You don’t know that. And many of us know otherwise from our own experience.
That would be like claiming that your relationship to your fiancée is the same as your relationship to any brothers or sisters or other friends you may have. Every relationship will be unique because every person is unique.
Some people choose not to avail themselves of any relationship to God at all. So is their relationship the same as somebody else who does cultivate or respond to God?
If you mean that we all have equal access to God - yes, I do believe there is a good bit of truth in that.
I certainly don’t believe in any forbidden ideas. And I see nothing wrong with making a study of how this understanding of Jesus developed. I do think that the divinity of Jesus (i.e. Trinitarianism) defines the religion of Christianity. And thus this is the story of the origin of Christianity. It is, after all, only one of a number of religions that seeks to follow Jesus. Christianity is the religion enamored of this idea of God become man. But, by all means, choose the religion which suits yourself.
I definitely believe in a personal relationship with God.
Sounds to me like similar claims by atheists that no one alive has knowledge of God. People really should stick to speaking for themselves alone. I have no great reason to doubt that SkovandOfMitaze has no personal relationship with God – it is what he says, after all. Though I am not entirely sure that a personal relationship with God necessarily includes a knowledge of that relationship. I do think it is possible to have a personal relationship with someone without being entirely aware of it. Sounds like a great idea for a novel – perhaps I will start writing again.
Ahhh… the glory of the first bloom of love. How much of it is real and how much of it is illusion? Of course I cannot say – if I nay say too much then perhaps the fetid realities of life has made me a blind man skeptical of the wonders of color and sight? I rather suspect that an ample portion of this love experience is faith. Oh… Hello. Faith is also an ample portion of a relationship with God.
We could make a mint if we had a device (like a pregnancy test) which would prove 100% if the love of someone was real.
Amen! Well said!
Would we even understand it?
I cannot help but wonder if a personal relationship measured by knowing their favorite color isn’t just a little bit superficial.
It’s amusing that someone , or anyone will try to argue they have a legitimate personal relationship with a being they are not even 100% certain exists where everything they know about them comes from a series of books collected by men thousands of years ago. That’s not a personal relationship. God shows no favoritism. Everything you know about God is in scriptures. No one learned something new about God because he revealed that secret part of himself to them.
First there is this notion that books appeared without there ever being people knowing what is contained in them.
Obviously the books could not even exist unless there have been people with knowledge of God that was not already contained in books. LOL
Everything I know about God is not in scriptures either.
But then you have swallowed this red pill of dispensationalism which draws these imaginary lines confining what God can do in different periods of history – not a pill I have swallowed.
I believe in an infinite God. Thus there is more to know about God than could ever be contained in any book. And yes people are learning new things about God because He revealed that part of Himself to them. And then there is that which He reveals to all of us in them (as the image of God, something of Him can be seen in all of us). Just because there is something about someone which people do not know doesn’t mean it is a secret. Even with people there is much much more to them than meets the eye. Do you really imagine that you know everything there is to know about your fiancée???
Peter had a personal relationship with Jesus.
We don’t.
God revealed knowledge through the apostles. That’s not a personal relationship. Can you write a new book to add to the Bible as his word to humanity? I doubt it. If you can, it will also need to be verified through miracles at your fingertips.
Out of curiosity has anyone here read the book? Has anyone here read any of his books?
To be honest I was surprised anyone here would try to make the claim they had a personal relationship with God. It’s fine if you believe that.
But from this point on I’m just responding to talk about his book.
Thanks for the other book title Christy. If I end up getting his book, or even if not, I’ll look for that other book and get it and read it once I read through a few others from the other perspective.
Fascinating. How do you know that for sure? I agree that God isn’t closer to one person vs another. I think He manifests his presence to some who know him and is closer in that sense. Some people don’t know what it means to feel God’s presence. It is not of this earth, that’s for sure, and it is the most beautiful, life-giving, gentle, warm, pervasive, powerful, indescribable, wonderful, healing “thing” I’ve ever known, completely different than what I see depicted oftentimes by the entertainment styled salesmen/preachers.
He should be able to make himself known to us, I would think. Being God means you have a great deal of power and knowledge. I think He can alert us to his reality in a twinkling of a eye and a person is never the same after discovering God exists and He loves us.
I don’t think science gets to have the final say regarding God and me. Science is incredible in many ways. Science cannot sense God’s presence. Science cannot find meaning through his touch, through knowing him.
And yet, and yet, I could find more reasons not to find out for sure. Well, mostly I just knew, I knew He wasn’t and couldn’t be real. There was no way, just no way. Santa doesn’t exist, the same thing, so don’t push that nonsense, utter bologna.
Until I asked for his help, still knowing beyond any doubt He didn’t exist. Not possible. Pie in the sky ridiculous nonsense wasn’t for me. Until I cried out to him from the depths of all that I am. Holy cow.
It has been many years now and I still am enthralled by him and I long with every cell in my body for everyone to discover his love for them. It is the greatest thing by far in the entire universe > HIM.