God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher

The Right Way to Ask

November 9, 2023

“Walsch reports You as saying, ‘God will grant whatever is asked, without fail.’ Whatever is asked!”

The trick is in “ask.” Not everything you “want” has been “asked” in the right way, with fulsomeness of soul.

“But then the statement is completely misleading. It depends on a verbal sleight of hand.”

Not so. Some might be confused by it, but it is a way of focusing attention on the right way to ask, to believe and feel fully, and to motivate this change in people. But it is not a lie, not even a Noble Lie. It is the direct truth. When you come into the fullness of Being, of partnership with God, everything you truly seek will be granted. That may seem like a bait and switch, but that is not the way you will see it when you get there. You will see that this is indeed what you really wanted all along.

Think of Joan at the Stake

November 2, 2023

I was told not just to read books but to look at “religious lives.” Receiving an honorary degree from a small Catholic liberal arts college, I spoke about Joan of Arc. She had the most well-documented life of anyone in history up to her time. We still have the records from her two trials. She had been convicted of heresy and burned at the stake at the age of nineteen as a result of a trial rigged by her English captors. Some years after her death, a new trial was held, which exonerated her. Both trials took evidence from people who had known her since childhood. In the twentieth century, she was canonized.

“Lord, what can I learn from Joan of Arc?”

Think of Joan on the stake. What are her feelings?

This is what came to me: “Glory to God, blessed savior and lord, redeemer, I love God and am happy to sacrifice all for Him; a feeling of joy and triumph over this world, a rapture and sense of rising to heaven, to join God, to be received and welcomed by a chorus of angels; a peace, calm, inner togetherness, centeredness, kindness to mankind, to their suffering, to their burden of sin, smiling also in triumph. They ‘know not what they do’ to their own souls! They do not know they are the losers. They are the ‘fools’ who do not know what’s really going on. Radiant love sweeping out over the world, embracing the world, as soul-like awareness of the pain of the body and its frailty and vulnerability and impermanence, a deep understanding of the nature of reality, an immersion in the really real, a closing of the old eyes and opening of the new ones, a succumbing, a resignation, a withdrawal.”

I Want You to Tell My story.

October 26, 2023

I want you to tell My story.

I thought the Bible told His story. “Lord, hasn’t Your story already been told?”

Yes, but it is time for it to be told anew, and not in the same way. We are entering an unusual time in the history of the world. The old religions are coming apart. Yet there is a renewal of religious spirit. Many of the great religions rested on a relatively clear reception of messages from Me. The new spirituality does not. It is aimless, made-up, impressionistic, psychologized, sometimes flaky and even dangerous and demonic. Not all “spiritual” forces are from God. Some are evil or distorted. A purity of message must be regained.

“I want you to enter My heart”

October 19, 2023

Enter My heart:

It all seemed intolerably bizarre. I thought I should talk it over with the wisest people I knew. One, a distinguished medical ethicist, responded, “First of all, this is not weird.” Nothing he could have said would have been a greater relief to me! Another, a well-known author, said, first, “That’s great—now you know there is a God,” and then added, “You have had a Kierkegaard moment,” recalling that philosopher’s question, “If you encountered Jesus on the streets of Copenhagen, would you follow him?” A prominent lay theologian said he was “touched” by my story and suggested some reading while I waited for my “big” assignment.

While there were also cautionary responses, no one seemed to think I was crazy or a fool to take the voice seriously.

Still, I was not prepared for the next experience.

I want you to enter My heart.

“Enter God’s heart? This is weird, Lord, and scary, like out-of-body travel.”

I will protect you.

For moral support I asked, “Lord, first give me Your love.”

Let Abigail love you. You will feel My love through her.

“Then strengthen me, be with me, for this.”

I will.

He took my hand, as it were, and led me into the “heart of God.” I had expected it to be an overpowering, perhaps terrifying experience. But it was more like the eye of a hurricane. I was at the center of something vast and powerful, but here it was quiet, calm, and peaceful. I surveyed the things I feared—the end of my career, loss of reputation, financial insecurity, and a book that went nowhere. In that calm that is God, each concern disappeared.

God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher – is the true story of a philosopher’s conversations with God. Dr. Jerry L. Martin, a lifelong agnostic. Dr. Martin served as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Colorado philosophy department, is the founding chairman of the Theology Without Walls group at AAR, and editor of Theology Without Walls: The Transreligious Imperative. Dr. Martin’s work has prepared him to become a serious reporter of God’s narrative, experiences, evolution, and autobiography. In addition to scholarly publications, Dr. Martin has testified before Congress on educational policy. He has appeared on “World News Tonight,” and other television news programs.

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Listen to this on God: An Autobiography, The Podcast– the dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.

He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.

“It Sounded Like Orders From Above.”

October 13, 2023

Believe the inspirations I send you. Do not worry about any other standards than communicating correctly what I reveal to you. It may seem crazy to others. It (revelation) always does. This is the courage of the messenger.

I felt like Dorothy being swept up in the whirlwind. And poor Abigail, would she be swept up too? Her train had finally arrived. Over dinner, I broke it to her. She just listened, unfazed.

“I felt submissive; it sounded like orders from Above,” she explained later. “I thought: Jerry is clearly not making it up. What it means in my life is, of necessity, open-ended. To receive such a directive is to move to a realm or level not foreseeable. In other words, it is a blessing.”

“I Give Mankind Many Sources, Many Messages.”

October 5, 2023

I did continue to read the Old Testament but, to me, Judaism seemed to be mired in rules and ritual. The prohibition against eating pork is only one of the 613 commandments in the Torah, many of which seem quite arbitrary and trivial. I had my own experience of being given arbitrary exercises in obedience, but I didn’t build a whole religion around them.

“Lord, does the Jewish spirit transcend orthodox practice?”

Of course. Rituals and observances are important, but they are only tokens, pointers for the real thing, the Being beyond being. My people (the Jewish people, the people of Israel) are precious to Me, but they are not My only people. All My people are wanderers in a vast desert, not only the first “desert people.” I give mankind many sources, many messages, through religions, institutions …

I don’t know why this occurred to me but I interjected, “And through silences?”

Yes, through silences too.

“I Came to All Peoples”

September 28, 2023

I have told you that there are many gods but only one God and I am He.

“What do You mean by many gods?”

In a sense, the wind and seas are gods. The elemental forces of nature are gods.

“Why gods rather than impersonal forces?”

They are not impersonal. They are agents of Me. They help direct the world toward its goal.

“What is Your relation to the God of Israel?”

The God of Israel is one face of Me. It is really Me, and I really did undergo the development recorded pretty accurately in the Hebrew Bible.

“You have other ‘faces’?”

Of course. I came to all peoples, but arrived in different guises. I came to the American Indians as the Great Spirit, to the Muslems as Allah, and so on. I came to the Hindus in many different forms, and hence their many stories.

“People Often Irritated Him.”

September 21, 2023

Reading the New Testament, I came to the story of an angry Jesus driving the money lenders from the Temple (Mark 11:15-17): “And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything though the temple. He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?’ But you have made it a den of robbers.”

“Lord, what I am to make of Jesus’ temper?”

People often irritated him.

“Irritated him? If he is God, wouldn’t he be above that sort of feeling?”

Yes and No. You don’t understand. Jesus is a human being, though he is also part of Me. He is subject to limitations as well as benefits that result from that. He has feelings and emotions. That is why he can save the world so effectively. He is a model of how a finite creature, with all the pushes and pulls of emotions, can nevertheless give boundless love.

“Okay, that makes sense to me.”

“Everything is a manifestation, not just an effect, of Me.”

September 14, 2023

I found a very fine collection of cave paintings and other prehistoric art in Journey Through the Ice Age, by Paul G. Bahn and Jean Vertut. There is a breathtaking simplicity and grace to many of the paintings.

“Lord, these cave paintings also have an aura of holiness.”

That is right. My first approach is to give humans the sense that nature is special, sacred, that there is something more than trees and clumps of grass, that there is also a spiritual presence.

“Lord, were the cave-paintings inspired by You as a way of expressing how You saw animals?”

These questions about whether I caused something or the person did are not as valid as you think. I often think through people. Your thoughts are often My thoughts. Remember that, in a sense, everything is a manifestation, not just an effect, of Me.

In spite of my own experiences, I was still disturbed by the idea of God being present in or entering people and things. “Lord, Your spirit entered the cave artists?”

Well, if you want to put it that way. But it is not like possession or automatic writing. At times, individuals are “filled” with Me, “in-spired.” What they do at those times is therefore also something I am doing.

“So these inspired individuals saw animals the way You do?”

They saw them as they are. They saw their souls, their moving spirits, like looking into the eyes of your beloved. These animals have beautiful souls.

“Let Me Tell You What the Story Is.”

September 7, 2023

In a few days, I asked again about God’s story.

The story begins with creation, the evolution up to life, animals, early man. Then to the very ancient communications that require language and memory.

They (My communications) occurred rather simultaneously, and each communication was tailored to and by the recipients. So the precise sequence for telling My story is more a question of narrative strategy than of accuracy or significance.

“But I will have to tell a story that makes sense.”

That makes sense to whom? Let Me tell you what the story is. I am burgeoning forth, reaching out to matter, plants, animals, activating their interiority, giving them direction.

As I have explained, I grew as a Self in response to the interiority of others, and I wanted to communicate, interact, more fully and at a higher level. This (communication) is somewhat possible with early man, who recognized My presence in nature, in life, and also heard, if somewhat dimly and inchoately, My other promptings such as conscience, (the sense of) right and wrong, fine sensibility, appreciation of nature and beauty, love amongst creatures, and mystical union.