Last weekend I attended the World Religions Conference at Horizon Christian Fellowship in Denver. It was a good day and well worth the investment. The speakers included Bill Honsberger of Haven Ministry, Dr. Darrell Ferguson of Summit Ministries Int'l, Bill McKeever of Mormonism Research Ministry and Sammy Tanagho a converted Muslim. Each of these men are worth hearing and well educated in their area of expertise. They detailed for us clearly many of the tenents of the particular religion or belief system. Mark these guys to memory.
However, as I sat there I felt that a basic pre-amble or pre-requisite was missing from the seminar. For in our modern world rift with its post-modern world view and pluralism, what seemed lacking was a discussion of the very nature of divinity, the very basic concepts of any deity that would garner our attention. For any discussion other than atheism, that posits a divine being shouldn't there be some basic principles that are understood for any discussion? Let me clarify, it is my contention that there can be only ONE GOD. There cannot be 2 COMPETING GODS. This immediately smacks against any post-modernist understanding whereby they hold competing views even contradictory opinions as equally valid, thus making my case... can there truly be any discussion about a supreme being without explaining the basic definition of "SUPREME". So let me state for the record and for discussion this precept:
God: the discussion of any eternal being, a supreme being, any being outside of our selves that we must recon with.
by definition: here is the critical juncture, to define God as any of you might, as stated above as something "outside of ourselves" must be defined in terms of greatness. For God to be anything like a God we would define, he must be outside of, greater than, different than, older, wiser etc than us. When you begin to define God with those concepts he/she/it becomes to some degree greater than us. Greater begs the question to be qualified as greatest. An Illustration: If someone where to ask you who is a great something... say Basketball player, the answer wouldn't really matter much because great is nothing unless compared to a lesser or greater But if someone asked you who was the greatest...wouldn't you by natural cause begin to compare attributes of various players until you arrive at an answer you feel is satisfactory? Wouldn't it seem strange to say well "all basketball players are the greatest"? Or even the following five players are the greatest... Wouldn't you ask again that they further define their answer to come up with the greatest? Someone might say well Jordan was the greatest shooter and Abdul Jabar the greatest rebounder, but that changes the question. I did not ask which was the greatest shooter or rebounder. I asked for your opinion of the greatest basketball player ever.
So if we are going to speak of a god, any god, are we not asking which is the greatest? To worship a lesser god knowing that there is a greater, would be foolishness. For sake of argument lets say that there could be more than one god, there are two. We will call them Bill and Bob. In our considerations of these two beings wouldn't we want to worship the one who is greater? but let's say that Bob is good at loving and Bill is the most powerful. Which attribute do you consider more worthy of worship and being called the "supreme" being the "weak lover" or the "unloving power"? Scary to think about isn't it. We desire a God that is greatest at everything and has no limits. Well at least that is what I would worship. More next time. (if there is only one what is He like?) Give me some feed back!
However, as I sat there I felt that a basic pre-amble or pre-requisite was missing from the seminar. For in our modern world rift with its post-modern world view and pluralism, what seemed lacking was a discussion of the very nature of divinity, the very basic concepts of any deity that would garner our attention. For any discussion other than atheism, that posits a divine being shouldn't there be some basic principles that are understood for any discussion? Let me clarify, it is my contention that there can be only ONE GOD. There cannot be 2 COMPETING GODS. This immediately smacks against any post-modernist understanding whereby they hold competing views even contradictory opinions as equally valid, thus making my case... can there truly be any discussion about a supreme being without explaining the basic definition of "SUPREME". So let me state for the record and for discussion this precept:
"GOD BY DEFINITION CAN ONLY BE ONE".
In other words you cannot have a god of one religion and a god of another and both exists in reality. We are not choosing whom to worship by vote of one candidate over another. We are asking whether the God we are choosing to "believe in" or "worship" is truly an existent being at all, and secondly worth our devotion or worship? For a moment let me unpack my statement that God can ONLY BE ONE. God: the discussion of any eternal being, a supreme being, any being outside of our selves that we must recon with.
by definition: here is the critical juncture, to define God as any of you might, as stated above as something "outside of ourselves" must be defined in terms of greatness. For God to be anything like a God we would define, he must be outside of, greater than, different than, older, wiser etc than us. When you begin to define God with those concepts he/she/it becomes to some degree greater than us. Greater begs the question to be qualified as greatest. An Illustration: If someone where to ask you who is a great something... say Basketball player, the answer wouldn't really matter much because great is nothing unless compared to a lesser or greater But if someone asked you who was the greatest...wouldn't you by natural cause begin to compare attributes of various players until you arrive at an answer you feel is satisfactory? Wouldn't it seem strange to say well "all basketball players are the greatest"? Or even the following five players are the greatest... Wouldn't you ask again that they further define their answer to come up with the greatest? Someone might say well Jordan was the greatest shooter and Abdul Jabar the greatest rebounder, but that changes the question. I did not ask which was the greatest shooter or rebounder. I asked for your opinion of the greatest basketball player ever.
So if we are going to speak of a god, any god, are we not asking which is the greatest? To worship a lesser god knowing that there is a greater, would be foolishness. For sake of argument lets say that there could be more than one god, there are two. We will call them Bill and Bob. In our considerations of these two beings wouldn't we want to worship the one who is greater? but let's say that Bob is good at loving and Bill is the most powerful. Which attribute do you consider more worthy of worship and being called the "supreme" being the "weak lover" or the "unloving power"? Scary to think about isn't it. We desire a God that is greatest at everything and has no limits. Well at least that is what I would worship. More next time. (if there is only one what is He like?) Give me some feed back!
