Page de couverture de Class on Journey to Realty Chapter 3a - God is NOT a Tribal God

Class on Journey to Realty Chapter 3a - God is NOT a Tribal God

Class on Journey to Realty Chapter 3a - God is NOT a Tribal God

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 “I AM” (not a tribal god) Journey to Reality Chapter Three: Who is God? Preamble. First – apologize. If you want to see an object’s strengths and weaknesses, put it under stress. We do this with our asceticism: prayer rules, regular participation in worship, fasting, and tithing are useful not just because they develop virtue, but because they test it. They show the extent to which we need to work on our patience, reliability (faith), kindness, and trust. For most people, most of the time, the responses are not life-threatening and they allow for repentance and change towards the better. Big stresses to the system do an even better job at exposing flaws and virtues. They can also do real damage to people’s souls. Many have been going through that kind of a trial the past week. As your pastor and, for many of you, your spiritual father, my main calling is to care for your souls. I understand the complexity and dynamics at work in our society as a trained and experienced social scientist, intelligence analyst, and theologian and, I will be happy to share some observations with you. But these are sorts of things that many of you have been binging on over the past week. And that in itself is often a tell; an indicator of a sickness. So first, I ask you the most important question: what have you learned about your spiritual health over the last week? NOTE: I am not asking about your alleged discernment about the spiritual health of others, but of your own. 1 Corinthians 13:4-9. 4. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. [But love never ends.] How are we doing on this? To the extent we have been pulled off our peace, we are subject to manipulation. If the con is well-done, people won’t even know they are being used. Propaganda doesn’t just work on THEM, it works on everyone. And there are always demonic propagandists looking for opportunities to manipulate for various purposes. None of them good. Now on to the Scripture Preparation for our Reading There is always a temptation to: · Turn God into a created and anthropomorphized god SO THAT WE CAN UNDERSTAND HIM (Compare this to the Incarnation) · Turn God into a tribal god. This shows up in the Scriptures. God has emotions (anger, jealousy) and sets aside the Jews as his portion/tribe. The Bible is True, but its meaning is not always obvious. · Deuteronomy 4:23-24. So watch yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. · Deuteronomy 32:5-10. When the Most High divided the nations, When He scattered the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the nations by the number of God’s angels. For the Lord’s portion became the people of Jacob; the allotment of His inheritance is Israel. We can turn God into our own tribal God and subsume our worship to tribal virtue signaling. But that would be heresy. Christian nationalism brings too many temptations. It is NOT Orthodox. We have the fullness of the faith, but we do not own God and His is the God of all mankind. And more. Worship and prayers are not spells, but our offering to the absolute source of all good things who has adopted us into His kingdom. Exodus 3:14. God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” St. Hilary of Pottiers (On the Trinity); In [the Books of Moses and the Prophets] I found the testimony of God the Creator about himself expressed in the following manner: “I am who I am,” and again, “Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: He who is, has sent me to you.” I was filled with admiration at such a clear definition of God, which spoke of the incomprehensible nature in language most suitable to our human understanding. It is known that there is nothing more characteristic of God than to be, because that itself which is does not belong to those things which will one day end or to those which had a beginning. But that which combines eternity with the power of unending happiness could never not have been, nor is it possible that one day it will not be, because what is divine is not liable to destruction, nor does it have a beginning. And since the eternity of God will not be untrue to itself in anything, he has revealed to us in a fitting manner this fact alone, that he is, in order to render ...
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