The House of God-The Certainty of Heaven

by Michael Donahoe

Growing up in church and the Christian world, I always felt I had some fairly important facts figured out about God. I always thought that what I was taught in church was the absolute truth and complete facts because, after all, the pastor was called by God and the pastor should know everything. Where God lived. Where I would go when I die.

Yet, as time goes by and I become more open to actually questioning some of what I was told in church, I have come to think of some of these things a little differently.

We are taught that the house of God was the church where we went to worship and learn about God. We were told that God was a man sitting on a throne somewhere out there in what we call heaven. We were told when we die, we would go to heaven to live with God forever.

I think we are missing some important truths in regard to these matters. We as Christians often take what we were told in church and think it is fact. We will fight and defend our views when people disagree, yet we really have no actual proof of some of the things we so quickly defend.

As I read more and think about things, it is clear we are missing some very important topics Jesus talked about. He said the Kingdom of God is within us, he said he was sending another comforter who would teach us and guide us. He said that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we have the mind of Christ. We tend to skip over these statements and continue to look to outward expressions of where God lives and what life after death will be like.

I think we are missing the fact that God is not somewhere out there, sitting on a throne. God does not show up now and then in a building that we call church. God is spirit and God is not a man or woman with a physical body. Although God does have male and female attributes, God is neither. We need to remember the customs and ways of life during the time the bible was being written. Men were in charge and women were usually considered property. The writers would naturally use male terminology for the God they were writing about.

As spirit, God does not live in a specific physical place. We are the closest thing because we are the dwelling place of the Spirit, yet God is everywhere. Physically speaking, we are God’s body, hands and feet on this earth. We know God is with us because God said we would never be left alone or forsaken by God.

Again, we seem to be so sure of the things we know about God and the afterlife, yet we really have no proof. It is all by faith, and many of it is our personal interpretations of bible verses or which pastor we listened to and followed. Rather than take a stand and argue with people about things we really do not know for sure, accept the fact that others have different views and opinions and there is no need to fight and argue over things we really do not know as facts.

There is nothing wrong with saying we do not know, there is nothing wrong with uncertainty. There is nothing wrong with questions and doubts. God is able to handle them all. We take by faith that God has what is best for us planned. We take by faith that there is a spirit world and we will be with God once we leave this earth. Take comfort in those thoughts, but also do not force your beliefs on others. Allow them the freedom to make up their own mind and follow what they believe.

God has given us free will to choose for ourselves who we will serve and what we will believe. Let us remember to do the same for our fellow human beings. The only thing Jesus told us to do was to love God and love one another.

Let me close with a few words by my friend, Chris Kratzer on the matter:

“If we search for God’s heart in the Scriptures, we open up a world of personal opinion, conjecture, and unresolvable debate.

If we search for God’s heart in the annals of Christianity history, we open up a trail of inconsistency, human fallibility, and religious conquest.

If we search for God’s heart in church, we open up a door into unending interpretations, conditional relationships, and spiritual franchising.

Yet, if we search for God within us, we find Her mind, we find our rest, we find ourselves, and we find our purpose.

We cannot know God outside of ourselves until we discover Her within ourselves”.

https://myopinionblog.substack.com/

Did God Really Bless The United States Over Other Nations?

By Mike Edwards

It is often said God blessed the United States specifically, suggesting God’s blessings are withheld from other nations by God. It is important how we portray what God is really like. I am not going to do a Bible study on how God blesses others. Several viewpoints could be defended, depending on one’s interpretation of certain passages. It isn’t presumptuous though to imagine what a loving God is like though our moral intuitions.

The way God blesses must be loving 

Atheists and believers agree. The only God worth believing in is a perfect, loving God. Can God manipulate others? Obviously not because love doesn’t manipulate. We can talk about perfect Godly love by comparing to perfect, human love. The Bible even suggests perfect human love and God’s love are the same: “Be perfect, therefore as your heavenly Parent is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). How we lovingly bless others may be how a loving God would bless. Do we bless one child while withholding blessings from another child though both may be deserving or in need?

God’s blessings can’t be arbitrary

True love can’t be arbitrary or bias. Some Christian circles teach that before one is born that God elects or blesses some with eternal life after death while excluding others. Such arbitrary love is immoral. God doesn’t arbitrarily bless some with food in their bellies and not others by manipulating behind the scenes. God doesn’t wish anyone would starve. There are many human reasons why one might not have enough food. Humans must partner together to combat starvation. 

God’s blessings can’t be controlling 

We know true love can’t be controlling. Ask any adult about their parents! We hate when we see friends try to control others for their own reasons or gain.  Employees can smell a controlling employer a mile away. The truth is God can’t wave a magic wand – aka blessing some and not others – without accounting for freedom. It isn’t that you didn’t beg enough or have the right attitude. A loving God is surely always doing all they can in a free world for all nations.   

Don’t blessings flow when accepting God’s influence?

God seeks to influence us to do all the good we can, in all the places we can, at all the times we can, to all the people we can, as long as we can. Good things or blessings often happen when following God’s example.  Imagine all the friendships not destroyed by following God’s lead in not coveting, gossiping, being slow to anger, etc.  God’s blessing can flow to any nation, including the United States, when leaders and individuals allow God’s influence in their lives to help others. I suspect nations who believe in freedom as opposed to control by those in power benefit. Such qualities seem to be characteristic of the freedom God has bestowed upon us.

Did God Really Bless The United States Over Other Nations?

Prayer in Public Schools

It never was removed

by Michael Donahoe

Prayer in our public schools can be a popular topic among some Christian people. They will blame many problems on the issue of prayer in public schools being removed.

The fact of the matter is that prayer itself was never removed, nor was God removed from our schools. Any person can pray in school. Prayer is talking to God directly and can be done silently and privately. No one can actually take prayer out of school, just as God cannot be removed because God lives within us.

Many people seem to get confused about praying and having a standardized prayer led by school staff. A standardized prayer has been taken out of public schools, as well it should have been.

Another fact is that our public schools are not Christian schools. No set prayer can be established in public schools. There are many different faiths and beliefs within the public school system and no particular religion can be preferred over another.

In this regard, one of the goals of Christian Nationalism is to defund public schools and promote private Christian schools. They can then do what they want apart from government regulation, such as public prayer, teaching Christian principles, segregate the schools and exclude those who are LGBTQ.

The thing is, if standardized prayer is put back in public schools, there will need to be a leader for not only Christian prayer, but Muslim prayer, Hindu prayer and any other religions way of prayer. That is the only fair way of having standardized prayer in our public schools, although it would still be offensive to atheists and those who follow no religion. The best way is to leave any type of standardized prayer out of the public school system.

If prayer by any and all religions actually happened in public schools, I can already hear the complaints from the Christian world calling it unfair and against their rights. It seems that many Christian people think Christianity is the only viable way of life and no one else should have a say.

The United States was basically founded on freedom, and especially freedom of religion. We should remember that everyone has the freedom to follow any religion they choose, or freedom to follow no religion. Yet, we do not have the freedom to force any religion on anyone.

https://myopinionblog.substack.com/