Richard Kent Matthews - Spiritual Advisor | Author | Speaker
“The
word ‘God’ is not found in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek or Latin Bibles. The word
seems to be derived from old Indo-European languages, particularly Persian and
might possibly derive from Pagan sources.” (Wikipedia)
I'm a New Thought minister, counselor, practitioner and teacher. Usually, when I tell folks that, the first questions they ask are:
What do you believe about God? And, Do you believe in salvation, heaven, and hell?
Well, the second question answer I'll save for another post. In this one, I will share what I believe and what many, though not all, people within the New Thought family believe when it comes to God, or Spirit, or Source.
The
biblical God has been a source of disagreement for centuries. The word “God” is
not even a proper noun. It’s a title, a symbol applied to an enigma: a loving,
caring Father, as well as a vengeful, jealous and seemingly power hungry
dictator. The Old Testament refers to Him as YHWH (the Tetragrammaton), which
is not a name; rather, it's a sacred Hebrew reference to the Unnameable, the
Ineffable, the Invisible, deliberately left without vowels to make it
unpronounceable.*
To name is to define,
and hence, limit by the definition. It is for that reason the God of the Torah
(first five books of the Old Testament) remains nameless.
When New Thought communities speak of God,
they are usually referring to: