Nothing occurs to God

[EmilHjort]

Hello!

I wrote this piece yesterday, and I was hoping that some of you experts out there might correct me if I am being wrong..! I am by no means a scholar, just a newbie, and I don't want to write or think anything which is wrong..!

Please notice that I described God as "infinite potential". This might not accurately describe what God is, but I used it for lack of a better word. I am from Denmark, and English is not a language I use very often, so please bear with me. I was inspired by Meister Eckhart to look at God from Gods perspective, and not ours.

“Before the creation took place, there was only a vast, infinite potentiality.
God was this potentiality, but when creation took place, God became defined as the creator and ruler. By creation, God became something. He was no longer pure potentiality.

But God being something is only from the point of view of creation. In it he acts as God, ruler, creator. Yet, being entirely outside of time and space, God is still pure potentiality, having taken no form.

There “exists” thus two layers. Time and space, in which God seems to “exists”.
But beyond time and space, where God is really located, since there exists no time there, the creation does not occur. So God is still this vast potentiality without form or name.

It follows that the immanent God is like an optical delusion, and so is the creation from the point of view of God, since, for God, it will never occur.

For us it does occur, however. This is because God is not a thing, a phenomenon. After all, he exists outside of time and space. Since God is not a phenomenon, nothing can occur to him. Being a phenomenon, things occur to us.

There is a difference between existence and occurrence. The creation does have objective reality to God, but being outside of time and space, the creation does not occur to him. He is not involved with it.”

Best regards,

Emil Hjort.

 

[oatmeal]

Well, your scholar friend has some interesting points but guessing what God is thinking is a bit presumptuous.

His ways are above our ways, his thought above our thoughts, etc.

We can only know what God's thoughts are by going to the only source of what God has told us about himself and that is found only in God's word, His logos, that is scripture.

To assume that we as humans can know more than what God has revealed about himself is rather arrogant and self centered.

I can read that God is love, that God is light and him is no darkness at all. etc.

 

[EmilHjort]

I see what you are getting at..! This was nothing more than to entertain a few thoughts. Yet, I guess it is true, that nothing occurs to God, since He is outside time/space. So that is the lesson I take home from here. Thank you for your reply..! I hope to get to know you all.

 

[Tambora]

I see what you are getting at..! This was nothing more than to entertain a few thoughts. Yet, I guess it is true, that nothing occurs to God, since He is outside time/space. So that is the lesson I take home from here. Thank you for your reply..! I hope to get to know you all.

It might be a bit presumptuous to assume time and space were created things.

 

[EmilHjort]

I simply assumed God was without time/space, but I see how I might be wrong in that. I also see how some of my conclusions might have been presumptuous. This just came to me, and I thought it would be fun to write down and explore.

 

[Tambora]

I simply assumed God was without time/space, but I see how I might be wrong in that. I also see how some of my conclusions might have been presumptuous. This just came to me, and I thought it would be fun to write down and explore.

That's one good way to work through a thought ---- write it down and explore.
When you spot an assumption, eliminate it from the argument and see if the argument holds weight without the assumption.


And, welcome to TOL.

 

[Gary K]

I see what you are getting at..! This was nothing more than to entertain a few thoughts. Yet, I guess it is true, that nothing occurs to God, since He is outside time/space. So that is the lesson I take home from here. Thank you for your reply..! I hope to get to know you all.

The word occur has several different definitions, which might not occur to someone to whom English is a secondary language.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) (wn)
occur
v 1: come to pass; "What is happening?"; "The meeting took place
off without an incidence"; "Nothing occurred that seemed
important" [syn: happen, hap, go on, pass off,
occur, pass, fall out, come about, take place]
2: come to one's mind; suggest itself; "It occurred to me that
we should hire another secretary"; "A great idea then came to
her" [syn: occur, come]
3: to be found to exist; "sexism occurs in many workplaces";
"precious stones occur in a large area in Brazil"

In which sense of the word do you mean to say that nothing occurs to God?

 

[iouae]

Hi Emilhjort

In your first post, where God was just potential, and then creation occurred, was it God who did the creating?

Assuming your answer is that God did the creating, are you saying that God is unchanged by His creation?
Is a Father unchanged by having children?

 

[Squeaky]

I think you just had a whole lot of invalid assumptions. God might be outside our time, but that doesn't mean He is without time.

2 Pet 3:8
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
(NKJ)

Lots of things occurred to God. He made laws He relented of what He had said.

Exod 32:14
14 So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.
(NKJ)

Amos 7:2-5
2 And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said: "O Lord GOD, forgive, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, for he is small!"
3 So the LORD relented concerning this. "It shall not be," said the LORD.
4 Thus the Lord GOD showed me: Behold, the Lord GOD called for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the territory.
5 Then I said: "O Lord GOD, cease, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, for he is small!"
(NKJ)

And any thoughts in you that you can judge God in any way with human wisdom is from the devil.