Why does God need a book?

[OnceConvinced]

The bible tells us about the Book of Life, which contains the names of those who have been saved and are going to Heaven. If your name does not appear you go to Hell. (Chick Tracts even have God asking the chief Angel "Does his name appear in the book of life?")

There are two issues I have with this (and topics for discussion):

1) If God is all knowing and he knows each of us personally, then why does he need a book to record our names? Santa doesn't need a book to know who's naughty and nice. He just knows. But God needs a book. Why does he need a book when he is all knowing?

2) Why a book? Wouldn't they have really amazing technology in Heaven? You'd think they'd have computers, perhaps even something superior to computers. If the bible had described some kind of metal box that contained all the names... or perhaps a flat round disk, that would go a long way to showing that the bible was divine and not just ancient man's ignorance. Imagine how huge the book would have to be! It would be mammoth. So why use a book rather than some other form of data storage?

Feel free to speculate, even if you have nothing solid.

[JoeyKnothead]

From the OP:

Why does God need a book?

'Cause he ain't got a mouth.

[arian]

From the OP:

Why does God need a book?

'Cause he ain't got a mouth.

Oh man, .. that's Joey for you, .. lol. So God needs a book not only to record things in, but to talk to us too, like the Bible right? But did you know that; "Words CAN hurt you!?" Really, .. I've seen this commercial where a word knocked Jessy right off his horse, .. so imagine on that Last Day when the Lord throws the entire book at ya? Ouch!

Love you Joey!

[JoeyKnothead]

From Post 42:

Oh man, .. that's Joey for you, .. lol. So God needs a book not only to record things in, but to talk to us too, like the Bible right? But did you know that; "Words CAN hurt you!?" Really, .. I've seen this commercial where a word knocked Jessy right off his horse, .. so imagine on that Last Day when the Lord throws the entire book at ya? Ouch!

That reminds me of how Jesus doesn't seem like he's so much for the "by the book" stuff, but does seem to express the idea that love for fellow humans should temper our actions t'wards 'em when they goof.

Love you Joey!

You too friend, here's hopin' ya ain't never met a biscuit ya couldn't whoop.

[arian]

The bible tells us about the Book of Life, which contains the names of those who have been saved and are going to Heaven. If your name does not appear you go to Hell. (Chick Tracts even have God asking the chief Angel "Does his name appear in the book of life?")

There are two issues I have with this (and topics for discussion):

1) If God is all knowing and he knows each of us personally, then why does he need a book to record our names? Santa doesn't need a book to know who's naughty and nice. He just knows. But God needs a book. Why does he need a book when he is all knowing?

Good question, and if you read some of my "Undeniable Scientific Evidence of The Creator", where I describe our Creator God as the 'Infinite, Eternal Creative Mind "I Am Who I Am", you would understand why just by observing your own mind!

Look, we dream up things before we 'create them', correct?
In our mind it is pretty clear what it is we dreamed-up, right? But because our mind is 'Infinite', we can dream up so many other things, so it is a good idea to write the one we are working on at the moment down, .. or record it some finite way on something finite/created, because anything that's created is created by laws, permanent, so whatever is placed on/in it stays that way until the Creator decides to change it.

So if you read the Bible, particularly John 1:1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

You noticed that in the Beginning of all creation, the first thing God did was create 'The Word'. Now what does books contain? Words of course, right?
God the Infinite Eternal Mind/Spirit wanted to start recording things He was dreaming/thinking to make it more permanent.

Now watch what is next here:

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

See how it all fits together? "Through him all things were made", but how?
Like an engineer, he dreams up a bridge, once he comes up with something he likes, he writes it all down, drafts it all out and so on, now it's on a source that is more permanent, and he can go on thinking, planning dreaming up the next thing. The same with God, He plans it all out 'before creation', then writes it, or records it in something permanent that He created, in this case it is His Son Word. Once there, He, .. or 'they' can start creating it; "Let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness" .. and so on.

2) Why a book? Wouldn't they have really amazing technology in Heaven? You'd think they'd have computers, perhaps even something superior to computers. If the bible had described some kind of metal box that contained all the names... or perhaps a flat round disk, that would go a long way to showing that the bible was divine and not just ancient man's ignorance. Imagine how huge the book would have to be! It would be mammoth. So why use a book rather than some other form of data storage?


Feel free to speculate, even if you have nothing solid.

Remember this was written when CD was unheard of, so it's not what Heaven can do, but what simple man here on earth could understand. Even just a 100 years ago, anything other then a 'book' would not have made any sense.

But let's use our imagination as to what recording equipment (books) could look like in Heaven? I myself could imagine a beautiful big golden scroll, as it unrolls (like those bendable screens coming out), words appear.
And for security where God doesn't want any Angel or any Heavenly Creature reading something before its time, there would be a seal (password) to keep any unauthorized person access to it. I could imagine some awesome futuristic book where no present technology could even come close to it, and yet the outside, the cover of the book would be very classical in design. And for a better feel to the book, it would grow in size as more information was added into it. Not that a tiny chip sized book couldn't contain all the names of everyone that has ever lived, including a total recording of every second of their lives!? That classic old book-look would be just for preference.

But that's just my imagination, I'm sure Heaven has some awesome 'books' that far, far surpasses anything we could ever imagine in a million years. Where todays CD and computer technology would pale in comparison.

But here is just a little glimpse into what's here, .. then imagine what 'could be', .. and then imagine what IS In Heaven!? John seen a book, there is a sense of .. oh how should I put it, a sense of appreciation in the preservation of that classical book look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfgmlVxLC9w

Enjoy, and God bless.

[OnceConvinced]

Good question, and if you read some of my "Undeniable Scientific Evidence of The Creator", where I describe our Creator God as the 'Infinite, Eternal Creative Mind "I Am Who I Am", you would understand why just by observing your own mind!

Look, we dream up things before we 'create them', correct?
In our mind it is pretty clear what it is we dreamed-up, right? But because our mind is 'Infinite', we can dream up so many other things, so it is a good idea to write the one we are working on at the moment down, .. or record it some finite way on something finite/created, because anything that's created is created by laws, permanent, so whatever is placed on/in it stays that way until the Creator decides to change it.

So if you read the Bible, particularly John 1:1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

You noticed that in the Beginning of all creation, the first thing God did was create 'The Word'. Now what does books contain? Words of course, right?
God the Infinite Eternal Mind/Spirit wanted to start recording things He was dreaming/thinking to make it more permanent.

Now watch what is next here:

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

See how it all fits together? "Through him all things were made", but how?
Like an engineer, he dreams up a bridge, once he comes up with something he likes, he writes it all down, drafts it all out and so on, now it's on a source that is more permanent, and he can go on thinking, planning dreaming up the next thing. The same with God, He plans it all out 'before creation', then writes it, or records it in something permanent that He created, in this case it is His Son Word. Once there, He, .. or 'they' can start creating it; "Let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness" .. and so on.

It seems to me you are kind of putting God into a very human box that he needs to write down stuff. I can believe that a God would plan things out in his head because there's nothing intelligent or brilliant about just speaking things into being and it all just happening. However, I would not see him as a fallible human who would need actual written plans or documents to go along with it. He's a God not some human builder or programmer.

2) Why a book? Wouldn't they have really amazing technology in Heaven? You'd think they'd have computers, perhaps even something superior to computers. If the bible had described some kind of metal box that contained all the names... or perhaps a flat round disk, that would go a long way to showing that the bible was divine and not just ancient man's ignorance. Imagine how huge the book would have to be! It would be mammoth. So why use a book rather than some other form of data storage?


Feel free to speculate, even if you have nothing solid.

Remember this was written when CD was unheard of, so it's not what Heaven can do, but what simple man here on earth could understand. Even just a 100 years ago, anything other then a 'book' would not have made any sense.

But hold on these were visions of future events. If they were visions of future events he would see the wonderful new technology being used.

But let's use our imagination as to what recording equipment (books) could look like in Heaven? I myself could imagine a beautiful big golden scroll, as it unrolls (like those bendable screens coming out), words appear.

If I was the writer of the book of Revelations and I was seeing visions of 2015 or somewhere around now, I would be imagining a little black box or something like that. A metallic gleaming slate. Or if it's in our future I might imagine holographic images or maybe something even more futuristic that humans haven't even thought of yet. The fact that the writer of Revelations is seeing only his current day technology is proof he was simply dreaming it all up from his own primitive imagination.

And for security where God doesn't want any Angel or any Heavenly Creature reading something before its time, there would be a seal (password) to keep any unauthorized person access to it. I could imagine some awesome futuristic book where no present technology could even come close to it, and yet the outside, the cover of the book would be very classical in design. And for a better feel to the book, it would grow in size as more information was added into it. Not that a tiny chip sized book couldn't contain all the names of everyone that has ever lived, including a total recording of every second of their lives!? That classic old book-look would be just for preference.

He would be seeing similar. He would be seeing future technology for events that were a long way off. Not a book.

If he was seeing this stuff, it would be proof that the bible was divine. Giving accurate descriptions of futuristic technology. Instead we get a plain old book, something that rarely ever gets used any more to store data on. Evidence that the writer of the story was not seeing future events.

But that's just my imagination, I'm sure Heaven has some awesome 'books' that far, far surpasses anything we could ever imagine in a million years. Where todays CD and computer technology would pale in comparison.

Indeed and the writer of the book of Revelations, describing events happening over 2000 years into the future would see this stuff as well. Instead or he sees is primitive things from his own time. Things like riders on horses, chariots, books, archaic weapons/armour.

This is what I was trying to point out in my OP. The writer of revelations was witnessing future events so should have been seeing futuristic things.

[Blastcat]

HE does not need a book; we need the book or HE wouldn't bother, eh?

You say that :

God does not need a book. So.. why does he use one?

You say that:

WE need this book.. so why, again, does he use one?

You say that your god wouldn't bother with us without the use of the book...
Why does he need a book to want to bother with us?

The funny thing is that people think it tells us the way of life but IT DOES NOT GIVE AWAY ANY SECRETS!!!

It's hilarious. No. I don't get your joke.
Again.. you might make sense to yourself... but to anyone else?
NOT to me.

It only catches our attention so we seek the ONE who wrote it.

So you think the god writes a book to get our attention?

Why does he need a book to do that?

[bluethread]

Sorry, for coming in late, but Adonai does not need a book. The references to "a book", more likely a scroll, is for the benefit of the reader. I suppose when the Scripture say, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." we are supposed to worry about the people who will be crushed when He puts His feet up, right?

Your quote comes from the book of Isaiah, written by a completely different author in a different time. So how is it logical to try to compare them? Your example is clearly a metaphor for the reasons you identify, however a simple book with names of who is righteous is not obviously a metaphor. It's not as simple to identify in this instance and it seems very literal.

I'm sure 2000 years ago it would have been reasonable to see it as a literal book, especially considering they believed Jesus was returning in their life time and they didn't realise just how large the world was. Now 2000 years on it's not so reasonable, so I understand yours and other Christians needs to turn it into a metaphor. I'm not buying that it is meant as a metaphor though.

Sorry, but the only biblical references I have seen so far are 1Cor. 13:5 and Rev. 20. There is a bit about a chick tract, but are you really going to require me to defend that? 1Cor. 13:5 is clearly using an idiom, when it talks about love not keeping a record of wrongs. Do you actually think Paul is saying that it is OK to hold a grudge as long as one does not write it down? Also, the book of the Revelation is idiomatic from beginning to end. Many things in it can be related to actual things and events, but the language is clearly an amalgam of Scriptural idioms and symbols.

[myth-one.com]

The bible tells us about the Book of Life, which contains the names of those who have been saved and are going to Heaven. If your name does not appear you go to Hell.

The Bible represents two covenants between man and God.

Those who qualify as heirs under either testament are granted everlasting life, or salvation.

The Book of Life is simply the legal document listing the heirs who qualify for the inheritance of everlasting life under that covenant.

Why not a book?

But the inheritance is everlasting life, not everlasting life in Heaven. That is a very common error.

[sf]

The bible tells us about the Book of Life, which contains the names of those who have been saved and are going to Heaven. If your name does not appear you go to Hell. (Chick Tracts even have God asking the chief Angel "Does his name appear in the book of life?")

There are two issues I have with this (and topics for discussion):

1) If God is all knowing and he knows each of us personally, then why does he need a book to record our names?

He likely does not need a book. I think of it as an analogy to make it easier for us to comprehend. Nevertheless, I've never given it much thought and am interested in what others have to say.

Santa doesn't need a book to know who's naughty and nice. He just knows.

I thought Santa had a list too? You know, he even checks it twice

[sf]

The bible tells us about the Book of Life, which contains the names of those who have been saved and are going to Heaven. If your name does not appear you go to Hell. (Chick Tracts even have God asking the chief Angel "Does his name appear in the book of life?")

There are two issues I have with this (and topics for discussion):

1) If God is all knowing and he knows each of us personally, then why does he need a book to record our names?

He likely does not need a book. I think of it as an analogy to make it easier for us to comprehend. Nevertheless, I've never given it much thought and am interested in what others have to say.

Before everyone jumps on me for saying a word (analogy) that is similar to metaphor, in reading the posts I realized that I need to ask a clarifying question. OnceConvinced: is your question why does God need a physical record or any kind or why does he need a book specifically? I was thinking you meant a book, which is why I said maybe it's an analogy for whatever the physical record really looks like. Or do you mean why does God need a record outside his "mind" in the first place?