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“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.

I Have Given You Some Clues Already

August 31, 2023

I had received visions of the divine energy rushing up through all levels of reality and of the explosive expansion of time and space. Were these intimations of Creation? I was told,

The work I want you to begin involves reading and writing about My nature. Start with the Creation. I have given you some clues already. Follow up on them. Do not wait to read endlessly. Begin writing down key questions and issues—for example: transcendence v. immanence, existence, Being versus (as distinct from) beings, unity and the one, eternity and time, meanings of infinity, the question of perfection, love and eros and sexuality and creativity and procreation and life-urge and energy and expansion, the world-history (not “people” history—literally, the history of the World), personhood, presence, prayer, religious experience, the God of the philosophers (too much Nous [Reason], too much One-ness and Intellection), love for every single person, suffering—the great role and centrality of suffering in the world—healing, fulfillment.

That was certainly scope enough—in fact, far more than I could deal with. And I did not see what point on the horizon could orient all this work.

“Lord, I need to understand where all this is going—the purpose of it all, not just of the project, but of human life, the universe, of God Himself.”

I know you do and it will all become clear, but best to start at the beginning.

“Why, Lord?”

Much about the nature of God and the universe is made clearer by understanding the origin. That is why I push you so deeply into these matters.

“I am an evolving God.”

August 24, 2023

An Evolving God-

I entered college a Christian and left an agnostic. I had no desire whatever to be “washed in the blood” again. The question I had been avoiding was, Do You want me to become a Christian?

No, I don’t want you to join any denomination.

“Is it okay for me to read about Jesus?” I asked about Jesus rather than Christ. Jesus is an historical person, who certainly existed, but whether he was the Christ, the Messiah, is a religious question. I did not want my question to prejudge the answer.

Yes, but reading through the Old Testament first is a good approach.

“The God of the Old Testament seems terrifying. You do not seem terrifying, Lord.”

I was young then. I had not had much experience with people. I am an evolving God.

God was young then? He is evolving? I thought God was supposed to be perfect, eternal, and unchanging. I had been an agnostic, but I thought I had a clear idea of what I was agnostic about. I was often disturbed when I was told something that did not fit with what I had been taught growing up; however, this bit of news, while puzzling, did not upset me. The God who spoke to me was very much a personal God. It was surprising but not out of character if, like other persons, He changes over time. Later I would learn that this is why God wanted to talk to me.

“The Soul’s will is the will of God.”

August 18, 2023

I tried to step back to see what question my “soul” would ask. “How can I merge with You? I’m not sure if that’s the best way to put it, Lord: be at one with You, at rest with You, at one with Your will?”

The question is adequately formulated. The goal—one way to describe the goal—is to be at one with God, the God of All. At bottom, the Soul’s will is the will of God. The Soul is at one with God.

It is not that you and I are literally the same substance, the same particular. It is that we are “at one,” in perfect harmony, and not accidentally so. It is in the nature of what the Soul is, that it is at one with God. Remember that these metaphysical (philosophical) categories are crude and inadequate in the first place.

Back to your question: how can you become at one with God? Of course, the answer is that you already are—your Soul, that is. The task is to come to realize that this is so, to realize it not merely in theory, but in intuitive, felt understanding, in your emotions and feelings, and in practice.

“That’s the goal, Lord? It sounds simple. The one-ness is already inside. All we have to do is to bring our conscious selves along.”

That is right. It is the simplest thing in the world. And everyone, at some level and at some moments, knows it, at least glimpses it. But it is very difficult to actualize in practice. The empirical world—the world of desires and the senses—seems so real and is so powerful that is extremely difficult to redirect one’s energy.

And the empirical world is real, in its own way. The world is not an illusion, a mirage. If it is a mirage, it is one from which you can drink water. No, you must respect the empirical world while at the same time emancipating yourself from it, not letting yourself be identical with your interests in this world.

So the world of our experience (and desire) is quite real—it is the arena in which we live our lives and loves, joys and sorrows. In spite of that, we should not let ourselves be ensnared by it.