Is It God-Or Is It-Gas?

Oddly enough, the number one, most often-read, on-line message of mine (www.EzineArticles.com) is entitled "Hearing voices and seeing things." That article has had 1,114 views on that site alone, since I posted it, October 21, 2005. The thing I marvel at is that, when I Googled the words "Hearing voices," I found that there were over 2,730,000 additional entries!

Evidently, people are hearing things.

They want to know if it's God...or something else.

Recently, on several occasions, I have been asked the question, "How do we know when it's God speaking to us and that it's not the devil?" Just last evening, at a gathering of Christians, one woman told us of a relative of hers who, after supposedly hearing from God, chose to marry a certain man. Their brief marriage was a fiasco that ended in a divorce. Another couple related a similar story.

I believe that one reason that the Scriptures refer to the Holy Spirit as "holy" is to distinguish Him from all the UNHOLY spirits that have been unleashed upon planet Earth, determined to destroy the lives of God's people. "My sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow Me," said Jesus in John 10:27.

NOW HEAR THIS!

The first thing we must wrap our minds around is the fact that God DOES speaks to us. Generally, He does so through our minds and hearts. He occasionally speaks audibly to His children when He has placed them in situations that require great faith or desperate actions. On one occasion in my own life, after returning home after a hard day of manual labor, the moment I opened my door, I heard an unmistakable voice speak to me, it seemed, from the corner but at the same time, it came from everywhere. I don't think I so much heard with my ears as I heard with my heart. "Go for a walk!" I obeyed immediately, despite thinking how little sense it made to do so. After all, it was still VERY hot outside and I was exhausted.

The walk was uneventful and, as I was headed home, I saw a woman crying in the middle of her living room, holding her head in her hands. I recognized her but had never met her. I felt drawn to her door and knocked. Startled, through tear stained, puffy eyes, she motioned for me to come in. As I entered, I saw her infant son in his walker, soaked with perspiration as the house was hot as an oven.

I heard "the voice" again saying, "She's frightened because she was raped and is afraid that she is pregnant." After I relayed that message, her mouth dropped and she crumbled to the floor in disbelief, crying even harder now and choking out the words, "How did you know? Nobody knows..." I replied: "I guess God told me." We sat on the porch and talked until 3 in the morning.

The next day, she pulled her car up next to me as I walked home. After exchanging greetings, with a look of shame and tears coming to her eyes, she said something like, "I know you're going through some hard times yourself right now but... if you had not come along last night...well, I was thinking about killing myself and my son."

It wasn't long before her husband, a man who had abandoned her and their child, returned home, only now as a born-again Christian who was trying hard to live the Christian life. Last time I saw her, she was pregnant with THEIR second child. She was not pregnant from the rape and the rapist did go to jail. Incidentally, I had the privilege of leading the rapist's wife to Christ when she knocked on my door one night at midnight, her car loaded with her kids and possessions, with an attitude of desperation, to ask how she could be saved before they left town.

The point is this: the miraculous aspect of God's physical voice coming from nowhere allowed me to be used in a situation that was way beyond me. It proved to be just what the Doctor ordered! Once again, Obedience and Availability proved to be the keys.

In John 12:28, Jesus prayed, "Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from Heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." There was a crowd that was there and they heard it. Apparently, some thought it had thundered. Still others insisted an angel had spoken to Him. Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine."

2 Peter 1:16-19 describes another instance of His disciples hearing God's voice: "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice that came from Heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain. And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."

Why did Jesus say that God's audible voice was for their benefit and not His own? Probably because He heard God all the time and did only what the Father told Him to do (John 5:19, 30; 8:28). Apparently, his disciples needed to hear what they heard in order to increase their faith. Bear in mind that Jesus was facing a certain, very grim future; absolute rejection by the religious establishment, scorn by those He came to save, humiliation, and crucifixion. So, God spoke audibly. No time to waste. God knows what is needed and when.

HOW CAN WE DISCERN GODS VOICE?

There are many voices in the wind these days. How can the seeking Christian - an individual who truly desires to hear the Voice of God - know when it's God and when it's not? Especially when our major problem is hearing God's "still, small voice"?

Mat 13:12-17 "Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: [from Isa 6:9-11] 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.' In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become callused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

God's voice is still and small (1 Kings 19:11-12). How can we know it's really Him? Like the parables Jesus told that were only intended to be interpreted by those who "had ears to hear what the Spirit was saying," God's voice will most likely be the one that goes against the grain. It will probably make the least sense but brings the greatest peace.

Once I thought I was in love with a pretty girl who was loved and accepted by all my friends. Finally, I introduced her to a wise Christian woman whose words to me were, "She's a beautiful girl, Mike...do you have peace about the relationship?" Her words hit me like a lightning bolt! Peace? No, not at all. I knew what God was telling me to do and, frankly, it was a relief to obey.

2 Cor 10:3-5 "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

The spiritual warfare we are engaged in is fought on three fronts: the world, the flesh and the devil. The battle we fight is a battle for our minds which can be prompted by God, by our own carnal desires, or by demonic attack. Some people ignore this, choosing to believe that everything they think or feel is from God. This tendency can become quite serious when such a person thinks God has told them to murder their children for instance. Or, in the case of Muslim terrorists, kill Christians, Jews, Americans and the like. Mass murderer, Charles Manson, still claims to have heard from God that he was to go and murder.

2 Cor 11:3 "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ."

2 Tim 3:13-17 " ...evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it... you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Rom 7:21-23 "So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

I believe that, when we learn to discern God's voice in small things and wind up seeing the fruit of our obedience, that's when God would more likely prompt us to go heal somebody or cast out a demon. That's not to say that once we've reached that point of maturity, those who are familiar with hearing God's voice cannot STILL fall for the counterfeits. Unfortunately, we remain susceptible as long as we are confined to these earthsuits.

HOW DOES GOD SPEAK TO US?

God will use whatever means are necessary to speak to His Children. He spoke audibly. In one case, He used Balaam's donkey. He used angels, prophets, signs and symbols, types and shadows. Jesus used parables and miracles. Today, He uses His written Word, prophetic utterances, Words of Knowledge and Words of Wisdom. He still uses miracles, dreams and visitations. I know two women who claim to have been visited by a physical manifestation of Jesus Himself and have heard stories of children describing both Jesus and angels. I've heard a woman say He spoke to her through the movie "Ground Hog Day" with Bill Murray. Others have stated that He has spoken to them through sermons, church marquees, billboards, t-shirts and even my email broadcasts. He even speaks to us through negative circumstances, believe it or not.

He's simply big enough to use it all!

Jack Deere, a former Dallas Theological Seminary professor, Presbyterian pastor, and Vineyard Pastor says, "God can and does give personal words of direction to believers today that cannot be found in the Bible. I do not believe that he gives direction that contradicts the Bible..."

The author of Hebrews aptly puts it, we must see to it that we do not disregard "Him who is speaking" (Heb. 12:25). This is regardless, I'm assuming, of HOW He speaks to us. A message to my children when they were young carried as much weight by phone as in person. "Come home now!" had only one meaning. If we deny that God speaks to us in any way apart from the Scriptures, are we quenching His Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19)? Many believe so but I do not. A Texas friend of mine was a missionary in Africa during the Apartheid days. He and his guides came upon an old woman sitting on a rock who told them that The Great Spirit had told her that white men were coming to tell her the Name of her God. My "white' friend told her "that's us...we're here to tell you His name is JESUS!"

A former Muslim testified that he was praying in a mosque when he heard a drop hit the floor in front of him. He looked up and touched it, finding it was a drop of rose-scented oil. He instantly thought of Jesus, the Rose of Sharon and wondered why Allah took Him to Heaven. His search began and he became a Christian and was forced to divorce his wife and leave his country.

In both these instances, there wasn't a Holy Bible anywhere in sight.

"Jesus is Lord" is the principal concept of the Bible. Lord literally means "owner." Psalm 24:1 declares: "The earth is the LORD'S, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it." Now, whether an individual ALLOWS Jesus to be His King, the fact remains that He is THE King. The Earth is His and He can certainly use it to get His point across.

MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!

Jer 6:10 "To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it."

Zech 7:11-13 "But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen... So the Lord Almighty was very angry. "When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,' says the Lord Almighty."

A desire to hear from God is one thing. Obedience is quite another. Obedience is the response that keeps the dialogue going. If we refuse to do what God tells us in the little things, we risk deafening our spiritual ears.

1 Sam 15:22 "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings ...as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice..." (Mat 21:28-31)

One way to, in effect, "practice" hearing from God is simply DO what we see Jesus teaching us in Scripture. Perhaps if we get good at doing THAT, He might trust us with direct orders from headquarters.

James 1:22 "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."

What we often forget is that Jesus is the King of this Kingdom. The "letters in red" that we read within the New Testament are not merely suggestions - they are the decrees of a King and they MUST be obeyed. They aren't optional. Yet, time and again, well-meaning Christians override His teaching with man made doctrines and dogmas and traditions. Jesus said in Matthew 15:6 (AMP), "So for the sake of your tradition (the rules handed down by your forefathers), you have set aside the Word of God [depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect]."

Our purpose must be to truly obey the Lord in every area of our lives. If this really is your purpose, you only need to know the will of God in order to consent to it. His will is right there, found within the pages of the Bible. Surely, we cannot doubt God's willingness to make His will known and to guide His children down the right paths, can we? Let's get good at obeying the WRITTEN Word of God. The opportunities to obey His spoken words will come if and when your Father sees the need.

John 10:2-5 "The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."

Every blessing,

How To Discern When God Is Speaking To You

God wants to speak to you. This may seem highly unlikely, but it is so. Anyone can hear from the Creator of the Universe, if they will learn how to listen to Him and how He communicates with us.

God has always wanted to communicate with man. It is for this very purpose that He made us. He desired that we have and enjoy intimate fellowship and closeness with Him. He is delighted when we speak to Him and He is allowed to intervene in our daily affairs. Prayer is really inviting God into our lives, circumstances and situations. It is communing with Him. But prayer is us speaking to God. And, just as we would give our family and friends opportunities to speak back to us, even so the Lord wants to share His heart, wisdom and purpose with us as well.

God does speak. He is not an idol of wood or stone. He is a Person, a very real Person. He is God. He is an Intelligent God, the Most Intelligent Person in existence.

It is because of His desire for us to have a relationship and fellowship with Him, that He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross. Because He wanted to be a part of our lives, He allowed His Son to suffer and die in our stead, raising Him from the dead, in order that through His blood, we can have access into His very Presence, His Throne Room, where we can enjoy rich, real and exciting communion with Him and He with us, without the blockage of sin.

This fellowship, of which I speak, is not one-sided. It is not just my speaking with Him. It is communing with Him, yes, my speaking with Him, but also, my listening as He speaks with me, imparting to me His Wisdom, understanding, knowledge and power, favor and blessing.

God wants to speak with man. And He has been attempting to do so for a long time. However, many have not yet learnt how to distinguish His Voice from the many other voices that clang for our attention.

I believe that many of us have heard God's leading and Voice before, but thought it was just s hunch or maybe just our minds. God is always speaking.

Those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have heard His Voice. How do I know this, you may ask? Because Jesus Himself said that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him.

John 6:44

"No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."

This settles it then. You have heard the Voice of God moving you to give your life to Jesus and you said yes. I know a preacher may have been preaching or someone may have shared Christ with you, or maybe you were watching Christian television or maybe you read a tract or a book about Jesus and your need of Him. Maybe you saw someone who claimed to be a Christian, living the life, and it brought you under conviction to the fact that you needed Jesus. But please listen to me and discern this truth. Regardless of who you heard the Gospel through, it was God Himself, by His Holy Spirit, Who actually showed and revealed to you your need of Jesus. He showed you your state before Him and He inspired you to give your heart to Christ. You came to Him because you heard that tender and sweet Voice, down in your spirit drawing you, prompting you, loving you.

Some of us may have even attempted to run away from the preacher, but even when we were alone or with friends, trying to drown out that indefinable something, His Voice was still there tugging at our hearts, showing us His love and our need for Jesus Christ, His Son. God drew us to Himself. So we heard His Voice and we responded.

Now that we are saved, we need to learn how to discern His Voice more and more, for He is always speaking with us, especially if we are acknowledging Him in all of our ways. He promised in His Word to direct our paths and He is ever faithful to His Word. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

If we are talking to Him, He is really answering us. But, how can we discern His answers? We must know His Voice.

The Voice of God is very discernible. We can know our His Voice with absolute certainty and, provided that we do our part, we will experience our His guidance and wisdom in continually, as He leads us more and more into His Divine Purpose for our lives.

First, let me make it absolutely clear when I say that the sure way to learn the Voice of God is through the Written Word of God. This vital point must be made over and over again, until we understand that God's Word, His Written Word, the BIBLE, is God speaking to us. It is His Word. So His Word is His Voice. And if I feed constantly upon His Word, I will have little or no problem discerning the Voice of God for His Word and His Voice are One.

Whatever God's Word, (the Bible) says, is what God is saying. God's main way of leading us is through His Word. He will never lead us contrary to His Word. And any other manner which He chooses to further lead us by will be in line with His Written and Revealed Word, The Bible, or it is not Jehovah God who is leading us. So any leadership of the Spirit that we claim to have receive, regardless of its avenue, whether by vision, dream, premonition, prophecy, or whatever, if it contradicts the Written Word of God, The Holy Scriptures, it is not God. Let this truth be settled in your consciousness and it will keep you from untold frustration and error. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, leads and guides us with truth, into all truth. The Word of God is truth. (John 16:13, John 17:17, Psalms 119:105, 130)

God does use other means to guide us as well, but once again I must remind you that when He speaks, it will never contradict His Written Word, never.

In addition to visions and dreams, here is another way and probably the usual way that He leads us on a daily basis, if we learn to listen to Him.

According to the Written Word of God, we must also learn how the Spirit of God leads us through the inward witness of the Spirit.

Please look at the following passage of Scripture:

Romans 8: 14-17 (The Bible)

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself (Himself) beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together."

How do we know that we are the children of God? We cannot discern the fact that we are saved by our feelings, because feelings change, don't they? And to be real honest about it, I know I am saved, but I don't always feel like I am. Am I the only one?

Yet, even though I may not always feel saved, I know that I am. How, you may ask? Because of the inward witness of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit bearing witness with my born from above, recreated, regenerated spirit that I am a child of God.

Has anyone ever done something to upset you, and you wanted to react, or maybe you did react, and say things you should not have said or done some things you should not have done? What happened inside of you, when you got still? You sensed that something was wrong, did you not? Something within was troubling you, telling you that you are a child of God, you should not have said what you said or done what you did.

Of course your fleshly mind tried to convince you that you had every right to react in the manner that you did, because of what the other person did. You wanted to react, or maybe you did react, and say things you should not have said or done some things you should not have done? What happened inside of you, when you got still? You sensed that something was wrong, did you not? Something within was troubling you, telling you that you are a child of God, you should not have said what you said or done what you did.

Your mind said that they started it, and you had a right to defend yourself. Regardless, something on the inside, deep within was trying to point out to you that you did not respond the way a child of God is supposed to. This was the leadership of the Spirit. This was His Spirit bearing witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. And if you listened to His leading, you may have had to forgive the person who wronged you and ask them for forgiveness for reacting in the manner that you did.

Well, His Spirit bears witness with our spirits to lead us into all of the Will of God for our lives. He bears witness with our spirits concerning our inheritance in Christ Jesus. He deals with us in our spirits.

Proverbs 20:27

"The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly."

Our spirits, born of the Holy Spirit, then sends the leadership of the Spirit over into our minds, to our consciousness, through the voice of our spirits, which is our conscience.

The Apostle Paul spoke of our conscience bearing us witness in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 9:1) Our spirits are within. The spirit is the inward man. Therefore, we must learn to spend time in the Presence of God, being still and listening for His leadership and guidance.

But hear me once again child of God. The Voice and witness of The Holy Spirit will never violate the Written Word of God. And if we will give ourselves continually to His Word, we will find ourselves discerning His Voice and witness more and more and with more and more accuracy.

The Big Questions: God

In the 1960's, it was proclaimed that 'God is dead', a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. The only problem is that in order for God to be dead, God had to have existed in the first place, and IMHO, God never existed and doesn't exist now. 99.9% of all the gods who ever were or conceived of (i.e. - Zeus) have been consigned to the rubbish bin as garbage. It's time to dump one more God into that bin.

1) Let me start with the Concept or Nature of God: There's something odd about God's origin and behaviour.

If God created the Universe, what, or who, created God? Who is God's mother in other words? And if something or someone created God, what created that something or someone (and so on and so on)? It's an infinite regression. It's far easier to believe the cosmos has always existed though that doesn't mean our Universe didn't have a point-in-time origin or beginning since a previous universe can give rise to another universe (like ours) in sequence.

Actually, I strongly suspect the answer to 'who created God?' is fairly easy, probably downright obvious in an intuitive sort of way. Humans created God in man's image (and probably all other deities as well, including Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy), rather than the reverse - God didn't create humans in God's image. [Actually, perhaps man was created in God's image. Based on the writings in the Old Testament, God has to be described as a dictator ('thou shall not...') and a tyrant, a hypocrite (do as I say, not as I do), someone who's vain and petty, someone who sanctions any number of atrocities in His name (which if committed today would results in charges of war crimes), someone who's cruel, jealous, nasty, raciest, and sexist, someone who's totally up Himself, highly demanding and basically an all around SOB. Remind you of anyone you know, or know of?]

If birds have a deity, I'm sure their god would have a beak and feathers and go squawk (or more likely 'gobble-gobble'). I suspect that humans have a quasi hard-wired need to believe in a something(s) that one can always fall back on to explain and answer those unanswerable questions, as well as provide comfort for that ultimate question - the nature of death and what follows on from that.

Anyway, if God has always existed, then God's infinitely old. In that case, an infinite amount of time had to pass before His creation of our Universe - which is an absurdity. How is it that you exist for an infinite amount of time and the get then all of a sudden get this bright idea or urge to create a Universe? What was God doing the 'day' before s/he created our Universe? Perhaps one answer is that God has always created universes, one after another after another - creating universes, that's God's thing! And if God is infinitely old, then there must have been, or are, an infinite number of universes created and in existence.

Speaking of creation, and assuming just one Universe, that's an awful lot of Universe created just for little old us! Seriously, and for example, if God created everything, then God created the planetoid Pluto (and associated moon). My question is what was the point of expending the resources to do that? We can't see Pluto with the naked eye. If Pluto didn't exist would anything on Earth be different? Pluto adds nothing to our quality of life (or lack of it) and presumably ditto applies to any extraterrestrials in our solar system (assuming that Pluto and moon are uninhabited that is, and that's a fairly safe bet). Of course you may argue that perhaps Pluto was impacted by a killer asteroid that otherwise would have hit us and therefore has affected our quality of life. Then wouldn't it have been easier on God not to have created Pluto and not created that asteroid as well? This creation of things with no relevance to the apparent pinnacle of creation (the be-all-and-end-all of God's efforts), that is to say, us, makes no sense. It's sort of like buying pots and pans, or a chess set, for your pet goldfish. What would be the point? Further a field, we couldn't see 99.999% of the observable universe, and 99.999% of the observable universe has no bearing on our day-to-day existence. What's the point then of creating all that extra 99.999%?

If God exists, why doesn't He (I'll keep with tradition and assume the masculine) show His face today? I mean, He wasn't all that shy about getting in the human race's face way back in Old Testament days, so what is God so afraid of today? Maybe He's afraid of our nukes! That aside, it wouldn't be all the difficult for a Supreme Being to make a show today akin to some of the stunts He pulled way back when!

If God so wants humans to believe in Him, then it would have been so ultra easy to have just one sentence somewhere in the Bible that would be understandable to later generations, even if that Biblical sentence were baffling to contemporaries. The sentence would have been a sentence attributed to God that something only God (or an extraterrestrial) could have known at the time. For example, if kangaroos had been mentioned, or Antarctica, or that bright light in the sky that moves slowly through the heavens had rings around it, or that salt was a mixture of two things, or what about another commandment akin to 'Thou shall not go faster than the speed of light'. Just one simple little sentence - that's all it would have taken - something, anything one-off that illustrated a knowledge of biology, geography, astronomy, chemistry or physics that the natives of the time wouldn't have known about. Alas, it was not to be. Methinks God missed a golden opportunity to reveal His actual existence beyond reasonable question. Or, updating to the present, God could fuse the Ten Commandments onto the Lunar surface, easily visible through modest telescopes, or do a repeat of one of those Biblical happenings like making the Sun stand still for a spell!

If God exists, yet we can explain life, the Universe, and simply everything without requiring a God hypothesis, the God has gone to extraordinary lengths to make Himself totally irrelevant!

2) Is God All Knowing and All Powerful? Hardly!

Not even God can get around the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics, which states that it is impossible to know simultaneously any particle's precise position and trajectory.

Presumably, God, like gravity, and anything comprised of mass and/or energy can't operate at faster than light speed. If God wants to smite you down, and God is a light-year away, then you're safe for a year before His bolt hits you.

If God exists in a physical location within the Universe, then God can't know about X until the light (or other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum; or gravity) from X reaches God. Since light has a finite speed, God is in the dark as it were until the light and information it contains reaches God. For example, if God is residing on Planet Earth, and for some reason the Sun goes nova, God (as well as the rest of humanity) won't know about it for other eight-plus minutes - the time it takes light to reach Earth from the Sun.

Not even God can change the past. I mean, there are any number of instances where to correct some mistake; it would have been easier to backtrack in time and undo something.

If God is all powerful, why did God need to rest on the 7th day?

If God is all knowing, what's the point in the whole creation business? There's no fun or satisfaction to a creation if you know to the minutest detail, exactly what will happen at each and every moment to everything, everyone, and everywhere. Would your life be worth living if at say age 18, you had absolute knowledge of the future and knew exactly what each and every future second would be like for you in advance? So God created Adam and Eve, but since God is alleged to be all knowing God, then He knew even then what would happen in the Garden of Eden, so why bother? What would be the point?

If God can not prevent evil, then God is not all powerful. If God can prevent evil, but chooses not to, then God is hardly benevolent (see immediately below). If God allows evil to exist in humans, and God created humans, then God must share some responsibility for said evil. It's akin to parents having to shoulder responsibility if their child runs amuck.

Not even God can accomplish something that is self-contradictory, like creating a spherical cube or a cubical sphere! Not even God can draw more than one straight line between two points on a flat piece of paper.

3) God is a Cruel God: God is anything but an all loving, friendly father figure and benign figurehead.

Let's start with immortality: I find it interesting that an apparently immortal being, which has therefore no fear of death, creates mortal living things, including some species having the intellect to contemplate the concept of their mortality and death. If we were immortal would we have ever invented or have had a need for a God, or gods, or a religion at all?

Any God who orders up animal sacrifices is no God I wish to have an association with. Societies charged with the responsibility of speaking out and preventing cruelty too animals should speak out on this issue, since animal sacrifices is apparently condoned, and sometimes still practiced by some of the world's major religions even today!

I gather from the Bible that God has a bone to pick with humans, and only humans. However, if God created everything, like animals, then he also created the various afflictions with affect animals, and which, viewed from a humane perspective, suggest that God is guilty of animal cruelty in the extreme. I mean God could have arranged things such that animals would die naturally, but always quick and cleanly. Alas, that's not the way God wanted it. He clearly wanted some animals to suffer hideous and long drawn out deaths. While there's probably an example for every animal species, lets examine beak & feather disease which affects cockatoos (and other members of the parrot family apparently). In brief, this viral disease causes the bird's beak to grow uncontrollably resulting in something akin to an elephant's tusks, and the bird's feathers/plumage falls off. The animal takes one an un-groomed, downright filthy appearance. Death results from a combination of exposure to the elements and starvation. Once you've seen a bird in this condition, it's unforgettable, and heart-rending in the extreme. If God created this condition, the God shouldn't be top-of-the-pops in the eyes of any feeling human being, rather downgraded to a nasty brute that should be totally and utterly despised.

The upshot is that if God did not create this disease, then logically He didn't create cockatoos or humans or the world or the Universe. You can't arbitrarily pick-and-choose between what bits He did and did not create; what bits He is, and is not, responsible for that suit your particular philosophy. It's all or nothing.

God is a sticky-beak! If God exists as described in the literature, then God ensures that you have no privacy, ever. Everything you do is known to God. God can read your most private thoughts, see even into your dreams (so where's the scientific ways and means that credits telepathy?). Doesn't that remind you somehow of Big Brother? So by what right does God have to violate your privacy? You wouldn't tolerate that from even your closest of relations - child, parent, or partner. But not to worry, even if you sin in your dreams God won't know. Why? God doesn't exist IMHO, so that's a relief. The Privacy Act hasn't been violated.

4) God's Ten Commandments: Something's rotten in the state of Biblical lands when it comes to these gems. A few are decidedly unworthy of the tablets they were carved in.

Thou shall not kill is one of the Ten Commandments I believe. So you'd think that God would practice what He preaches. But isn't, according to the Old Testament, God the greatest mass murder in the history of the world that puts tyrants the likes of Hitler to a status of a rank amateur? I mean there is the Biblical flood story, and what about Sodom and Gomorrah? You can't trust a god who basically says 'do as I say, not as I do'.

There's something somewhere in the Ten Commandments about honouring Mum and Dad. I bet a lot of kids who were abused, even sexually abused, or sold into slavery, or had other atrocities fostered upon them by dear old Mum and Dad would have some trouble in accepting this edict, and would probably have a few choice words to say about it.

Then I recall something about not coveting thy neighbour's wife. Now that's downright sexist. What about not coveting thy neighbour's husband? I don't believe that got a mention anywhere!

Then there's something (actually several commandment something's) about not having any other gods before Me (The Almighty God). There's something disturbing about a God so insecure or jealous that He would have to issue these resolutions. Can one trust such an emotional temper-tantrum-throwing God? Does the very issuing of these (you'd better make Me Number One now and always) Commandments suggest that there is in fact, other gods (extraterrestrials perhaps) that exist?

5) God: The Intelligent Designer: I'll put it this way, if God created/designed humans, if 'man' is created in God's image, well, next time your back goes out of whack (or any other part of your anatomy for that matter), have a few choice utterances about how great a designer God really is! If God were an engineer, peer review of His design of the Universe would have Him expelled from any and every professional engineering society in existence. In fact, it's rather unlikely He ever passed Engineering 101.

6) God Works in Mysterious Ways: The buzz phrase that 'God works in mysterious ways' has got to be one of the greatest cop-out phrases of all time. It explains absolutely nothing because it attempts to explain everything. No matter what dilemma you're forced to deal with, this is an ultimate answer. It's what you fall back on when you don't have an answer to a penetrating question. Talk about your ultimate security blanket! It's akin to a parent telling his questing endless series of 'why' questions that children are so prone to ask, 'because I say so' - it's highly unsatisfactory from the child's point of view.

7) In Conclusion: A supernatural God (and associated Biblical baggage) is unnecessary and illogical and in all likelihood doesn't exist. If God does exist, He is in all likelihood an extraterrestrial - or a cat. There's a saying that dogs have masters; cats have staff. The dog says 'my owner feeds me, keeps me safe and warm, looks after me and plays with me - he must be a god. The cat says 'my owner feeds me, keeps me safe and warm, looks after me and plays with me - I must be a god'! And to be perfectly honest, I'd far sooner worship my cats than the Biblical God! No matter which way you slice it, a cat has a far better disposition or personality than the Biblical God - and they catch mice too!

How an Atheist Found God

I found out, you can disturb a lot of religious people by asking, "How do you know God exists?"

Perhaps they were wondering about my motives. Or maybe they simply had no idea how to answer. But, most of their responses were, "Well, you just know."

I wasn't trying to be difficult. But I certainly did not "just know." And I was hoping someone did!

After many months of this, I thought, "Here are the people who say they believe in God, but no one knows why!" I felt much like I did when I learned the truth about Santa Claus. It seemed obvious that God was completely fabricated. Maybe some people needed to believe in God. But clearly there was no proof. No objective evidence. I came to the most stark conclusion...God did not actually exist.

I held this belief for years, not expecting it to ever change. But then I met someone who caused me to become interested in the possibility of God. She was caring, kind, and very intelligent. It bothered that someone that intelligent could believe in God.

She talked about God like he was her dearest friend who deeply loved her. I knew her life well. Any concern she would take to God, as if trusting him to work out a way or care for her in some way. She would tell me, quite candidly, that she was merely praying that God would act upon her concerns. Every week I saw what seemed to be answers to her prayers. For more than a year. I watched her life through a myriad of circumstances. She was convinced that God did exist.

So, I wanted to believe in God on one hand, because I admired her life and her love for others. But I couldn't believe in something against my intellect, against my better judgment. God did not exist. A nice idea, but that was all. Wanting something to be true, doesn't make it true.

During this time I was developing (what I thought was) a very personally-built philosophy. Later I identified it as existentialism, pretty thoroughly.

However I did try something with these philosophies that I'm not sure many people do. Every few weeks, I would study a particular philosopher's take on life, and then try to apply it...Nietzsche, Hume, Dostoevsky, Sartre, Plato, etc. I was looking for the perfect, workable philosophy for life. I found over and over, that either their philosophies seemed lacking, or were too impractical to actually implement. But I kept searching.

Unwaveringly, I was challenging my friend with every question that came to mind about God. I would find myself writing out questions late in the evening. This went on for well over a year. One day she handed me a book that briefly answered questions like, is there a God; is Jesus God; what about the Bible. It presented facts. No comments like, "you have to believe."

The book delivered some evidence for God that was logical. I'm not normally drawn toward science. However, the parts particularly convincing to me were the chemical properties of water, and the earth's position to the sun. It was all too perfectly designed, too perfectly put together. And my faith in "nothing behind it all" seemed weaker than the possibility of God. I had fewer reasons to be certain of nothing, and more reasons to conclude that God might be there.

I then encountered a situation that fully challenged my well-constructed philosophy on life. What I had been putting my faith in proved to be completely insufficient. It shocked me to see that I was at a loss for an approach to life that was fully reliable. However, the situation resolved itself. And I moved ahead. I have a pretty steady personality. Throughout my life, I never really felt "needy." No on-going crisis. No big gaps or struggles. And certainly nothing I felt guilty about.

But the concept of God was something I couldn't get off my mind....was he there? does he exist? maybe there's a God.....

One night I was talking to my friend again, and she knew I had all the information I needed. She knew that I had run out of questions to ask. Yet I was still trying to debate. In one clear, abrupt moment, my friend turned to me and said, "You know, I can't make this decision for you, and God's not going to wait forever."

And I immediately knew she was right. I was playing around with a very important decision. So I went home and decided that I was going to decide. I was going to either ask God to come into my life, or I was going to end the subject completely and never allow myself to consider the possibility of God again. I was tired of dealing with this decision. I was tired of thinking about it.

So, for the next three or four hours, I reviewed everything I had read and observed. I evaluated it all.

I concluded that the evidence for God was so strong that it made more sense to believe in God than to believe he wasn't there. Then I had to act on that conclusion.

I knew that just intellectually concluding God was there, was way too light. It would be like deciding...airplanes exist. Faith in an airplane means nothing. However, if you need to get somewhere and an airplane is the way, you have to decide to act and actually get on the plane.

I needed to make the decision to actually talk to God. I needed to ask him to come into my life.

After a few hours of thought I addressed God, "Ok you win. I ask you to come into my life, and you may do with it whatever you'd like." (It seemed reasonable to me, that since God exists, God had every right to influence and direct my life, if he wanted to.)

I went to bed and the next morning wondered if God was still there. And honestly, I kind of "sensed" that he was. One thing I knew for sure. I immediately had a huge desire to get to know this God whom I now believed in.

I wanted to read the Bible. When I did, it seemed that God was spelling out who he is and how he viewed this relationship with him. It was amazing. What really surprised me is how often he talked about his love. I hadn't expected that. In my mind, I was simply acknowledging God's existence. I had no expectations of him. But he chose to communicate his love to me. That was a surprise.

Now, my basic, skeptical nature was still there. The first few months or year, I would ask myself, "Am I really believing in God? And, why am I?" And I would methodically review five objective reasons why I believed God existed. So my "faith" in God did not rest on feelings, but on facts, on reasons.

To me, it's like the foundation of a building. The facts/reasons support my faith. It's like someone driving across the Golden Gate Bridge. They can feel whatever they'd like about the bridge. But it's the construction/design/materials of the bridge itself that allows them to safely get from one end to the other. In the same way, the objective reality of God--the logical, historical, scientific reasons to believe in his existence, are important to me. There are people who don't seem to need that. But I hate being fooled, and I have little regard for wishful thinking. The reasons for God's existence mattered to me.

Part 2

Since that time, now that I've been a Christian for a number of years----why do I now believe in God? What reasons do I have for continuing to believe in God?

I'm not sure any of these are going to be believable to you. But I'll try to put that concern aside and be candid with you. Previously my questions were about God's existence. After beginning a relationship with God, I then saw additional evidence that God is real. Such as...

1. When I have questions, concerns, or would like insight on a matter, God speaks to me through the Bible. What he presents to me is always perfectly suited to my question, beyond what I expected the answer to be. And it is usually a more satisfying answer than I deserve.

One day, my schedule, deadlines, and obligations were crawling up my neck and tightening their hold. You know that feeling when you're so overwhelmed, you don't know what to do first?

So I got out a piece of paper and pen, and asked God: "Just tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it." I was fully prepared for shouldering 100% responsibility, and was basically asking God to just set the priorities, tell me how to approach it all, and I would.

I then opened my Bible and immediately read where Jesus was talking with a man who was blind. Jesus was asking him, "What would you have me do for you?"

I read it again. Jesus asked: "What would you have me do for you?" Rather amazed, I picked up my pen and began writing an entirely different list...to God. This, I have found, is characteristic of God. Reminding us that he is there. That he cares.

I choose that example because it's brief. But I could cite hundreds of examples where I was asking God a question and he perfectly, thoroughly answered me. It probably is the characteristic of God that I most appreciate--that he is willing to answer my questions. And it is very personal between us.

This isn't something I learned from other Christians. It's just how my relationship with God operates. I ask a question, with an attitude that I really want to give him freedom to tell me whatever he wants to....to correct my thinking, to point out an area in my life that isn't right, to show me where I'm not trusting him, whatever. And he always graciously speaks to me.

2. Similarly, when I need direction for a decision, he gives it. I believe that God cares about our decisions. I believe he has a plan for our lives, that he cares about who I marry, what kind of job I have, and some decisions smaller than that. I don't believe he cares what toothpaste I buy, or lots of mundane decisions. But decisions that will affect my life...I think he cares.

One time I needed to decide about a trip to the Middle East. There was risk involved, and I only was willing to go if God wanted me to go. It was important to me that I knew what he wanted.

Twice I asked God about a job. Both times his leading on it was so clear, that anyone would have concluded the same, with the same facts and unusual circumstances. Let me try one thin slice of an example.

During my senior year of college, I had decided to take a job with a Christian organization after graduation, that would require a move to California.

It was Christmas break, and I was now visiting my parents. One evening, I was alone and thinking through a long list of friends. I was wondering who I could talk into moving to California with me, to be roommates. One person named Christy, came to mind, who had already graduated and settled in a job in Iowa. I thought she'd be the perfect roommate, but I hadn't talked to her in several months. Just 30 minutes later, at my parents home, Christy calls me on the phone.

Her first sentence was, "I heard you are taking a job with this Christian organization." I was floored because I had only told one friend, in Ohio.

Her next statement was, "Ok, I've got the pots and pans and dishes." I said, "WHAT?!" She was moving to the same town in California and was calling to see if I would room with her.

Ok, so you see my point.

You might ask, why such a big deal, to even need God's help in this decision? I knew that my parents would be completely opposed to this job. I thought it might cost me my relationship with my parents forever. So it was not a light decision. I asked God to guide me toward what he wanted. And he did. There were about ten other events related to this job, such as clear.

Other reasons I still believe in God...

3. In terms of explanations about life--why we're here, what the purpose is, what is important in life, what to value or strive for--God has better answers than anything I've ever read anywhere. I had studied multiple philosophies and religions and other life approaches. What I read in the Bible, what I see in God's perspective, is like all the pieces of the puzzle fitting.

There is still a lot I'll read in the Bible and close the Bible saying, "I don't get it." So I don't mean to suggest I fully understand everything in the Bible. Instead, I'm saying that life only makes sense from the perspective of what God has revealed. It's like reading the operating manual to something very complex, only we are not left to merely follow the manual. The inventor is explaining to us how it all works, and then offers to personally guide us.

4. The intimacy with God is deeper than intimacy with any human being. And I say that married, with two children, and tons of very close friends. His love is perfect. He's incredibly gracious. He takes me right where I'm at, and as I said, speaks to me. He intervenes with actions that leave me amazed as the observer. He is not a belief or doctrine. I see him act in my life and speak to my heart.

5. He has done more with my life than I would have done on my own. This is not a statement of inferiority or lack of self confidence. I'm speaking in terms of accomplishments that far exceeded what I ever had in mind. He provides ideas, direction, solutions, wisdom, and better motives than I could aspire to on my own.

Knowing God Part 2 - Finding God Within Your Believing

We are going to do that now, so that you can have this experience of finding God, and of God finding you in your faith believing. Then, when you have found God and you know God is touching you, you can have other experiences where you can simply be still in the presence of God; or when you can be filled with God; you can be at rest in God; or, you can be very active and preaching and shouting in God; or you can even be like that man who just sat in God and gave only scant attention to the world.

There are two ways that God touches us. With the Holy Spirit he makes us into the sail of a boat and he blows into us-whoosh!-and moves us, and we are moved by the Holy Spirit and the giftings of the Holy Spirit are moved in us. When God does this we become footwashers, servants, movers and shakers in the kingdom of heaven. We change things, and we change them by God's power.

But then God moves us in another way also. He fills us like a bottle and we are not moving. We are completely still and we are filled in Him. If we open our eyes and we look at the world, all of God is looking through us and we are at rest in God.

So God gives us these two ways to be in him, and they are both complimentary of each other: rest, and movement; tranquility, and activity; pure worship in rapture, and pure work in the world of things and people.

If we want to do a mission, first we must come into rest. We are like Jesus who comes away from the people to be with the Father- and he might come away from them for several days at a time.

It might take a few days for him just to settle down into being at peace with God; to move away from being so active in God; and to let his body and his mind just settle down into the rest of God. When he is in the rest of God, then he is able to speak to God and they can together develop a plan.

And you are going to do this now. You are going to think of something that you want to do, or something that you want to have just in your human self. Then we are going to let God come and touch that so then your program also becomes God's program. When your program has become God's program, faith comes alive in that and it then becomes the mustard seed.

When it becomes the mustard seed you are starting to do the will of God. You and God are working this together in a strategic partnership.

The world might try and come against you as you live out whatever it was that you and God planned to do together, but because you have developed this program in faith you have the power of God to protect you as you move through it in actual living. The perfection of God's love will always succeed-and God's mustard seed is a seed of the Father's perfect love.

Once we see these kinds of outcomes in our lives, then we start to see the ministry of Jesus differently. We see that from the time of his baptism he is drawing people in to know God so that they can have the power to make a program with God. When we are making programs in our heart with God and we are living out those programs, we become perfect. And that fulfills the highest value in the holy bible.

If you go to your bible and have a look at Matthew chapter 5, verse 48, you'll see there that Jesus is saying,

"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Jesus can say that because he is perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. But what is the way to be perfect? That's the burning question in our hearts today: how to be spiritually perfect; and how to find ways to help others to be spiritually perfect like God.

Come into your heart in your faith and develop a program. Let God touch your believing in that program and then live out that program. Then you will find even if you are a young person or old person, boy or girl, you will find that perfection will start to operate in your life. Now you are on the road like Enoch and Elijah and Jesus.

If you do that one time today, you will have this moment of perfection. God will touch you and you will be with God. If you do this two times next week, you will have these two times of perfection. If you do this ten times over the next month, you will have all those times of perfection to your credit.

As we practice in our hearts, making programs with God, we become perfect, and we learn to take God's perfection into more and more places in our lives until we have gone into all of the places in our lives that have the potential to make us perfect.

At that point we come to the place where God can say to us, too, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased."

So, let us do this now. Let's look now into the Scripture at Matthew chapter 18, verse 18 through 20 in your Bible. We see a special formula here from Jesus. He says,

"Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."

To bind something here on the earth means to stop something from happening. We stop it happening by heaven's power to stop things happening.

To loose something here on the earth is to create some new thing here on the earth. We create that new thing with heaven's power to create it. An example of that is heaven's power to create the mustard seed into a mustard tree. The plants grow not by the earth's power, but by heaven's power creating them.

So I am asking you to think of something that you want to do, or something that you want to have. It will probably be something that you want to loose here in the earth and if God touches your desire, then God turns that into a heavenly empowered seed and our Father will make it happen by heavenly power.

Turn to Mark chapter 11 and to verse 24. In English we see here,

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

This is what you are going to do. Remember, you are wanting to find God, and one of the ways that Jesus lets us find God is by losing something here in the earth. This is what's going to happen. I am wanting something. Let's say, "I want to build a big church here and it has electricity, water, a concrete floor, plenty of chairs, a good roof, and plenty of shade." Let's just think, "This is what I want."

Jesus says, "If you believe you have received that thing you just thought of, it will be done for you."

If you believe that God has loosed it in heaven for you, then it will arrive here in the earth for you. Then the people will come together and we will find, "Oh, that church you dreamed of back then, it's starting to be built now."

"So now, I am going to get one friend and tell that person what it is that I am believing for. Then I am going to believe that God has given this to me," and my friend is going to believe that God has already released that for me also. We are both believing that God has given this thing to me.

Together, with myself and my friend both believing that I am receiving this thing from God, we are going to keep believing until God invades our believing.

When God invades our believing, we will know God and we will know him in our faith, amen? And he will touch our believing and turn it into his seed and we will feel him do that.

Then we can stand up and say, "Praise God! he has touched my believing!"

And you can speak to him, "My Father, you have touched my believing," and you are in the direct presence of God.

At that moment, he is holding you and you are holding him, and you know that he is touching your faith and he is filling your mind and his blessing is pouring into you.

At that moment, in your heart you know, "Yes, this is God."

It is more important to find God than to even do the works of God. To do the works of God without ever having found God is to put things backwards.

But let's do this now. You are going to tell your friend, "This is what I am believing for."

Then the two of you now can start believing that God has now done that for you, and you will quietly keep believing until God enters into your believing. Then, when that has happened, your friend will also know that God has entered into his or her believing for you. You will both have God's confirmation.

Okay, let's begin.

Heavenly Father, you have heard my Word and you have sent me here into this place, Lord. I pray now in Jesus' name that you will honor your Word, Lord, and you will enter into their believing and you will release the heavenly power to make their desire loosed here in the world. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Now you can begin-the first person and then second person. It should only take a few minutes per person, but take as much time as you need.

AFTERWARDS

God has put his power into your believing. He has put his power into your believing in the same way as he put his power into Jesus' believing. God is no respecter or persons, amen? God will honor all faith, amen? We cannot please God unless we are using faith. Amen?

And so, what God the Father has done with Jesus Christ, he is doing now with you also. He has touched your faith and he has touched Jesus' faith-it is the same faith.

Therefore, now you should remember what you have desired and what God has touched. Remember it in your mind. Remember it in your heart. Write it in your bible: "Today the Father's perfect love has touched this particular desire in my heart, and because he has turned it into a divine seed, it will happen. Not only that, for a moment I knew God intimately, and I savoured his presence and his perfect love."

Then when it happens, when this thing comes into your life, come back to your bible and you can write underneath what you just wrote: "Yes, it has happened now! According to my bible faith and God's promise to touch my faith, and by his perfect love by faith I planted my seed and it has now produced its crop, and I have this thing for which God and I made the program."

When you do this in your moment of prayer, let God touch you. When God can touch you, you can know His presence. When you stretch that time together out into a little meditation, in this way you can know God.

Does God Exist?

"I don't believe in God. I believe in something, just not in God".

When questioned about their belief in God, a lot people seem to have a very narrow view of what God is supposed to be, inextricably linked to organised religion. When they cannot reconcile that narrow view with their own belief system they state that they do not believe in God and therefore have no relationship with the divine. That relationship may still be desired, as it could bring security, unconditional love, support at times of need and a sense of belonging, but it would constitute a lie to oneself and can therefore not be maintained. Many who claim they are non-believers however, are still left with the feeling that there is something bigger than ourselves, something they would like to connect to at some level, just not within the traditional context of organised religion.
As I see it, there are many ways to approach the concept of God and organised religion is just one of them.

Organised religion generally poses the personal God, usually male, an omnipotent (all powerful) being who rules the world and who, by allowing human beings the freedom of choice, also allows the existence of His Antagonist, the Devil. This God wants His subjects to come to Him of their own free will, but when they don't, they will spend eternity in the flames of Hell. There is only one life and it must be lived by God's rules. Within Christianity, there are ways of purging sins, through confession and true repentance, in which case an officially assigned representative of God can grant you forgiveness and cleanse your soul. If you can not get access to such a representative of God before you die, tough luck, you die and go to Hell whether you are repentant or not. Up until very recently, the Catholic church did not allow stillborn babies into heaven, they had to stay in 'Limbo' for eternity because they were not baptised before death. ('Limbo' is a place just outside Heaven, away from Hell but also away from the presence of God.)

I personally believe that this is a very limited view of God. This God is not omnipotent; there seem to be enormous shortcomings to his power if he is incapable to grant forgiveness to a repenting soul, without an intervening human representative (e.g. priest) acting on his behalf. This God is not omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time) either: he is absent in Limbo, absent in Hell for eternity and absent until access has been granted through baptism, again performed by an officially assigned human representative. Choice is relative, here: 'you do as I say, or you will burn in Hell for eternity'. After death, this God refuses shelter to anyone who has not abided by his rules; the concept of forgiveness is pretty short lived.

Access to heaven is, up to a certain point, simply luck of the draw. It is not granted on the basis of your contribution to the world as a caring, loving, non-judgemental human being, who is never afraid of helping out other people, and making right and just decisions, rather than ones driven by personal gain. This may play a part, but not the most important one. Access to heaven is gained mainly by baptism, worship on Sunday, by praying and reading your bible, by telling God you think he's great, you love him and can't live without him. So if you happen to be born in a place that has never heard of this God; if you die alone; if you cannot get access to one of those representatives before you die, who can grant forgiveness for your sins and cleanse your soul; if you die angry with God because you have been hurt and abused, you are not allowed to be with God. You go to Hell.
Life in this context is not a process of growing: it is a cruel and unfair test, with most people in this world seriously disadvantaged, or even incapable of passing, through circumstances beyond their control.

Organised religions are frameworks, encompassing theological theories about the nature of the divine, usually represented as absolute truths, and rules about approaching and incorporating the divine into one's life, usually predicting dire consequences if these rules are not adhered to. The most important thing to understand about organised religions is that they have to keep their institutions alive and as such it is within their best interest to stipulate worship through their facilities, using their people. The need to be needed in order to survive must prevail, because otherwise, they will cease to exist. That is why giving money to religious institutions, in collects or as gifts, is considered a divine duty, why one can only receive true salvation through the institutions and why members are ordered to keep coming back, every morning in the past, and now, as most congregations are waning, at least once a week. Institutions, at their best, do wonderful things. Through them, wonderful people help other people in wonderful ways. But they remain organisations whose belief structures and divine rules are coloured by a need to survive.

I believe that the problem many people seem to have with the concept of God could be due to a failure of organised religions to move with the times, theologically. Many individual representatives of the churches do not subscribe to the idea of hell as they used to, nor to the idea of God as a vengeful, punishing force. Many even acknowledge the possibility of a relationship with God outside the confounds of church and traditional worship, but in essence, the churches still put forward an imposing patriarchal society in all aspects of religious life: a personal male God, benevolent father, head of the household, prescribing a framework of morals and lifestyle rules and restrictions as well as regular worship within religious institutions.

The feminine is still entirely absent from the divine. Mary has never been granted divinity; she may be the 'mother of God' but she is still considered human. The archangels are male; Jesus is male. Nobody in this divine family has ever had sex because sex, although quite necessary for the survival of the human race (we can not all achieve 'immaculate conceptions'), is still dirty and, at the heart of it, sinful. At the heart of most religious life is still worship, rather than love for one another in day to day life. Why would God care so much about being worshipped and thanked all the time? Does he have such a big ego?

Monotheism is the existence of a single omnipresent, omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent deity, or God. It is claimed that Christianity is monotheistic, but there are some problems with this claim. In practice we do not see an omnipotent and omnipresent God, as discussed earlier in this article. His omniscience is questionable also. Firstly, his perspective is limited by his sex: he is male and therefore lacks female perspective. (Although in the Old Testament this view of God as solely male is contradicted, e.g. Gen 5.1-2: ... When God created man, he made them in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.) Secondly, there are many occasions in the Old Testament where God asks questions in order to get answers, e.g Job 1.7 (To Satan:) "Whence have you come?" (God does not know where Satan came from) or: Gen 18.26: And the Lord said, "If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake." (God does not know how many righteous people live in Sodom). But even if we are to take the bible as written by fallible people, rather than God himself, it is still hard to sustain the notion that this God is truly monotheistic.

So why is this an issue at all? Well, it is an issue because there is an inherent contradiction in organised religion. We are told on the one hand that this God is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient, but on the other hand, the entire frameworks prescribed to us by organised religions tell us that he is none of these things. The theology limits God's power, God's understanding, God's knowledge, God's reach. The fact is, that many people who claim they 'don't believe in God but believe in something' believe in God as something much more than that.

True monotheism, which Christianity claims to be but is not, encompasses a God that is truly omniscient, neither male nor female, and at the same time, both; a God that is truly omnipotent, who controls all and yet nothing because the world would run this way because there is no other way; a God that is omnipresent, who is all things and yet, nothing, because the very nature of being is already finite. This God is past, present and future, and all at the same time because this God is time and beyond time. This God is so all encompassing that we cannot escape it, no matter how 'bad' we are or how much we deny its existence. To deny this God would be to deny ourselves. This God does not need or demand worship, nor praise or prayer, because this God has no ego. Rather, we are the ones that need prayer, in order to connect back with what is true. Connecting to this God would mean connecting with what needs to be, to embrace life. Hell is merely an illusion, a state of denial, an absence, rather than an active force of being. Hell does not truly exists because God is omnipresent and therefore a place without God can not exist.

So in answer to the main question: does God exist, we might say this: the concept of God as an all-encompassing thing, or life itself in all shapes and forms, embraces any view of the world around us. There is no limit to what you can believe or disbelieve. We know so little and we are so little, in this world. One might say that angels and ghosts and fairies do not exist, because there is no 'real' proof. There is even less proof that they don't exist. One might say that reincarnation is just an inability to accept that when we're dead, that's it, we're really not that important. On the other hand, not believing it might just be an excuse not to learn what we need to learn, because if we don't, we will have to in the next life. The existential doubt of the existence of God has always struck me as slightly odd. The sun rises every day, doesn't it? You are breathing, aren't you? Do you deny the existence of the universe, just because we can not measure it, just because we do not understand?

So what about that relationship with God? How can you connect to all these things at the same time, and why would you bother if you don't believe in the grey man on the cloud?
Well, the answer is simple. You don't have a relationship with God for God, that would be ridiculous. You have a relationship with God or 'the divine' for you, in order to find a moment of peace and tranquillity and in order to feel connected and in control in a very demanding, stressful world. Addressing God in those brief moments does not automatically mean you believe God is a man on a cloud. You could pray, you could talk to God when no one can hear you, write a letter to God, do yoga, meditate, take some quiet time of contemplation. You won't be lying to yourself. You can have your theological cake and eat it. And at its best, maybe that is what organised religion manages to offer to some of us: an almostm tangible relationship with something that is ultimately beyond definition.

Why Doesn't God Heal Amputees?

Perhaps you have heard this question posed by those who desire to show that God does not exist.

The rationale is this:

Since God answers prayer, certainly there has been a believer who has had enough faith to pray for healing (really re-growing) of an amputeed limb. Since there are not any recorded or verified instances of a person having a limb grow back, this shows that God doesn't exist. No limbs grow back, because God does not exist to grow them back.

In answering this question, we should realize that this is not really a test of God's existence, but rather a test of His character. God could well exist, but for various reasons not heal any amputees. This argument is putting the cart before the horse. First one should find out if God exists, then see how He acts. It's also not wise to set up unbiblical tests for God to perform to see if He exists. This is both highly problematic and subjective.

It's true that we never see this type of healing in the Bible and this is very interesting. In the Bible we see Jesus healing all kinds of people- the lame walk, the blind see and even a couple of people are brought back from the dead. But there is no record of any amputees' limbs being restored.

Why do we not see this type of miracle?

3 possible responses:

1. You could technically say that an amputated arm or leg is healed. The damaged or diseased part can be removed and what is left can be healed. So, in that sense the amputee may be said to be healed.

2. Miracles are rare. They are not the norm. For example, how many people are referenced in the Bible who have gone to Heaven without dying? Two. How many times does the Bible state that God created from nothing? Once. So again, miracles are by their definition rare.

Also, according to the Bible, there is a huge difference between God answering prayer and God performing a miracle in answer to a prayer. Biblically it is not correct to say that God answering prayers and performing miracles as being on the same level. Countless prayers are answered daily while true miracles are rare.

3. Just because you haven't heard of an amputated limb being restored, doesn't mean that it hasn't happened. But, if there were evidence of such a healing, would that cause an atheist to change his or her mind about God?

Another problem with this line of reasoning is that it is illogical.

One logical fallacy that this question breaks is called the Excluded Middle (False Dichotomy, Faulty Dilemma, Bifurcation): assuming there are only two alternatives when, in fact, there are more. In this case, assuming that since God has not healed any amputees (in the Bible or elsewhere to our knowledge.) God doesn't answer prayer and therefore doesn't exist. This is faulty reasoning.

The pattern goes like this:
1. Since God can do something, therefore God should do something.
2. Since God should do something, therefore God must do it
3. If God does not do something that He must do, then God does not exist.

or

1. Since God can heal amputees, therefore God should heal amputees.
2. Since God should heal amputees, therefore God must heal amputees.
3. If God does not heal any amputees, then God does not exist.

This is bad logic in and of itself. Just because God can do something, it doesn't mean that He should or must do something. God is a sovereign being. The Bible does not say that because God can do something, therefore He must do it. This is people putting conditions on how God must act, which is preposterous.

It's easy to set up a condition for God's existence and then if God doesn't meet the condition, conclude that He doesn't exist. In this particular example, the condition is: if God exists, then He must heal amputees.

But this is just one example, any could be used. Some are more intellectual than others. For example, you could say that if God exists, He should strike me dead in 5 seconds. According to the Bible, God has the right to take a person's life, so He wouldn't be unjust in doing so. 5 seconds pass, you are still alive, therefore God doesn't exist.

Or, I could say that if God exists, He should prove His existence by causing all the leaves on the bush behind me to fall off in 15 seconds. Now I could believe that God can do this and I could pray for this to happen with an open and honest heart. 15 seconds pass, the leaves are still there, so God doesn't exist.

Does it say in the Bible that God has promised to heal amputees, anyone? No. Does it say in the Bible that God must heal amputees to prove His existence or love for humanity? No. Does God say that He will perform any type of miracle or healing to prove His existence? No. Does God guarantee healing to anyone, even if they have a large amount of faith? No. In fact, some who were martyrs for their beliefs did so at a young age and had great faith.

Along with amputees, there could be any number of diseases or sicknesses which God has never miraculously healed. That doesn't mean that God doesn't exist, since no one is guaranteed of a healing or a miracle.

To perhaps get to the heart of the matter, let me ask, "Why should God jump through our hoops to prove that He exists? Does God have to perform every type of miracle or healing before one will believe in Him?"

What if there was a documented case of God restoring a limb? For the atheist, ask yourself honestly, would you then believe in God? Or would you just set up another hoop for Him to jump through?

This brings us to a larger issue. That is, the amputee and similar questions work on the following premise- "If I can think of a question that no Christian can adequately answer, then this means that God doesn't exist. Or at the least that Christianity is false, untrue."

4 brief responses:

1. What if the answer exists, but you haven't found it?
2. What if someone gives you a correct, pro-christian (biblical) answer, but you don't accept it?
3. What if no one can answer the question now, but in 1 month or 1 year someone comes up with the answer? Then will you believe or just ask another question? Then when this gets answered, will you ask another question and it just keeps going?
4. What if the correct answer that you would accept isn't available now, but is given in 150 years? Long after you have died?

Even if this or another question is answered to your satisfaction, can I, you or anyone know everything about God or how or why God acts? Why does a three year old die of cancer? Why are Christians with strong faith struck with chronic pain for years? You don't know and I don't know. But what's wrong with that? Why does, "I don't know" have to equal "God doesn't exist."? That's too simple, too easy an answer.

When looking at Christianity, any thinking person will inevitably come across something that is difficult to understand, doesn't make sense, even seems contradictory at first glance. Given enough time, reading and life experience, this is inevitable.

Now, given that, we have two options when we run into something we don't understand:

1. I don't understand, therefore I won't believe.
2. I don't understand, but nonetheless I choose to believe. And as I read and talk to people and pray and grow in my faith, I hope to find the answer to my question. But I know that I may never know or never be told the answer to my question. If that is true, I will not stop believing in God or "loose my faith. I will decide to trust in a personal and loving God, despite my question or the reality of a horrible event in my life.

A danger in saying that, "I don't understand, therefore I don't believe" is that you or someone else can always think of a reason or excuse for not believing in God. That is the way God has set things up. He has given us enough evidence to believe in Him, yet He has also made it possible for people to reject Him and say that He doesn't exist.

Why?

1. We have free wills.
2. God wants for us to come to Him primarily by faith, with both our minds and hearts.

If you can have all of your questions about God and life answered before coming to faith in Christ, that's great! But if you demand to have to have all of your questions answered before you become a Christian, then you risk having only an intellectual "faith" in God. This is not truly believing in God. It is like having belief in God that demons have.

James 2:19 says, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder."
Of course this is not saving faith in God. It is not faith from the heart. It is not faith that personally trusts in God for salvation.

With only an intellectual "faith" in God, one can say they believe, but then when the crisis comes or the hard times come, they "loose" their faith in God. But this is not true faith.

Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Habakkuk 3:17-18, "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior."

Now that's real faith.

Real faith and real trust in God uses ones mind and intellect and reason as far as they can take him or her. Jesus Christ Himself said that Christians should, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:30

God says in Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:15- "I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind."

At the same time, real faith also admits that intellectually there are just some things we can never figure out and so we trust in a personal God who is far, far more intelligent than we are.

Let me end with a short passage from the Gospel of Luke of a rich man in Hell who is crying out to God to save his family members who are still alive on earth:

"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "
Luke 16:27-31

The rich man says that if his brothers see someone rise from the dead, then they will believe. Now someone rising from the dead is a lot more impressive than healing an amputee. The bar can't be set any higher than this for a physical miracle.

And yet Abraham says that if they will not believe Scripture, even if they see someone rise from the dead, they will not believe in God. They will make this or that excuse or just try not to think of it any more.

Don't let that happen to you.

Outside of creation, the main miracle which points to God and to the historicity and truth of Christianity, is the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the miracle which Christianity is based on and shows that God exists.