A Critically Serious State of Affairs Indeed David McClellan, © January 7, 2015 mark10.1727@outlook People have confused the question, “Does God exist?” with “What is God?” and nothing could be more serious since knowing how to literally know if God exists or not and what “he” requires of humans could be absolutely critical to life and death. Let’s say, for example, that you were raised thinking that eggs were water melons and that there’s no such thing as eggs because you mistakenly think youve never seen eggs nor has anyone else. If you ever saw a water melon you might ask “What’s that?” But a stranger who knows the truth about eggs shows up about this time and realizes that you’re mistaken and points out that youve been eating eggs all your life. What are you likely to say? You’re going to think the person is either an idiot or a false teacher because your concept of eggs and water melons is wrong. The truth is, in this case, that the eggs you think don’t exist have been perfectly visible and real all the time but you were not able to recognize the truth because you were not taught correctly about how to recognize them. Obviously, our lives don’t depend on knowing the truth about eggs but knowing the truth about an entity that claims to have the power and the right to punish people that don’t correctly obey him is critical, especially if the ultimate punishment is death! We can’t afford to be guessing and get it wrong or think we have it right but dont. This was the problem with the Jews that Jesus confronted and, of course, with his disciples. They couldnt recognize God because the concept of God they’d grown up with was wrong. Even when Jesus tried to explain that God was really just the spirit of love expressed in the golden rule that he was demonstrating to them and trying to teach them to understand, they could not clearly comprehend it because of other mistaken ideas they had. For example, their ideas about spirits were wrong too. They could not fully comprehend that they could “see” God who cannot literally be seen. They didnt realize that by looking at Jesus portray the spirit of love in his life they were, in a sense, looking at God in the form of a human. As a matter of fact, being raised to believe as they did, they didnt really understand what love is. Many years later, the apostle John plainly said that “God is love” meaning that God is the spirit of love of course as expressed by the golden rule and that Jesus, in that sense, was God in the flesh. John had actually said this in the first verses of his gospel when he said that “In the beginning was the word (the idea of love), that it was the only thing that existed, and that the word (or law of love known as the golden rule) was God.” However, John still didnt fully understand what he was talking about just as we often don’t. He didnt fully realize that he and the other apostles still had ideas about God that made God mysterious and impossible for them to clearly and completely understand which meant that they couldnt possibly have known for sure if they were right even though they spoke as if they had perfect understanding. They didnt realize that both they and people who denied what they taught were partly right and partly wrong and that neither of them knew how to recognize how they were right and how they were wrong which made it impossible for them to clearly explain it to anyone else. The apostle Paul ran head on into this problem in Romans 9 for example and that he admitted to in 1 Corinthians 13 as well. He, and the others he said, knew in part what the truth was or at least they thought they knew. There were some things that caused some serious and legitimate doubts but they didnt want to focus on them. Instead, Paul wanted to assume that what he believed was indeed the real truth; that he wasnt fooling himself with false illusions. So many of us are like that which is why we’re so reluctant to listen to anyone that says something different from what we already think is true. We don’t like someone trying to destroy our illusions because we selfishly like to think we can’t be wrong even though weve changed our minds about all kinds of things a great many times and even if it might involve a matter of life or death. It’s like we’d rather die than have to admit that we’re wrong about something even it clear evidence of it is right in front of us and we can see it with our own eyes. Most people don’t know how to know when they know something especially when it comes to the topic of something that they can’t literally see. Atheists are like Jesus’ disciples who were right there with God but did not recognize him as God because their concept of God was wrong. Though Jesus’ disciples had never seen God and so had legitimate and serious doubts about what he is like, they still realized that God had to exist and they were right that the material universe gave them clues about what he is like but those clues were not enough to justify everything they believed about God. A lot of what they believed was mere assumptions or prejudices that kept them from understanding the actual truth and the same is true today with “believers” and atheists alike. Most atheists have probably seen God just like Jesus’ disciples had but because they don’t know how to identify God they think God doesnt exist just like a person who’d seen eggs without realizing it didnt think eggs existed. So, atheists are right in a way. The God they envision and argue against doesnt exist. What they don’t clearly realize is that the very evidence that they use to prove it actually proves that they don’t know how to recognize the God that does exist. The same is true of believers. They have differing opinions about God because they don’t know how to recognize God and so they misidentify God too. In doing this, they create a variety of Gods none of which are the true God. So, the God most believers believe in doesnt exist either but they seldom ever realize that just like the prophets of Baal had invented Baal, theyve invented false God’s as well. This situation reveals the fact that both atheists and “believers,” thinking as they do, can’t prove to each other’s satisfaction that what they believe is really true. Just like the blind men that went to “see” an elephant and each of them arriving at an opinion that differed from the others couldnt persuade each other to accept what they believed, it’s difficult for either of them to convert the other and when they do it’s always on the basis of false evidence or evidence illegitimately interpreted. And, just like those blind men who were partly right and partly wrong, neither atheists nor believers know how to know how they are right and in what way they are wrong. God, just like elephants, exists. Something had to cause the cosmos to exist and we can legitimately call it God or the first cause. That’s obvious. The real problem is that because they interpret the same evidence differently neither atheists nor believers realize that they are “seeing” the same God. It was the same with the blind men that went to “see” an elephant, each of them being partly right and partly wrong about the very same elephant but not knowing how to know in what way they were right and in what way they were wrong. However, unlike what was true in the case of the blind men, there is a way that we can know with absolute certainty what the real truth is and, believe it or not, Ive revealed it in this message. Read some of my other articles and I think you’ll more quickly realize it and I hope and pray that you realize how critically important it is that you do. We desperately need to end this critically sad state of affairs.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 15:48:41 +0000
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