The Great I AM THAT I AM and How to Pray: If Doctrines Could Talk
"Hey, hey, hey! Whoa, Dan. What on earth do you think you are doing, man? One minute I'm the name of God Almighty and the next I'm a how-to on prayer. You're ripping me apart, dude."
Not really. It is just a correction.
"Correction my hiney. Do you know how often Exodus 3: 14's I AM THAT I AM is quoted in establishing that God is the eternal, uncreated Creator who created everything out of nothing? Without the revelation of his name, the whole idea flounders."
I am all too aware of it. The trouble is, it wasn't there in the original. Moses never thought it. It wasn't his question. He didn't give a rat's hiney, pardon the expression, about God's name, as if God had one. Here is God's name: ( . . . ). It isn't that you are not allowed to pronounce it; it's that you can't -- there isn't one. The doctrine that God is is safe: it is assumed throughout the scriptures.
"But what God? I've gone from the revelation of the Most High's name to just being an instruction manual."
Moses was giving us the nature of God as it pertains to practical prayer, and it became misunderstood as the revelation of God. Well, in a way it still is. It just isn't as dramatic.
"I had people prostrating themselves on the floor!"
As we still ought to the Most High. ( . . . ) puts me on my face! But when the Jews wrote you in, they changed what God really is. The point of the original Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh was that we are one with God. The point of 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh is that we are NOT. Moses' non-dual reality became hidden and the error of dualism became doctrine de rigueur. That the great I AM THAT I AM is aloof, unapproachable, and wholly other is unreal; it is a lie. All is one. God didn't make everything out of nothing: he made everything out of No-thing -- himself(!) -- the imagination of his intelligence which is power to become what he imagines. THIS is the nature of God: that we should intend, imagine, and believe, for we are him. I am sure we will find other expressions and dimensions in wondering about the words Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh in Exodus 3: 14, but doctrine of God's name being I AM THAT I AM, you just don't belong there.
Not really. It is just a correction.
"Correction my hiney. Do you know how often Exodus 3: 14's I AM THAT I AM is quoted in establishing that God is the eternal, uncreated Creator who created everything out of nothing? Without the revelation of his name, the whole idea flounders."
I am all too aware of it. The trouble is, it wasn't there in the original. Moses never thought it. It wasn't his question. He didn't give a rat's hiney, pardon the expression, about God's name, as if God had one. Here is God's name: ( . . . ). It isn't that you are not allowed to pronounce it; it's that you can't -- there isn't one. The doctrine that God is is safe: it is assumed throughout the scriptures.
"But what God? I've gone from the revelation of the Most High's name to just being an instruction manual."
Moses was giving us the nature of God as it pertains to practical prayer, and it became misunderstood as the revelation of God. Well, in a way it still is. It just isn't as dramatic.
"I had people prostrating themselves on the floor!"
As we still ought to the Most High. ( . . . ) puts me on my face! But when the Jews wrote you in, they changed what God really is. The point of the original Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh was that we are one with God. The point of 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh is that we are NOT. Moses' non-dual reality became hidden and the error of dualism became doctrine de rigueur. That the great I AM THAT I AM is aloof, unapproachable, and wholly other is unreal; it is a lie. All is one. God didn't make everything out of nothing: he made everything out of No-thing -- himself(!) -- the imagination of his intelligence which is power to become what he imagines. THIS is the nature of God: that we should intend, imagine, and believe, for we are him. I am sure we will find other expressions and dimensions in wondering about the words Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh in Exodus 3: 14, but doctrine of God's name being I AM THAT I AM, you just don't belong there.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
12:44 AM
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