THE KINGDOM OF GOD

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Saturday, April 30, 2016

Saturday, April 30, 2016
THE KINGDOM OF GOD

THE KINGDOM OF GOD
By
Francis William Bessler
Laramie, Wyoming
3/23/2016

When I was a kid, I was taught that "The Kingdom of God" is someplace else. I believed that because I was too young to consider the ramifications of such a statement; but once I did consider the ramifications of such a statement, I came to disbelieve it. Let me tell you why.

I had God wrong, that's all. I imagined that God is a "person" simply because it made sense to me that I could only relate to God as a "person." I was told that God made man in His own image. Well, how could God be in my image unless God is also a person like me? So I concluded that God has to be a "person."

Of course, I am not alone in that thinking. Am I? I think almost all of us who think of God or believe in God at all have thought along those same lines. God is a Person - and the way we know that is true is that the "Good Book" said it is true. God made me in His own image. God made you in His own image. If God made you and me in His own image - and I am a person - presto, God must be a person.

But is God a person? Can God be a person? Let us think about it? What is a person? Correct me if I am wrong, but a person is an individual that can move from place to place. Is God an "individual" that can move from place to place? To move from one place to another would be to have to leave one place to move to another? Can an Infinite God that must be everywhere do that? I do not think so. Do you?

My impression of God now is that God must be Infinite. Others have their own impressions of what God is - or must be - but my impression is that God MUST be Infinite - simply because I believe that existence must be infinite in terms of being without end. If God is at all, then, God must be equal to that infinite existence. Can an Infinite Existence be an "individual" that can move about from place to place? I do not think so.

Be honest, if you dare. Do you think of God as being a person? Have you even considered that God might be more properly understood as a Presence? Can your God reach out to you as any individual might? My God does not even have any hands because I know that having hands or head or heart makes no sense except related to an individual. But my God is not an individual. Its only a Presence - an Infinite Presence.

I was also taught that if I do well in life and listen to my proper elders and do what they say, when I die I will join God in His Kingdom. But once again, that is assuming that God is a "person" in the first place. My thinking now tells me that can't be true. God can't be a person because a person cannot be everywhere at the same time. Again, something that can be everywhere at the same time can only be what might be termed a "presence" and not a "person."

The "Good Book" also relayed a tale that had God acting as a "person" who could dismiss outsiders from His - or Its - Presence. Adam was in the "presence" of God when Adam was made by God; but Adam was dismissed from the presence of God - or Eden - when Adam made God angry. But once again, God is being defined as a "person" to do all of this activity with Adam when reason tells us that God can't be a person in the first place.

How could an Infinite God that is where I am at every second dismiss me from His - or Its - Presence? Tell me that.

But how does all of this relate to the "Kingdom of God"? I think it tells me that the "Kingdom of God" must be everywhere because God must be everywhere. It tells me that if someone is trying to convince me to follow him to reach the "Kingdom of God" and then proclaims that God is not where he is standing right now, then that person should not be believed.

If God is truly everywhere, then that also means that the "Kingdom of God" must be in me - as well as outside of me. Indeed, I do believe I should delight in the "Kingdom of God" and being part of it, but if I am wise I will realize that I am already in that kingdom and that I do not have to go anywhere to reach it. God is not down some road or in some temple - just waiting for Francis to come and bow down to Him and pledge allegiance. No, God is not away - nor can God turn me away; and that, my friends, is my current impression of "The Kingdom of God."