6/14/00 A paragraph from: "God's People -- Who are they, and how to you get to be one?" (linked) The author's LIST of Biblical designations (and "metaphoric" names) for "God's people" includes the following. Can you think of others? Children of God; disciples; servants; friends; the elect; the godly; brothers of Jesus; the born-again; the saved; the remnant; the temple of God; the called; the beloved; a holy nation; co-heirs with Christ; the chosen; Abraham's seed; the righteous; Israelites; the redeemed; saints; my flock; the royal priesthood; heirs of the promise; Christians; the ransomed; my anointed; the good soil; believers; God's sheep; the justified; born of the Spirit; good trees; sons (daughters) of God; heirs of God.

5/31/00 "Light Shining out of Darkness A poem by William Cowper God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures-up His bright designs; And works His sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take ! The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy -- and shall break In blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan His work, in vain. God is His own interpreter; And He will make it plain.

4/29/00 Copied from "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets"....... "God's People" (see link) Can you imagine that He who designed each of us humans, individually; He who created every one of us, for this world; He who assigned the genetic make-up of each of us to be totally different from every other human creation; He who specifed our skin-color, and ethnic origin, and our family background; He who guided the young footsteps and the development and the maturing of each "Godsperson"..... can you imagine that this omniscient, omnipotent and everlasting Creator of the Universe and Heaven, does not know and remember and fully understand those whom He has designed -- and for what purpose each of His people was created? Does anyone believe that the Sovereign God-of-the-Universe -- without any plan or purpose for that which He is creating -- casually dumps into a cauldron, a batch of skin and bones, arteries and veins, hearts and lungs -- along with a sprinkle of a variegated DNA..... and that our Creator-God then walks away, and frivolously abandons the "forming" of the resultant human-beings to the "discretion" and whim of Mother-Nature, and Father-Big-Bang? Do you believe that God-Almighty leaves the design and development of "God's people", in the hands of "the-forces-of-nature" -- and that God then says to Himself, "Let's see what 'luck' and 'chance' and 'chaos' can come up with..... then I'll decide which humans I'll keep and 'save' and admit to My Kingdom.... and which other humans I'll condemn and discard -- and destroy"? Is it your belief that God-Almighty is "waiting" to see which "church" my frail human-brain tells me to "join" -- before He decides whether or not to include me with "God's people"?

3/22/00 Copied from "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets"....... "God's People" (see link) It's scary out here in this world, when you are informed that, according to certain human-beings, God has become restricted; and that He is powerless to include you among "God's people"..... unless you sign-up with such-and-such a "church"..... and unless you swear allegiance to a certain doctrine. It's scary, too, if you're a Pekingese..... and all those Collies, and Shelties, and Bulldogs have told you that God will not accept you..... because you're not one of "them". Do you believe that it is the duty and responsibility of us humans to TELL GOD whom He may accept, and "save", and include among His people? Are you telling me that I must accept what you "believe"...... or else God will condemn me. and exclude me from the Kingdom of God's People?

2/23/00 A quotation that was aired on C-SPAN -- read from The Weekly Standard. (I believe this quotation was ascribed to "The Patriot Party".) Here's the quote, verbatim: "America is not merely a country. It is a cause, and a principle. American citizenship is a GIFT, and a duty, and a privilege. To deny this is to shirk one's duty to God-and-country."

 

A Quotation from "Truth; God's Truth"(linked) 2/19/00 To repeat....... have you, yourself, arrived at the "right" faith -- and are all other beliefs, that differ with your interpretation, erroneous? Is it up to you to attempt to force-feed your beliefs upon others, with the threat of God's eternal damnation if the "hearer" of your words does not immediately adopt your "creed"? Do you think it is your personal duty to "convert" other humans to your way of thinking, and thus to "protect" them for "salvation"? If you have been led to believe that you have this "duty", from whom do you get your "orders"....... and who's doctrine do you attempt to "sell"? (Aren't you literally embarrassed to pretend -- to yourself and to others -- that you are deciding, for God, who is acceptable to Him?)

Science, God, and Religion (From a personal correspondence)   (Excerpted 2/5/00 -- from "A Letter About God -- to my niece".) Click HERE for Easy-Print format of this letter, slightly modified for this website We received your letter. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. I am interested in your remarks about the Time Magazine article on "God and Science". I would like to see the article; although, I must say, magazine articles have generally disappointed me -- especially when "God" is discussed. (And.... Time Magazine aggravates me, particularly -- almost regardless of the subject.) It was tantalizing to hear your thoughts about your sister's perceptions concerning "belief in God". (Your father has been groping with "belief", also.... according to what he has implied to me, recently. So.... maybe your sister "inherited" her spiritual feelings. You know, "The apple falls not far from the tree.") I am puzzled that your sister, or anyone else, would perceive that there is a distinction between the "scientific" universe, and the "spiritual" universe.... as if "science" has demonstrated that "proof" of physical principles negates the existence and the effects of God-the-Creator.... who, in reality, I would say, is responsible for creating both the mechanical universe, and the spiritual universe. So far as I am personally concerned..... it never worries me, at all, that someone does not "believe in God". In my understanding, the existence of God, and the truth about God -- do not spontaneously come into being simply because an individual "makes a decision" to "believe"..... nor do God's truth, and the universal "effects" of God, vanish simply because a human-being doesn't believe.... or because he-or-she cannot fathom the mind of God.... or decipher God's ways. Consider this, for comparison.... in the "physical" universe, the "Law of Gravity" (or, the "Truth" of Gravity) does not lose its "potency", or become untrue, simply because there may be some individuals who do not "believe-in" the effects of gravity.... and do not "accept" the power of gravity. God does not wait helplessly for an individual to "believe" -- before God can do what He pleases, or before He can proceed with what He has planned, all along. After all, we humans were created by God, for God's own reasons -- and for His satisfaction. "We are the clay -- He is the potter". Who are we to tell God that we do not believe in Him -- or that He should have made us, and the world, differently. God's people (linked) -- God's "sheep"; His "children", His servants -- hear and recognize God's voice..... and they understand God's language (linked). God's people "believe".... and they cherish and trust God's wisdom, and His guidance. We human-beings are not capable of "persuading" or convincing other humans to earnestly "accept" God -- or to honestly "believe" in God. Neither are we able to "cause" God to accept human-beings of OUR "choosing". My feeling is that we shouldn't even attempt to impose our understanding on other individuals.... unless we are specifically asked to share our spiritual "decipherings". (As the Bible says in John 3: 6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.") True belief -- genuine "faith" -- is a gift from God, based not upon an individual's merit, or "decision", or upon one's "making up his mind" -- and not upon our answering a preacher's pleading.... but based upon God's own choice, His "call" ("awakening"), His timing, and His purpose. (See link: Chosen by God.) God decides who will believe; and God decides when an individual will begin to believe, and to "hear" and "see" and understand. Human-beings.... even preachers, priests, rabbis, and popes..... have no part in causing God to "include" certain individuals. Neither you nor I can make God accept us; or cause Him to "choose" us -- and we cannot work our way into God's favor by anything we do, or by frivolously reciting a creed, or by joining a certain institutional church. My understanding is that membership in a denominational "church" has nothing to do with one's being accepted by God -- except insofar as a worldly "church" instructs its members in the rudiments of the Bible -- and in human "ethics", and the "history" of religion, and in the rites and rituals and ceremonies of a particular church. In these ways, "the church" may help to "prepare" those individuals whom God has decided, beforehand, to be included among His own people. No one knows why God "chooses" and accepts some individuals, and not others -- but the Bible says that He does "choose".... so I accept it; and I believe it. (See link: Before the beginning of time.) Linda, the "wisdom" of the world does not explain the existence of God, or the plan and purposes of God. Let me quote here from what I consider to be the Gold Standard of truth about God (that is, the Bible.... not the "physics book"). Later, below, I will quote two additional scriptures, which have great pertinence to our discussion. 1 Corinthians 3: 18 (NIV) Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool", so that he may become wise. 19 For the "wisdom" of this world is foolishness -- in God's sight. (Incidentally, I do "believe" the Bible, and I believe in the Bible.... not because of some "decision" I made, but because the Bible makes sense to me -- and because I have never found any other literary option, or synthetic "god", or home-made "religion".... that satisfies me. I consider "belief" in the Bible, and believing the Bible, to be like "faith".... a gift from God. I realize that agnostics and atheists do not "believe" the Bible -- but, here again, as with the "existence" of God..... the truth of the Bible is not abrogated because of the disbelief of anyone.) It frankly amuses me that certain "engineers" (whom some might categorize as "scientists") would voice any opinion about God.... unless that opinion is a resounding "Of course I believe in God. How else could all of these miraculous and magnificent "scientific" wonders of this world have come into existence?" In regard to accepting "science" as the explantion for the origin and existence of this world, and our "universe".... is there any knowledgeable human-being, anywhere, who can honestly accept and believe as follows: "All matter, including living creatures, is simply an interaction of lifeless atoms and molecules -- following the dictates of an un-caused and unexplained 'Big Bang'"? Are there really those of the same "scientific persuasion" who might also say, "Nothing truly exists..... not even life, or consciousness, or joy, or fun, or LOVE, or SOUL. Only cold and dark and empty NOTHINGNESS underlies our existence." Do they say that you and I and they do not live and breathe and feel and touch... and that each of us creatures is only a wad of skin-and-bones-and-guts, sprinkled with DNA.... molded by "nature" into an impersonal "thing"? Would those scientists also say, "In all the Universe, there is nothing except physico-chemical reactions.... abiding by random evolutionary principles?" (Gimme a break!) (I have often smiled with my wife about what a good job Mother Nature and "Father Big-Bang" did in molding her cute molecules and atoms -- and about what a "big bang" she gives me!) Now, back to the subject.... surely no engineer, or "scientist", would say, "There cannot be a God, because I cannot see Him." Dear goodness, how many previously "invisible" facts ("truths") have "come to light", to be "seen" -- especially within the past 50 years.... "truths" that no self-proclaimed "scientist" would ever have dreamed of (or "believed" in) -- if he or she had depended upon actual "visualization", before he could become convinced. Note the following Biblical reference: 2 Corinthians 4: 18 (NRSV) .... because we look not at what can be seen, but at what cannot be seen -- for what can be seen is temporary.... but what cannot be seen, is eternal. Do you know of any "scientist" who would say that human-beings "created" electricity, or that an "engineer" decided the "direction" that electrons flow; or that a mechanical genius invented the "inborn" electrical characteristics (piezo-currents) of "silicone chips"; or that the human-mind manufactured fossil fuels, and designed the mechanical forces that internal combustion engines utilize? Did the "Big Bang" invent "light amplification by the stimulation of the emission of radiation" (L.A.S.E.R.).... or did human-beings simply learn to utilize what Almighty God Himself caused and created for the benefit of His creations? Did the mind of man generate the gravitational forces that control the orbits of satellites? How ludicrous the questions become! (My wife tells me that she "stays in orbit" around my gravitational fields ["feels" of attraction]. Actually, it's the mutual gravitational attraction that two "bodies" of unequal mass have for each other. [Smile, again.]) And now, two other quotations from the God's Bible. I hope, Linda, that the Bible makes sense to you. I believe that when God awakens one of His people to the truth about Himself -- that individual then begins to become strangely attracted to the Bible, and to "spiritual" matters -- and to thoughts about God. (By the way, has that "strange attraction" been taking place in your father? He seems to talk about "religion" a lot -- at least, around me. He even tried to read in the Bible, for a while. And, he apparently likes "church".... and he seems to be enjoying the "Christian" music that he sings with the choir. Could it be just "old age".... or could it be the cute young ladies in the choir? Perhaps it is, as your grandmother might say, "Just something to do". Maybe you have the answer, Linda.) Here are the two additional splendid scriptural references: 1 Corinthians 1: 18 (NRSV and NIV) For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing; but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.... and the intelligence of the intelligent, I will frustrate." 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom -- God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs, and Greeks desire wisdom; 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and "foolishness" to Gentiles. 24 But, to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. 26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful -- not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world, to shame the wise -- God chose what is weak in the world, to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world.... things that are not, to reduce to nothing the things that are; 29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30 He (God) is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; 31 in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 2: 1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words, or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 And I came to you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit, and of power; 5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom, but on the power of God. 6 Yet, among the "mature", we do speak wisdom -- though it is not a wisdom of this age, or of the "rulers" of this age. That's all for now, Linda -- a bit long, I admit. I enjoyed "discussing" this with you. It pleases me for you to express interest in "spiritual" matters. As Phyllis (PJT) might say, "That sounds like God". I may want to send you, later, some sections of one of the books your aunt and I are composing. You may share this letter with your father, and with your sister -- if you choose. (They may not yet understand it, though.) With love, from "Uncle" John

12/6/06