Does God really NEED to be Praised?

Being a leading christian authority, I can tell you t hat yes, in fact, god does NEED to be praised... Praise him now or suffer eternal hellfire.. without your praise he shall not exist...

 

Also there is the fact that the person will not get to know God (if they give credit to something other than God) and will instead believe in idols (whatever they thank instead of God). It's good for you to know your creator.

 

God will still exist, but you will not know God. That's the only problem with not praising God- it is bad for you, not God.

God doesn't want you to do things that are bad for you, so says something that a child (you can be a 50 year old child- physical maturity != spiritual maturity) will understand "I am a jealous God". Some children understand jealousy more than they understand that it is good for them (spiritually healthy) to praise God.

 

Did Kharakov just say that?

 

I don't think God has any need to be praised, nor does he 'need' anything. Surely God is wholly self-sufficient.

It is more that humans need to praise Him.

 

I would certainly hope that if there was a god,
and if [It] were all-knowing, omnipotent, supremely intelligent, perfectly good,
etcetera etcetera.....

then all those completely IDEAL characteristics
would leave no room for such dingy little human traits
such as jealousy or envy or childish temper tantrums.
a perfect god should not require praise, nor honour,
nor belief in him to ascend to a perfect heaven after life.

i think the creator of this thread hit the nail on the head.



sophia

 

Eternal life, by definition, is loving communion with God. Some people want nothing to do with God, and he simply honors that choice.

 

Religion has been used throughout history by many forms of government to control the people by using fear. This is very unfortunate. In my opinion, you should love God, and praise his creations. I am pretty sure that God did not put us here to remind Himself how great He is. It has always bothered me how people talk about HELL HELL HELL!! "Do this or you are going to Hell"....that statement in and of itself is perfect evidence of man's use of God to control society. We are spiritual beings experiencing the human condition, all of us have a part of God within us. The best way to praise him is by following our hearts and obeying that "voice" inside of us that reminds us of what is right and what is not. The act of going around and saying praise God or else..., is in my opinion, very primitive. It changes people's understanding of God as a being of love to an almighty overseer, that threatens us with eternal torment. That is not how I see God. And.....Jesus wanted us to worship his message....not him...or his mother.

Peace

-B

 

Except for the fact that humans have a remarkable ability to delude themselves and rationalize evil.

You can't "worship" a message. Moreover, Jesus' message wasn't merely a moral code. It was mainly about salvation. As N.T Wright once said in a debate with Marcus Borg on NPR's "Fresh Air" show, Jesus came to proclaim good news, not good advice.

 

Bloop bloop!

 

For it isn't to the palace that the Christ child comes
But to shepherds and street people, hookers and bums

If this is true, then how come so many Christians I meet tend to look down their nose at those with less material wealth than them.
Instead of extending a warm heart or helping hand, they often place themselves upon pedestals of perfection.
AND what I meant when I said Jesus wanted us to worship his message and not him is that Christians waste SO much time PRAISING Jesus etc; that they tend to lose sight of applying the principals and teachings of him to their lives. Which kind of reminds me of another thread I posted in about some churches $$ being wasted on "graven images" like 50ft statues of Christ, when they could have used the $$ to feed, clothe, and educate some of the less fortunate of their community.
I am going to go ahead and go as far and say that organized religion to me looks like another social gathering for yuppies to show off how well they are doing.

 

The Bible states clearly that God is a jealous God in the book of Exodus. The first commandment says "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." And then it goes on to say that God is a jealous God.

God doesn't NEED our praise... But if you are a born again believer... you will want to praise Him. It is a fruit of the spirit.

Also, God's word says to come into his presence with thanksgiving and praise. So I think that if we want to experience God's blessings, we need to praise Him and be thankful for all He has done for us.

 

I have nothing againsts thankfulness, or honor, but why Praise? It still makes no sense. Christ changed a lot of what was written in the OT. The "vengeful, jealous God" is part of the message of love, the way I was taught in RC religious education.

Why?

 

It's like when you are having an orgasm and you call out the name of your lover because it feels good to have them there.

It's like I am just happy to have God with me, and I acknowledge how lucky I am to have an awesome God providing for me, which makes me pretty happy- like a fat baby sucking on a perfect boob or something (which isn't a bad situation either- God has tons of boobies!!!). Not to mention all of the kick-ass entertainment God has created besides boobies.

Why is it bad for you? Well, you aren't being aware if you aren't praising God for something in your life. Lack of awareness of something good is to have less experience of the goodness of something, which isn't the equivalent of bad, but can be interpreted as the logical equivalent of bad (bad ~= less good than you could have in my statement).

It's like when you wolf down General Tso's and don't appreciate or acknowledge it's flavor. I mean, I could see killing something over that. General Tso's is completely awesome. Ignoring part of the flavor or being negative about the whole eating General Tso's Chicken experience would suck. Of course, God created General Tso for the express purpose of bringing us General Tso's Chicken, tso, as the story goes...

 

Alright, its like more for personal gain to worship god, then anything else, it sorta focuses your attention to him and how you should life your life toward givin it to him. He is already great, you really can't make him greater, but you can make yourself better.

 

God needs praise only because Man doesn't love. If you are Love there is no need to praise.

When you are in love with someone else, where is there any idea of God?

If you can see Love everywhere, God is there. There is no need to praise him, your seeing Love everywhere is all the praise he needs.

 

That is thankfulness. Not praise. Diffferent things. A Praise mixed in with a "thank you" is one thing. I have no problem with that. Seventeen songs, four minutes apiece which repeat "you are so great, Praise you Praise you." is scary and weird to me.

I didn''t say it was "bad for me" I said the way my dh and I have been seeing it done in Fundie Bible Churches rings very false and seems to reek of fear. God is LOVE, not fear and the fear if one doesn't say "OH you are so Great!" (repeat 12 times or so) a hundred times a day, to a Being knows quite well he is, you will fall to eternal hell, is fear based, not love based.

Didn't Chirst tell people to get up off of their knees?

 

You sure you aren't lying, little piece of God? When I am in the throws of passion, any moan is praise to the one that brings me life, love, and happiness.

Oh.

You don't have to if you don't feel like it.

 

Just trying to get opinions.

 

I'm not aware of this. He seemed content to accept worship after his resurrection, in contrast to the angel that John mistakenly attempted to worship in the book of Revelation. Speaking of Revelation, it describes cheribum that never cease to praise God. It's not fear based; it's a spontaneous response to beholding God's glory in all its fullness. It's sort of like a love song or poem to a spouse, increased by several orders of magnitude.

Here's an interesting essay I just stumbled across:

http://www.cornerstonemag.com/pages/show_page.asp?202