God’s Nature, Love and Life After Death (Part 2)
This is the second of four responses to Donald’s question:
In your … opinion what and who is God, his nature, his will, his role in the universe, does he “love” us, is there life with him after death, etc.
His nature and will and role in the universe
Now, searching Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers for “His nature and will and role in the universe,” it seems to me that the purpose of God from Abraham to Moses was to set out rules or laws for people to follow if they wished to live lives of well being. Those rules were not only given to the Israelites; the Bible clearly states that other Peoples who did not follow them were doomed to destruction.
At the same time, there is nothing that suggests that it was God’s intention to continue a dialogue with humans much after David, considering David’s conversation with God through the ephod. So His role in the universe, as it relates to people, if we pay close attention to the words, was pretty much finished after that time. Then we might conclude that, from the point of view of the legislative part of the Bible, God’s role in the universe was to lay out rules and thereafter resign His responsibility toward the people. It might then follow that from that time on the people were on their own.
To take this a step further, one might ask if God was much interested in the Israelites as a group. True, the purpose of the Exodus was to liberate a whole people, move them relatively safely across the wilderness, and give them a home nation. But the Bible really puts this happening in context with a covenant God made with Abraham hundreds of years before.
It is interesting that with almost no exceptions God never speaks to a group. When this was attempted at Sinai, there was so much danger that it was a dismal failure and never tried again. One could say God’s speaking to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, when the latter two conspired against Moses, was speaking to “a group.” However, that was also a dangerous situation. The cloud seriously affected Miriam and not Moses and Aaron only because they were properly protected.
No, God’s conversations were primarily one on one. This seems also to have been the case with the prophets, though I don’t believe their telling of their experiences with God was anything other than in their imaginations. (This extends right up to today when sermons go off on made-up tangents regarding what was meant by this or that biblical verse. I have no patience with anyone who says he speaks for the Lord.)
Certainly when the Israelites reached Canaan, there was no longer any communication. God seems to have withdrawn from “His people.”
Applying some logic, another possibility is that God might be a personal God, not necessarily a God to a specific people, other than at the time of laying out the law at Sinai.
I stumbled on your site today, I was searching for “Papal Dogmas”
Now that I know there is no coincidence – only synchronicity, I intend to carry on this dialogue with you.
But today is only to make a start,
GodBless
Walter: Thank you very much for your comment. I would be happy to hear your thoughts. Roger
This is the first time I have run across this site and did not have much time to delve further than page one. (The words “Talking With God” will generally slow my surfing for a closer look). Having no prior knowledge of Mr. (Dr.?) Isaacs, I wonder is he a believer and, if so, what is his purpose in this work?
Dr. Hildebrand: Thank your for your comment. Re the purpose of my book, if you go to my website, talkingwithgod.net, and click on my video on the first page, you will find my reason for the research and writing. I would be glad to discuss this further with you, if you wish. (Mr.) Roger Isaacs
After delving into Afterlife and NDE for the last couple of years, I strongly believe that we are essentially SPIRIT BEINGS, living in a temporal world.
We are on earth to experience the beauty of all creation, for which purpose we need to have a material body with its senses. This body wears out in time and has to be discarded when we return home to the spirit Realm, where TIME does not exist; and all experience takes place in the mind.
We all carry our knowledge back with us to be added to the eternal ‘database’ or “akashic record” of the Universe.( much like our own Internet here) So Moses and all the prophets are not “in the past” but are still growing in the spiritual realm. The same applies to all Enlightened Beings who walked the earth at various times and in various continents, trying to encourage people to evolve in their mind & spirit.
I think some of these Beings did get carried away by their followers’ hero worship and so perverted the message they had come to give men. So we had various gods of wrath & vengeance, demanding sacrifices of men, women and even children in many countries all over the ancient world. In the Bible I see a gradual weaning away from this culture: moving from the aborted child-sacrifice of Abram to the blood of goats & bulls in Moses time; and lastly to fruit and grain offerings..
Finally Jesus came along with the “GOOD NEWS” : God does not need any sacrifice from His children. All He wants that they love & forgive each other for their “transgressions” – the same way He does all His children – UNCONDITIONALLY.
But this message is not acceptable to the world even TODAY – including his “Christian” followers!
WALTER
Walter: Thank you for your comments. Incidentally, you write with great clarity. I admire that.
Regarding your remarks about ” ‘Religious Teaching’, which encourages separation and exclusivity among people,” essentially I agree. In my book, in the chapter titled “What is God?” I touch on the topic (p.309) specifically in relation to my theory which drives the work.
You make another point that you “feel that all men have an inner desire for spiritual growth or evolution.” My Introduction begins, “From the time man first turned his eyes upward and looked beyond himself to the leaves on the trees or the stars in the sky, he was probably overcome with one powerful sensation, perhaps an ageless instinct: curiosity. To the degree a man is curious, so is he civilized…” It seems obvious that curiosity drives growth, so perhaps we are saying much the same thing.
As to an afterlife, my short post, Part 4,God’s Nature, Love and Life After Death, recaps Genesis 3:19, “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Since my purpose in writing Talking With God is to clarify what the Bible is saying, I’m afraid I can’t go much further than that statement. That is to say, any feelings about a realm to which we go after death is most certainly yours to contemplate, and, as the saying goes, “only time will tell.” Again thank you for your thoughtful and literate comments. They are much appreciated