God is

January 22, 2014

God is…Relational…Creator

I’ll give you some of my excerpts from the book I wrote named Mere Christianity to try to explain some things about God.

January 23, 2014

God…Creator…Relational

As a Christian you do not have to reject every point of all religions. There may be some hints of God in them. As in mathematics, there is only one correct answer some wrong answers are closer than others. There is a big division in humanity, which are those who believe in God and those whom do not. Then there’s a smaller of division in which God or Gods do you believe in?

Then there are numerous ways to break up the God or Gods.  There is Christianity, Muslim, and Judaism who believe in one God and good and evil. There is Pantheism that goes beyond good and evil, and basically says God and universe are one.  Then there are Greeks, Romans, and Pagans with multiple Gods.  Everybody has a different idea about God.

The Christian though think God made the world and EVERYTHING in it. God made this world up as man makes up a story. But a Christian also knows something went wrong, very wrong. God is there to save us to put everything right again.

The Apostles Creed stated that before the foundation of the world, the Father beget the Son. I would like to explain the difference between making and begetting.  Beget is not a word that gets used much anymore, but it means, “To become the father of.” A father can beget a son, but he can only make a statue.  You beget the same thing as yourself. Let me clarify this thought. “God begets god, and man begets man. God cannot create God. Man cannot make man.” So the point is God beget Christ, but he made man.

So hopefully I have made that clear, now let us move on. “A good many people nowadays say, “I believe in a God, but not a personal God.” They feel there is something beyond the natural, but just not personal. The Christian idea of God is the only one who is personal. Even after death some people have the idea that we are absorbed into God, but again only a Christian understanding of the afterlife is you are a person true again. 

Moreover, let us say you and your best friend are both scientists. You study rocks, and he studies animals. You can just walk up to the rock and study it, as it does not move or talk. If you want to study them, it’s up to you. Your friend to study animals in the wild, on the other hand, must take more initiative. He must go to the animal, but it can run away. He must be still, but the animal knows your there.  “There is beginning to be a tiny little trace of initiative on their side.” But how do you become best friends with him? Well first you must become known to each other, and then become friends. This takes initiative on both people. In order to know something or someone the higher being must take initiative.

So I hope this obviously brings to your mind, “What about God?” He is the higher being in this, so the initiative is solely up to him. It’s up to him to find you. Sometimes he shows more of himself more too some people than others. He shows himself more to a man who has a clean mind and heart. “Just as the sunlight, though it has no favorites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as a clean one.

What do we use to relate to God? We must use our whole self. Our clean hearts and minds are used to see God. If we are not clean, we see God through a dirty instrument, as looking at the moon through a dirty telescope. “That’s why horrible nations have horrible religions: they've been looking at God through a dirty lens.”

God will only show himself to men who are part of a community, and they are doing what God made them to do.  So this means God shows himself ultimately through community. If we were to make up Christianity, it would be made up as something much easier. But Christianity is about Facts, not made up religion.

Hopefully your asking, “Now what?” I say Theology should be practical.

Men are mirrors of Christ, some are reluctant. You see some non-Christians helped bring me to Christ. But it is usually those who know him, reflect him better. This is why the church as a whole is so important to Christ.  We reflect Christ better as a team effort, rather than as an individual.   

I hope you find this helpful, and I am hoping you will join in the conversation about what God is. What is he to you? Do you agree or disagree with me? Please share, as Christians in community we can help each other reflect God.

Jack-“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”