·
I
believe in a God who created the universe, knows everything, is all powerful
and is everywhere. He
has the ultimate control over what happens all the time and everywhere,
including in my life. I find comfort and hope in this idea of God. I try to be
obedient to Him and then I can be released from a lot of worry because I know
He will take care of the rest.
·
I
believe that this God is intimately interested in me and can be relied on to
provide what I need. This
provision is in His timing which can often feel extremely late. Waiting on
God’s timing can be very uncomfortable and often seems very last minute,
sometimes we will be hanging on by the skin of our teeth before we feel that He
has acted.
·
I
believe that I can directly access God through prayer or reading the Bible and
there is no need for any kind of intermediary. Others can pray for me or I can pray for
others and this is a good thing but I can access God without having to rely on
any other individual. Prayer might be very deliberate and well articulated or
it might never be expressed but felt as a desire of the heart.
·
I
believe Jesus was the human form of this God. When God seems very abstract it might be
helpful to look at the documented life of Jesus.
·
I
believe that the Bible is the document
God wrote for our guidance and encouragement and that it should be interpreted
carefully, with prayer and generosity. The way we read and understand the
Bible will be tailored by God so that different aspects will jump off the page
at different times. Interpreting to suit our
own purposes should be avoided though I acknowledge that we can’t always
know when we are doing that, which is the reason we read in tandem with
praying.
·
I
believe that a relationship with God is the way to have the most meaningful
life. On earth and after. Jesus
was separated from God when He died. That death and separation served as the
proxy for me and for all of humanity. It
means we don’t have to endure separation from God.
·
I
believe that our relationship with God starts when we understand and
acknowledge our need of Him. This might manifest differently for different people but we
all come to a point where we have a need of a greater power, our own resources
are not enough to help us with the issue we face.
·
I
believe that a person does not need to understand God in the Judeo Christian
tradition as I do, to be able to know Him and have a relationship with Him. It is not for me to judge who
is in relationship with God or exactly what that will look like.
·
I
believe that my continuing relationship with God is made possible by his love
toward me, (not by my good works) but the relationship will end if I don’t love
Him (by loving others) If my relationship with God
is made possible by His love and only by His love, it frees me from the tyranny
of trying to work hard to be in God’s favour. When I am secure in His love, the
mental energy I might have spent in trying to “be good” or “do good” can
be used more productively.
15 comments:
I'll be interested to see how this was received. I'm not averse to reading about God. Unpopular though the idea might be with many people.
Alphie
Alphie,
Thanks for reading and commenting. I'm glad you're not averse to reading my thoughts, I hope I'm never dogmatic about it
I didn't consider the word dogmatic. I read everything twice and felt there was plenty of room for people to consider their standing regarding what you have written.
Alphie
This is a most refreshing post. We deeply need these conversations, with God and each other. We aren't here by accident, and life doesn't end with our physical death. God bless you for being fearless in talking about your faith. I'm here by the Grace of God, nearing the end of my journey, looking forward to what lies ahead without doubts or fears.
I just found you blog today. Now I'll read more of it...
Thank you for reading, Ruth! I value your encouragement. Come back anytime!
Kylie, I could take your statement point-by-point, but this would take days, and I don't see what purpose it would serve. So, perhaps it would be better to start by asking what I would consider obvious questions from time to time, and see where it goes. To begin:
"I believe that this God is intimately interested in me and can be relied on to provide what I need."
You speak for yourself only, so I'm wondering if you believe that God provides for the needs of all his creatures (human and nonhuman), and if not, does it mean that he loves our own, admittedly fallen, species more than he loves other, presumably blameless, species; or does it mean that he only cares for such humans as worship him in a certain way?
In regard to your desire to avoid dogmatism, to the extent that you consider your statements incontrovertibly true, I would suggest that you are being dogmatic, certainty being the line between dogmatism and non-dogmatism. So would you say, for example, that Christ is without doubt the purest expression of God's love, or would you say that you consider it likely that Christ is the purest expression of God's love, but, the universes being theoretically endless, purer expressions of God's love might exist on earth or in some other place.
Snow,
In this context, where I was asked to consider my beliefs in case I'm challenged by a client: for me, in my well off society, and for clients in the same society, then yes I believe my needs are met and I think my eventual clients can also rely on that.
There are many people and sentient beings who appear not to have their needs met. I could just attribute that to "the fall" but it seems lazy to do that. I don't believe God loves other species less than us. I think that if we believe that, we make God in our own image.
Maybe I misunderstand dogmatism, when I say I don't want to be dogmatic, I say it as acknowledgement that I'm not necessarily right but this is my reflection on the way I understand God.
I can't imagine what other ways Gods love could be expressed but who am I to say Jesus was the ultimate? We just don't know much at all and what we know is seen through our own lens.
Kylie, while I haven't given dogmatism much thought one way or another, off the top of my head, I don't view it as being necessarily negative. Life demands that decisions be made and positions be adopted, and while it would be wrong to say "I believe ___, and damn the evidence to the contrary," we must nonetheless hold firm to what seems true to us, and it is in this process of holding firm that I see dogmatism at work in your life, that is, it is as a combination of humility and conviction. While dogmatism can refer to brainless adherence, it can also refer to a belief that remains firm until such time as alteration is warranted by additional reflection and knowledge.
"In this context, where I was asked to consider my beliefs in case I'm challenged by a client: for me, in my well off society, and for clients in the same society."
If God is the God of all, then surely he would be equally beneficent to all, and so I don't see what societal difference your answers would make. The fact that such differences not only exist, they abound, seems to me to serve as evidence AGAINST the existence of a beneficent deity. Of course, I could simply be confused about this as I am about a great many things. For instance, you deny the need for an intermediary between yourself and God, yet was not the Bible itself written by intermediaries who were speaking from within the framework of their particular places and times, and whose understanding of God changed accordingly? You might have come across the idea that the Bible can be seen as (1) an infallible document that God dictated word for word, or (2) a document that contains the Word of God in some of its parts, but isn't the Word of God in all of its parts, or (3) a statement written by Jewish men (from roughly 1200 BC to 300 AD) regarding their understanding of God's nature and expectations. In all three cases, God didn't communicate with anyone directly (with the exception of the people who wrote the Bible), which means that everyone else has been left to decide whether or not those men were reliable intermediaries.
Dogma is not a word people like today but without doctrine the case for supernatural, creedal Christianity falls apart.
Paul's letter to the Romans is central to our understanding of salvation in the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary. We can read Paul ourselves, but it helps to have someone trained in exegesis, someone who can unpack Paul's meaning. A good Bible church.
The books of the Bible are not written in the manner of systematic theology, but Biblical truth and teaching can be reformulated this way. It helps us understand the totality of revelation. And also because the opponents of Christianity have a systematic philosophy too. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones said (hear his sermons online) the Bible is really one book, God's revelation to men. And Jesus Christ is God's final revelation. The book is sealed.
Snowbrush could start with John Murray's short book *Redemption Accomplished and Applied* written in the 1950s and published by Banner of Truth and in an American imprint.
Murray was born in Scotland and taught theology in the USA along with J Gresham Machen, a great systematic theologian, who said: *Liberal Christianity is another religion.*
I would also suggest reading the Puritans in understanding the devotional life of the Christian. Start with John Owen's *The Mortification of Sin* and *Communion With God* and then go on to read Thomas Boston, Richard Sibbes, Richard Boston, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon. All in paperbacks.
Unless we understand that we are sinners under the judgment of a holy God, we will not understand Jesus' atoning death on Calvary and his resurrection. YouTube preachers I recommend are John MacArthur, John Piper, David Pawson, and Erwin Lutzer.
For an understanding of the new spirituality in Western thinking today - a spirituality that is diametrically opposed to doctrinal Christianity - watch Dr. Peter Jones on YouTube: The Gnostic Gospel.
Dr Jones is a very Reformed theologian and an authority on the manifold heresies of the New Age ... the New Age is very dogmatic, but knows how to tickle our ears.
By contrast the Bible never flatters us. *The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked: who can know it.*
And Jesus who tells his own Apostles, *Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.*
John Haggerty
Correction. I wrote Richard Boston when I ought to have written Richard Baxter.
He was a puritan who preached in Kidderminster, England, where a statue of him still stands.
Richard Baxter wrote *The Reformed Pastor* first published in 1656 and now republished by the Banner of Truth, in an edited version to make for easier reading.
If we but knew, the Puritans could help us resolve so many faith problems today.
Truly they were strong and wise men of God with a profound knowledge of Holy Scripture, the Bible that was written by men, but inspired by God, and therefore inerrant.
J Haggerty
Snow,
My apologies for not replying sooner. I just haven't devoted the time to trying to figure out what I would say.
You are right in your assertions that I shouldn't need to qualify my statement about needs being met with talk about the society I live in. Having said that, my only answer to the inequalities we face still comes right back to the idea that we have free will and most of us don't use it well.
I have seen my new commenter, JOhn Haggerty, interact in other parrts of the blog world and I am sure he can converse with you better than I can, assuming you would want to.
Kylie
John Haggerty,
I have seen you over at Yorkies blog, your logic and your knowledge is so much better (or maybe more schooled) than mine is. Your contribution here will be valued :)
I might even look up some of your recommendations
Your 600 words are clear enough, Kylie.
I would only add that Jesus of Nazareth is the third person of the Trinity, equal with the Father, as I say to Jehovah's Witnesses. The Witnesses don't know Christian history.
Our conversion is entirely a work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
We can only believe because God chose us from the foundation of the world.
Faith is going to be contested.
People will say, *You have no evidence,* and in saying this they only accept evidence as defined by empirical science.
There has been no civilisation without faith. In the poorest countries in Africa people have faith. It is the same in India.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul said God has left some knowledge of himself everywhere, and our conscience is from God.
In his autobiography Bertrand Russell said he had searched for something he could not find, and Russell had enjoyed academic success, fame, a passionate love life, friendship. For all his outward confidence his atheism left him feeling lost. Everything ended in the grave.
Human suffering is everywhere in the Bible. Job's afflictions are terrible.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached in Aberfan, after every child of school age in the village had been killed when a coal-pit bing collapsed on the school. Read the biography of Dr. Lloyd Jones by Ian H Murray in a single paperback (Banner of Truth).
Jesus said that in the world we would find tribulation, but he promised us he had overcome the world, and that he would be with us forever.
It is Jesus Christ we will meet when we go into the valley of the shadow of death. He will take us into glory, into Heaven, and present us as flawless before the Father.
Jesus saves us now, tomorrow, and at the moment of our death.
J Haggerty
Kylie, and others who follow Kylie's blog. Please listen to a humble American preacher who has a close walk with the Lord. He was addressing a Christian youth assembly 14 years ago, but what he said then is even more critical today.
It is about *counting the cost* when you take up your cross and follow Christ.
There must be *hard separation* between the Christian and the way of the world.
Drawing the lines of that hard separation, on a daily basis, will NOT please your non-Christian family members and friends; but we are not here to please the ungodly; we are only here to obey the Lord and follow him exclusively.
*Paul Washer - Shocking Message (Full Length).*
November 25, 2006. Repent and Trust. YouTube.
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