What is the Nature of God to your way of thinking?

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

It is my belief that believing in a vengeful God leads to fear, which in turn leads to anger à and finally hate. This sort of faith by rules is built on a house of cards. You dare not question things … even when they seem wrong . You must defy reality and in doing so, remove yourself from the world.

A faith that has been questioned, and remains, can only be strong. It is actually weak faith that leads to this sort of fear.

There are many "faiths" in the Christian universe.
First, what is faith?
And what do you mean by questioning faith? An intellectual exercise? A crisis of experience?
What is weak faith?
Supposition (assumption) on your behalf. Like you wrote you believe this. But how true is this hypothesis of yours?
I would argue the opposite. That a lacking in the fear of God has produces the acceptance of wickedness and evils as the norm
in society; a loss of commitment to righteousness.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7

What is the nature of God in my way of thinking?

I don't think God is too interested in my way of thinking.
I think God is only concerned with HIS way of thinking.

That's why we study scripture, to submit our fallen minds to GOD'S way of thinking.

If we study scripture, God will show us HIS way of thinking... and he's pretty clear about his own nature.

.

The thing is, there is no reason for someone who is saved to fear God in that way.

God is a God that will avenge His Children who have been persecuted for His Names sake.. That is Biblical..

But God is long suffering towards His Adopted Children who believe Him and Trust in the Atonement Jesus secured on for them on the cross.. Once a Christian truly believes in the promises of Christ then all fear is removed.. Because they believe and trust in the Love of the LORD which is revealed through Jesus..

1 John 4: KJV
16 "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. {17} Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. {18} There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. {19} We love him, because he first loved us."

If you believe in once saved, always saved, then no problem. You have a guarantee. However, if you believe you can lose your salvation, then you are in trouble.

No, it is not weak faith that leads to fear; it is believing that God is capricious and vengeful, that leads to this fear. Example: the Flood: all men, women, children and babies were killed. My question is: and what did the babies and animals do to deserve to drown to death (not a pleasant way to go). Seems really unfair. And ... if we are not to question this unfairness, we dont because we FEAR the consequences of even quetioning quietly. No. You have to deny what you read ... in part ... because the Bible presents God in very different ways ... both a God of Love and a God who would drown babies. (I dont believe it ever happened). I believe God would be fair and just.

Do you believe that you can lose your S

We are created by God for a purpose. An automobile has many parts all precisely engineered to fit together to function as a whole. Some pieces are for structure and stability, some are components that mobilize the vehicle and others just assist. Our Creator has designed us to fit in to His masterpiece. If we choose not to then we are a broken part that is easily replaced.

un-limited, Love/Forgiveness/Grace...

m/

This may well apply to Jedi Knights, but it is not how Christian faith and love works.

Exactly, Waggles.

I'm sorry I'm a little late to the party, but I was surprised that the original author of this "philosophy" wasn't given any due credit.



I know the newer generations might be familiar with this quote from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but I believe it was originally spoken to Luke Skywalker during his Jedi training on the planet Dagoboth during Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (all you Star Wars fans out there, please correct me if I have this wrong.)

The original "author" of this quote was Yoda - the infamous "other" green muppet.

While it might be great for what was once a fantastic story about an ordinary farm boy, a dashing smuggler, and a beautiful princess who were destined to save the universe...

However, I'm not quite sure it works as a foundation on which to center one's spiritual beliefs?

Precisely.

It's like when I was taking kids home on the church bus and they saw a police car and said, "AAAUGH it's the po-po!" I asked them if they were doing anything wrong. When they said no, I said they didn't have anything to worry about from the po-po. The only people who need to be afraid of the po-po are people who are doing things they know they shouldn't be doing.

Of course it only works if you trust the one setting the rules to be concerned about your welfare. For a person who sees no benefit in God's laws there is no reason to follow them, every reason to break them, and reason to fear.

Do you all believe in once saved, always saved? Or ... can you lose your salvation?

If you believe that you CAN lose your salvation for any sin, then do you have reason to fear?
Example: a man swears, then gets in his car and is instantly killed in a head-on collision. H
e has not had a chance to repent.

All sins being equal and deserving of Hell, then that man would go to Hell? So for those people who believe any sin and all sins are the same & deserving of Hell, there is every reason to fear ... that ... you have not repented or repented well enough and soon enough.
It's a question here ... not an argument.

There is another kind of fear that is healthy for the believer. "

Proverbs 1:7 (ESV)
7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction." See also, Job 28:28; Ps 111:10; Prov 9:10; 15:33.

This kind of fear is closely related to love. If I FEAR the Lord, I would not want to break His heart by sinning against Him. If we apply this to our marriages, providing we truly love our wives, we would fear to do anything that would cause her to grieve because of our treasonous ways.

So, how do we get the knowledge of God? By doing what Jesus while He was under the subjection of His heavenly Father. We do it by abiding in God's love which only the Spirit of God can reveal to us by personal experience (Ro. 5:5)

I couldn't disagree with you more. God is very much interested in every detail of our lives. He loves us with a limitless passion, that is, if we try to measure it.

God loved us in Jesus Christ and gave Himself for us so that we might live eternally with Him (Gal. 1:14, 2:20)

Maybe I worded things poorly.

I didn't mean that God is not interested in us.



I meant that God wants us to conform our thoughts to his thoughts.
Because we are fallen, our thinking is usually wrong, or skewed.
Therefore, we cannot rely on our thoughts; we need to go to scripture, and get God's thoughts.

So, regarding the topic of this thread, "What is the nature of God to your way of thinking" - I was only making the point that we need to go to scripture, and locate GOD'S VIEW on GOD'S NATURE, because our own human thinking is unreliable.

God often tells us, in scripture, EXACTLY how we should view things.

So, rather than relying on our own fallen minds, we need to rely on God's perfect mind... and get HIS view.



My apology if I worded things poorly in my previous post.

.
..

Sorry, I forgot all about this site. I also believe you are correct in your assessment. On the other hand, "The nature of God in my Thinking" it is irrelevant since I am not able to know God's nature unless I have a good understanding of who He is.

The best way I can understand who God is to know who Jesus is. Jesus is the heart of the Father revealed to us in human form. We know Jesus, we know God. It's that simple (Jn 14:6, 9)