{"id":368,"date":"2008-08-12T14:26:50","date_gmt":"2008-08-12T14:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/08\/who-and-what-is-god.html"},"modified":"2008-08-12T14:26:50","modified_gmt":"2008-08-12T14:26:50","slug":"who-and-what-is-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/08\/who-and-what-is-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Who and What Is God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I should imagine that the human mind will never become bored with questions such as this: Who, and what, is God? Our answers, however, may make for more than mere intellectual stimuli. Our answers could change the world.
\nWell, class, you have certainly provided some wonderful and fascinating response to our lecture here on Sunday on the above topic. I found this, in particular, reminiscent, in its own way, of some of the dialogue in Conversations with God.<\/em><\/p>\n

\nAs a fractal equation is to its instantiation, so is God to the universe. The universe expresses what God, the unchanging is. Any point or thread in the unfolding tapestry is inherently bound to God and is inter-related to every other point and thread. The universe expresses God, is God’s instantiation. One of the ramifications of this is the expectation of diversity of form that is inherently related. This is what we see, in the physical, biological, cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual spheres. <\/strong>
\n— Albert the Abstainer<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You will recall that in the CwG dialogues we are told that God is very much like the Mother of All Stem Cells. A stem cell is an undifferentiated cell, containing the potential and the capacity to become any cell of the body. When a stem cell differentiates, it, in fact, becomes just that — resembling (but never exactly duplicating) an already-existing humana cell. Thus, the stem cell is “reading” the assembly of the current cell and resemling it by reassembling<\/em> it, sometimes with the tiniest variations.
\nWe are told that every cell in your body changes every seven years. There is a constant “turnover” of cells. You are, quite literally, not the same person you were seven years ago. When new characteristic-specific cells emerge from the Undifferentiated Cell Bank known as Stem Cells, they reassmble the cells they replace — but never in precisely the same way. They offer variations. These variations lead to perfection…which some of us call “growing old,” or “death.”
\nDeath is the body, perfected.<\/em> It is the body, done with itself in this particular form. The spirit which ignites it and fuels it is ready to move on. The Whole Being that is Body\/Mind\/Spirit evolves to its Next Highest Expression. That Which Is Physical continues to be physical — but in Perfect Form. Perfect Physicality is not visible to the human eye, the vision of which is constrained to certain light spectrums only — and therefore very limited.
\nI have much more to say on this subject…and will do so in the days ahead. In the meantime, thank you Abert for your fascinating (and very apt) analogy.
\nThe idea that I just expressed runs quite counter to the thoughts shared with us by Don L., who said, in part…
\n<\/p>\n

Most people like to think that ‘most people’ are generally good. Yet throughout recorded history the world has been a vile place. Why? Because of human behavior. The bible says all have sinned(Rom 3:23) . Jesus said “No one is good except God alone”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/strong>
\nMy own thoughts on the above are these: Jesus may have said that “no one is good except God alone,” but that makes us ALL good — since we are all part of “God alone.”
\nYou see….God is All There Is. There is nothing else but<\/em> God. And we are all part of that. The statement above from Don L. speaks from the standpoint of what I call Separation Theology. That theology holds that God is “over there” and we are “over here,” and never the twain shall meet — except (if we are lucky) in heaven…if we do what we need to do to “get there.”
\nIn other words, if we are “saved.”
\nDon L. also wrote…
\n<\/p>\n

God made us and we turned away from Him to serve ourselves. With that sin came a curse on the earth (Gen 3:17) and death. Sin is like a cancer that kills the soul. The wages of sin is death. God Himself bore for us the price. (Christ took our place on death row. Every inmate who wants to sign his name as “belonging to Christ” can walk off of death row.) Not all will.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/strong>
\nI want to ask you, Don….Why did we do that? Why did we “turn away from God” to serve ourselves? Were we made by God to be so inept, so unable to judge what is in our own best interests, that we saw our interests best served by turning away from our Maker? And why would turning away from God place a curse upon the earth? And upon people who were not even born yet, did not even exist yet? Why would that be so, Don? Explain to me why God would visit His curse upon even the unborn? What kind of a God is this, anyway?
\nGood heavens, Don….Christ took our place ON DEATH ROW????<\/em> Why were we condemned to “death” to begin with? Or, perhaps more to the point, why were we allowed to be BORN to begin with??? Did God give us birth, as imperfect beings, just to give us death???? Why not just leave us “dead” to begin with, and get it over with?
\nNow, class, you can see how divergent my view is from Don L.’s view. God tells me<\/em> that death is the greatest thing that ever happens to us. Not a condemnation, but an elevation. Not a punishment, but a reward. Not the end but the beginning.
\nGod says (in the CwG book Home with God in a Life That Never Ends<\/em>) that “death is a process of re-identification.” Think about that for a minute. That is a remarkable statement. It is an astonishing, exciting revelation. Now along comes God to tell us: “Death is the body, perfected.<\/em>”
\nThink about this.
\nIf this were true, everything we understand about God and about Life in our Standard Theologies would be false. And that would open up everything. It would change all that we are experiencing upon the earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I should imagine that the human mind will never become bored with questions such as this: Who, and what, is God? Our answers, however, may make for more than mere intellectual stimuli. Our answers could change the world. Well, class, you have certainly provided some wonderful and fascinating response to our lecture here on Sunday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god","category-life-and-the-new-spirituality","category-questions-about-life-and-god"],"yoast_head":"\nWho and What Is God? - Conversations with God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who and What Is God? - Conversations with God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I should imagine that the human mind will never become bored with questions such as this: Who, and what, is God? 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