Misconceptions About God
Probably the most misunderstood thing in the universe is also the reason everything exists. Debates have raged for centuries over what or who the great creator is. God is also one of the most controversial subjects of discussion for scientists, theologians, and laypeople alike. Whole swaths of human cultures are based upon foundational ideas about God and his nature. Nations and political systems are formed around beliefs of God or no god. Even currently, secular countries have religion at their root. Cross-culturally, God is at the center of everything.
It is a miracle to me that every major civilization that has ever existed can have such different ideas about the nature of God. While most major religions are monotheistic, there are dozens of versions of this one deity. Polytheistic cultures seem to make gods of each of the attributes of God and natural phenomena.
Then there are considerable variations in how people say God interacts with his creations. Some say he is loving and merciful, while others view God as vengeful and judgmental. Some say God is a part of all things created and reverence nature, while others keep Him at a distance or consider Him unapproachable.
And then there are the Christian ideas about God. The versions of God in Christendom are jealously defended to the point that any view which diverges from a particular theological concept of deity is heretical or Satanic. It is almost like they think a prayer directed to a misconceptualized God is a prayer to the devil. That way of thinking seems to me to reduce God to something incapable of discerning the faith and intent of the petitioner. As a Christian, I reject such thinking. Any person who worships a God they consider to be their loving creator, regardless of their religion, has my respect.
A discussion about God and civilizations cannot ignore the evil acts of men claiming religious motives as the reason for their atrocities. Monotheistic dogma has been used to divide and persecute non-believers throughout history.
With all this confusion, it is a wonder God has such staying power. However, when you consider that the ethic which controls and maintains order in every flourishing civilization comes from scripture and is attributable to God, I believe that is how God has endured.
With that preface, I want to review some of the more familiar concepts of God.
When you search the internet for the answer to the question, “Who is God” you get this, “In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In non-monotheistic thought, a god is “a spirit or being believed to control some part of the universe or life and often worshipped for doing so, or something that represents this spirit or being.” Other results yield a list of divine attributes, ignoring the “who” for the “what.”
Modern Christianity has developed the concept of the Holy Trinity or the triune God. Here is a visual representation of this idea.
This symbol represents a single entity. If this seems to be a clear, straightforward conceptualization of who God is to you, bless your heart. However, it is pretty accurate if you think God is a three-part being. The problem for me is that three-part beings are not scriptural, nor do these types of beings exist anywhere in nature, among any species. The only species that the scriptures say was made in God’s image are human beings, and we are clearly not what is described in the conceptual triune god.
So, how do we deal with scriptures that describe a three-in-one God? These scriptural vagaries seem to be the source of all the confusion about God. When discussing the different entities in the Godhead, the terms Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are sometimes used interchangeably with God. The way I have come to understand these scriptures is to apply the “what is God” test to them instead of the “who is God” concept. As I mentioned earlier, the divine attributes of God describe what a god is. What is unique about some of these scriptures is that first-person emotions are assigned to attributes. For example, in the Old Testament, we see praises like, “I am a jealous God” or “God is love.” How can attributes possess emotions? Well, they don’t. In these instances, when describing what God is, God or those speaking for God use terminology that the listener or reader can comprehend in emotional or logical ways.
One way I think of how to explain how there can be only one God with three different beings is that God is a state of being, a title, or a type. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. So when Jesus says he is the Son of God, he is saying he is a product of a being that is God. In the same way, there is a type of being called human, and we may say that we are human sons or daughters because we all are beings that are called human; we are in a human state. I am human, and you are human; we are the same thing. We all share one common set of attributes and characteristics. In essence, we could say there is only one human when referring to the set of elements that refer to us, but there are billions of beings titled human.
To drive the point home even further, I could draw a diagram like the one above that would have the word human at the center, me at one point of the surrounding triangle, my wife at another point, and one of my children at the third. The connecting lines between me, my wife, and my child would have the words “Is Not” and lines between each of us, and the center point reads “Is.” So, I am human, my wife is human, and my child is human; but I am not my wife or child and vice versa.
I think the world and Christendom have done a decent job explaining what God is. But, I defer to Jesus to explain who God the Father is, who he (The Son of God) is, and how the Holy Ghost works. The Savior even explains what it means to “be one” in his great intercessory prayer found in John chapter 17.
I do not know if Jesus said this prayer in the presence of his disciples, but if he did, I can’t imagine the impact it would have on them. The concepts he explains are transcendent and powerful, and I can not fathom how the disciples could have agreed with today’s predominant Christian conception of the Godhead. Jesus was there, talking to his Father about them. Undoubtedly, after the Comforter was sent as promised, this prayer and the doctrine it explains would be seared into the souls of those who heard or read it.
I encourage you to read and study the Gospel of John with eyes to see and ears to hear because if you do, you will understand what almost everyone in Jesus’ time failed to recognize while he was with them. Jesus was literally the Son of God the Father. Jesus explicitly taught that his Father was in Heaven while he was on Earth, and he repeatedly stated that fact.
After Jesus ascended to Heaven, Stephen testified that God and his Son were separate individuals, as recorded in the Book of Acts, “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” Joseph Smith testified of the same thing when he recorded the account of his first vision. He said, “I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”
God wants us to know who he is. We cannot understand all of the glory of God, but we do know that Jesus knew and taught his disciples that he did the will of his Father in all things. I believe Jesus Christ when he said to Mary, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”
The misconceptions about God are the doctrines of men. Isaiah explains, “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:”
Enough said.