Theology 1

So, I have lots of thoughts about lots of things. And I've been wanting to write out some of my thoughts about God, Christianity, etc., in a more organized way for some time. Here goes nothing.





I don't really have a good way of introducing how important I feel this idea is, so that knowledge will have to serve as preface.

God is a person.

Like any person, he has thoughts, feelings, desires, goals, etc. Like all people, one of his innate inclinations is to interact, or relate, with his environment. On a personal level that would be you and me, and globally all people and everything everywhere. And like all people, he is real.

(For the my purposes here, I'm assuming that God exists and reality exists and that both can be known at least in the sense of interaction.)

The reason I think this is so important is that I believe it is the basis of everything that has to do with God. It is the thing that Christianity has as its most obvious lynch-pin after the existence of God. It is the moving force behind all the concepts and doctrines of Christianity. (And also Judaism, for those keeping score at home.)

Also, it is important currently because I feel it often gets left behind in Christians' communication about their faith, which affects everything about one's faith, including evangelism. For example, a popular phrase that I heard growing up in an evangelical environment was "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ." Well, if Jesus Christ is just a concept or an object, really anything besides being a person, that whole concept sort of loses its appeal and becomes confusing or at least esoteric. It would be like talking about a "personal relationship with your car" or a "personal relationship with happiness". Kind of odd thoughts, right? Rather on the periphery of the day to day realities of making sure you have enough to eat, a place to sleep, something to ward off the elements, etc. But if Jesus Christ is a person in the same way that I am or anyone else is, than that phrase immediately makes much more sense. Two people having a personal relationship is a pretty fundamental part of being alive, isn't it?

And it also removes the dogmatic and philosophic elements of the beliefs from the hypothetical realm. The story of God's interaction with man and man's interaction with God as told in the Bible can be seen not as a story but as a history. God can't be just a concept or an allegory or an imaginary device is he is an actually real, living person.

And I think people are much more interested in relating to a real person than some out-of-the-frame, complex deity-thing. Even more so if that person has your truly best interests at heart and has set out upon a planned course of action to ensure your best interests are met. If God loves me in the same way that my friends love me, that has some appeal. If he loves me even better than my friends, better than any (potential) romantic partners, well, all the better, I think.

And if God is a person and the Almighty Creator the Bible claims, than he actually does have some legitimate claim to how we live.

Because he's not a concept, not an object, he's a real person.

But if that's not made clear, what exactly is the virtue of this belief?

But because I believe God is a real person, I get an awful damn lot out of the statement "Jesus loves me".

Jesus loves you.