Being

Understanding Perception in Faith

From the Mecca of Mormonism, Salt Lake City, Utah – this is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology. – where we are working together to understand this sacred faith in the age of fulfillment.

And I’m your host Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion.

Tonight (Monday) is our Short Show and tomorrow night (Tuesday will be our longer show). Your comments on tonight’s short show will be read and addressed tomorrow night! So, write your comments below!

Show 3s Supreme and Human Being Tapped Sunday October 18th 2020 Aired Monday October 19th 2020

Coming out of Mormonism where I was taught that God was once a man and that I would someday become a God as a man, I therefore saw the living God more as “a distant relative,” like a “super good” great-great-great grandfather who accomplished so much and not as the uncreated eternal being who has no beginning or end. Moving out into my Christian life as a teacher, I have met hundreds of people over the course of my “career” (in part because of the ways it started and exists) who call, write or meet me in person and wonder why they struggle with the faith; why they struggle with loving God from the heart, why they struggle with worshipping him and caring about his will over their own.

The Disconnect in Perception

For Mormons this is easily understood – they do not see God in a way that warrants true devotion. They usually see him like I did – like a really well put together human being. I have found that with Christians, when there is an issue with their heart for God, for not feeling the desire or need to fall at his proverbial feet and worship Him, when there is some sort of issue in their heart relative to God, it’s because there is a disconnect of some sort in perception. Typically, this disconnect is manifested in one or both of the following ways:

• The person sees God as less than what he is, or
• The person sees themselves as more than who they really are.

If we see God as someone or something less than He is, we see Him like we see ourselves – this often means he is casual, swears a bit when angry, loves television, and/or is so kickback he lets anything and everything slide – because he’s God, right? And he is like us. And so the perspective of him is tweaked. And from this perspective it’s really hard to care about pleasing or fearing such a God. I mean, he’s the dude, right!?

The other factor is many people see themselves as closer to the status of God than they are. In this way they see themselves as pretty darn good souls – close to God in their ways and in their hearts. Sure, they have made a few mistakes. But who hasn’t, right? But they try to be a good person, and some people just really do not see who they actually are relative to the Living God. But the most messed up perspective a person can have, in the end, is a hyper-combo of these two views where they see the true and living God as lower, and they see themselves as higher or better than they really are.

The Supreme Being

In this scenario, we approach a common LDS view – that God, who was once a man, has been brought down toward earth, and they, who are men or women, have been elevated toward the heavens. And the end result of this one-two combination is someone who will have a really hard time wanting to know God better, to seek or worship him, or even care about His insights into living. I heard the late RC Sproul once teach something I thought it was really insightful. Christians will often and respectfully refer to the living God as a “Supreme Being.” Think about this title for a minute – God is the Supreme Being.

We understand supreme as a word describing something “superior to everything else.” To understand the living God this is a great place to start – He is supreme and superior, higher, better, more powerful, more creative, more loving, more merciful and more just – than anything that ever was or ever will be. But the second term is just as important because with Him it rings perfectly true – that he is the Supreme Being. With being meaning, he is. He is being. He is not becoming. He was not something. He is being. The Supreme Is.

13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I

Understanding Supreme and Human Beings

come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

Depending on the resource and scholar, the name means:

“I will be what I will be”
“I am who am.”
“I am he who exists.”
“The Eternal, who passes not away”
And "He who spake, and all things existed."

He is. He be’s. He is a true supreme Being. As such, more true, elevated, powerful, magnificent, authentic, real, holy than ANY of us can ever fathom.

Comparing Supreme and Human Beings

While referring to God as the Supreme being, we notice that we also refer to ourselves as human beings. The difference between the Supreme Being and Human Being are discovered in the two words “Supreme” and “Human” and then followed by “Being.” Unlike God, as created, material, humans, we possess “limited capacities” in all that we are and do.

We are not supreme by any measure of the word. We might dominate for a time in a realm while on earth as one of the best of something among our peers, but even that changes as records are broken and what are once seen as supremacies crumble in the face of others. When I swam in college my times were okay relative to the general swimming world. But today there are teenage girls swimming faster than I ever did and children effortlessly playing Eruption on guitars which at one time we said was impossible. As created, limited finite expressions, humans will never, ever be supreme proven by the fact that we all take our last breaths.

Human Beings in a State of Change

But ever more to the point is the suffix, “being,” added to our titles. Only relative to God is Being true – that’s because he is. He has always been a BE-ING. The very title, “human-being” is an oxymoron and contradictory. Why? How? Because as humans we are forever becoming – constantly- and are never being. In fact, wee really should call ourselves human becomings. From the moment we are conceived we progress, and digress, to and from various stages. Becoming different things.

We are not Being – we are in a state of flux. So, the closest we can get to ratifying the term, human being, is to admit that a human being must be defined as a state of constantly changing. Which is another reason why we can never be considered supreme – especially when compared to Him. We change our clothes, we change our minds, we change in health, we change in perspectives, beliefs, and love.

He does not. Ever. This is why one of my arguments about Jesus of Nazareth, the Man, born of a woman, can not be called “God,” while in that state. He had the Supreme Being in Him, but contradictorily, he was a human becoming. And it was only after his deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. and resurrection that the Man became fully God.

Since God is unchangeable, he is forever loving, light, life, merciful and just. He forever hates sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. and darkness and evil. He has not changed at all toward such and never will. Being perfectly and eternally just, along with being eternally merciful, he will forever respond to all things with perfect justice and perfect mercy. And taking all factors into consideration of every individual, God will reward each Human Becoming with an afterlife status, merited by the humility we choose to embrace, and the Love we chose to share and give. Those who insist on doing evil will be rewarded mercifully but justly with a personal eternal afterlife habitation, and those who chose the insufferable nature of agape loveSelfless love marked by patience, mercy, and humility—central to living in spiritual liberty. will receive the same.

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