Kansuke, I am familiar with the contents of that book, but that wasn't the question. Out of your study and your experiences what do you believe? What concept or thought or feeling has lodged in your heart as a ringing truth of this world or the next?

Here's another of mine: God loves us and expresses that love as a father does. This means that as a father he respects our free agency (and everybody's free agency) our ability to make our own choices is one thing He won't infringe on, but as a father He is always there for advice and help but we need to go to Him to get it. Is He omnipotent? Yes, but He chooses to not excersize that power in ways that will interfere with our choices, or our right to choose. Is He omniprescient? Yes, He is aware of all that happens, to lie to Him is futile and a reflection of our own choice to try to lie to ourselves. How about omnipresent? No, He doesn't need to be. Being omnipotent and omniprescient obliviates a need for omnipresence.



I am sorry for your loss, old though it is I am sure you still miss him, miss everything he should have been for you. I am sorry that well meaning family pushed on you a religeon you were not ready to understand. I have heard prayer described as pleading with thunderstorms and I understand the perception even though I don't feel the same.

The need to be accepted is a powerful force and explains many wierd things but not everything.



Interestingly the most whole, creative and genuine people I know are ones who have a religeon but have kept an open mind about holistic health and other fringe practices. The first teacher my autistic son had was one such person. She was not young and had fractured the bones in her foot into a lot of little pieces. It looked like extensive and iffy surgery to fix it. She asked for, and was given, a preisthood blessing and when they x-rayed her foot just prior to the surgery all the little pieces had realigned making the surgery much easier and success much more assured. Her doctor still doubted it would ever properly heal, she was around 50 years old, but she knew better. The next summer while school was out she spent her time off working on her energy flows or energy healing or something like that, I never quite understood what she meant, and at her next annual appointment she floored her doctor with a completely well foot.

Very well... I will attempt to give a brief list of the huge number of things I believe.

[1] I believe in the concept, and existence of the Holy Trinity. The Son is God, the Father is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit, and the Father is not the Son or The Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son. If you could not understand that, below is a diagram:


[2] I believe the Bible to be the Word of God. It was not written by God, however, it was written by man through the direct inspiration of God. It reveals all that God wills us to know about him, though (much like the trinity concept above) we could never understand much of it.

[3] I believe that Christianity (in its true form (non-denominational, not catholic, not protestant, simply: believing what God has given us in His Holy Word, and serving Him) is the only true religion. Consider this if you desire evidence: Christianity is the only religion in the world where salvation is not earned through what we do. It is a free gift from God. We are saved by what He did. It completely escapes the borders of human imagination, where the thought of earning salvation, would easily be concieved due to human pride, etc.

[4] I believe God created the universe, planets, earth, and the life on it. As well, earth has been especially designed to support life.

[5] I believe the only way to salvation (or some sort of paradise, as you may not agree on what heaven, etc. is) is the free gift from Christ. On a similar note, I believe that Heaven is only a container. Not a permanent place for the saved. I do believe in eternal life, but I do not believe we will reside in Heaven for an eternity. There is no evidence in the bible to support that we will reside in Heaven as it is described, for an eternity, so it must be somewhere else. Some have suggested that it is a new earth.

[6] I do not believe the rapture will occur. I feel there is not enough evidence to support it. But if it does happen, yay! If it doesn't happen, yay! Really it does not matter to me. In the end, the result is the same.

Well there you go...

There is a reason for Him to have omnipresence: Given certain verses (Matthew 3:16; Luke 3:22; John 14:23; 1 Corinthians 6:19), one can come to the conclusion that omnipresence is required in order to be capable of dwelling within hundreds of people. True, omnipresence isn't really needed for knowing things.

Very nicely expressed, Kansuke, thank you.



Firstly, Truefusion, the first of those verses says something very different than omnipresence. Matthew 3:16-17 specificly lays out that there are three personages acting there in that moment, Christ the Son, the Spirit of God and The Father. Christ being there physically, having just been baptized, sees the Spirit of God "descending like a dove, and lighting upon him" and then the Father speaks from the heavens with the famous line, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And then your second reference, Luke 3:22, backs this up with another accounting of the same event also placing three personages at this critical moment. That this incident is given an accounting of twice and with the same important details says that this is not a mistranslation but a true accounting of events. Remember my first post? "God does not lie." God does not pull a fast one to deliberately leave people with a false impression.

Now, John 14:23. You seem to be refering to the last line where he says, A bit ambiguous and patently impossible for him to do for every one who believes if he is not omnipresent which is why 1 John 3:24 becomes important to clarify this.

The Spirit that is refered to can be omnipresent, but The Father Himself is not, if he were there would be no reason for the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, to be doing a job that The Father could do. For some clarification check out Acts 2:2-4.

Now, I'm tired so I'm done for now. In the meantime you might want to recheck your 1 Corinthians 6:19 reference and look around for references to the Holy Ghost and the Creation.

Ok, Vixen_Poetic. You and truefusion are arguing two different points... at least how I see it.

If truefusion is talking about God being omnipresent, then truefusion is indeed correct. For example, take a look at the trinity Diagram I have posted. Since the Spirit (which is in every believer at one time) is God, then God is omnipresent.

As it would appear that Vixen_Poetic is reffering to the Father alone, regardless of the Holy Spirit, and the Son, then techinically Vixen_Poetic is correct...


So really you're both correct (a far as I can see)...

But on another note: Just because he does not need to be omnipresent, doesn't mean he couldn't be. Remember God only chose to reveal so much to us. So He (God the father) may as well be omnipresent as not...

Oh: I just found this on http://gotquestions.org

Take a look at said verses... they may reveal more...

Hi,

Interesting topic opened. I have read all the posts made by the other members but I will not quote anyone's sentences as I would like to first explain what I believe in and why I do not wish to quote another member's words

My belief in life is something that is very simple to follow yet very difficult, I mean it is a paradox in itself. A few years ago I was an atheist but then as I became more spiritually aware due to my friends, boyfriend and especially my depression. I started thinking whether there was a God or not.

my belief is written below but mind you it isn't clear as I myself have not spoken this with much people :

So this is my belief in life so far, living life to me is all about love and not ego. To me the day starts and ends with loving.. Not just my lover or my family but love everything I see, to love some is natural for me as it is natural to everybody else. It is only when we add a dash of ego that the trouble begins.

I try to live life through the third person's eyes or in short see myself in everyone around me. When you know that you are one with everyone else, you tend to be more calm,patient,happy and overall peaceful. Very difficult to do when you have your ego stalking you around
To me, there is no destiny,karma,fate,past,future or so on... There is only one phase going on and that is happening as we speak.. My soul is what speaks to me and my soul is nothing but my love...

So I can safely say that my love/soul is eternally flowing through my body like the way blood would. Now having a depression might look like a minus point to some but I thoroughly enjoy my depression whenever it hits me.. When I say enjoy, I merely listen to how my ego is trying to get its way.. Bring me into pity,sorrow,regret and so on.

But when you stop pitying yourself and starting loving,caring nourishing yourself there is no time for the depression to attack you.... I tend to get very creative or highly active spiritually when I have a depression so I guess I have learn t to embrace it
To me there is no suffering merely something to make you closer with your heart for every time you feel bad or hurt you look to your heart or somebody's "love" to heal you so instead of looking at some one else.. I ask my own heart to heal me...

Now coming to the aspect of religion and why I usually do not speak regarding the subject..

According to me religion was introduced to people so that they could focus their spiritual energy in the positive direction.
To make sure that the people treated others like they would treat themselves, to help benefit those who needed help and especially to make all of the people one

When originally the religions were created, it was created out of love and concern of the people like the way our parents would make rules to shape our lives. To make people follow these rules honestly heaven and hell was introduced in the picture.
But before long, ego started flowing from every corner... Instead of the people's opinions heads started making restrictions because they felt it was right leading to all kinds of divisions among people..

I have had many arguments and debates regarding the religion and how it is being treated now. Because to me the world would benefit from just one belief rather than a million beliefs that have one common root........ To love

And nowadays I do not have these arguments but instead discuss my belief as I can see the person in front of me happy believing his God... And It would be wrong of me to ask the person to stop worshiping his God just because I feel that my belief is stronger.

The most common teaching in every holy book or religion is to love thy neighbor, to treat them as equals. But sadly nowadays religion is merely a tool for politics whether personal or professional. Take the terrorism and riots going on all over the world as a big example, they are showing their love but the mixture they are using is wrong... Instead of Love + Love, they are using Love + Insecurities + Materialistic attraction + Fear + Ego which has a disastrous effect.

Sorry if I went adrift or if I sound distant or something.. There was a lot I felt like writing but the post would get way too lengthy then, so I have merely mentioned only the headers of what I believe

You're right: i did use Luke 3:22 to back Matthew 3:16 up, but not in the way you're saying. I quoted both because of how they both reference the Spirit: one says "Holy Spirit" the other says "the Spirit of God."—my intention here was to prove that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, not to prove God's omnipresence. The verses following those two were to prove God's omnipresence; i just had to first prove that the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit.