Who or what is God to you?

I was raised as a Catholic so 'God' to me was the Holy Trinity (made up of Father, Son & Holy Spirit). I now believe that there is only one God entity.

As a Spiritualist, who or what is God to you?

How did you come to hold this belief?

Who?
The Great Spirit
What........ To me?
Remarkably tolerant.

I've always thought of God in 'psychical' terms like a great diamond... with each religion / belief / person etc.. .simply seeing perhaps a different facet' of the same magnificent diamond.

In personal terms, that great source of all life....

I'll be the odd guy as usual, and proclaim belief in a Trinitarian God. Why? That's what I was raised to believe, and I haven't seen anything that DISproves it.

I believe God created and sustains everything. He (I say he out of tradition) is a personal, self-conscious, eternal being.

I DON'T see him as an old man with a long gray beard who sits on a throne - that sounds to me more like Odin - or as someone who sends people to an eternal hell that they "deserve" (?) to be in, because they don't believe in a certain creed or haven't performed a certain ceremony - that sounds to me more like Satan.

Jim

That's not odd Jim, I can not only respect your opinion, but consent to much you say.

Twins age seven walking home from Sunday School.
I just don't get this Trinity stuff says Johnny.
Easy peasy says Jane...
Mummy is Darling to Daddy. Mrs Smith to the lady next door and we call her Mummy.
And she always jolly well will be our Mummy too!

Left Behind wrote:I'll be the odd guy as usual, and proclaim belief in a Trinitarian God. Why? That's what I was raised to believe, and I haven't seen anything that DISproves it.
Jim

You are not odd at all, the black sheep maybe

KatyKing wrote:Twins age seven walking home from Sunday School.
I just don't get this Trinity stuff says Johnny.
Easy peasy says Jane...
Mummy is Darling to Daddy. Mrs Smith to the lady next door and we call her Mummy.
And she always jolly well will be our Mummy too!

That's a good one.

KatyKing wrote:Twins age seven walking home from Sunday School.
I just don't get this Trinity stuff says Johnny.
Easy peasy says Jane...
Mummy is Darling to Daddy. Mrs Smith to the lady next door and we call her Mummy.
And she always jolly well will be our Mummy too!

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. We are different personas to our spouses, friends, parents, children, co-workers. . . but still always the same person.

Jim

I was talking about god to someone recently who asked me "If your children do something wrong, do you throw them on the fire?"

That sums up the god I grew up with: The intolerent, judgemental, far too human and inconsistent god of the bible. With that god you didn't get any second chances, and that more than anything else offended my sensibilities.

Over time I have beeen able to release the notion of a personal god and now accept spirit as an eternal constant in my life. It was a gradual process and is still ongoing, so I look forward to increasing my knowledge and experience of spirit, without getting thrown on the fire if I get things wrong at the end :-)

(I was editing and expanding this post when Jim replied but I don't think its essence has been changed)

Yes I agree with you Wes, I am happy with the concept of the Great Spirit. I have had some interesting discussions around the concept with people in America. Remember their first Principle is "We believe in Infinite Intelligence" not The Fatherhood of God.

This raises some interesting interpretations because it was first espoused by Andrew Jackson Davis's Harmonial Philosophy Association.

One view is of an infinite intelligence which is a dispassionate observer of its creations, neither caring nor non caring but learning itself from all the experiences of the universe which it created. The alternative is of a caring Spirit which is compassionate but observes the natural laws of the universe it created.

The latter is my view but I still feel that this Great Spirit does grow from all of the experiences we have. Non intervention means that it cannot prevent the natural disasters that occur or raise our energy field to create peace in the world or lift mankind to a new dimension. However the caring comes in the fact we can receive guidance if we ask and get help on our return to Spirit. Indeed I tend to see the planet earth as a kind of random computer programmed to create these terrible events by nature as part of the mechanism for our personal growth as Spiritual beings.

However sometimes I wonder whether the first view is correct and mankind creates the God it desrves through its action or inactions upon this Earth. Or is the reality there is a caring God that tries to help us through revelations like Hydesville but one which humanity then turns into religions that mirror the society that exists at any one time.

Like there is one God or Great Spirit but many man made deities that exercise power upon us in this lifetime.

Speaking of man made deities, why is it that we as a society put so much trust in sports stars and celebrities? Why does a 15-minutes-of-famer's endorsement of a weight loss program carry more weight than a scientist's?

We sell our trust and faith far too cheaply these days...or has it always been like that?

We sell our trust and faith far too cheaply these days...or has it always been like that?

I wonder? of course faith and trust was enforced rather strictly in the earlier days. More satisfying to go with it than be burned at the stake or some rather more barbaric practices even earlier.

Admin wrote:

We sell our trust and faith far too cheaply these days...or has it always been like that?

I wonder? of course faith and trust was enforced rather strictly in the earlier days. More satisfying to go with it than be burned at the stake or some rather more barbaric practices even earlier.

Indeed, peer group pressure was a tad more extreme back then

Wes wrote:I was talking about god to someone recently who asked me "If your children do something wrong, do you throw them on the fire?"
<SNIP>

Never thought of it like that, quite an effective manner of getting the point across (might re-use that ).

Admin wrote:<SNIP>
but I still feel that this Great Spirit does grow from all of the experiences we have. Non intervention means that it cannot prevent the natural disasters that occur or raise our energy field to create peace in the world or lift mankind to a new dimension. However the caring comes in the fact we can receive guidance if we ask and get help on our return to Spirit.<SNIP>

This is more-or-less the lines I have often pondered along... The higher the 'spheres' the more collective a consciousness we may be come, and because we are ever evolving, ever learning - it naturally follows perhaps that as our collectiveness is ever expanding, thus our destiny is continually changing?

Onwards and upwards.
Nice to see the Harmonial Philosophy getting a mention Jim.
Andrew Jackson Davies was a top chap. His teaching methods have had great but sadly unacknowledged influence.
Piaget pinched them wholesale to become much better known.

God is too abstract for a little intermediate like me to know.
Maybe within there is an answer.In the meantime
best I practice taking personal responsibility for my
own ignorance.
Stephen

I'm not sure that some of us AREN'T going to be thrown on the fire - metaphorically speaking - in the next world. Christianity, Spiritualism, the law of karma, all teach that actions have consequences.

But it's still a far cry from accepting that, to believing in a god who torments people for an eternity because of the sins of one short earthly lifetime. Especially when that "sin" consists of failing to believe in religious principles they never even heard of.

Jim

Left Behind wrote:I'm not sure that some of us AREN'T going to be thrown on the fire - metaphorically speaking - in the next world. Christianity, Spiritualism, the law of karma, all teach that actions have consequences.

But it's still a far cry from accepting that, to believing in a god who torments people for an eternity because of the sins of one short earthly lifetime. Especially when that "sin" consists of failing to believe in religious principles they never even heard of.

Jim

If you mean the white heat of embarrassment and regret you're almost certainly right. Assuming of course that there is an afterlife at all.-

I am not sure what God is. It is something almost impossible to define.

Silver Birch talks about the many attributes of the "Great White Spirit". The way he ties in the natural law with understanding of the Great Spirit interests me a great deal as well. Much more to learn there.

I'm not sure that some of us AREN'T going to be thrown on the fire - metaphorically speaking - in the next world. Christianity, Spiritualism, the law of karma, all teach that actions have consequences. - Jim's comment


In reading the various trance lectures I've been struck with what seem to be direct statements about post death atonement, waiting or learning. These allusions remind me a little of the Catholic version of 'purgatory' .

It does all seem to be qualified, however. Individual awareness, background, life circumstances, intention -all these things play a part in the final assessment.

Again, we just don't know. There are many differing accounts of life beyond physical death. I was quite disturbed to read Chan's account of his own remorse and reckoning about his life after he died. Chan was Ivy Northage's spirit speaker.

I'd like to say that account made me want to change a lot of things about my own thinking and life but it has not been so easy. I've come to understand that change should be driven by love more than fear

Fully concur Q. Love conquers all fear and God is Love [and Great Spirit] so we've cause for optimism I reckon.

KatyKing wrote:Fully concur Q. Love conquers all fear and God is Love [and Great Spirit] so we've cause for optimism I reckon.

Yeah .............. that is right through the spiritualist literature and much other stuff.

Good to hear it from a medium though - with those telephones to Glory that you all have


The reference comes from a wonderful Aboriginal singer who died here this week, Jimmy Little. His first big hit was 'Telephone to Glory' in the 1960s. Jimmy Little was a beautiful soul and did much for his people (and the rest of us).

More like a mobile phone with inermittent service problems. Kinda glad really, there's those in Spirit as would be never off the line.
Only Aussie record my Dad sent back from Oz to us was Pub with No Beer... can't remember the artist but fifty years on the chorus lingers still
There's nothing so lonesome.. so morbid or drear.. than to stand in the bar... of a pub with no beer.

Was it by a Mr Slim Dusty ??

KatyKing wrote:More like a mobile phone with inermittent service problems. Kinda glad really, there's those in Spirit as would be never off the line.
Only Aussie record my Dad sent back from Oz to us was Pub with No Beer... can't remember the artist but fifty years on the chorus lingers still
There's nothing so lonesome.. so morbid or drear.. than to stand in the bar... of a pub with no beer.

Was it by a Mr Slim Dusty ??

Slim Dusty - yes. 'Pub with No Beer' was his most famous song.

To confess, I first remember hearing 'Telephone to Glory' sung by Burl Ives

I personally don't remember much about Jimmy Little from that time (1960s). Not so much publicity then. Black and white TV and radio.

God had different dimensions. I'd never heard of spiritualism but was just separating from the Catholic Church.