the big questions
According to Ken Westby, the organizer of these one God conferences, the three biggest questions facing every human being are: Who is God? Who am I? and How should I live?
Finding the correct answer to the first question is critical toward answering the next two. If we are made in God's image, as the Scripture tells us, what is that image? How can we become like God if we don't know who God is, or what he is like, or how he wants us to act and think.
True knowledge of the self begins with knowledge of God. God made man in a certain way for a specific purpose. What is that purpose? Is it to grow into the Image of God, which image is perfectly reflected in Jesus? Did Jesus have a clear image of God and did the way he lived and the things he taught reflect it?
People tend to form their religion around their concept of God. Pagans devise various rituals and sacrifices they imagine their god wants. They have images, concepts, and pictures--real or mental--of their god. Their picture of god influences how they live in seeking blessings or avoiding punishments. Christians are no different. An enlightened, accurate, biblical concept of God naturally promotes enlightened worship of the one true God and influences all aspects of living before that God.
These One God seminars tackle the first of the three big questions.
recommended books
The One God Conferences are a great way to become acquainted with the basic contours of the one God movement including a good many of the issues and texts. However, if you would like to dig deeper, there is no substitute for spending the time to read these books.
Inclusion of a book on this reading list does not mean that we endorse all of their views nor even all of what is in the book. Oftentimes we find that the "liberal" scholars, unfettered from church tradition, are most capable of speaking honestly on this topic. So, even if you do not agree with all that you read, it is an important though often neglected exercise to read those with whom you disagree. Doing this will, at best, change your beliefs to be more accurate and, at worst, strengthen your existing beliefs.
10th One God Seminar
Pasadena-Arcadia, California
May 28-29, 2011
You are cordially invited to attend our 10th annual One God Seminar exploring the wondrous and phenomenal nature of God. It promises to be our best yet! The Memorial Day weekend should make it easier for most to attend: arrive Friday, fly home Monday.
Schedule & Location:
May 28-29, Saturday and Sunday, seminars all day: 8:30 AM to 5 PM. Just for our group: A special in-hotel get acquainted social hour with Hors D'oeuvres and drinks follows Saturday's seminars. Meetings will be held in the El Monte/Baldwin meeting rooms at:
The Embassy Suites Hotel, Arcadia-Pasadena
211 East Huntington Drive
Arcadia, California 91006
626-445-8525
If you will be flying or driving to the Pasadena area please stay at the Embassy Suites as we've arranged reduced rates for our attendees. We have reserved a block of rooms and for reservations by phone call 1-800-362-2779 and ask for The One God Seminars group rate. To make reservations on-line the hotel has created a personalized group website link for us. Click hereto book your room just like any reservation over the internet. Reservations need to be made by 5/16/11 -- after that date any reservation request will be offered best available rate. My friend Bob Ellsworth, who lives in Pasadena, has assisted in making these fine arrangements.
As you know, the Embassy Suites proves to be a good bargain since a full breakfast and evening drinks and snacks are included in the price of your suite. The room rate for the king bedded suite is $109 a night--very good for this part of Southern California.
Speakers:
We have scheduled some of our best speakers from previous seminars and have added some new ones. All the topics will be new. You will hear from Sir Anthony Buzzard, famous author and trailblazer leading a return to biblical monotheism; Sean Finnegan of Boston whose websites and debating skills have helped many to reexamine the Trinity tradition; Kermit Zarley, author of The Restitution of Jesus Christ, Evangelical leader, and professional athlete; Noel Rude, linguist and scholar who is not afraid to challenge orthodoxy; and several other speakers presenting carefully researched topics guaranteed to make us think fresh thoughts.
One of the new speakers presenting this year is Nehemia Gordon, a Torah teacher from Jerusalem. He will be touring the USA at the time and has scheduled a stop to visit with us and present a seminar or two. He is fluent in Hebrew, of the Karaite Jewish tradition, and has done extraordinary work in the field of our seminar focus. He is co-author of the book, A Prayer to Our Father--the Hebrew origins to the Lord's Prayer. I've heard Nehemia speak, answer questions, and have had him to our home for dinner and discussions. You will thoroughly enjoy and profit from his learning and energetic presentations.
Scope:
This seminar series is dedicated to learning all that can be known about Yahweh, our Great God, and his glorious Son, Jesus Christ. We seek to know Who God Is and What He is Like, with the purpose of moving Godward and becoming more like him in character, wisdom, love, and in Godly actions of kindness toward others.
The truth about God has been hidden and largely buried under centuries of tradition and stained glass. God has been presented as an impossible-to-comprehend three- or two-headed "Godhead." He has been presented as the pagan Greeks understood their deities, not how Abraham or Moses or Jesus understood God as a personal being--a heavenly Father. Orthodoxy has removed God from the understandable and made him a "divine mystery." Similar damage has been done to the true Jesus of the Gospels. Tradition presents him as not fully human and not like one of us but rather a preexistent God who entered the womb of Mary. What has mankind in common with such a mythical "superman"?
Scripture tells a different story from the orthodox creeds of Christendom which in the 4th and 5th centuries set these errors in stone. It is time to discover the full truth of the One God and the Real Jesus, who was and is a man and now rules from heaven at his Father's side. Jesus has shown how a human, transformed by God, can enter the eternal presence of His Majesty. We must follow him and learn to think about God as Jesus thought about God; to learn to become one with God as Jesus became one with God. How does Jesus describe himself and his God? Strikingly different from what you learned in Sunday School, church, or in theological seminary.
Bring your challenges and questions. Let us reason together to learn all we can about God, who after all is the foundation of truth and faith. What could be more important? Our religion is based upon our concept of God. If that God-understanding is corrupted or skewed, so will be our worship and faith. We must get our God-concept as pure and right as possible and as true to Scripture as possible. These two days will be the most intellectually and spiritually stimulating days you will have experienced in years...maybe ever. Scores of previous attendees can enthusiastically testify that it was for them.
I will once again be your host and MC the program. JoAn and I are looking forward to seeing all of you again and maybe bumping into some old friends from the days we were college students in Pasadena. Almost everyone has a friend or relative living in California so why not invite one of yours to join you in attending this 10th annual seminar?
Please let me know if you are planning to attend.
Your friend,
--Ken Westby
Association for Christian Development
27013 Pacific Ave S #400
Des Moines, WA 98198
www.Godward.org
westby@Godward.org
useful definitions
While listening to these conferences you may come across certain words that you have not encountered before. Just as every field has its own technical jargon, so theology to has a distinctive set of words that are used in special ways. In order to aid you in understanding these lectures Ken Westby and Dixon Cartright have put together a brief collection of theological words and phrases.