toldailytopic: What do you believe is the biggest misconception about God and why?

faramir77

New member
the biggest misconception about God and why.

That we're all Gods [YHVH] children.

The list of misconceptions is endless, for the popular picture of YHVH is a portrait painted by the devil himself.
 

kmoney

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Hall of Fame
The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for January 4th, 2013 04:18 PM


toldailytopic: What do you believe is the biggest misconception about God and why?


:think: A few good answers to this question. I'll go with: Everything happens for a reason. Or, all that happens is part of God's will and plan.
 

This Charming Manc

Well-known member
That God is a right wing, white, american, male conservative with an inferiority complex.

Usually by right wing, white, american, male conservatives with inferiority complexes.
 

Doormat

New member
The Apostle Paul identified the biggest misconception about God; people do not believe they are God's offspring:

Acts 17:28-29 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
 

Traditio

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toldailytopic: What do you believe is the biggest misconception about God and why?


That He's like us.* That He shares in our imperfections, our limitations, etc.

Whatever God is, He's most certainly not like us.* He exceeds us, and infinitely so.




*Here, I do not wish to embark into a discussion of the Divine Ideas, which are "like" the created things which imitate them.
 

steko

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LIFETIME MEMBER
That he's there.

Or, if he is, that he cares.



"He Is There and He Is Not Silent" by Francis A. Schaeffer

Ever read it?

I recommend it.

Better yet, read his "Trilogy", which includes that particular book along with "The God Who Is There" and "Escape From Reason".
 

Town Heretic

Out of Order
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That He's like us.* That He shares in our imperfections, our limitations, etc.

Whatever God is, He's most certainly not like us.* He exceeds us, and infinitely so.

*Here, I do not wish to embark into a discussion of the Divine Ideas, which are "like" the created things which imitate them.
I suspect you're safe then. :plain: :eek:
 

steko

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LIFETIME MEMBER
That He's like us.* That He shares in our imperfections, our limitations, etc.

Whatever God is, He's most certainly not like us.* He exceeds us, and infinitely so.




*Here, I do not wish to embark into a discussion of the Divine Ideas, which are "like" the created things which imitate them.

As to HIS infinitude we (man) are as separated and different from HIM as the rest of creation....but as to HIS 'personhood/personality' we are 'like' HIM in that HE created us in HIS image and likeness.
HE is 'like' us or else we are cut off to Acognosticism and there is nothing to be said or even thought about HIM.
 

Traditio

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As to HIS infinitude we (man) are as separated and different from HIM as the rest of creation....but as to HIS 'personhood/personality' we are 'like' HIM in that HE created us in HIS image and likeness.
HE is 'like' us or else we are cut off to Acognosticism and there is nothing to be said or even thought about HIM.

Univocity vs. equivocity vs. analogy. No likeness obtains between God and creatures univocally. But we can say that predicates can be attributed to God and creatures analogically (for example, the transcendentals ("being," "one," "true," "good," and such like)).
 

steko

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Univocity vs. equivocity vs. analogy. No likeness obtains between God and creatures univocally. But we can say that predicates can be attributed to God and creatures analogically (for example, the transcendentals ("being," "one," "true," "good," and such like)).

I agree precisely....just didn't think you could handle the terminology.....just kidding, just kidding, just kidding.

:e4e:
 

tetelestai

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when in fact obedience to God is liberation from slavery and the elevation of our will, as well as the source of pleasure in its most meaningful and satisfying sense.

:up:

That is why the angel said he had "good news"

(Luke 2:10) But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.
 

Traditio

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I agree precisely....just didn't think you could handle the terminology.....just kidding, just kidding, just kidding.

:e4e:

To be clear, I think that this view refutes many errant theologies (especially Open View Theists). God, in His essence, is completely unknown to us in this life. We don't know God as He is. We only can deny things of God; we only know what God is not.

He is not created. He is not imperfect. He is not limited. He is not many.

Is there some likeness to creatures which can be attributed to God? Sort of, in a really strange and bizarre way. But not in the sense that I intended in the original post that I made. There is only a likeness in the sense that each being is a finite, limited expression of the inexhaustible reality of Being (St. Thomas Aquinas), or that each particular truth is a finite, limited expression of the Supremely and Infinitely Expressive First Truth (St. Bonaventure).
 

Christ's Word

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for January 4th, 2013 04:18 PM


toldailytopic: What do you believe is the biggest misconception about God and why?



God is Spirit, and can not be contained in a part of creation. I will tell you that God existed before the creation of the heavens and the earth. What we know of in this universe, is only a fraction of what God has done, and only a fraction of what exists.

So the biggest misconception is that Jesus is God. I agree with keypurr, that there is only one God, and it is as Jesus said in John 17:3.
 

Ps82

Well-known member
I think that many people think that God can be ignored and dismissed and that there will be no consequences.

The reason they think this way is because God is "long suffering," "slow to anger," and not in a hurry to bring judgment upon the wicked.

According to the example given in the book of Nahum, judgment will finally come. The wicked will receive the punishment coming to them from God.

If you remember, Jonah went to the city of Nineveh which was a great city of Assyria. The people of that city repented when they heard Jonah's message ... but before long they gradually began to revert back to their sinful ways assuming that God was not watching and that HE no longer mattered, but could be ignored.

In fact, it was around 150 years before God finally judged them for their total back sliding. By that time they had come against the kingdom of Judah and their King Sennacherib was so bold that he had his military leader publicly mock the people of Judah and openly denigrate the God of Israel. Their blatant disregard for the Living God brought on the time for God to release his wrath upon them.

Because God is merciful and slow to judge ... people think that God can be ignored and dismissed.

Read Nahum 1 to see what finally happened to Nineveh and to the nation, then ask yourself: Is America going down that slippery humanistic slope of dismissing God and ignoring the truth that in time God will allow judgment to come?
 
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