Question:
“There can be only one absolute truth, I believe God wants us to make an effort to find this truth, (himself).”
“I read your blogs and would like to know what you mean in describing the dichotomy between the "creator god" and the god that might deliver one beyond this futile creation. Where does YHVH (Yahweh) fit in all of this?”
We go through life, prodding our way, making decisions based on assumptions of truth and reality handed down to us, or extrapolated from prior experience, and which we in the moment grant absolute status. Even realizing the potential error inherent in our assumptions, we press forward, because we believe without question that there must be some “absolute” reality to make sense of it all. We assume there must be a “personal” creator. By personal I mean a supreme being or entity that is the first cause of all that is the realm of creation that we can see, touch, smell, hear, and in any other way or manner perceive, and this personal creator is “personal” in that “He” manifests attributes and qualities associated with humans, thus binding him in relation to humankind.
We go through life and experience and realize many things that we cannot explain or find difficult to fit into our evolved logical reasonable categories. For each individual person the level of this cognitive development may be different. That does not necessarily mean one may be superior to another cognitively, but it may, but what it infers is rather there is a lack of exercise to develop, experience and realize, potentials of thought or spiritual perception that are not commonly recognized and endorsed as the “norm”.
We live in a “religious” world. Some find ourselves in the context of a western culture dominated and influenced by an “orthodox” Christian (oC) world view. This “oC” paradigm has experienced mutations through the centuries (i.e. accommodating scientific relativism, the Reformation, and more), but has been able to survive to exert influence in our culture, beyond the politically correct accepted stratum deemed acceptable by the society as a whole. Even those who would call themselves atheists find themselves bound to the influence of the dominant cultural influence. It’s a matter of survival. In other areas of the world, the predominant religious influence differs, but the exertion of influence within those cultures, is comparable (Islamic cultures, Hindu, Buddhist, relativistic humanism, etc). Being “dropped” in the middle of any of these cultural situations, from birth or transmigration, one is left with the dilemma of fitting in, or being ostracized for being “different”. That does not mean one cannot be individually different, but there are usually costs and consequences deemed too high for the distinction of being “true” to ones self. You can see much of this in the cultural seasonal celebrations and holidays we partake in. Nobody (or very few) wants to be considered a “Scrooge”.
As we make our way in life, most of us simply want to survive. And if we can accomplish that, the next priority is to build some sense of security, a financial nest egg, property, and a position of influence – something that gives us a sense of power over our own lives. Having these, the desire to control that which is beyond us – others - through financial, political, and religious means. Doing this means accommodating the systems that be. To advocate something that is not considered the “orthodox” norm (and I use orthodox in the broadest sense here to include orthodox economic, orthodox political, and orthodox religious norm), going against the flow of society in general, is a very risky under taking and can lead to disastrous personal and collective results, should failure or no realization be the case. Better to work within the established system and “play it safe”.
But what if any of these “systems” are built on faulty assumptions, deficient concepts granted a relative absolute (that makes good sense - duh!!!) status, and perpetuated through history and culture because the effort and risk to stand against the inertia and momentum gained by the systems over the centuries is monumental at least and humanly impossible by any perception?
We are delivered in the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah, the “law”, whose authorship is generally attributed to Moses, a perception of “God”, as recognized and realized in the lives of men, from the first man, Adam, through Noah, to the confusion of language and dispersion, and the patriarchs of Israel, to the Exodus out of Egypt of the people of Israel and their wanderings in the desert for forty years. It is essentially upon this perception that Israel conceived their notion of YHVH (Yahweh), the “only one absolute truth”, the “one true God”. Scripture, those deemed acceptable, and interpreted as literally absolute, and interpreted and applied as was most beneficial to the situation at hand, upholding the honor of YHVH, and or politically expeditious, became the religious and social mandate. The assumption of the literal absolutism of the “Torah” and what is attributed to the Prophet Moses, assume more than the Prophet was, and an infallibility, not only of the absolute nature of scripture but a “perfection” of the man Moses in relation to the one true god, YHVH.
Based on these perceptions and notions, the people of YHVH went forth and conquered, settled and lived in relation to their “perception” of YHVH. But was this perception of the one true god, as held by Moses, and subsequent generations (even as they progressively defined it), Was this the “true” absolute conception as “God” truly is? Is YHVH truly “God”, or is he purely a conception of “God”, and an imperfect one at that?
We all have our own conceptions and perceptions of who or what “God” is. Some of these are based on religious texts, accepted scriptures and other commentary, feelings and intuitions. Even individuals relying on the same scripture and resources, with similar experience and background, each one has a unique and personal perception of what God is. Denominationally bound and united congregational entities, when it comes right down to the individual personal understanding of the divine, each is personal and unique. What binds us together as a people is not the true knowledge and understanding of God, but commonly held conveniences of dogma and doctrine.
In these “commonly held conveniences of dogma and doctrine” our religious system manifests. These, quite apart from the life of what may be “God”. From their beginnings, this was the preference of the people of Israel. For fear, or what ever other quality of human nature, they chose not to meet with God as He is, but rather required the intermediary Moses to hear God for them, to deliver to them, what they feared they could not bear. Fear and ignorance, not Moses’ but the peoples, essentially became the predominant guiding force in receiving and understanding God. Religion has a way of simplifying things we are not willing to meet first hand and face to face.
What ever it is that we conceive and perceive God as, in our minds, as in the case of Israel, that is the God we will serve, and that is the God that will manifest in our lives.
“Where does YHVH (Yahweh) fit in all of this?”
We have a tendency that we want to hold onto some sense of security arising from past perceptions. If I conceive something new, will I truly be secure in it? What if I’m wrong? We need to come to an understanding as to whether YHVH was and IS, the only one true God, OR “is YHVH and all the baggage that comes along with him, and everything done in his name, is this only a ‘perception’ of the one true god?”
Is it possible that in our quest to “know” the one true God, the “only one absolute truth” (presuming there is such a thing), that the errors of our predecessors and their declaration of absolutes, has diverted us and derailed the spiritual train we find ourselves on. Is it possible that our concern is more for maintaining a humanly comfortable status quo, to get by the best we can, rather than face the music and stand in the gap of cultural social and religious error? Has our religion become, in the words of Karl Marx, “the opiate of the masses”, but it is more convenient and comfortable than the alternative?
Is it possible that Jesus, and many prophets and sages before him, realized a dynamic of humanity, that is not so readily perceptible to what we understand as normal human senses, yet is there, and we partake of it, but in ignorance, partly by choice, neglect or reject it. And not so unoften, are discouraged from realizing it, by well meaning, dogmatic “others”, living in ignorance themselves.
I believe “God”, or what we call “God”, is closer than we realize. This, I believe, IS “God” as Jesus knew Him. Is He personal? Yes – No – Maybe. I relate to “Him” personally. But that is essentially because of many things in “me”. The way my mind can conceive and perceive “Him”. “Him”, this is an anthropomorphism, that I use, but, I question its actual validity.
We are on the edge of a universal paradigm shift. Human conception of reality has experienced these periodically through out history. Our understanding of “creation” began to shift about a hundred years ago. It is only now beginning to experience broader acceptance. Most of the church lives in a conception of reality based on Newtonian Physics. Though expressing a relative truth, and held as absolute for many centuries, that absolute bubble is being shattered. The understanding of spirit and matters’ relation in a unified field of being, and our connectedness are only now beginning to surface. Our religious problem is not that its is contrary to Jesus, or unbiblical, it is that we have preconceived ideas of how reality must fit into our religious system. This has always been the human problem. Change implies new order. New order means a change in hierarchy. Change is threatening, but “ignorance”, even more so.
The God we worship, the perception of the God we hold in our minds, this is the God that manifests reality. We are Gods ability to manifest in our lives and creation. Considering the state of creation, the world, our personal lives, collectively, through prayer, thought, visualization, feeling, - what is the reality of the “God” we worship?
