ADVANCED DP WEBINAR
What God Is Not
Rev. Dr. D. Michael Hentrich
But, now we also want to look at what God is not; because, there are a lot of concepts out there which are wrong, and not shared by a few people but shared by billions of people. So, to help set ourselves apart from everybody else let's look at some.
Common VIEWS OF GOD
God is happy, indifferent, peaceful
God is like man
God knows everything
God decides your destiny
God needs nothing
God's in control
God's all-powerful
God needs blood
God hates Satan
Man's waiting for God to act
GOD IS HAPPY, INDIFFERENT, PEACEFUL
Most believers in God, with few exceptions if any; I mean billions of people think that God is happy, indifferent and peaceful. And He is sitting on a beach somewhere, sipping Martinis and having a good time. He can't be bothered with this crazy, sick, hurtful world, and all the garbage that is in it. He's God. How can He be bothered by all this? I've never met any believer in God that thinks differently. That's what they think with many religions that believe in God. But Father (True Parents said), that that is not the case. Hang on here. God actually feels what is going on here. He's not happy. He's very sorrowful. He's painful, in a sense, in tears over our situation; because, we are not able to realize the happiness that He has always been looking for because we can't experience the love.
GOD IS LIKE MAN
And (the next one) God is like man. So many people think that God is like man. The Greek mythology, you look at Hinduism, you look at even Old Testament Judaism ... I mean, so much of God in those ways of thinking, He's full of fallen nature. He's just as bad as we are. He's judgmental, He's hurtful, He's short tempered, He's all kinds of stuff that is not God. Father said, 'That's not God.' So, we have actually created God in the image of man. Billions of people have done this. You have to realize that this is big stuff. Father has redefined God. Jesus did too in a small way when he said, 'God is our Father,' which is big but it's only one thing.
GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING
Is there anybody in the world, besides us, who doesn't believe that God knows everything. I mean, it's not Biblical actually (to believe that God knows everything); because, in the Bible it says in many, many passages that God is disappointed. Countless times ... as in Genesis 6:6, He said He was sorry that He made man on the face of the earth and it grieved Him in His Heart. I mean, God was disappointed. He didn't expect the Fall. He didn't expect things to turn out this way. It says that God was sorry that He made Saul the king. I mean, He didn't know. He doesn't know everything. He doesn't want to know everything. People think, people honestly think that God knows if you are going to sneeze on January 14th at 2 o'clock in the afternoon in 2043. They think God already knows that. That's God.
We just cook up these definitions of God in our mind; and it has nothing to do with the real, living God. Father explained that God isn't like that. He wants to have a spontaneous relationship with His children. He wants to laugh and be surprised by us and feel our sincere love. He doesn't know everything. He doesn't want to know everything. He's aware of every hair on your head; but, that doesn't mean that He knows what you are going to do tomorrow.
GOD DECIDES YOUR DESTINY
God decides your destiny. Father said no. He doesn't decide our destiny. We do, right? But almost everybody thinks that God decides your destiny, whether you're going to Heaven or hell. We'd better be good. We'd better appease Him by doing all our religious stuff.
GOD NEEDS NOTHING
Do you think there is anybody in this world among the billions of Muslims, Christians and Jews who believe in God, do you think there is any one of them who thinks God needs something. Nobody. There is nobody who thinks that God needs something. He's God. What could He possibly need. If He needs something, He'll make it. He'll have it, right? No, it's wrong. Father said that no, that's wrong understanding. God actually needs something. What does He need? He needs a partner for His love. He needs love. He needs a love partner; and, that is why He created especially you and me, right? It is so that He could experience His Love that He has, between us and Him directly and among us with each other and with nature. He.needs a love partner. That's why He has been persevering for millions of years in this providence of restoration; because, He has no choice. Father said that it is a war of attrition. He has to save Himself. He has to save us for Himself. That's what Father explained.
GOD IS IN CONTROL
God is in control. Well, this is a big one. It's an amazing deception on the part of the dark side. Three little words, 'is in control.' This came out in Christianity about 35 years ago. I remember it; and, I know there's a way you can say this and have a legitimate meaning to it ... But so, don't jump on anybody in our church or leaders who say "God is in control; but, here's what most people mean: "My cat wouldn't have gotten run over by a truck yesterday if God didn't will it to happen or allow it to happen. If God didn't allow it to happen or will it to happen, then it would not have happened." That is what most people mean by it. And if you pursue that line of logic, everything just goes upside down and becomes nonsense and craziness. It just makes no sense whatsoever. It means every evil and bad and unprincipled thing going on in the world is God's doing, or God is allowing it. What kind of God is that?
True Father said that God is not even a God of judgments; because, if he has judgment of evil that means He must have evil within Himself. That leads to Dualism, which is impossible. So, 'God is in control.' No. He is not in control. God gave a portion of responsibility to us. He refuses to be in control, in fact. God is all-powerful. Well, that sound legitimate; and, it sound common sensible. In reality, it is not even Biblical. It's not ... Where is the evidence of that? The world is a mess.
God is all-powerful ... Look at the person laying in the gutter, whose drunk and on drugs and homeless and needs help. Why doesn't God go help that person, heal that person, fix that person? Why doesn't God do what people want Him to do for them? He wants to motivate us to do that, right? (God) 'You go pick that person up and take them to the hospital, like Father did in His autobiography, spent His last penny on helping a poor, homeless man who was on the street and was sick. I mean, God, in a sense, as Father described it is, in a sense, kinda weak' because He doesn't have a body, doesn't have a form. Father said that God's greatest regret.is that He couldn't educate Himself, directly, Adam and Eve in the Garden. Why? Because He didn't have a body. He didn't have a form. He had to work through an angel. That was His greatest regret in this respect.
God's all-powerful? Then, how come He is so frustrated with the way things are going in this world?
GOD NEEDS BLOOD
God needs blood. Well, you know, I believe in the precious blood of Jesus. I really do. St. Paul said, "There's no salvation without the blood." Well, yes but the problem is that he was looking in the rear view mirror of history behind him. If Jesus hadn't died on the cross and shed his blood, there wouldn't be any forgiveness of sins. That's understandable; but, that didn't mean that there can't be any forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. People have taken this way too far out of context and made God into a vampire, literally.
I mean, a common explanation of the Cain and Abel situation is that God rejected Cain's offering because he offered crops, crops from the field and Abel offered an animal from his flock. And there is no blood in the crops, so God rejected Cain's offering. It doesn't say that anywhere in the Bible. It doesn't even hint at that kind of thing; but, that is what people came up with because of this 'God needs blood' thing. It's just out of ... gone too far.
GOD HATES SATAN
God hates Satan. Well, there are billions of believers in the world; and, there is nobody except us crazy people who believe that God's Love is so deep, so great, so vast as the ocean, but He even loves Satan. You can say He hates Satan; but, Lucifer, the angel that caused all this stuff, He even Loves him. Nobody believes that. Nobody understands that, except us, only us. We are the only people in the world that understand that; and, it's profound.
(You have to understand that there is a reason that I'm going through all of this; and, I'm almost done.)
MAN'S WAITING FOR GOD TO ACT
And of course, 'We're waiting for God to do His thing and save everybody and make everybody happy; but actually, God is waiting for us, according to Father, right?
So, we have all these wrong understandings; and, why did I go through this stuff. Why did I go through these misconceptions. And there are many others. Because, for one reason, this ... these things are one big reason why the religious world cannot unite with each other.
ONE REASON THE RELIGIOUS WORLD CANNOT UNITE
(It is because) they have such diversion of beliefs and understandings of God. People say, 'Well, those Muslims, they have a different God. Their God is not our God.' There is only one God. We just have different understandings of Him.
ONE REASON TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS COULD NOT GO VERY FAR WITH SOCIAL CHANGE
The second one, is one reason why the different religions could not really be so effective to create social change is that when they tried to create social change over the centuries, they were designing their social change upon the concept of a God that doesn't even exist. So, it was fated flawed from the beginning; and, they always hit the wall and failed.
So, that should give us great hope that, actually, that attempting social change based on a real understanding of the Living God, that really exists, is going to produce great and permanent results. No question about it. We have that confidence.
ONE REASON SOME RELIGIOUS PEOPLE HAVE A HARD TIME UNDERSTANDING DIVINE PRINCIPLE
Also, it is one big reason why a lot of religious people have a hard time understanding the Divine Principle. I've taught a lot of Christian people and some Christian ministers; and, I can tell you that they don't even have room for the Divine Principle because of those concepts that I just went through. You know, you gotta clear those out of the way; because, they're sitting there thinking that God is in control; and He's the judge over your destiny; and He needs blood to forgive sins... When they're so full of these concepts, there's no room for the Principle. So, you gotta clear those things out of there before you can even teach them.
ONE REASON FATHER'S TEACHINGS ARE 'S O G R E A T!'
And finally, it is one big reason why we need to realize that True Parents' Teachings are so incredibly GREAT ... SO GREAT! They are really incredible. That doesn't mean there are not a lot of great people and organizations doing great things in the world. I am not saying that. But they are not going to bring lasting change. I mean, they've been working on that for centuries over thousands of years. There's nothing happening. It's not changing.
If you read the first page of the Bible and you look back in the history books, you see that the only difference between today and those days is that we have technology. But we are still the same unprincipled, fallen people. Nothing changed; and, nothing ever will change except for the fact that we have True Parents and the added clarification of The Principle. THAT'S WHY THINGS WILL CHANGE.
... SO WHO MIGHT BE RELATING MORE WITH THE REAL, LIVING GOD?
So, my point in doing all this about What God is and What God is
not is that:
Who, therefore, might be in more of a substantial relationship with the real,
Living God? The person sitting in church with their nose in the Bible all the
time whose been praying, but who hasn't really been learning to love everybody,
necessarily, but who is faithful to all of his religious teachings, and who
goes to church every day? Or, the person who doesn't even go to church, who is
not even sure about God, but who is doing all those ... developing themselves
in many of those ways that we talked about. (The person) who is becoming a
fully-realized human being and they're becoming, actually, more resonant with
the real, Living God, without even knowing it.
Father said that you don't even need to know God. You need to know love. You need to know true love. If you know love, then God will be with you whether you want Him to or not. You can't keep Him away.