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  1. Is there a unique concept of God (within Christianity)?
  2. If so, since different people probably have their own interpretation on Bible/Christianity/God (albeit the differences between different interpretations could be subtle), how can you (i.e. the Christian community) know that the God you have in mind are the same?
daviesgeek
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Soarer
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    Do you mean "unique within a denomination", "unique within Christianity", "unique within the three main monotheistic religions", "unique"...? – Marc Gravell Sep 04 '11 at 19:47
  • unique within Christianity. Sorry I didn't make myself clear. – Soarer Sep 04 '11 at 23:05
  • I'm not sure if this is the norm here, but can those who downvoted explain? To a layman like me I believe it's a legitimate doubt. Or, unknowingly, was the question offensive? – Soarer Sep 06 '11 at 16:23
  • seems perfectly reasonable to me. If I had to speculate, some folks get touchy about the whole "one God" thing – Marc Gravell Sep 06 '11 at 17:20
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    I think this question needs clarification. What do you mean by "the same God?" Many say Islam and Christianity worship the same God because they share historical roots, both acknowledge God/Allah as the God of Israel, etc. Others say the two concepts of God are sufficiently different to make them completely distinct gods. What is your criteria for "the same God?" – Flimzy Sep 07 '11 at 06:03

2 Answers2

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I'm sure you're familiar of the story of the three blind men and the elephant. One of them finds the tail and concludes the elephant is soft, long and round. One of them finds the tusk and concludes the elephant is hard. One finds the side and concludes the elephant is like a wall.

They are all describing the same elephant, but they have caught on to different aspects of it. There is truth in each description of the elephant, but there is error if they assume their description is complete.

So the trick is not to assume your understanding is complete, and this explains the disagreements over the details. But you are all "pointing to" the same thing.

David Schwartz
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    This is a nice analogy, but it doesn't answer the question. It's really just a restatement of the question. At best it answers the inverse of the question. You have provided no criteria by which to know if these different perceptions are of the same God. The three blind men might be experiencing a vanity pillow, a piece of wood, and a wall. How can they know it is the same elephant? – Flimzy Sep 07 '11 at 05:57
  • Presumably they're all monotheists, so there is no issue of them perceiving different gods. – David Schwartz Sep 07 '11 at 06:06
  • So monotheists can't perceive a non-existent God? – Flimzy Sep 07 '11 at 06:11
  • You cannot perceive anything non-existent. Perception requires an existent object of perception. But to answer what I think is underlying your question: Suppose there's one coin on a table. If three people know different things about that coin and some of them are even wildly inaccurate, so long as there only is one coin, and they all know enough accurate information to separate that coin from the rest of the universe, then they are all referring to the same coin. An error doesn't eliminate the reference. (Even if one thought it was a quarter and one a nickel.) – David Schwartz Sep 07 '11 at 06:12
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    Not all objects are God, though. It's very possible (and indeed quite common) for people to perceive non-divine objects as God. I am passing no judgment on anyone who perceives God in any specific way, I only consider the many contradicting perceptions of "God," and it's clear that they cannot all be true perceptions of God. – Flimzy Sep 07 '11 at 06:14
  • That's true, but I don't think those circumstances match the circumstances of the question. But yes, if the questioner was imagining circumstances where that's possible, then it can happen. If you're talking about a person who thinks his nose is god, then he is indeed too far off to have the same referent as the majority of Christians. You'd have to completely miss the divine though. – David Schwartz Sep 07 '11 at 06:16
  • That doesn't really answer my question. There may be only one coin on the table that everyone is referring to, but some may be perceiving some other object on the table. – Flimzy Sep 07 '11 at 06:17
  • The way I read the question, in light of our new analogy, would be: "How can we know we're all perceiving the coin, and not some other object?" – Flimzy Sep 07 '11 at 06:18
  • Then I would answer that there really aren't many objects that could easily be confused with the Christian God. It's not impossible, I suppose it could happen, but it's certainly not a problem for practical purposes. There aren't a lot of Christians running around worshiping different, existent Gods. – David Schwartz Sep 07 '11 at 06:19
  • Unfortunately, there may very easily be Christians who are perceiving beings (e.g. a voice or presence in their mind) that they identify as God, or the Holy Spirit, but which are not. This is why 1 John tells us to test the spirits. – LarsH May 09 '22 at 13:03
  • @LarsH I disagree. Say I hear a door creak and think that sound is my father. I am wrong about the sound being my father. But that doesn't somehow make me wrong about who my father is. That people may incorrectly attribute voices or presences as being the voice or presence of god when they aren't doesn't make them somehow believe in some other god. So long as we're talking about monotheists, they all agree that god is the one and only all-powerful, creator being. And assuming that some version of monotheism is correct, that means they all identify the same being by those attributes. – David Schwartz May 09 '22 at 16:48
  • @LarsH If the question was "How can one know that a perception one thinks is a perception of god is really a perception of god?" then I'd agree with your point. But the question was about how you could know you were perceiving the correct god or the same god as others. – David Schwartz May 09 '22 at 17:13
  • The question is somewhat ambiguous. But the title does ask about perceiving, not believing in or worshipping. That's why I responded as I did to your last comment of 2011. I don't imagine we can get much further without clarification of the question. – LarsH May 09 '22 at 19:46
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My experience when I talk to others who are serious followers of Jesus, is that we both know the same person. Even if we are in different denominations and have disagreements about peripheral things, I can just tell after talking to a person for a while that we have something in common.

Now some Christians may disagree with me on this, but I have even experienced this to a lesser extent when it comes to people in other religions. Some of their beliefs will be very strange to me, but I have had conversations where I suspect that at the core of their experience there is an element of a real encounter with the same God I encounter. Theologically, I believe this is possible because the Holy Spirit draws all men to Christ, no matter what their religious background. Some people may respond to that drawing in a gradual manner, and may have some experience with God in the context of a religion which is flawed in its doctrines. They may convert to Christ in this life, or maybe it won't be until the end of their lives that they realize that the one they were following was really Jesus.

It is only through Jesus that any human can approach God because Jesus is the only one who is God and man, bridging the human and divine in his own person. So when anyone has an encounter with God, I believe it takes place through Jesus, whether the person knows that or not.

Greg Graham
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