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.

[Zzyzx]

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Perhaps I've said this before but I don't think the bible has 'the truth' open to all but to get the truth that it does contain we need the input from the Holy Spirit for the correct interpretation of what is written which will be to my mind, the absolute truth.

Thus, one first believes the bible and then gets "input from the holy spirit" then can can interpret the bible correctly?

Let's go back to the first part. The wannabe believer starts believing the bible as they read it without "input from the holy spirit" and therefore without a correct interpretation. Right? Then they get the input and correctly interpret?

That seems a little out of kilter to me. First believe what you don't understand and then you will understand?

Perhaps correct interpretation of the bible is what leads many away from Christianity. Maybe the holy spirit switched sides as "Satan" is said to have done?

[no1special]

[Replying to post 14 by Zzyzx]

Notice that the "your original question" you quoted is NOT my question at all but the OP question by OC. He and I are not parts of a trinity.

I noticed and I apologize , my mistake .

Can you NOT answer the questions I asked "Who supposedly has the supposed book? What is its purpose? By whom is it used? Some seem to think that whoever controls access to "heaven" uses (consults, needs) the book. Who would that be?"

If you read the Bible then you should know the answers , if you do not it must be because , either there are no answers or you did not read It . You can always ask those seem to think ...

The passages I presented seem to provide answers to at least some of the questions. You have read the bible, haven't you? You were familiar with all of the quotes, weren't you?

Seem to provide is not the same as actually providing .

[no1special]

[Replying to post 16 by OnceConvinced]

Then why is there such a book if God doesn't need it? Why is God using this book at all? What purpose could it possibly have?

If the Bible does not answer your questions how can I ?

Does it bother you that God would use a book and not something more high tech like a computer database? Don't you think that a God would use something more high tech than a book?

No it does not bother me and I am in no position to tell God what to use . For me to assume that I KNOW better than God would mean that I assume to BE better than God . There is nothing more useless than a lesser god .

[OnceConvinced]

If all the things that caused you to abandon your faith were of this sort, then frankly, I'm afraid that I have to question your rationality.

Oh no the things that caused me to LOSE (not abandon) my faith were much bigger things than this. Things like this simply add more fuel to the already roaring and uncontrollable fire.

I prefer now to look at the bible at face value and not try to make metaphors where there aren't metaphors. If it says it's a book I take it as a literal book now, until it can be proven that it is intended as a metaphor by the writer.

In this case, you may be right and it may be a metaphor, but not all of the book of Revelations needs to be taken as symbolic. Many Christians see the Book of Life as a literal book. And just because Revelations contains illustrations of things that clearly are metaphorical does that mean the book is also metaphorical? No? Why should it? Back in those days, the people at the time would not find the idea of a book being used to list names, something odd. In fact it would be expected because they had no knowledge of computers.

These scriptures here seem to describe a literal book:

Malachi 3:16
Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.

Exodus 32:31-33
So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.� But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.

Psalm 69:28
May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous

There are many other scriptures too, including many in Revelations, which seem to be describing a literal book. I'm sure anyone reading at the time these things were written would have seen it as a literal book.

[OnceConvinced]

[Replying to post 16 by OnceConvinced]

Then why is there such a book if God doesn't need it? Why is God using this book at all? What purpose could it possibly have?

If the Bible does not answer your questions how can I ?

Supposedly I am not able to understand the bible because I don't have the holy spirit. So I therefore have to rely on those who do.

Contrary to the belief of many Christians the bible does not contain all the answers. In fact for me, it does not seem to contain the answers for many important questions.

[Replying to post 16 by OnceConvinced]

Does it bother you that God would use a book and not something more high tech like a computer database? Don't you think that a God would use something more high tech than a book?

No it does not bother me and I am in no position to tell God what to use . For me to assume that I KNOW better than God would mean that I assume to BE better than God . There is nothing more useless than a lesser god .

Ah, so just blindly believe the bible no matter what it tells you? Don't even think critically about it.

You may not be bothered by the use of a book by a supposed all powerful all knowing entity, but it certainly bothers me. It kind of paints a picture of a lesser God, funnily enough.

[WisdomCalls]

Thus, one first believes the bible and then gets "input from the holy spirit" then can can interpret the bible correctly?

Let's go back to the first part. The wannabe believer starts believing the bible as they read it without "input from the holy spirit" and therefore without a correct interpretation. Right? Then they get the input and correctly interpret?

That seems a little out of kilter to me. First believe what you don't understand and then you will understand?

Perhaps correct interpretation of the bible is what leads many away from Christianity. Maybe the holy spirit switched sides as "Satan" is said to have done?

You’ve hit on one of the problems that would arise out of an Arminian theology. If, as you’ve pointed out, people choose to believe in God, but people cannot understand the Bible till they actually receive God’s spirit, then this presents a circular conundrum.

I come from more Calvinist leanings. In Calvinist theology, God does the choosing first and draws people to himself. They cannot of their own volition choose God. This view is supported by passages like Ephesians 1, Romans 9, and various verses in John and other epistles. I won’t go into details, but the Calvinist view solves the problem of needing the Holy Spirit before believing in order to understand the Bible correctly. God is already acting on those people through his Spirit before they even make a profession of faith.

The Holy Spirit switching sides? Jesus was once accused of casting out demons in the name of Satan (Mark 3:20-30). His response was, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand.� Same goes for God working against God. The logic doesn’t hold.

[WisdomCalls]

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.

There is a difference in the kind of literature found in the Bible. There are historical books, wisdom literature, epistles to various churches, and prophetic/apocalyptic books. The prophetic/apocalyptic books are all figurative in the language and very little of it can be taken literally. Revelation is one of those books.

The Book of Life is not literal. God does not need anything physical or material to do his job. He is spirit and so are the angels (despite the pictures showing them as winged humans). Even the most advanced technology wouldn't help him in the slightest. The point of the Book of Life is to make clear that God knows who are his. There is no actual book you can read through.

[Regens Küchl]

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?

Heaven? You'd think they'd have computers, perhaps even something superior to computers.

I have to correct you about Santa. Are there not in fact tales wherein he owns two lists at christmas ?of the good and the bad children ?

But the fact that "god" needs a book proves that his supposed all-knowing is a very relative and slippery term. Like with Zen masters who also like to call themselves all-knowing.

Computers would need electricity from generators who supposedly would be engineered by magic and therefore it is more logical to skip that computers and use a magic 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?

Heaven? You'd think they'd have computers, perhaps even something superior to computers.

I have to correct you about Santa. Are there not in fact tales wherein he owns two lists at christmas ?of the good and the bad children ?

That song was not written by true Santa believers.

[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?