tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3320087.post4350168101766562975..comments2024-03-22T15:15:09.943-04:00Comments on Lionel Deimel’s Web Log: God and the UniverseLionel Deimelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08363018512775944659noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3320087.post-65708001262727642592010-09-15T14:08:28.982-04:002010-09-15T14:08:28.982-04:00Clearly, Lionel, you simply need to review your Ba...Clearly, Lionel, you simply need to review your Baltimore Catechism. The following are from #3, 1891:<br /><br />Q. 163. What is God?<br /><br />A. God is a spirit infinitely perfect.<br /><br />Q. 164. What do we mean when we say God is "infinitely perfect"?<br /><br />A. When we say God is "infinitely perfect" we mean there is no limit or bounds to His perfection; for He possesses all good qualities in the highest possible degree and He alone is "infinitely perfect."<br /><br />Q. 165. Had God a beginning?<br /><br />A. God had no beginning; He always was and He always will be.<br /><br />Q. 166. Where is God?<br /><br />A. God is everywhere.<br /><br />Q. 167. How is God everywhere?<br /><br />A. God is everywhere whole and entire as He is in any one place. This is true and we must believe it, though we cannot understand it.<br /><br />Q. 171. Does God see us?<br /><br />A. God sees us and watches over us.<br /><br />Q. 172. Is it necessary for God to watch over us?<br /><br />A. It is necessary for God to watch over us, for without His constant care we could not exist.<br /><br />Q. 173. Does God know all things?<br /><br />A. God knows all things, even our most secret thoughts, words, and actions.<br /><br />No need to think about God and the Universe, when the Baltimore Catechism has all of the answers. By contrast, even Stephen Hawking seems to have dropped the pro Deist view in his latest book. I look forward to Rev. Magee's book, though. I also like the Annie Dillard quotation. Rev Robison is at his cryptic best though, for those of us trying to figure which people are the "friends in Pennsylvania...(who) reap the whirlwind".Garyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10008432818028709542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3320087.post-34553283805375092542010-09-10T15:02:01.185-04:002010-09-10T15:02:01.185-04:00Lionel, you mention the Holy Spirit in our choices...Lionel, you mention the Holy Spirit in our choices, and I have always had an awareness of His presence in my own, personal choices. <br /><br />We sing a hymn, "He leadeth me, by his own hand, He leadeth me." We believe this and conduct ourselves accordingly--with confidence. Right or wrong! Why must we always be right?Jane Littlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07897351324115702645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3320087.post-32488963383722072322010-09-10T08:40:29.048-04:002010-09-10T08:40:29.048-04:00I'm interested in the title of Canon Magee'...I'm interested in the title of Canon Magee's chapter, but I would think certainly that to be congruent with Biblical witness you'd need a footnote. In my sermon on Jeremiah this past Sunday I enjoyed quoting Pittsburgher Annie Dillard in her book, *Teaching a Stone to Talk*:<br /><br />“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return."Bruce Robisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00193701138386039942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3320087.post-59721176733474566082010-09-10T08:35:49.477-04:002010-09-10T08:35:49.477-04:00Good morning, Lionel. Indeed, the inclination to ...Good morning, Lionel. Indeed, the inclination to see the hand of God in favorable events and to blame other forces when things don't seem to go our way is an ancient and familiar pattern. Thus the readings we've had from Jeremiah in Track #1 of the RCL the past few weeks. I do think God often holds back his hand, to allow us to reap what we have sown, and perhaps that is what our friends in Pennsylvania now experience. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind, etc. But while the rain falls on the fields of the just and unjust alike, Jeremiah's Potter reminds us that He has the whole world in his hand.Bruce Robisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00193701138386039942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3320087.post-28116744795582536042010-09-09T18:36:48.286-04:002010-09-09T18:36:48.286-04:00At the 'God at 2000' seminar sponsored by ...At the 'God at 2000' seminar sponsored by Trinity Institute, Marcus Borg made the bold statement that he "no longer believed in an interventionist God."<br /><br />To my mind, moving beyond the theistic conceptions of God that have dominated Christian theology for the past 20 centuries to a more abstract understanding of what we call 'God' will be one of the biggest challenges to the Christianity of the 21st century.<br /><br />I like the image of God as "Light Energy". This idea is not as unscriptural as it might sound (cf. I John 1:5).<br /><br />One of the chapters of my forthcoming book is entitled: "God doesn't do anything."The Reverend Canon F. Hugh Mageehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03447451187244150693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3320087.post-16433911358884144992010-09-09T18:03:22.511-04:002010-09-09T18:03:22.511-04:00You don't sound like a bad Episcopalian. You ...You don't sound like a bad Episcopalian. You sound like a Deist. I don't believe they are mutually exclusive.jmhjr4https://www.blogger.com/profile/02008217145611619494noreply@blogger.com