What if God was one of us? Could it be? Well, I encourage you to hold that question to heart as we take this journey, considering the possibility of there being a God that could be one of us.
If you’ve ever had access to religious ideas, you would have heard and read about God or gods being depicted as synonymous with human beings. Some would say that God appeared as a man, thought like a man, felt like a man, ate like a man, and did all sorts of things that men do.
Mind you, when I said man, I’m inclusive of male and female, which would also posit the God or gods being inclusive of both, without the use of the word goddess or goddesses. With that being said, what if God was one of us?
Previous Read: The God That Killeth Us
Could God Be One Of Us?
It’s no longer news that people claim to be gods, but if there was a God, could it be one of us? This seems to me a fascinating question.
The Christian Bible is arguably the most popular religious book that talks about God. In the Old Testament, it gives the description of a God with many addresses, but commonly known as Yahweh. This God has a mind and can think, appear, and talk to specific individuals; identify as he; feel the effects of both the action he takes and that of others; and he can be happy, sad, calm, and angry depending on the situation of things. And most especially, he is a warlord whose wrath can bring about great destruction, even upon his own people.
While the book says that God is not a man that he should lie, it also addresses him as a man of war. This God, I would say, shares most attributes that we share, including being jealous and selfish, except that he is more fierce than we are. And the book tells us that even the sight of him would destroy anyone who sees it. Therefore, people are supposed to be afraid of him.
This kind of description is troubling for some who believe the God to be all loving, and at the same time, it is acceptable to others as a necessary description of an all-powerful God. But one thing is profound about him: he could be one of us, or he appeared to be, so I thought.
Furthermore, in the New Testament, we have one addressed as the prince of peace, Jesus Christ. His being the Christ is a thing of debate between the Jews and Christians, but he might just be the appeal that resolves the problem for the troubled at heart. Yes, what happens is that when people point out their dislike of the attitude of the man of war, the prince of peace would be presented as the alternative view.
However, there are times when people have to agree that the man of war is the same prince of peace. It gets really complicated, but there’s a chasm that exists as long as we remain in the flesh, so we cannot fully comprehend God and his ways. That is my paraphrase of the excuse that is given for us to accept it as is and move on.
Well, for the prince of peace, it is not just speculation but an actual narration that he was a god that became a man. Born of a woman by the breath of God, he, being God himself, came into the world as a man because of his love for man.
He suffered, died, was buried, raised the third day, and was taken up to where he came from. He was exalted for doing what he did, which was to die for sinful man to live. So, if man would believe all that happened, he will have access to eternal life.
The story narrates a possibility that God was one of us, but it does so in a unique way; instead of God being one of us, he became one of us and was exalted as one of us, with an indication that it was well planned out to be so, long before it happened. Now, this makes me think more about the question, What if God was one of God?
What If God Was One Of Us?
Eric Bazilian of the Hooters wrote the lyrics of the song One of Us by Joan Osborne. The song was produced by Rick Chertoff and released on November 21, 1995, and soon became a hit. What did it say?
One of Us presented a challenging perspective to the idea of God by comparing it to man with the main question, What if God was One of Us? A problem arose where it put out a question about God being just a slob like one of us. That might come out offensive to people of faith, but it makes sense if you consider it as God being less concerned, like people can be, or good for nothing, like a person may be.
I see it portraying the idea of one who lives, does things, and cares not about the effect of their actions on other people. At least, we can see that evident at some point with the biblical God we considered above.
Meanwhile, the song One of Us began with the question, If God had a name what would it be? It went on to question the ability of the listener to call God’s name to his face, in his presence with all his glory. Assuming you had just one chance to question him, Joan asked, What question would you ask…?
She went on to point out that God is great and good, which is how God is commonly identified. So you can put that somewhere, as you might need it to make sense of some of the things I’ll be putting across to you.
Furthermore, Joan made the following utterances in quote;
What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us; just a stranger on the bus; tryin’ to make his way home?
That reminded me of a gnostic view of the one I addressed as the prince of peace. It follows that he was trapped in this body (prison) like we are, experienced the things we do, and was later assisted by one called Judas to escape the prison, making his way home back up to heaven.
The song One of Us leaves one with more to think about, including the opportunity to see God’s face on the condition that you’d have to believe, how he went to heaven all alone and can only be reached by the Pope in Rome. Hmmm… Something pretty relatable, right? Anyways, I digress.
There is an idea of God being part of each and every one of us, which is profound. But what if God was one of us or is in the sense that he or she is an individual who is distinct from us and having the same experience we are having in this world?
It might not be the case, but who knows if the guy or lady next door, the person walking on the street, the worker at the office, the buyer or seller in the market, the mummy or daddy at home, and the like, aren’t God or a god? It is common to object to the proposition, but come to think of it, we speak of God doing this and that, but all we see is man at work.
The statement that’s often made is that God uses people, but what if those people are the God that there is? They give their lives for others to live, share from their little and plenty to meet the needs of others, sacrifice their sleep and resources to find solutions to the world’s pressing problems, and so on!
Whether or not you find something to take home from this, let me say that without our abstract ideas about God, what we have is you, me, and us, as well as the world around us. We should at least have some value for each other, respect, and appreciate those who give their all to make this world a better place for everyone.
