God

[Champollion]

I attend a church that calls itself a Church of Christ, which appears to be a subheading of this thread.

Many at my church regard God as a spirit. They define spirit as a thing (or being or entity) that thinks, feels and wills. God thinks feels and wills so God must be a spirit.

Is that a No-Creed-But-Christ idea?

 

[Theodoric]

Well, John defined God as "spirit" in one of his three "God is..." statements.

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth."

John 4:24

The other two are:

God is Love. 1 John 4:8
God is Light. 1 John 1:5

This is a very profitable meditation. As to what you are being taught, nothing sounds particularly odd to me from the little you've shared. But as always, words sometimes mean something different to people depending on their agendas and nuance.

 

[TuxAme]

A spirit, as opposed to what? What else would God be?

 

[Theodoric]

Yeah, I think that's a pretty orthodox idea about God, not peculiar to any specific faith group. So to answer your question directly, I'd say, "No", not that they don't believe that, but that they don't believe that with any sort of exclusivity.

In other words, it's not a distinction between them and other faith groups?

 

[Champollion]

Well, John defined God as "spirit" in one of his three "God is..." statements.

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth."

John 4:24

The other two are:

God is Love. 1 John 4:8
God is Light. 1 John 1:5

This is a very profitable meditation. As to what you are being taught, nothing sounds particularly odd to me from the little you've shared. But as always, words sometimes mean something different to people depending on their agendas and nuance.

Many of my church look to the Bible and more specifically to Jesus as a source of information about God. If Jesus said so, it must be true. God is a spirit.

Also, God is a personal spirit, which means he is a self-conscious and self-directing spirit. Some object the the word, personal because in common language, personal has other meanings, but as yet, they have not offered a better word.

 

[Champollion]

Yeah, I think that's a pretty orthodox idea about God, not peculiar to any specific faith group. So to answer your question directly, I'd say, "No", not that they don't believe that, but that they don't believe that with any sort of exclusivity.

In other words, it's not a distinction between them and other faith groups?

So God as a self-conscious, self-directing spirit is not a controversial idea.

We also think of God as good in the sense that he is unsurpassibly good, unmixed with evil, and unweakened by defect.

 

[Champollion]

A spirit, as opposed to what? What else would God be?

You could think of God and being immaterial, having no volume or mass.

 

[Champollion]

I attend a church that calls itself a Church of Christ, which appears to be a subheading of this thread.

Many at my church regard God as a spirit. They define spirit as a thing (or being or entity) that thinks, feels and wills. God thinks feels and wills so God must be a spirit.

Is that a No-Creed-But-Christ idea?

A member of my congregation says I should say that God is THE spirit rather than A spirit. I'm not exactly sure why that is.

 

[Champollion]

Well, John defined God as "spirit" in one of his three "God is..." statements.

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth."

John 4:24

The other two are:

God is Love. 1 John 4:8
God is Light. 1 John 1:5

This is a very profitable meditation. As to what you are being taught, nothing sounds particularly odd to me from the little you've shared. But as always, words sometimes mean something different to people depending on their agendas and nuance.

God being love must be the basis of saying the God is motivated to create, sustain, and order the universe.

 

[TuxAme]

You could think of God and being immaterial, having no volume or mass.

But a spirit is immaterial.

 

[Champollion]

But a spirit is immaterial.

Yes, a spirit is immaterial, and a discussion of God might begin with that idea, just as it might begin with words like infinite, absolute, self-existent, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and wise. Or metaphors like rock, light, and word.

I'm not sure why we don't begin with those words except that saying that God is a perfectly good spirit; who, because of love, creates, sustains, and orders the universe; includes things like infinite, absolute, etc.

The word, spirit, in English is a word, which in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, meant breath or wind. Breath and wind are material, so I wonder if 2000 years ago maybe people thought of spirits as having mass and volume.

 

[Champollion]

One might wonder where we find our knowledge of God. I thought the answer would be something like, "The Bible."

However, many around here say that the first place should be anywhere.

 

[Champollion]

So when I ask if the Bible is not traditionally the source of our knowledge of God, they say that yes, that is true, but first we look to the actions of God.

 

[iEye]

Reason in man is rather like God in the world.—Thomas Aquinas

 

[Champollion]

So when I ask if the Bible is not traditionally the source of our knowledge of God, they say that yes, that is true, but first we look to the actions of God.

So I ask, "Actions? Don't you mean 'Word of God?'"

And they say, "Well, that too; but we begin with the actions of God?"

And I wonder about that because we began with Jesus saying that God is spirit, which seems more like word than action.