My, how some have screwed up the Bible.
Jesus is mentioned by name in the Bible.
The apostles are.
Even Satan's name is in the Bible.
Theres even a demons name in the Bible as well as the angel Gabriel's name mentioned.
But for some reason God's name has been taken out and replaced with God or Lord.
Nice.
And here God gave us the Bible to help us to know who he is and what his qualities are and yet his name is not in it. strange.
God's name though is not God.
Sort of like if you say you bought a car and someone asks what kind and you say "Well....car."
I ate yesterday. Really, what you have? Food.
Oh.
Well, personally, by tradition, I don't use God's proper name, again, the proper name by tradition, out of respect. Like I said, old tradition, lots of ins and outs. I don't insist on anybody else following suit. (Hint: in the American south it rhymes with "...or the Highway.")
Now: one of the interesting thing about the Jewish bible is that early on, there are levels of it written using the name
Elohim, rather than the name I don't generally say or write (by the way, a lot of people will write the English name "God" without one of the letters, because it may be desecrated were it in print and thrown away.)
At any rate:
Elohim is one of the more interesting names for God in the Jewish bible, as it's a plural form. I have seen that a good proposed English equivalent may be "The Powers that Be," with the understanding that we're not talking about the guys working on the top floor of the building; these are strictly supernatural powers. However, "The Powers" are used in singular constructions -- as in, "When The Powers decrees.... The Powers says..."
Another tradition folded into the Jewish bible uses the name "God Most High," or
El Elyon. Similarly, a lot of the time we see
El Shaddai, or "God Almighty."
The thread title "Who Is Your God?" is pretty provocative. I would say theologically speaking, "God" is a word for something to vast to have a word for, and it's something that includes all action in addition to all matter. That's all our speech, our thoughts, our actions, as well as the various forces and matter (assuming they are ultimately distinguishable,) in the physical universe.
You can not know God, in your mind; and a heartfelt enthusiasm for this word seems a little weird to me. I'm more in awe, and sometimes feel a "oneness" with it all, which makes sense - because God is not separate from his creation, from this point of view.
This is of course heretical. I do believe there are various levels of illusion, to borrow from the Buddhists, that hide this from us. I also agree with the Buddhists that a great source of illusion and an illusion in itself must be (again, ultimately,) the individual ego.
The prayer a Jew will often say with his last breath, is
Sh'ma Yisroel, Adonai Elohanu, Adonai Ehud. It is often called the holiest prayer in Judaism. It means "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One."
I think that all of the bickering we engage in is surface manifestation. I think when we harm each other, it is painful to God -- because we are all part of God. I think that ultimately oneness is at the bottom of my religion, and from that oneness all the best things flow. And I believe when we foster division, we foster illusion, and illusion brings pain.
Do you believe you are separate from God, in reality? Is anything? I don't believe that. I do believe that God
is, and all the levels of perception we're capable of, all the pain we're capable of inflicting dwelling primarily in this world of illusion, all of this is part of God as well. And that puts God in some very unholy places, at this level.
Ask me why, and I'd have to eventually tell you, who do you think I am, God?
PFnV
