Is God a Spirit Being?

Posted on July 23, 2023 by Lee — 61 Comments

In a comment here, a reader named leeannemeredith wrote:

Do you think God is a Spirit Being? I get tied up in these questions regarding the nature of God. Where or how God came into being. Sometimes I think of the old movie Jason and the Argonauts and a group of godly figures standing around and discussing the human travails and laying bets on the fragile choices we make.

This post is an edited version of my reply, whose original you can see here. The question and answer in this post are a follow-up to the ones in the previous post: “If God Sees Everything, Is Everything that has Ever Happened Still Happening?” Here we go:

You don’t ask any small questions!

In a colloquial sense, God is a spirit being in that God is not a material being, but inhabits the spiritual realm. But in a strict sense, God is not a spirit being because God is a divine being, inhabiting and constituting a realm above the spirit realm.

This is why the Bible says that God is a spirit in John 4:24, but after his resurrection, Jesus—who is God with us (Matthew 1:23)—assured his disciples in Luke 24:39 that he is not a spirit. Yes, modern translations commonly use the word “ghost” instead of “spirit” in this verse, but it is the same Greek word. I am linking to the King James Version this time because its translation is closer to what the original Greek says. Jesus wanted us to know that he, God (John 20:28), is not a mere spirit being.

God is a spirit in the sense that God is not a material being. But God is not a spirit in the sense that God is a divine being, not a spiritual being.

For more on God and spirit, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: God, Jesus Christ, materialism, monotheism, pantheism, polytheism, the Divine Humanity, the material world, the spiritual world
Posted in All About God

If God Sees Everything, Is Everything that has Ever Happened Still Happening?

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Lee — 51 Comments

Here is a question that a reader named leeanemeredith recently asked in a comment here:

I’ve been thinking on your analogy of God surveying the entire scene of events. Does this somehow mean that everything that’s happened is still somehow happening? Nothing disappears or un-happens? If God sees the entire stage, then the events are still playing out?

This post is an edited and expanded version of my reply, whose original you can see here. It delves into some abstract and mind-bending concepts. If you want to expand your mind with some food for thought about the timeless nature of God, and how that relates to our time-bound human lives, read on!

This question and my answer is a follow up to the article, “If God Already Knows What We’re Going to Do, How Can We Have Free Will?” You might understand this post better if you read that article first. And if you understand all of this perfectly, please let me know and I’ll let you take over from here! 😉

For more on God, time, and eternity, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: choices, determinism, free will, God, the future, the material world, the past, the spiritual world, time, time and space
Posted in All About God, Science Philosophy and History

Dethroning the Imperial god of Constantine and Calvin

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Lee — 42 Comments

(Note: This post is an edited version of a paper written for an academic program at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. It was originally written for a professor who adheres to Liberation Theology. It is therefore addressed to people of that perspective. However, others may also find its challenge to Liberation Theologians thought-provoking. References for some quotations have been left in condensed academic format. For full publication information, see the bibliography at the end.)

Christianity as we know it today began in empire.

Yes, Christianity began with the birth of Jesus Christ within the Roman Empire two thousand years ago. But the Christianity that Jesus founded is not the Christianity that exists in the world today. Today’s Christianity began in the year 325 AD, in a city of the Roman Empire named Nicaea, under the tutelage of the Roman emperor Constantine I. This was when the God of the Bible began to be replaced by the imperial god—or rather, by an imperial Roman triumvirate of gods—that is worshiped by the vast bulk of Christians today.

Until that imperial god has been dethroned, all efforts to “decolonize” the minds of oppressed people in the Christian world, not to mention the minds of their oppressors, will be in vain. It is not possible to decolonize the minds of people who worship a god that was fashioned under the auspices of a brutal emperor for the purpose of justifying his campaign of conquest and the pacification of the conquered under his imperial rule.

For more on the imperial god of Constantine and Calvin, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Allan Boesak, Black Liberation Theology, Christianity, Constantine the Great, Council of Nicaea, Emanuel Swedenborg, imperialism, John Calvin, Liberation Theology, Michael Servetus, the Bible, Trinity of Persons
Posted in All About God, Science Philosophy and History, The Bible Re-Viewed

Does “Us” in Genesis 1:26, 3:22, and 11:7 Refer to the Trinity of Persons?

Posted on March 19, 2023 by Lee — 24 Comments

Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

Then the Lord God said, “See, the humans have become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever” . . . . (Genesis 3:22)

Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:7)

And there’s one more, in the Prophets:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)

Why the “us” in these verses?

Is this a leftover from the pagan polytheism out of which the Hebrew people originally came? Is it a surviving reference to multiple gods? So some have argued. But by the time the Hebrew Bible was put into its final form, its editors and authors were firmly monotheistic. They would not have allowed their most sacred text to espouse a belief in polytheism.

Is this a reference to a Trinity of Persons, as Nicene Christians strenuously argue? In a word: No. The idea of the Trinity of Persons did not exist when these passages were written. It didn’t come into being until the third and fourth centuries AD, hundreds or even thousands of years after these stories were originally composed. The writers of the Old and New Testament could not possibly have had a Trinity of Persons in mind in anything they wrote, because that idea hadn’t been developed yet.

Then why the “us”?

There are two basic explanations that can be supported from the text of the Bible itself:

These are examples of a plural of majesty.
These are references to God working in company with heavenly beings.

Let’s take a closer look.

For more on the majesty and company of God, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Abraham, angels, Christianity, Jacob wrestles with the angel, Plural of Majesty, polytheism, Royal We, Satan, the Bible, The book of Job, Trinity of Persons, wrestling with angels
Posted in The Bible Re-Viewed

Did Swedenborg See Himself as a Prophet?

Posted on March 12, 2023 by Lee — 79 Comments

A recent question on Christianity StackExchange asked:

Emanuel Swedenborg

The Wikipedia article on Emanuel Swedenborg mentions his revelations, but doesn’t use the term “prophet” even once. Did Swedenborg not see himself as a prophet? What is a prophet, according to Swedenborg, other than someone receiving divine revelation and preaching it?

What follows just below is a slightly edited version of my response.

I should mention first that biblical scholarship over the past couple of centuries has made sense of many passages in the prophetical books of the Bible that were considered incomprehensible in Swedenborg’s day. My own view is that the biblical prophets were more aware of the meaning of their message for their own times than Swedenborg gave them credit for.

What remains true, I believe, is that their messages also had deeper “correspondential” meanings that they themselves were unaware of. Swedenborg explains many of these spiritual meanings in his theological writings. See: “Can We Really Believe the Bible?“

Meanwhile, since the question asked whether Swedenborg saw himself as a prophet, Swedenborg’s own view of the prophets of the Bible is the most relevant one in answering the question. That’s why I have quoted heavily from Swedenborg’s own writings in answering the question.

Introduction

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) did not refer to himself as a prophet, nor did he see himself as a prophet. Indeed, he saw a clear distinction between himself and the biblical prophets, based on at least three significant factors:

Manner of inspiration
Style of writing
Purpose of the message

In general, Swedenborg saw prophets as biblical figures. He did not recognize prophets outside the narrative of the Bible.

For more on Swedenborg and prophets, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: correspondences, doctrine, Emanuel Swedenborg, exegesis, inspiration, prophecy, prophets, the Bible
Posted in The Bible Re-Viewed

Desert Warfare

Posted on February 20, 2023 by Lee — 27 Comments

Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1)

Among the various terrains in which wars can be fought, the desert is one of the most severe and unforgiving. Intense heat; choking dust; parching dryness; sand in which both humans and machines get bogged down; rocks and boulders strewn everywhere; it is a harsh, unforgiving landscape that gives none of the comforts of more hospitable environments. As the Germans discovered in their North African campaign in World War II, the desert is merciless to those who are unprepared for its rigors—and even those who are prepared must fight the onslaughts of the desert itself while fighting their human enemies.

Desert warfare This harsh, arid desert environment is precisely where Jesus fought the first of his temptations recorded in the Gospel story. It was right after he was baptized in the cooling waters of the Jordan that the spirit led him into the desert. We read that he fasted forty days and forty nights—and the number forty, especially when it is mentioned together with fasting, corresponds to temptation. The Children of Israel wandered forty years in the desert before they could enter the Holy Land. And Moses twice fasted forty days and forty nights on Mt. Sinai when receiving the Ten Commandments and all the accompanying laws.
For more on desert warfare, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Abraham, Babylon, desert, ego, glorification, Jesus Christ, Lot, spiritual rebirth, temptation, the Bible, war
Posted in All About God, Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed

Water and Spirit

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Lee — Leave a comment

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Matthew 3:11)

As we follow both the Old Testament story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the New Testament story of Jesus as an infant, a young boy, and a man, we find that they are parallel stories. They are, in fact, telling the same story.

We know from the Lord’s conversation with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection that the entire Word of God as it is found in the Old Testament is speaking, at a deeper level, of the Lord. It says in Luke 24:27:

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

And a little later in the same chapter, in Luke 24:44–45, we read:

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

Now, if there were no deeper meaning, there would be no need for the Lord to “open their minds.” But he did open their minds, and it was to see how the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms spoke of himself.

So here we are, along the road to Emmaus, in a new Christian era, having our minds opened to what is written in the Scriptures concerning the Lord.

For more on water and spirit, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Abraham, baptism, baptism with the Holy Spirit, baptism with water, Bethel, Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, Lot, spiritual rebirth, the Bible, wealth
Posted in The Bible Re-Viewed

A Swedenborgian in Dialog with Black Consciousness and Black Liberation Theology

Posted on February 5, 2023 by Lee — Leave a comment

(Note: This post is an edited version of a paper written for an academic program at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. References for some quotations have been left in condensed academic format. For full publication information, see the bibliography at the end.)

As the Africans surpass all others in interior judgment, I have talked with them on matters requiring rather deep consideration, and recently on God, on the Lord the Redeemer, and on the interior and exterior man; and since they derived great pleasure from that conversation, I will here mention what their perceptions were from their interior sight on these three subjects. (Emanuel Swedenborg, True Christian Religion §837)

On hearing these things the Africans, because they are superior in interior rationality, perceived them more fully than the others, and each assented to them according to his perception. (True Christian Religion §838)

The Africans were delighted with what was said, because from the interior vision in which they excel, they acknowledged its truth. (True Christian Religion §839)

These were some of the words that sealed the deal for the Rev. David W. Mooki.

For more on Swedenborg and Black Consciousness, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Africa, Black Consciousness, Black Liberation Theology, Christianity, community, David W. Mooki, Emanuel Swedenborg, freedom, Robert Grendon, South Africa, Steve Biko, swedenborgianism
Posted in Science Philosophy and History

And Jesus Grew in Wisdom

Posted on January 29, 2023 by Lee — Leave a comment

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. (Luke 2:46–47)

Jesus as a boy in the temple The story of Jesus as a boy at the Temple in Luke 2:40–52 is the only biblical account we have of Jesus’ childhood. Even the story of his birth is told in only two of the four Gospels, Mark and Luke. And none of the other Gospels besides Luke have any stories of his childhood at all.

We do get a few hints of what he was doing as he grew up. In Mark 6:3 there is a reference to Jesus being a carpenter. In the parallel passage in Matthew 13:55 it is Joseph who is the carpenter. Apparently he learned his adoptive father’s trade—which would have been common for boys of that era. It appears that outwardly, Jesus was mostly just an ordinary craftsman, living like other boys and men of his time and culture.

If this were not so, more stories of Jesus’ childhood would have survived. It seems that what we have in the two birth stories and this one vignette of Jesus at the age of twelve are the only stories of the Lord’s young life that were noteworthy enough to have survived in people’s memories to be recorded later. The rest of our stories of Jesus all come from the few intense years of his public ministry, which began when he was about thirty years old (see Luke 3:23) and lasted only three years, until his death by crucifixion.
For more on the boy Jesus, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Abraham, Egypt, famine, fruitfulness, gender roles, Jesus Christ, Pharaoh, Sarah, the Bible
Posted in All About God, Spiritual Growth

A Child of Revelation

Posted on January 22, 2023 by Lee — 8 Comments

This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. (Luke 2:34–35)

“The thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.” I have been thinking lately that in this largely Christian culture, Jesus is a touchstone as to where people are spiritually. Not that we can judge where anyone else is spiritually. But we can surmise something of their inner state by their reaction to Jesus. The same goes for our own inner state.

There are many different opinions about who Jesus was. Do people accept Jesus? Do they accept him as their Lord and Savior? If so, that says something about their spiritual state. Do people accept him as a great prophet? That also says something. Do people reject Jesus? And if they do reject Jesus, why do they? Is it because they had a bad experience of Jesus growing up in Sunday School and church, and therefore they reject him? Or do they reject Jesus because they are unwilling to have their lives reformed by his influence?

Some people are too skeptical; they can’t accept anything that isn’t demonstrated by “hard evidence.” They therefore reject any possibility that Jesus could be divine. In their view, he was an ordinary human being. And some people are simply indifferent to Jesus. They really don’t care, and don’t pay any attention to Jesus at all. That also says something about their spiritual state.

Of course, for people from non-Christian cultures it is different. But in a Christian culture, our response to Jesus—who he was, how he affects us—says a lot about our spiritual state. So “the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.” The thoughts of many hearts are revealed in our response to the Lord Jesus Christ—to the God of our religion.

For more on a child of revelation, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Bethel, Canaan, Holy Land, Jesus Christ, land of Canaan, Moreh, Shechem, south, the Bible
Posted in All About God, The Bible Re-Viewed

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