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Who and What is God?
by Rev. Nancy B. Burrell
Jesus of Nazareth, "True Gospel Revealed Anew by Jesus" (Vol. I, p. 133)
"Well, to begin, God is soul, and soul is God" (True Gospel Revealed Anew by Jesus, Vol. I, p. 60). Not only is God Himself Soul, but as humans we recognize and become aware of God through our connection to Him, which is our own souls, and we perceive Him only through our soul perceptions, not through our minds or physical senses.
The Soul that is God is not the same as the human soul, yet there is a way that the soul of man can take on the Divine nature of the Father, and become, in actuality, a part of the Soul of God. (It is this revelation that Jesus learned as a young man and wished to teach all of mankind when he was on earth. He is, in fact, still teaching this truth on earth and in the heavens.)
The concept of soul, according to Jesus (Vol. I, p. 107), is difficult for men to comprehend, since "there is nothing in the material world that will afford a basis of comparison..." However, the human soul is a creation of God, and not a part of His Soul. On page 108 of Volume I we learn that the human soul is the:
"… highest and most perfect of all God's creation, to such an extent that it was made in His image--the only one or thing of all His creations that was made in His image, and the only part of man that was made in His image, for the soul is the man and all his attributes and qualities, such as his intellect and spirit body and material body and appetites and passions, are merely appendages or means of manifestation given to that soul, to be its companions while passing through its existence on earth, and also, qualifiedly, while living in eternity...
"But this soul, great and wonderful as it is, was created in the mere image and likeness of God, and not in or of His Substance or Essence--the Divine of the universe--and it, the soul, may cease to exist without any part of the Divine nature or Substance of the Father being lessened or in any way affected..."
The human soul, therefore, is separate from the Soul of God: we do not, as humans, automatically have anything of the Divine in us.
"God is Soul, and only Soul, which has in it all the attributes of love and wisdom and thought for the welfare of His creatures. He is a thinking and seeing God, and all the energies of His Soul are used to make men better and happier. As is the natural father of the man a personal father, so is the Great Soul of God, a Personal Father to all His children; and men when they have the development of their souls in the Divine Love will know that God is personal--something more than an all-enveloping energy or force or mere manifestation of His existence." (Vol. II, p. 195-196).
