Do you believe that God speaks to us? Or do you believe that God is too almighty or… busy to communicate with human beings? If you believe that God speaks to you from time to time, how does he do that?As a Christian, I do believe that God speaks to us, and I also believe that He sends His messages in various ways.
He may talk to us through the bible… He may use other people/messengers to deliver His messages to us… He may allow certain circumstances in our life to lead us to discover His message… or He may simply talk to us directly just like the way He did to Moses and other prophets/kings from the Old Testament.
When Professor Kraus first asked Jackie to read Matthew Chapter 4 verse 2 through 11, I felt completely nothing as I knew what the passage was about. I read and heard the passage many times before, and I had never ever felt that God was trying to tell me something through the passage from Matthew 4:2-11.
Yet, today was different. I could feel myself becoming extremely emotional as Professor encouraged us to find “what God is trying to tell each one of us through this passage”; the more the passage was read by different people, the more I felt that God was sending me the same message over and over again. Overall, I felt that… I mean, I understand that it might sound very funny, but I believe that God spoke to me today through inspiring professor Kraus to make his students read Matthew 4:2-11 over and over again on 04/11/2008 for his REL 204 class.
I understand that lots of people, even many Christian friends of mine, might say “no, that is ridiculous” or “well, you are taking it too seriously.” However, I really did receive an answer to the problem that I had been dealing with for the past two weeks, and this is more amazing, because I prayed God to send me the message last night… (I don't know I might be just too religious)
4 comments:
Alice, I think you are raising very interesting and important questions about how Christians understand both the Old Testament and the New Testament. I agree, God did speak to his people in many forms. As a Christian I was taught that God spoke or revealed Himself through creation (declares glory of God), through actions such as miracles, through prophets by the words. I think what I have understood from the readings in the Bible was how God revealed Himself in human form and how God’s words and scriptures were passed down from the generations of prophets in the Old Testament to that of Jesus and His disciples in the New Testament. Also, my understanding is that God in the Old Testament spoke or revealed Himself to His people through prophets in dreams and scriptures. But in the New Testament, God revealed Himself through his Son Jesus. What I still do not understand as a Christian is whether God is still speaking to us through, Jesus, prophets and Angels. Personally, it seems that since Jesus made everything easier for God's people, God does not want to speak to His people anymore. I think the only way God might be still speaking to us today is through the scriptures rather than through prophets and Angels. God knows that Jesus passed and taught his words to His people well. So today God wants His people to figure out (by themselves) how to do his will and how pass to His words or scriptures to next generation.
Alice-
the thing that strikes me about your post is the last thing you said- that you might be "too religious." I think this is something that a lot of people might feel today in our society- because our society is so secular, people have a hard time expressing their religious beliefs without feeling judged. I don't think it is too religious to believe what you believe, and I also believe that God can speak to us in different ways. But also, I understand why you feel others might not "get" what you are saying. I would say regardless of what other people believe, if you feel that God is speaking to you, then don't question that. While it might be hard to voice that in our society, I think the context of our class is open to such beliefs. Even if someone does not feel the same way, he or she hopefully appreciates your feeling.
Thank you Alice for sharing your experience of how scripture speaks to you, and great, thoughtful comment, John and Jackie! I have had similar experiences to Alice's - sometimes in dreams, sometimes in a "aha" moment when studying Torah or other texts, or in a certain circumstances, with certain people when something just seems to click. It's especially when the timing of the insight seems particularly serendipitous, as it was for you, Alice. As a critical scholar of religion, I recognize in this an experience of what Carl Jung calls"synchronicity." As a religious person, I interpret such experiences as a kind of revelation of God. But I also agree with John that it seems that our current experiences of revelation seems restricted to much fewer sources, or are a little harder to discern. The Talmud says that dreams are 1/60 of prophecy. I feel like this applies for almost any revelation I experience or see in others today, compared to what the earlier generations of OT and NT prophets experienced - thanks to the omnipresent modern skepticism about religion Jackie mentioned. On the other hand, when I see or hear amazing imaginative expressions of creativity in art or music or literature or film, they seem every bit as much a revelation of God as the religious "classics."
The difference is that in this day and age, the artists themselves and their audiences are much less certain about labeling their work as the word of God. They know it comes from somewhere outside of themselves, but to call that "God" in such a skeptical world is very difficult, embarrassing, or an invitation to have people dismiss you as being irrational - for the reasons Jackie and John brought up.
thank you so much for your sincere comments!!!
thank you!!!!
Post a Comment