What is god?
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ForJesusChrist
Follower of Christ
God is everything good. God is too great to describe with words. Read the bible and discover for yourself, it's the best way.
God Bless
God Bless
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I am claiming that I am more experienced with the true God than anyone you've most likely met or will ever meet. In this regard you could also say I have knowledge of breathing or walking.
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Through absolute forgiveness and effort I have proven it's existence to myself beyond doubt. When you can not only instantly forgive but love someone that say, has just raped and murdered your entire family then you will know God. See, the logic of God is far from human nature and therefore nearly impossible for most people to understand or even make an attempt.
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oi_antz
Opposed to Untruth.
If I may suggest looking at what understanding is, because everyone is made to be the image of God (which you may like to study one day), yet some do understand Him sufficiently to believe it while other's don't.
I tend to think that understanding is a point at which we decide to rely on selected ideas. Understanding of God therefore implies that someone has decided to rely on the ideas that have formed their concept of Him. They find that the collection of ideas that form their belief in God is robust enough to promote as being true. Doubt then refers to the ideas that challenge the understanding that they have committed to.
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seashale76
Unapologetic Iconodule
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In the Orthodox Church- we apply something calling apophatic theology (negative theology)- to describe God by saying what God isn't instead of what God is. We believe that God's essence is unknowable and ineffable. However, we can participate in God's energies.
Examples:
No one has seen or can see God (John 1:18).
He lives in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16).
His ways are unsearchable and unfathomable (Job 11:7-8; Romans 11:33-36).
"For behold, all our lofty doctrines, how destitute they are of reasonings, and dependent on faith alone. God is not anywhere, and is everywhere. What has less reason than this (What idea makes less logical sense)? He was not made, He did not make Himself, He never began to be. What reasoning will receive this if there is no faith?" -St. John the Chrysostom
"Abraham passed through all the reasoning that is possible to human nature about the divine attributes, and after he had purified his mind of all such concepts, he took hold of a faith that was unmixed and pure of any concept, and he fashioned for himself this token of knowledge of God that is completely clear and free of error, namely the belief that God completely transcends any knowable symbol. And so, after this ecstasy which came upon him as a result of these lofty visions, Abraham returned one more to his human frailty: `I am,' he admits (Gen. 18:27), `dust and ashes,' mute, inert, incapable of explaining rationally the Godhead that my mind has seen." -St. Gregory of Nyssa, From Glory to Glory
"But some one will say, If the Divine substance is incomprehensible, why then do you discourse on these things? So then, because I cannot drink up all the river, an I not even to take in moderation what is expedient for me? Because with eyes so constituted as mine I cannot take in all the sun, am I not even to look upon him enough to satisfy my wants? Or again, because I have entered into a great garden, and cannot eat all the supply of fruits, would you have me go away altogether hungry? I praise and glorify Him Who made us; for it is a divine command which says, 'Let every breath praise the Lord' (Ps. 150:6). I am attempting now to glorify the Lord, but not to describe Him, knowing nevertheless that I shall fall short of glorifying Him worthily, yet deeming it a work of piety even to attempt it at all." -St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures: Lecture 6 no. 5)
"God is comprehensible in our contemplation of His attributes [or divine energies], but God is incomprehensible in our contemplation of His divine essence." -St. Maximus the Confessor(Cent. On Charity, IV, 7, trans. Pegon, Sources Chretiennes 9, p.153)
"If you wish to save your soul and win eternal life, arise from your lethargy, make the sign of the Cross and say: In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Faith comes not through pondering but through action. Not words and speculation but experience teaches us what God is. To let in fresh air we have to open a window; to get tanned we must go out into the sunshine. Achieving faith is no different; we never reach a goal by just sitting in comfort and waiting, say the Holy Fathers. Let the Prodigal Son be our example. He "arose and came." (Luke 15:20)." -Tito Colliander, The Way of the Ascetics.
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When you look in a mirror, you see your reflection. The reflection is in your image, yet it has not the intellect to comprehend your true nature. So we are the image of God and we, in all our Earthly intellect can not hope to understand that which is infinite.
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Then how do you resolve that with the made in god's image bit in the bible?
Should humans not also be invisible or made from light and/or unsearchable and/or unfathomable?
Should we not also be omni-max?
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aiki
Regular Member
When it comes right down to it, what we know of God is just the tiniest tip of the iceberg. There is much to God that is totally unfathomable to we humans. We also tend to frame our understanding of God within our own reality. But God is not contained within the physical constraints of our universe. Consequently, when we speak of God in terms of our own reality we must inevitably fall short of the full truth of His nature. For example, God is transcendent. What does that mean? I don't know, really. I can surmise and theorize, but the actual, complete truth of transcendence cannot be obtained by one who is not transcendent. And so on. The Bible declares God to be omniscient, and omnipresent, and supremely powerful but we can only scrape at the surface of this sort of being. We are extremely limited in respect to all of these things and it is very hard to look beyond our limitations with much clarity. The Bible also says God is love, and that He is perfectly holy, and just, and gracious. We filter these facts through our own understanding and possession of these attributes, through how we exhibit these traits to others (or don't, as the case may be). As a result, we corrupt and warp God's true nature. We make God too human, too much like us, and in so doing lose sight of Him completely.
God's Word, the Bible, details God's nature to us. But accurately understanding who He is, requires more than the words on the pages of Scripture. The illuminating work of God's Spirit in the mind and heart of each person is also necessary to understanding the Bible's revelation of our Maker.
Selah.
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aiki
Regular Member
Yes, it does. Do you think when God is jealous it is in exactly the same manner as the jealousy expressed by a human being? As well, I should also ask you if you think all jealousy is bad? A husband, for instance, who dearly loves his wife should not be jealous of her affection? Should he be apathetic about the romantic advances of another man toward his wife? Would not jealousy in such a situation be appropriate? How about a stamp collector who has invested many thousands of hours and dollars developing his collection. Should he be perfectly careless when a thief tries to run off with his precious stamps? Or would he be right to jealously guard his stamp collection?
Selah.
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