#NewThought #Spirituality #Metaphysical #Christianity #God #OpenChristian #RevCharlie #eHOPE #Unity4Today #LivingUnity
There have been many different views and definitions of God|Deity throughout the ages and millennia as humanity’s understanding has grown, developed, and evolved as it crawled and groped about in ignorance, superstition, and darkness.
I believe that it is the responsibility of each individual to “work out [their] own souls salvation” and to “seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him”.
In my spiritual quest, this is the working-definition of God that I’ve come to:
“God is the name that I give to the very personal, individual, yet universal experience|feeling of reverential awe for the Eternal, Spiritual, Transcendent Mystery that lies within and back of all reality. I also know “God” in my life as: Spirit. Soul. Substance. Mind. Principle. Truth. Love.”
My inspiration for this working-definition comes from various sources including The Bible, Eastern Texts: The Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads, and the words and writings New Thought teachers and schools from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Here are some of their inspiring words:
Dr. Emilie Cady | Lessons in Truth
🗣 “God is the name we give to that unchangeable, inexorable, principle at the source of all existence.”
🗣 “God is life, love, intelligence, substance, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence.”
🗣 “God is Spirit: invisible, intangible, intelligence, creative energy, force, or vital essence.”
🗣 “God is the sum total of all Good.”
🗣 “God is the invisible substance out of which all visible things are formed.”
Charles Fillmore | Founder of Unity
🗣 “God is mind. Mind evolves ideas. These ideas are evolved in an orderly way. The laws of Mind are just as exact and undeviating as the laws of mathematics or music. To recognize this is the starting point of finding God”.
🗣 “The fundamental basis and starting point of practical Christianity is that God is principle. By principle is meant definite, exact, unchangeable rules of action”.
🗣 “‘God is Spirit’...spirit means life or living substance considered independently of corporeal existence; an intelligence conceived apart from any physical organization or embodiment; vital essence, force, or energy as distinct from matter.”
🗣 “Spirit is NOT matter, and Spirit is NOT person.”
🗣 “God is life. Life is a principle that is made manifest in the living.”
🗣 “God is substance; but this doesn’t mean matter [as we currently conceive of matter], because matter is formed, but God is formless. [God] cannot be seen, tasted, or touched. Yet [God] is the only “substantial” substance in the Universe.”
🗣 “God is not a person who has set creation in motion and gone away and left it to run down like a clock. God is Spirit, infinite Mind, the immanent force and intelligence everywhere manifest in nature. God is the silent voice that speaks into visibility all the life there is.”
Dr. Ernest Holmes | Science of Mind
🗣 “God: The First Cause, The Great I AM , The Unborn One, The Uncreated, The Absolute, The One and Only. Spirit, or the creative energy which is the cause of all visible things. Love. Wisdom. Intelligence. Power. Substance. Mind. Truth. Principle.”
🗣 “God, The Living Spirit Almighty; One. Indestructible, absolute and self-existent Cause. This One manifests itself in and through all creation, but is not absorbed by its creation. The manifest universe is the body of God; this is the logical and necessary outcome of the infinite self-knowingness of God”.
Mary Baker Eddy | Christian Science
🗣 “God: The Great I AM, The All-Knowing, All-Seeing, All-Acting, All-Wise, All-Loving, and Eternal; Principle, Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; Substance; Intelligence.”
🗣 “God is Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.”
International New Thought Alliance:
🗣 God as the one and only presence and power whose essence is absolute goodness, abundant supply, infinite knowing and unfathomed joy.
🗣 We affirm the Divine as That Which Is, Good, Mind, Infinite Being, Spirit, Ultimate Reality.
🗣 We affirm that the name we give the Divine does not define, nor change the truth, rather names only define the giver and his or her relationship to reality.
🗣 We affirm that the Divine is Good, is love, supreme, universal, and everlasting.
🗣 “God is all there is, present everywhere, and absolute Good”.
🗣 "God is the source and creator of all. There is no other enduring power. God is good and present everywhere."
🗣 “Unity views God as spiritual energy which is present everywhere and is available to all people.[Unity] believes that God only seeks to express the highest good through everyone and everything.”
🗣 “And God spoke to Moses, saying: I AM THE BEING; and He said, Thus shall you say to the [the people], THE BEING has sent me to you.” - Exodus 3:14 BST
[ In Hebrew, the most holy name of God is Yahweh|Jehovah. The name means “I AM THAT I AM” or “He is the Existing One”]
🗣 Am I not present everywhere, whether seen or unseen? - Jeremiah 23:24 MSG
🗣 “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you!” - Jesus (Luke 17:21 KJV)
🗣 “God is sheer BEING itself - Spirit.” - Jesus (John 4:27 MSG)
🗣 “In [God] we live and move and have our BEING’; as even some of [The ancient Greek poets] have said, ‘We are indeed His children.’” - St. Paul (Acts 17:28)
🗣 “One God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.” - St. Paul (Ephesians 4:6 MSG)
🗣 “God IS love, and anyone who doesn't love others has never known him.” - St. John (1 John 4:8 CEV)
🗣 God is, in truth, the whole universe: what was, what is, and what beyond shall ever be. He is the God of life immortal and of all life that lives by food. His hands and feet are everywhere. He has heads and mouths everywhere. He sees all, He hears all. He is in all, and He Is - The Upanishads
🗣 “He sees truly who sees the Lord the same in every creature; seeing the same Lord everywhere, he does not harm himself or others.”- The Bhagavad Gita
