¶ … God Personal
Defining "Personal"
Between the belief that God is a person and the belief that God is personal which one is essential to Christian faith? My stand is that the belief that God is a person is a hindrance to Christian faith. Interestingly, some recent religious philosophy writers have however made the assumption that believing in God is believing in a person. Richard Swinburne is one such influential advocate of this concept. It is clear from his works that Richard Swinburne understands that God is like "a bodiless person, a spirit who can do anything, is all knowing, free, without fault, eternal and the creator of the universe.
That God is a person or personal is one of the fundamental claims believers have continuously made about God. God is represented like a person in Vishnu, Hinduism, Brahma and Shiva. In the bible, the Old Testament, You can read about God walking in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8). You can also read about God experiencing emotions, for example in Isaiah 61:8, or God holding conversations with humans (e.g. Job 38 -- 41). The New Testament sees God communicating with humans, mostly through visions or angels (e.g. Matthew 1:20 -- 21). God still has the ability to audibly speak with humans. He does this on Damascus road with Paul (Acts 9:4-6). The Qur'an ( e.g. Qur'an 38:75) portrays Allah to have two arms and a face which enables him to be seated on the throne and to see ( e.g. Qur'an 57:4). A majority of believers can say that God does love those who put their belief in Him (e.g. 1 Peter 5:7; Ephesians 5:29; Qur'an 1:3) and answers the prayers they make (e.g. Mark 11: 24; Matthew 7;7-8; Qur'an 11:61).
The scholars who do not hold the view that God is 'a person' tend to say that He is 'personal'. That is to say that though he may not be a person, he possesses some characteristics that define a person -- only that the degree of those characteristics exceeds those of human beings.
God and Christianity
God, as believed by Orthodox Christianity, is involved personally in the believers' lives. Christians believe that God exists.
This is not to imply that He exhibits the same existence exhibited by everyday objects like the stars or that our awareness of His existence is the same as our awareness of the existence of these objects. Rather, it implies that other beings in this universe exercise the same autonomy that we exercise; and that through this the wholesomeness of the universe is realized. This means that in the absence of these beings, the meaning we now have of life would be absent.
The belief of existence is that of faith. That we are capable of living now confident that these beings do the same things we do. If this was not the case, there would not be any meaning to the lives we live in this universe.
That God is love is one of the most significant assertions in theology among Christians. (1Jn:8).
It is not correct to claim that God responded to a higher number of prayers in the ancient biblical times of the Old or New Testament than God responds to prayers today. The fact is that no evidence is available to point to any changes to this in relation to the biblical times. God continues to answer prayers just as we pray to Him and at times does not. Throughout the scripture, from Genesis all the way to Revelation, there is evidence of silent times. These times can sometimes be long. However, it is important to note that several believers have attested to God answering their prayers.
The Triune God
There is only one true living God. On this we should be clear. This is the God we want to know. He is not similar to any creation. He is the Jehovah, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The father, the Son and the Holy Spirit express this trinity. They are one God, not three. Neither are they three beings. They may be three distinct persons but they are the one and only God. Each possesses a will, is capable of loving and speaking. These demonstrate personhood. The three are in perfect harmony, made of a single substance. They are co-powerful, coequal and coeternal. This union is called Hypostatic union. With the absence of one, God would be absent. Jesus is one with the two natures. He is divine and also human. The Holy Spirit, the third in the trinity, is self-aware and is divine. Only one God exists. To establish...
God in Genesis The nature and character of God, as found in the Bible and in human consciousness, is a widely disputed and contested field of debate. The reason for this is the very nature of God as ephemeral and unknowable. Human beings can surmise ideas from God from religious texts and their own experience. However, no human being can claim to know the true nature of God. This fact seems
The type of atrocity that a religious ideal could cause, I think, became cemented forever for me during the events of September 11, 2001. Those men operated not only from a sense of devotion to their country, a hatred for the United States, but also from a religious fervor that encouraged them to take their own lives and the lives of thousands of others. This brought home to me that
Man sought to alter the disposition of these gods in his own favor by means of magic and prayer. The idea of God in the religions taught at present is a sublimation of the old concept of the gods. Its anthropomorphic character is shown, for instance, by the fact that men appeal to their Divine Being in prayers and plead for the fulfillment of their wishes." Even though it seemed
God and Science The art of philosophy, demonstrated throughout history in all its arguments, present certain obstacles and contextual distortion for the state of humanity. There is no doubt it is worthwhile then, to examine some of the most troubling and difficult philosophical issues of the day. The idea of God and its role in humanity and its science will probably never be settled however the discussion itself helps create new
While there may be rational and ethical objections to killing a nearly fully developed fetus, there are none that pertain logically to terminating a pregnancy that is only hours old, much less for preventing a pregnancy that has not even occurred. Religious beliefs and values may be perfect justifications for such decisions on a personal level; however, they cannot ever be allowed to impose those values on others who
Berry's theory of the power runs the risk of exchanging imagination with reality, as the following quotation suggests. "I don't see that scientists would suffer the loss of any skin from their noses by acknowledging the validity of the power of imaginative truths…(26)." The danger in this quotation and in Berry's thoughts on this subject lies in the oxymoron of "imaginative truths." There is nothing wrong with imagining things;
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now