"God IS" – 22 statements of belief

This is a list of 22 statements that briefly describe the basis of my faith. This is here simply for you to orient yourself as I discuss certain subjects. This list is not exhaustive, it is extremely basic and should not be used solely in understanding what I believe. For more detailed descriptions of these issues you must read the chapters of my book that I post on this blog. I cannot explain each idea in a short sentence, truth is not for the lazy, you cannot simply read a list and understand, you must study long and deep before you understand fully. I dislike lists like these because it reminds me of the 28 fundamental beliefs. As short general statements of belief they are good, but there is danger in them as well, laziness being top among them. Too many people point to a set of statements as their belief system without ever truly exploring it for themselves, don't be that person. My understanding is fluid and constantly changing as I grow in my understanding of God. This document reflects my current understanding of God today, but may not be he same tomorrow as I am continually learning more and more about the character of God in new and exciting ways. I reserve the righty to change this document to reflect growth in my understanding as revelation is inevitable to those who search for it.

1. God is Non-existent. He created existence, he himself does not exist inside of it.

2. God does not have any created form besides that which he choses to relate to us through the 3 dimensional revelation of himself through Jesus/Michael.

3. God is infinite energy and infinite mass contained in zero volume. In other words, he is what is needed for the universe to exist.

4. God is love, not the emotion, but the essence of love. 

5. God does not have emotions, for emotions are created to help finite beings understand what God is but we cannot think of God in created terms. To describe God as wrathful, vengeful, judgmental, loving etc. does not describe God correctly. We ascribe human emotions to God, it is humanities way of understanding, but it is not accurate. 

6. Any definitions we place on God cannot actually describe him.

7. The universe is the 3 dimensional representation of the "mind" of God. 

8. God created every aspect of reality to explain himself.

9. God is multidimensional, he cannot be describe by 1, 2, 3, or even 10 different dimensions.

10. The idea of a trinity is a man made understanding of God. It is a way in which we can understand the multidimensionality of God in our own terms.

11. The Father is: the dimension of God that cannot be understood by humanity. It is the type of God that explains the nonexistence of his person. It explains that all though we have aspects of God we think we know, God is beyond it.

12. The Son is: the aspect of God that is in the form of creation. This is God relating to us. To the angels he was Michael, to fallen humanity he is Jesus. Jesus is simply the dimensional aspect of the greater whole that is God. One God but different aspects of the same concept. 

13. The Spirit is: the concept of God that describes a relationship with the infinite. The Holy Spirit is my relationship with God. This is why the sin against the spirit is considered the unpardonable sin, because if you choose to end your relationship with God, he cannot force a relationship. Relationship and force are mutually exclusive, so when you decide to end the relationship you "kill" the spirit since the spirit is a name for the idea of friendship with the infinite. 

14. God is not arbitrary: evil is not evil because God says so, but because we have the free will to choose nonexistence. Evil is whatever leads us to choose to be outside of the existence god has created. Evil is a choice. Heaven is not exclusively for "righteous" people, heaven is self selective. Those who choose it just happen to be "righteous". "Evil" people will not choose heaven because they self select nonexistence. Heaven is NOT a reward for good behavior, heaven is something you can choose. 

15. God is not controlling: God designed free will in the very existence of reality. Quantum mechanics guarantees that each of us has the ability to choose for ourselves. Free choice can not be determined absolutely, only estimated through behavior. 

16. God created reality so that we could understand Him, thus his interactions are almost always through natural processes. This does not limit God, the idea that God limits himself by using natural laws is self defeating. If God created reality for the express purpose of interaction then why is it limiting of him to use it for it's intended purpose? It defies logic to think in such terms. Thus, if studied out fully, we would probably find that all miracles, small and great, have a natural cause. Existence itself is the true miracle. The very fact that life happens and that existence thrives is evidence of THE miracle.

17. Belief in God and correct actions gain you nothing but what their own benefit can bring to you naturally. God gives the potential blessings of life, love and happiness to everyone alike equally. To the atheist, life, love and happiness, to the Christian life, love and happiness, to the satanist, life, love and happiness, all alike regardless of decisions made. Any negative aspects of life come from the natural consequences of the decisions we make themselves. Bad things are not the divine retribution of God but the consequences of life decisions. This does not limit God, as stated before, this IS the way God chose to create reality to work. If he intended reality to work a different way he would have created it the other way. 

18. Prayer is for our own benefit. We pray not so God can hear, but so that we can change. Prayer is a type of meditation, it teaches us what we really desire, it calms us, it puts us In a state of mind to search our hearts, and to review our circumstances. God does not change circumstances, but he has given us the ability to change them, and to learn from them. God has designed us with the amazing ability to discern, learn, explore and reason. 

19. Revelation is our experiences with God. Men wrote as they were moved by the spirit. The spirit is the relationship we have with the divine, I have written as I have been moved by the experiences I have had with God. Paul wrote as he experienced his connection with God, Ellen White wrote as she was moved by her connection with God and experience with him. Andrew Murray wrote as he was moved by his experience with God. Since god has created our brain to discover and question,and has created the universe to help us understand him, it is crucial that we question and reason, study and explore the world and universe around us. Science, philosophy and all study that leads to understanding is the key to revelation. 

20. The Bible is the experiences of dozens of individuals all experiencing different aspects of God. God relates to each individual differently. The apparent differences in understanding in the Bible do not point to its falsehood, but it's truth. We need the experiences of others in order to gain a more complete picture of the Character of God. There may be specific cases of "special" revelation, but the majority of divine revelation is simply the written experiences of men and women of faith. Thus, not only should we read the bible in its literary context, but in cultural context as well. The Bible devoid of culture does not make sense. Not all understandings found in the Bible can be transferred to a modern way of thinking, such as slavery, male superiority etc. To understand those concepts you must compare it with the culture of the time, and every time you will discover the Bible to be progressive in its beliefs. According to our culture it may not be progressive, but according to their culture, it was. Thus, truth does not end at the Bible but follows the trajectory of it carrying truth to its intended goal. 

21. Humanity fell: This fall was simply a choice to walk out of the presence of God. We should have ceased to exist at that moment since to be outside of the reality of God is to not exist. God bent reality to include us, however, so that we would not die, he saved us for a plan that he desired to implement, a plan by which he could reveal himself to humanity and cause us to desire eternity once again.

22. Salvation: because of humanities decision to be outside of the presence of God, terrible things happen in this world. Not because of some magical force called sin, but because humans make some pretty terrible decisions that effect the lives of others. God does not cause the pain in the world, or allow it even, he has simply created reality to work a certain way, we have chosen to pervert that system, and now chance is the major ruler of this world rather than our own decisions. Man was originally supposed to be in control of his reality, to shape it as he saw fit, and that is what God desires to bring us back in to. Through Jesus, God revealed to the world that He is a personable God who desires to interact with his creation. The entire life of Jesus was meant to reveal the character of God. Jesus showed that It is in your power to take control of your own reality and to shape it for the betterment of the world around you. You can choose what you desire, and God has revealed his character in hopes that your desire is life.

22. God is Love. You will notice I state this twice because I believe it is the central foundation to my philosophy. He is the essence of what it means to love. Everything created is guiding us to understand what that means. God's primary purpose for you and me is eternal happiness, joy, and love. As we experience the universe around us and relationships with each other we connect with the divine and gain deeper and deeper knowledge of what God is. "We are the universe contemplating itself" in other words, we were created to comprehend God. Piece by piece we are stitching a picture together, and hopefully step by step we will regain that image of God that we were created to understand and have since lost.