God or Jesus? ...

Friday, June 24, 2011. We have been talking about who God may be. How do we recognize God? How do we know about God?

Our image of God …

God can be something rather abstract for us. God is somehow the creator, which we assume to be there since we do not know how to think of this world other than being created. God may be the first mover, as the antique philosophy saw him. God may be the being beyond and behind all things. He might be the ultimate goal.

What is our image of God? I know the image which the hinduism has of the Gods. They are dancing. They are mysterious beings. And there is the God which speeks through the Koran, the book of Islam. It is a very particular voice, we hear there. What image is the one which fits to God? Are they all different sides, or really different images?

There is a philosophy today which thinks that all religions are just different ways to find God. They are all equivalent, is the key teaching of some people. Partly people think that there is something, but all try to see it from their perspective. Others think there is nothing, the religions are just the similar illusions of many different people.

God through Jesus …

Jesus has been a human, living around 2000 years ago around Jerusalem. He was someone, who talked about God. He prayed to God, he talked to him. But he is also someone, who claimed to live in some deep unity with God. He was said to be God's son, in some very concrete way. It is not a new idea, that God's might have human sons - the Greek mythology knew this long before. But now someone claimed to be like this, and not only the son of some God, but the son of the only God.

The story of Jesus can be just one story among many others. There are many religions and many voices today. So how do we discriminate between them? How do we find out, what might be true? How do we make progress, our personal progress? Or can there be progress of the whole human civilization?

There are some good reasons, why faith is personal. You need to find out yourself. You need to find God. You need to build a relationship to him. You need to be saved, you as a person. It is necessary, to get to know Jesus. This is the key point of the New Testament, the second part of the bible. When you get to know him, you can start to trust him. Then, when you follow, you realize what is behind his words. In faith and through faith you will gain insight and understanding. Truth cannot be abstract, but needs action. Then, following Jesus, you will meet the eternal God in and through him. ... more texts