INQUISITIVENESS - ARE WE TRUTH-LOVING OR MISTAKE-FEARING

Before we ask any question, it is necessary that we clear up with the motives leading us in the search for its answer. Do we really want the answer? Are we ready to change our opinion after realizing we are wrong? Is our "philosophizing" a consequence of an attempt to justify our spiritual condition, or our thinking is a fruit of a sincere wish to realize change and progress in cognition of the truth? Many people who are sincere in their inquisitiveness are not aware of themselves being led by wrong motives, despite their sincerity. They are inquisitive, but are not moved by love for the truth, but by fear of mistake. Instead of being truth-loving, they are mistake-fearing. Since they are moved by paranoia, doubt and skepticism instead of love, they are never satisfied with a simple explanation of reality, but always comment: "It is not just so simple as it looks! Who knows what is hidden behind it?! Every answer they got to the already asked questions just imposes more new and new questions and so they are more and more confused. As they started by a road of doubt, individuals come to the point where they doubt about everything and conclude that all is an illusion. In order to justify their sins they had to relativize quite clear life truths to such an extent that they have lost themselves finally in an ocean of presuppositions and possibilities. Such persons often express a doubt in existence of God because they are not able to comprehend Him by their limited powers.

Many things related even to our own human nature are not understandable to us, and yet we miss nothing. Does it makes sense to question one's own existence because of one's inability to explain to oneself one's own functioning? The truths non-understandable to us are not important for us to understand them. The truths important to us are usually easily understandable, but the problem is in us most often unwilling to understand them. They demand from us to reform our characters in order to fulfill our life responsibility. That is why many fail to succeed, for while trying to understand the non-understandable and unimportant truths they neglect the truths which are understandable and important for realization of their life happiness and well-being.

The truth about the character of God's unselfish love is an understandable and important truth, for all relationships in the (originally) created world have been predicted to be in accordance with an unselfish service to another. Only the category of sin is non- understandable one. Could a sinful behavior be really justifiable rationally, it would not be sinful any more.

Many people justify a discarding of the truth about God with the words that they can not believe what they do not see. However, man is given a common sense precisely in order that he can believe what he does not see, and also lest he be deceived what he sees. We believe in many things we have never seen. We believe in historical events, various countries and many things we have never seen. Also, we do not believe in all we see either. Did we believe to all we see, we would be deceived by any animated film. We would believe that Donald Duck exists, because we see his face and hear his voice on TV. We are given the common sense precisely in order that we elevate ourselves above our own experience by it. If our ideals are limited by our already realized experience, there is not way for us to realize a higher and greater experience. Precisely because men do not want to upset their conscience with what they could but failed to do, they discard the truth about God.

If God exist, it is real that He wants to reveal to man the truth about Himself and his own character. If God exists, it is real that He has something to say to man. The question is just whether man is willing to humiliate with his personal presupposition to such an extent that he would hear the voice of the absolute Truth; is a man willing to humiliate before God to such an extent that God's voice would overpower the voice of his personal fears and selfish desires, so that God would reveal to him the truth about Himself and about the sense of the man and world He has created.

ALL MEN ARE BELIEVERS

All men are believers. The difference between men is just in the object of their faith. Even who claims his disbelief either in God, himself or in others, even he believes. In whom? In himself, for he relied on himself (his own motives and abilities) while having decided not to believe in himself. And why is that man yet in a belief that he does not believe in himself? He has just expressed in such a way his attitude that it is irrational to believe in himself. Man can be disappointed only in whom he has already shown confidence in. Only a man who believes in himself can be disappointed in himself. And as long as a man believes in himself, that faith, based on limited abilities and bad motives of human nature, will bear its fruit through a failure, discouragement and doubt in himself. The doubt in oneself is very negative because it deprives man of the strength for the life struggle and victory. Unfortunately, man is prone to avoid, by self- deception and other defense mechanisms, an encounter with the painful truth about the senselessness of the faith in himself. Whoever looks at religion with disgust as at a fruit of human stupidity, should have to look even with a greater disgust at man and his miserable state where he has a need to "clutch at the straw" and invents gods to himself and imagines a faith in them.

We have understood that those who claim to be non-believing in anybody, still believe in themselves. And do they who believe in God, do it really?

From an atheist standpoint, believers in God believe actually in themselves for they rely on themselves, i.e. on their nature, motives and abilities of believing. Although they claim to be believers in God, they actually just imagine the faith in God, for, according to atheism, God does not exist.

IF GOD EXISTS, HOW TO DISCERN HIM FROM IMAGINED GODS?

It is a fact that man has a need to invent gods for himself, whereby he will provoke a feeling of happiness and security in himself. But, that his pathological need does not exclude a possibility of the existence of a real God. Does man need a real God? He needs Him precisely to be freed by Him from his tendency to invent gods for himself. While man's relationship with false (invented) gods is based upon his burden (psychological need), his relationship with real God have to be based upon a selfish love. But, how to find real god, among so many invented gods? Doubtlessly there is often a conflict in human mind between the gods invented by man and God who has created man.

In the great choice of the offered gods we usually try to find the real god, looking at whether he fits perfectly the needs of our nature. As said by one believer: "It is wonderful! Same as you enter a shoe shop and choose what fits you, so it is in religion. If you acquaint them all well, you will be able to find precisely the god who fits you most. Then you will doubtlessly be able to believe that God is love, for He will fit completely your wishes!"

Thus, instead of posing the question of who is the real God to Himself and of permitting Him to reveal Himself to us, we often ask that question to ourselves. Asking ourselves and our heart for a truth about God, we actually do not ask the question of what is the truth, but what we like (or what we are afraid of) and so we cannot hear the voice of common sense and truth for we have put the voice of our Selves, of our desires and fears, on the throne of our life. For instance. according to Koran, after death a paradise waits for me where almost all which is sin here is allowed. I will be saved if I do more good deeds than evil ones.

Human nature obviously likes it. If I choose Krishna, then I believe that I will go to the planet Krisnaloka after my death, where I will pursue girls together with Krishna. While various divinities win their worshippers by their flattering promises and charming presentations, Biblical God appears very "modestly". According to the Biblical revelation, the Heavenly Kingdom is not food and drink, but peace and joy in the Lord. The Biblical idea of paradise does not correspond to human nature at all. It holds also for the idea about the character of Biblical God Himself Who "has been seen by no one. It is God the only Son , ..., who made Him known" (John 1:18). And yet even Jesus who made the Father's character known had not, looked from outside, the values that would attract the bodily and self-righteous human heart. "...he had not form or majesty that e should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him". He does not fulfill even the basic conditions to be able to have the role of an idol in human heart, for character values can never be an answer to man's psychological needs. Real love represents preciously a reprimand to the conscience of a man who is moved by psychological needs and it is the reason why Jesus was discarded by the Jews.

We must keep in mind that the gods invented by man are not originating accidentally in his head. They are a logical product of his psychological need for a feeling of worthiness, righteousness, belonging, being loved, power etc.

The finding of an object of worship (of an imaginary faith in god) has following elements:

1) In order to provoke the desired feelings the object of worship have to have precisely such properties that correspond to man's psychological needs. (Pagan gods have precisely the properties of worthiness and power which a selfish heart longs for, and posses the character and motives of the sinners themselves.

Objects of worship can be found in:

a) Oneself (one's own values: powers, virtues, ...)

b) In people (friend, leader, spiritual teacher, saint, ...)

c) In the community the man belongs to (family, tribe, nation, religion, race, ...)

d) In things (material values, idols, pictures, statues, amulets, ... )

2) The objects of worship must be announced and revealed in a way which will provoke the feeling looked for. (They are revealed through pictures, statues, meditation, therefore in the way they act directly upon the feeling and so satisfy man's selfishness.)

3) In order to provoke the desired feelings an identification of man with them must take place, through a value which represents a common tie between the subject and its object of worship. The function of the mentioned value can be had by a common property or common goal of the man and his object of worship, then by an response to the task posed before the man by the divinity (magic, rituals, sacrifice, good deeds...), as well as a corresponding "pedigree", a value based on belonging to certain group, race, nation, family etc.

4) In order that the identification be successful, the object of worship must be as much unsharable possession of the subject of the worship as possible. (A materialist will cry "it is my money", nationalist "it is my nation", polytheist will say "it is my divinity" and traditionalist "it is my saint".)

Without fulfilling these basic conditions, no one could accept the offered idea about God. So, when we see a god who does not corresponds to human psychology, and who has become an object of human hope and confidence, a center of human life, then we can be sure that the real God is the point, for the sinful and self-righteous nature of man not only has not any motive to accept such an idea, but such an idea annoys him very much.

If a real God exists, it is real that He will, in order to save man from an imagined faith in various gods, turn his attention to that his tendency. And He will not only warn him to the danger of the false religiosity, but as a real God He should never give to man such revelations of His character which would induce the latter to look in Him for an answer to his psychological needs. Real God will free man, in His own salutary moment, from the latter's tendency to deceive the true God by inventing his false gods for himself.

Differently from the non- Biblical religions that are non- critical toward man's tendency to imagine false gods to himself (which can be seen in their tolerance toward various ideas about God), Biblical revelation warns man to his tendency to self- deception as early as in the First commandment of God's moral law.

''You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3)

Biblical God starts from the point that man has tendency toward inventing gods who do not exist:

"Do men make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!" (Jeremiah 16:20)

"So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many 'gods' and many 'lords')." (1 Corinthians 8:4-5)

"Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen." (Romans 1:22- 25)

It is not only that the Holy Scriptures warn to the man's tendency to make idols for himself, but the Scriptures are by their meaning and contents in a conflict with the psychological mechanisms of the forming of the imaginary faith in God.

Biblical God does not satisfy man's psychological needs with His character properties. What man wants by his nature is a sin according to the Bible, and a real love, which does not exist in man's nature, should become man's moving force. God's character is opposed to human expectations. He loves sinner and does not love sin, while men like to commit sins and dislike sinners (themselves and others, for whom they are aware of being sinful). Etc.

The Bible condemns all forms of psychological satisfaction man looks for in:

a) Himself: "He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe." (Proverbs 28:26) "Do not be conceited." (Romans 12:16) "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." (Matthew 6:3)

b) People: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord." (Jeremiah 17:5) "But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matthew 23:5)

c) Community: ''Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, " (Exodus 23:2) "For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:12-13)

d) Things: "Do not trust in deceptive words and say, This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!" (Jeremiah. 7:4) "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." (1 John 5:21) "You shall not make for ourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God." (Exodus 20:4-5)

2) In order to answer the man's need for certain feelings, in a false religion, the objects of worship must be announced and revealed in a way that will provoke the feelings desired. However, the relationship of man with God is not based on feelings at all, but on a rational confidence in God's character (which is revealed in the promises God has given to the fallen man through his holy word). The word alone is not sufficient to give man a feeling of security. That is why a bodily man has a need to look for a psychological support in magical rites, pictures, statues and meditation, by which he tries to feel God. The Holy Scriptures condemns all the mentioned psychological forms of "cognition of God" with their first two commandments of the Decalogue (Exodus 20:2-5). The character of the person we are examining to see if it is : worthy of our confidence cannot be checked and known through its appearance, nor through the emotions he/she provokes in us, but a rational analysis of his/her character. Therefore the faith in God is not based on what is felt and seen (Hebrews 11:1) but on a cognition of God through the common sense. Since only God's rational announcement obliges spiritually and morally (demands a reform of man's heart) it is not liked at all.

3) In the Holy Scriptures there is no any identification of man with the object of worship on the basis of one's own personal values, effort, sacrifices, "pedigree" etc. Man is saved on the basis of the value of God's character , not on the basis of one's own values.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:21)

4) Contrary to man's psychological needs, disability to share the object of worship with all other men is foreign to the Holy Scriptures:

"He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:45).

God loves all and His will is that all men should be saved. The people of Israel was chosen precisely in order to spread the news about salvation all over the world. God says in the Holy Scriptures:

"My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." (Isaiah 56:7)

Differently from the god invented by man as an answer to his own psychological needs, real God liberates man from psychological needs. Differently from the invented deities that have a purpose of changing man's feelings, real God has the goal of changing man's character (the motives of his hearts):

"I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." (Ezekiel 36,25-27)

On the basis of all this we can conclude that no one would ever have invented Biblical God. Therefore, Biblical God is real.