The Dimensions of God - Was Inklings and Islam...

The other thread was just getting too long.
I apologize for the break in posting though I appreciate the efforts,
on both sides of the question.


I would avoid the "who is a Christian" question, at least in this
thread, but it seems to me the "same God" question begs an answer.




darylg... DeleteThis @aol.com wrote:
> On Apr 29, 11:40?am, Larry Swain <thesw... DeleteThis @operamail.com> wrote:

>>darylg...@aol.com wrote:


>>>On Apr 25, 6:27?am, Larry Swain <thesw... DeleteThis @operamail.com> wrote:










- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

>>Second, your examples of the Voodoo priest and Hindus are inaccurate.
>>Neither of those claims to worship Jesus as the "son of YHWH who
>>appeared to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses"; as for Jews, Muslims, and
>>Chrisitians, they do in fact say that they are worshiping the YHWH who
>>appeared to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses among others and who
>>created all that there is, i. e. the same divine being.


> Is this claim enough to establish identity? I do not doubt that many
> Jewish people worship God, Jesus was, among other things, Jewish. I do
> not doubt that many Moslems worship God, at least as well as I do.
> What strains credibility is that so many conflicting attributes can be
> contained in the same being.



* Why? Human beings are complex and have many conflicting
attributes. If
* human beings are so complex, is not the divine even more so?

Yes and no, complex is not conflicting, we are imperfect, our
understanding is imperfect, God is perfect.


> There have to be qualities that address
> His essence, when I am speaking about God I have an understanding of
> what that means and implies, if you do not share at least that
> understanding to some extent how can we be speaking about the same
> thing?


When my first wife and I went to marriage counseling, I was shocked
to
learn how two people in earnest, who had lived together for some
years,
could experience the same events and look at them so very differently
as
to make the outsider believe that different events, not the same
events,
were being spoken of. Again, if that's true of the human, if must be
more true of the divine who is revealed in the Scriptures as being
beyond our comprehension and understanding. It seems to me your God
is
simply too small if God's "attributes" can be listed on paper and
then
applied to Judaism and Islam and other places and say "different
god".


Evidently my God is smaller than yours,
He is bound by His holiness
He is always loving
He is always gracious
He cares for us, not just as part of some group, but as unique and
precious individuals
He is always faithful
He is always just
He is the same "yesterday, today and tomorrow"

I am a Christian, not because I have any particular attachment to a
set of beliefs or writings, but because that is where I find that God
approachable, where that "Christ sized hole" is filled. I do not care
if someone calls themself a Christian, Moslem or a Jew, or whatever;
if their God is a god of malice, if He is distant or aloof, if He is
indifferent to our welfare, then they simply are not worshipping the
same God I worship. You can say it is the same, but I find that
incomprehensible.
The points of the creeds, especially the Nicene creed, make sense to
me, they fit (though do not contain) the God I know. To me,
distinctions relating to the nature of God are far more pertenent than
those relating to some historical claim of a common ancestry. My late
wife was Jewish, but came to be a Christian because she was drawn to a
God that related to her as a person and not a part of a group. I do
not understand how you could fail to make a distinction where the
fruits of the relationship with God, as percieved, vary so.

Daryl