What God really is.

Papagei

I think people have grossly misinterpreted the Bible. In my view, God, that is referenced in the bible, is presence, that state of awareness or being, behind thought, emotions and sense perceptions.

God is the same in everyone, hence when your body dies, you live on in the afterlife, because who you are, is that presence. However, your personality is erased from existence. You won't be talking to anyone in the afterlife, talking doesn't exist in the afterlife. Your personality is gone.

The meaning of the devil, is essentially the ego. The ego is a false construct of identity that people create. The ego causes suffering and disconnection from the present moment, and the joy within the present moment. The ego causes pain, which is essentially what is meant by hell.

Much of the Bible is is about guiding people to living life in a state of presence, rather than through the ego. Presence is essentially the kingdom of God, as you are at peace when present. The ego is never satisfied, it always desires more, which is the state of hell.

NIMAN

Are you saying that you become a memory after death?

That i would agree with, but calling it an afterlife i wouldn't.

It was said you die twice. Once when you die, and then again when the last person who remembers you dies.

Papagei

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123152402#Comment_123152402

Essentially the "you", is gone forever, just like the "you" was never around before conception.

What the bible is saying in my view, is that God/presence/being is who you really are, and that is the same in everyone, so who you really are lives on in other people after your body dies.

I think the self image/identity/ego that we create, is a false self, which brings suffering and what the bible calls hell.

When it is said that God is within us all, it's true, because God is the presence within us all, behind, the ego, emotions, thoughts and sense perceptions. It's a still field of awareness, a peacefulness.

redmeadow

hi Papagei,

I think it’s great that you are wrestling with the idea of who God is but I think you description is very far removed from what we learn from the Bible.
Your description reminds me of a type of new age/ gnostic God that I entertained myself for a time after watching and listening and reading much new age material and Gnostic material and engaged a lot with Esoteric Christianity (which I now know is not Christianity at all).
The Bible starts by telling us that we are the image and likeness of God and we know the God walked and talked with Adam and Eve.

God is a person, a being with mind, emotions and will- you said

“In my view, God, that is referenced in the bible, is presence, that state of awareness or being, behind thought, emotions and sense perceptions.”

Yes God is the eternal “I am” but we don’t separate him from his thoughts and emotions. Otherwise he becomes impersonal and we can’t know him. God is Love, God is Life, God is Light, God is Truth, God is Good, God see’s all things, how vast are Gods thoughts…. They are all things the Bible says about Gods emotions and thoughts and sense perceptions. If you try strip them away from God, you take away his personality and are left with a dead impersonal force and definitely not the God of the Bible.

What you go on to say about the devil and ego and living in a state of presence is definitely straight out of new age/gnostic and esoteric Christian along with eastern religions.
I would urge to watch some videos on new age/ gnostic deception and testimonies of those who were saved from those beliefs by the living God, Jesus Christ to further challenge your own beliefs.

The premise of the Bible is that we are created in the image and likeness of God, we have free will, we were tempted by the serpent to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil which God explicitly told us not to and that if we did we would die.
The serpent deceived us saying we surely will not die and that God doesn’t want us to because we will become as gods!
Sin is rebellion against God, going our own way rather than Gods perfect way. We chose to go our own way, seek our own knowledge. God can’t be in the presence of sin so we are cut of from God. Humanity invented all the religions to find our way back to God, trying to find our own righteousness or knowledge or our own path to God which again is just more sin. We cannot redeem ourselves. All of humanity is under condemnation for sin and the penalty is death, being cut off from the source of all life.
However the Gospel means “good news” because God created a way for humanity to be redeemed, Jesus Christ, the perfect image of God on earth paid the price of all sin, he was the sinless sacrifice and he rose again defeating death- that is the promise to all who will end their rebellion against God and make Jesus Christ their Lord (some one you obey) and saviour (admit you need saving).

If you read the Bible for yourself, the story will be quite clear to you. If you just engage from a distance and listen to different gnostic gurus they will cherry pick certain passages and guide you to thinking you have found a deeper understanding, but one that falls apart if you read it for yourself.
Gnostics seek gnosis, they believe the way back to God is through knowledge and wisdom (often esoteric or hidden knowledge), that we are spiritually evolving back towards God or the “I am” with in us but that is just the serpents lie from Genesis- you will be as gods!

The first commandment is “you shall have no other Gods before me”!
We are made in Gods image but most people make God in their own image, a god of their own understanding, a god that excuses their personal sins and shares their world view.

God is truth, Jesus said “ I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to father except through the son” - Truth is objective, it’s not something we make up ourselves, we will be saved or condemned by the objective truth- we have to seek that truth, “seek ye first the kingdom of God” - or “knock and the door will be open, seek and you will find” - if we don’t seek objective truth we will never find it, we will just find our own personal god who is an idol and has no power to save us.

Apologies for the length, I pray that gives you something more to consider and further question who God is and can you know him.
God Bless