This is the first book of a trilogy titled: The Universal God . It is subtitled: The Search for God in the Twenty-First Century . It is written as a comparative religion book and focuses on the major modern religions: Hinduism, Confucianism/Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Differing from many other comparative religion books that focus on the difference between these religions; this book seeks to find the commonalities and ‘Truths’ that these religions share with each other. The difficulty with attempting this search within the modern versions of these religions is that many of those core teachings and principles that they do share with each other have become hidden within the ‘exclusiveness’ that these religions now want to proclaim: They alone are ‘the one true path’ and they alone hold the keys to salvation. To find those commonalities within their ‘shared Truths’, the search cannot be directed to the present. Instead, these religions must be stripped clean and taken back to their original beginnings, their roots before they became organized religions. In their beginnings, there were only the ‘founding sources’, ‘divine sparks’ and ‘revelation’. In those ‘founding’ moments, ‘Truths’ were revealed that equally apply to all human beings. Those founding ‘Truths’ are ‘Universal’ and belong to everyone. This book searches for those ‘Truths’ by exploring the lives and teachings of the Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Mohammed, Confucius, Lao-tzu, Abraham, Moses and the many other prophets and teachers who provided the initial spiritual inspiration that brought these religions into existence. The book is formatted to discuss each of the religions within separate, self-contained chapters. It then concludes with a ‘Commentary’ section. This part of the book searches within these religions for shared principles and teachings. When we analyze these religions in this manner, we find that there are many theological and philosophical teachings that these religions do have in common with each other. In the search for God: there are multiple different paths that seekers may travel in their search: First, there are many human beings who have already developed their own personal relationship with God and have found their individual spiritual fulfillment within one of the different major modern religions. Second, there are many human beings who believe in God but have had difficulties in conceptualizing what those beliefs may be. Third, there are many human beings who believe in God, but in some manner have become disenchanted by the dogmatic, doctrinal, and institutional approaches that these organized religions require to fulfill those beliefs. This book can offer spiritual guidance to those individuals who identify themselves with either the second or third categories. Through the revelations and teachings that are set forth by those different ‘founding masters’; a fuller and broader understanding of God’s attributes and total ‘Being’ are brought forth for discussion. Within this book, the following major attributes of God are discussed: God as Ultimate Reality; God as Creator; God as Lawgiver (These laws include both Natural Laws and Moral Laws); God as Father; God as the Soul (Spirit); and, God as Messiah (Avatar). This book can equally function as a book for individual study or be used as a textbook for comparative religion study.
