A lot longer than we generally interact with one another so fair warning, indulgence, or whatever is needed for such:
I've a good general grasp. I'm not really interested because I already am well aware that the two are incompatible. Christianity makes exclusive claims, and I believe they are God very God's claims John 14:6
That's terrible!
Either 'we' make gods in our own likeness (certainly true of hundreds/thousands of Hindu deities), OR God, Himself meets us somehow.
A few presuppositions (all of which I believe you eschew):
1) Something has happened where God doesn't clearly communicate in an ongoing manner. Something seems to have gotten in the way.
2) If the thing I don't like about myself, is also the thing God doesn't like about me, I have a place to start: Neither of us want that thing that hurts other people and is often selfish and self-interested. It could be, between you and I, it might be one of those things you dislike about me too.
3) If that something is missing, I might, as C.S. Lewis described it: intuitively know something is wrong, not as it should be.
4) If that that separates us from communication, the one of us that isn't messed up, would be the one that needs to intervene or I'm stuck.
Now to you and I:
1) Obviously, clearly, something is in the way and it isn't 'just' being wrong. It is something fundamentally different. I assume that I need mercy, grace, and repair (salvation). I also think we have a stewardship with our minds, and such is ego-centric, but because I'm the one needing repair, I know for a fact that we (you and I) need that to happen and that it is completely outside ourselves BECAUSE it is broken in the first place. If not? We'd not be having this conversation. Imho, you CAN'T argue against this because of it.
2) That something 'we' don't like. That thing that troubles us about ourselves, about one another ISN'T of God! It can't be. You hate it. I hate it. At least you are supposed to. It is VERY wrong to indulge in self at the expense of another. You know it, I know it. The Bible calls it sin.
Sin doesn't belong. I'm not sure what world you'll have that tries to 'include' that. No 'evolving' is going to work. We've either had 6thousand or a billion years to work on it already. "We" aren't our own gods. This is NOT going to happen sans His intervention. Either I'm right or you are, and frankly, I've no hope or comfort if its all left in our hands. I know what we are capable of 'with' God and what is impossible without Him. We MUST become new creations "And this not of yourselves" Ephesians 2:8-10
3) That thing is both an ugly thing, a death thing, and a 'without God' thing. Sure, I have some things intact BUT not enough. A car that doesn't go down the road may function in every other way. It is that 'image of what is supposed to be' that lends to the fact that we aren't quite measuring up. We aren't doing what we are supposed to. It might be nice to sit in the garage, turn up the heat, and listen to the music, but without going down the road? Not what is supposed to be happening. Every religion is trying to be 'happy' with that. The One Who made us, is trying to tells us we are made for something else. We are clay, He is the Creator. Your version often expresses as 'you' in the driver seat and 'you' asking the Creator to bow or meet you halfway. That isn't how a servant, created as a servant, is supposed to be. "gods?" Only in the sense that relationship of love reaches us. My children are my friends, but they are not ONLY my friends. The disciples weren't only friends, they were called to a hard life of sacrificial love.
4) There is absolutely NO WAY you can find a relationship with God by yourself. First, you and I are caught in sin and God cannot abide. It separates us from Him. John 15:5? You and I CANNOT live without Him. Colossians 1:17 Flowers in a jar will bloom a few days, but cut off, it is a mirage of life. They are dead already. Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:23 It is all very authoritative and beyond your or my ability to reason out. It is God reaching us, rather than our feeble attempts (because we are already falling short) can reach.
As long as you will only take God on YOUR terms, he/it will always be finite because that is ALL you allow. If God doesn't 'get' to dictate then you are left to wander the cosmos (a finite place). EVENTUALLY, it isn't as vast as you thought it was. It might 'seem' like heaven until that day. It has a limit and is NO heaven at all. It is only as far as we, interacting with our environment, can conceive and then it is all over. Often, I think your God is too small. It is actually walking through that narrow door that infinity opens up John 14:6 You think He is finite, but He is the one from where all 'finite' that-seems-infinite come. Colossians 1:17 1 John 3:2 John 15:5
:think: Only 'some.'
Thus He isn't a being you can relate to. Can you 'pray' to an "It?"
Can 'It' interact with you in a meaningful way? :nono: "We" are created in "His" image. To deny that is to deny yourself that which He purposefully put there. It isn't 'limiting' God to allow Him to define Himself. It can be nothing BUT infinite.
In that sense I probably have more agreement, but we have to take God's revelation of Himself. The Bible is the ONLY source that claims to be directly from God with His direct quotes. Every other religion is man trying to reach, rather than God reaching man. On the flip side, you DO limit God to pantheism instead of pan-en-theism because you DON'T limit Him to what He claims to be :noway: I know it doesn't look that way at first glance, but any conception outside of His clear conveyance is shutting your mind off. Again, a door TO infinity is perhaps a very small thing or concept, but it opens to the actual infinite. Everything this side? Finite. The ONLY way into infinite would be through invitation. John 14:6
As given, such is a rejection of particularly 1-4 above. It is embracing all, including the glaring lack of God's presence AND a condition we all know is wrong. It ALSO looks like you are VERY invested in conversion to me. Link after link, 700 pages of Urantia, it all looks like propaganda. I'll not contradict you, but it 'looks' like these two observations are very much at odds with one another.
Ah, see? LOT of work for one not seeking to influence or convert. It ALSO contradicts, as it would appear by Biblical and Christian terms, to be totally against God's revelation and intent. It may seem I hound you a bit, but I don't want you to ever misunderstand the stark disagreement AND I want a few you've kind of made 'think' you are a Christian, know that you are opposed to what most understand Christianity to be as well as diametrically opposed including the Urantia, to the Christ's recorded words and truths. There can be no fellowship between such a rejection and light cannot fellowship with darkness. Again, by way of 1-4, you'd conclude with me this is so, but for some reason, you are recalcitrant from being very up front about the stark disagreement and often portray rather, that you are a 'Christian' yet rejecting these VERY Christian truths.
