explain that God seeks our praise for the sake of love, because if God is truly for us, if He would give us the best and make our joy full, He must make it His aim to win our praise for Himself. Not because He needs to shore up some weakness in Himself or compensate for some deficiency, but because He loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can only be found in knowing and praising Him, the most beautiful of all Beings.
Weve come full circle around a paradox, however. God teaches, throughout the Bible, that selfishness and self-centeredness are wrong. However, to give the definition of glory as praise and honor, then God seeks selfishness, even if it ultimately is (as according to Pastor Piper) for our ultimate happiness. For the praise and honor is for God; and if we do this, He rewards us.
The story of the plagues in Egypt and the Pharaoh are an interesting example of the idea of Gods glory as being selfishness. Just before the terrible plagues are laid upon the Egyptians, God speaks to Moses:
And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.
And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
According to these passages from Exodus, God basically says, I want you to tell the Pharaoh to release your people. I will harden his heart, and he will not listen to you, so that I may lay my rule on Egypt.
(CONT in PART II)
According to the Bible, in Mark, it was said that the folly of the Pharisees was their reliance on the word of God in letter: they twisted, and accepted without question, and so were denied entrance to Heaven.
Over thousands of years of interpretation and translation, meaning has been added, and meaning has been lost. For even a short message passed between ten will contain slightly different adjectives at the end than at the beginning. The Protestant movement, in part, denounced the Catholic belief of inerrancy of the Scripture. However, the movement didnt go far enough.
What is disturbing is that some of the simplest and yet most important messages have been lost or countered with snappy quotations of various verses. What has been established is a sharp line between this human concept of religion and the purest hope of faith. The sacred, invaluable concept of life has been turned into merely a test. The idea of man-kind as guardians of the world and carriers of the Breath of God is lost in the idea of the glory of God and imperfection and worthlessness. Absolutely nothing saddens me more than when a young man or woman falls prostrate and proclaims that he or she is nothing compared to God.
Finally, the true beauty and perfection of the world has been marred by fundamentalism: a repeat of the mistake of putting religion before faith. We see its effect in the world today: the idea that science is wrong because there isnt enough God in it, and so fundamentalism helps to hide the seamlessness of the world, for God and science are not so different.
It is my utmost desire to attempt to correct some of these half-truths and maybe plant a seed of hope in the hearts of those who just let life pass them by. This is our chance to shine, not foreplay to the better eternity in Heaven.
Creation
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
A key idea in Judeo-Christianity is that the world was created by the Word of God. God spoke, and from ideas, nothingness became a universe: just space; and then in space appeared particles, which formed the glorious beauty of the stars, and the planets, and the Earth. Light and darkness; water and earth: all from the Word of God, and so in some way, God has presence in these things.
The Bible often uses the metaphor of God as a being, for it is much easier for one to wrap his mind around something that is physical. However, this metaphor of physicality was just the start of the problem of fundamentalism, and helped fuel the separation of science and faith.
It was (and sometimes still is) widely believed that literally, the being God created the world in seven days. The same people claim that through genealogy, the age of the Earth could be traced back to about 5000 BC. The denial of evolution is, too, representative of the problem of religion in that tradition, custom, and the exact interpretation of religious writings becomes paramount to fact.
If people will believe that the world was created in 144 hours in spite of evidence to the contrary, then why is it so difficult to imagine the possibility that God gave the universe a form, and then guided it with nudges, and so the worlds were created over billions of years?
In fact, this key idea displays the true beauty of science, because over the thousands of years of recorded history, the curious have attempted to understand the world in terms of measurable and physical quantities, and they have been successful. The world makes sense, because God created the world. There exists physics because God gave the entities of the world physical properties. Perhaps God is truly, in the purest sense, energy: the light and spark of the world that allows for motion; for life; for existence.
People who understand science perhaps truly understand God better than any of the rest of us, because they experience His effects on the world every day. If human beings were meant to simply listen to stories from a book and accept that as the sole truth, then why do we think? Why do we speak? Why do we learn?
Why do we exist?
Why Are We?
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Well, why do we exist? It isnt an easy question. Some people say we exist for the glory of God. The Bible does contain many references to this, but what exactly does it mean?
There are two key meanings for glory in this context. One is great honor, praise, or distinction accorded by common consent; renown.[1]. The other is majestic beauty and splendor; resplendence.
A famous example of humans as tools for the glory of God is in Isaiah, where God decrees bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
Now, if we accept that God is everything and has a presence everywhere, then for God to declare that we were created for His glory in terms of the second definition of the word, majestic beauty resplendence, then all God is saying is that mankind makes the world beautiful and vibrant. Thats not so bad.
Unfortunately, many believe that glory refers to the other definition: in other words, God created man so that someone would praise and honor him. It is a command to align our lives with His eternal goal. He created us for His glory. God's great aim in creating and governing the world is that He be glorified. I created you for my glory. I formed you, I made you, said Pastor John Piper in his sermon notes[2].
Piper, in later sermons, continues to explain that God seeks our praise for the sake of love, because if God is truly for us, if He would give us the best and make our joy full, He must make it His aim to win our praise for Himself. Not because He needs to shore up some weakness in Himself or compensate for some deficiency, but because He loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can only be found in knowing and praising Him, the most beautiful of all Beings.
Weve come full circle around a paradox, however. God teaches, throughout the Bible, that selfishness and self-centeredness are wrong. However, to give the definition of glory as praise and honor, then God seeks selfishness, even if it ultimately is (as according to Pastor Piper) for our ultimate happiness. For the praise and honor is for God; and if we do this, He rewards us.
The story of the plagues in Egypt and the Pharaoh are an interesting example of the idea of Gods glory as being selfishness. Just before the terrible plagues are laid upon the Egyptians, God speaks to Moses:
And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.
And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
According to these passages from Exodus, God basically says, I want you to tell the Pharaoh to release your people. I will harden his heart, and he will not listen to you, so that I may lay my rule on Egypt.
(CONT in PART II)