The first and primary evidence for the existence of God is the existence of the creation. It is only natural that man, being a reasoning creature, should ask questions about the creation and the creator. Obviously, the universe and all that in it, had not been created by man, and yet its design pointed to the fact that someone must have created them. For instance, any object you take, it could not just happen; someone had to design and make that thing. Accordingly, there must be a God who is the Creator.
The doctrine of God holds a central place in the religious beliefs and practices of people around the world. Throughout human history, different religions have emerged, each offering its own understanding of the Divine differently.
In monotheistic belief systems, God is viewed as the Supreme being, the Creator and the object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a ‘god’ is a ‘spirit’ or ‘being’ controlling some part of the universe or life, for which that ‘spirit’ is worshipped.
Thinking correctly about God is of utmost importance because a false idea about God is idolatry. It is much easier to know concepts than it is to know God - because you don't have to pay a price to know the doctrines. All you have to do is study.
You can be immoral in your personal life and impure in your thought-life and still know the doctrines very well. You can be a well-known preacher and yet be a great lover of money at the same time. But you can't know God and be immoral in your life. You can't know God and be a lover of money. That's impossible. And that's why most people take the easier path of knowing the doctrines rather than searching for the truth of God.
What do different religions say about GOD?
In Buddhism, the concept of God is not central to its teachings. Buddhism is primarily a non-theistic religion, meaning it does not describe the existence of a supreme being or creator God. Instead, Buddhism focuses on the individual’s path to enlightenment and the understanding of suffering, and the cessation of suffering, etc.
In Islam, Allah is their object of faith. Allah is considered the one and only supreme being, transcendent and without any equals. Allah in Islam is based on the belief in the oneness of the creator, known as Tawhid. Muslims believe that Allah is the creator and sustainer of the universe, and everything in the universe is under his control.
In Judaism, God is often referred to as Yahweh or Adonai, among other names. The concept of God in Judaism is rooted in the belief in monotheism, the belief in one God. Judaism teaches that God is the creator of the universe and the ultimate source of all existence.
In Hinduism, the concept of god is complex and multifaceted. Hinduism is a diverse religion with a wide range of beliefs, practices, and philosophical schools, and different sects within Hinduism may have varying interpretations of the nature of god. Hinduism comprises a wide range of beliefs about god and divinity, such as henotheism, monotheism, polytheism, pantheism, monism, agnosticism, atheism, and nontheism, etc.
In Christianity, God is understood as the supreme being and the creator of the universe. Christians believe in the concept of monotheism, affirming that there is only one God. God is seen as eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere.
Christians believe that God is revealed in three persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. This belief is known as the doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is considered the source of all creation, the Son is seen as the incarnation of God who became human in the person of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is regarded as the active presence of God in Spirit in the world, guiding and empowering believers.
The central event in Christianity is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that through Jesus, God reconciles humanity to Himself, providing salvation and the opportunity for eternal life. Jesus is seen as the mediator between God and humanity, and the ultimate revelation of God’s love and grace.
The Bible presents God in the very first verses of Genesis as the Creator, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). The Bible also explains that, universally, there is a work of God through the Holy Spirit in every person testifying to the fact of God’s existence.
Alongside true revelation of God, however, came the rise of false religions, which the Bible explains as having their source in Satan. Accordingly, humans departed from its belief in one God through the deception of devil and soon began to worship many gods and embodied them in various idols or physical forms. The result was that the whole human race, with few exceptions, departed from God and became corrupted that God had to wipe them out from the earth in the flood (Genesis 6:9-9:17).
It is not surprising, therefore, that today we have many religions that contradict each other, and it is very important to search the Scriptures to find out what is the true faith.
In some ancient religions people worshiped the sun and the moon and the stars, imagining that they were representations of God. The revelation of God in nature is sufficient for the apostle Paul to point out in Romans 1:20 that the world is being judged because of its rejection of the evidence of God in the natural world.
In modern times atheism has appeared with its denial of the existence of God. However, the Bible declares that an atheist is a fool, as stated in Psalms 14:1 “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” The point is that this earth could not have come into existence by accident because it has so much evidence of design and natural law, and our reasoning indicates that something cannot show existence and design apart from a person who has the power to carry out what He thinks. This is why the Bible claims that just from the appearance of nature people should recognize that God is a person of infinite wisdom and of infinite power because that is what the universe would require to be created.
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
We must know certain things to be true of God, primarily for one reason: in His mercy He has chosen to reveal some of His characteristics to us. God is spirit, by nature intangible (John 4:24). God is One, but He exists in three Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16-17). God is infinite (1 Timothy 1:17), incomparable (2 Samuel 7:22), and unchanging (Malachi 3:6). God exists everywhere (Psalm 139:7-12), knows everything (Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 40:28), and has all power and authority (Ephesians 1; Revelation 19:6).
Here are some of God’s characteristics as revealed in the Bible: God is just (Acts 17:31), loving (Ephesians 2:4-5), truthful (John 14:6), and holy (1 John 1:5). God shows compassion (2 Corinthians 1:3), mercy (Romans 9:15), and grace (Romans 5:17). God judges sin (Psalm 5:5) but also offers forgiveness (Psalm 130:4).
UNDERSTANDING GOD THROUGH SCRIPTURES
GOD THE FATHER
In Scripture God is described as a Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In theology God the Father is called the First Person of the Trinity because in the nature of the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Father sends the Son and the Spirit, rather than the Son sending the Father. As Father, He is Father over all creation. He is Father in the sense that He is the originator of everything that has been made. In Malachi 2:10, for instance, the questions are asked, “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?” In the sense that God the Father is our Creator, it is proper to speak of the universal fatherhood of God. This must not be understood, however, in the sense that all men are the spiritual children of God because this is true only of those who are born again, and the universal fatherhood of God does not bring with it any sense of salvation for all men as some have taught.
In the Old Testament God was also the father of Israel in that He established a relationship wherein He had a special place for Israel in His plan for humankind. In keeping with this, Moses told Pharaoh in Exodus 4:22, “This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.” As in the universal fatherhood of God, the special Sonship that Israel enjoyed did not assure to them individual salvation but did assure to them the promises that God had made to the nation as such.
God is also revealed in Scripture as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as stated in Ephesians 1:3. Though the father and son relationship is not the same as human fathers and sons in that Jesus existed from eternity past as well as God the Father, it does indicate a relationship where the Son accomplishes a work on earth on behalf of the Father. This is embodied in the familiar text of John 3:16, where it says that God, that is, God the Father, gave His Son to provide a Savior for humanity. Accordingly, while the Scriptures are clear that God is the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son is not subsequent to, inferior to, or in any way less God than God the Father. As the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has a peculiar relationship to Him that differs from His relationship to any other person. In John 3:16 the Son is referred to as “His one and only Son,” or, literally, “His only begotten Son.” Likewise, in other passages, such as Colossians 1:15, He is declared to be “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Firstborn does not indicate that He was born in His deity but that He was firstborn in the sense that He was before anything that was created, being eternal like God the Father.
A final aspect of the fatherhood of God is that He is the Father of all who believe in Christ as Savior. This is based upon spiritual birth, not natural birth, but it pictures the believer as belonging to the family of God in which God is Christ’s Father. As believers in Christ, they are declared to be “children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). This is affirmed in Galatians 3:26, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
That God is the Heavenly Father of believers in Christ leads to the wonderful truth that as the sons of God, Christians are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (John 1:12-13; 3:3-6; Rom. 8:16-17; Titus 3:4-7; 1 Peter 1:4). The Fatherhood of God is, accordingly, an important aspect of Christian faith and is supported by many Scriptures (John 20:17; 1 Cor. 15:24; Eph. 1:3; 2:18; 4:6; Col. 1:12-13; 1 Peter 1:3; 1 John 1:3; 2:1, 22; 3:1). The fact that God is our Father, a God who is infinitely loving, gracious, powerful, and all-wise is a comfort to believers as they seek to find the Lord’s will for their life and understand the meaning of spiritual experience.
Our Heavenly Father, is worthy of all worship and praise and is everything a father could be, infinitely loving, infinitely wise, infinitely patient, infinitely resourceful, and able to do anything He wills to do.
GOD THE SON
In the Person of the Son, God became incarnate (John 1:14). The Son of God became the Son of Man and is therefore the “bridge” between God and man (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5). It is only through the Son that we can have forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7), reconciliation with God (John 15:15; Romans 5:10), and eternal salvation (2 Timothy 2:10). In Jesus Christ “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). So, to really know who God is, all we have to do is look at Jesus.
Jesus Christ is the central object of Christian faith. Most Christians came to faith because they heard the gospel message that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, had died on the cross for their sins and rose again. Because Jesus Christ is the center of our faith and Christianity gets its name from Christ, it is most important that we understand who He is and what our relationship to Him is.
Scriptures are clear that as the eternal Son of God He is God in all that this term means and that He has existed from eternity past and will continue to exist to eternity future. Though Christ is introduced to most observers in connection with His life on earth when He became man, it is also clear that He existed long before He was born (John 8:58).
Like other members of the Godhead, Jesus Christ existed from all eternity past. This is stated in John 1:1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” Just as Jesus is eternal, it is obvious that He is also God, and Scriptures are abundant in their testimony to this. In fact, the whole gospel of John was written especially to bring men to faith in Christ.
In John 20:30-31 the truth is revealed, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” The Bible not only states in many passages that Jesus Christ is God but also supports this fact by the many miracles that He performed in His life on earth. The fact that He was able to raise Himself from the dead is the ultimate proof that He is, indeed, all that He claimed to be—God’s eternal Son.
Many other direct statements relate to His eternity and deity. In Isaiah 7:14 His virgin birth was announced, and He was given the name “Immanuel,” meaning “God with us.” In Isaiah 9:6-7, referring to the birth of Christ, He is called “Mighty God.” Jesus’ own statement in John 8:58 that He was “before Abraham was born” was correctly understood by the Jews as claiming that He was the eternal God. Jesus Himself referred to the fact that He existed before the world was created.
In John 17:5 Jesus said, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” Philippians 2:6-7 also refers to Christ as existing long before His incarnation; and Colossians 1:15-17 makes a very specific claim concerning Christ, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Christ is said to be the Creator and the “exact representation” of God. So many biblical references support the deity of the Son of God that anyone who accepts the accuracy of biblical revelation also accepts the deity of Christ. Many titles are also ascribed to Christ, including the term “God with us,” “the Son of God,” “the first and the last,” “Lord of all,” “Mighty God,” and “God blessed forever.” Such titles and many others could not be ascribed to Him if He were not actually the eternal Son of God.
In the New Testament Jesus is constantly associated with the Father and the Holy Spirit as equals (Matt. 28:19; John 14:1; 17:3). Because Christ has all the attributes of God, He must necessarily be God Himself. In the worship of Christ as God and in the obedience to Him as Lord, there is constant recognition that He is God and all that this implies.
In the Incarnation when Jesus was born of Mary the new situation included that Jesus had in addition to His divine nature a complete human nature composed of soul, spirit, and body. The fact of the Incarnation is one of the well-attested events of the Bible and is supported throughout the Bible, but particularly through the four gospels, as well as in both Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfilment. In the Old Testament Christ is constantly represented as a man who would die for the sins of the world, as illustrated in Isaiah 53.
All the typology of offering a lamb as a sacrifice for sin in the Old Testament looked forward to the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The life of Christ on earth demonstrated beyond any question that He was a man. His humanity is again revealed in the fact that He died and was resurrected. As the God-Man He is now in heaven at the right hand of God the Father. Though the addition of a complete human nature was a dramatic change in the person of Christ, it did not alter in any way the fact that He was also all that God was.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
From Genesis 1:2 to Revelation 22:17, the Bible records constant references to the Holy Spirit—His person and His work. Like the Father and the Son, He has all the attributes of the Godhead and is especially active in the world scene. Pharaoh saw in Joseph the working of the Spirit (Gen. 41:38).
The Holy Spirit was not only the source of spiritual power but also was related to skills in various fields of work. For instance, Bezalel, according to Scripture, was filled with the Spirit of God, who gave him “skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts” (Ex. 31:2-3). He was able to work in gold, silver, bronze, cut stone, and wood and work with other types of craftsmanship. Other workers in the temple were also given supernatural skill to produce the tabernacle.
The Holy Spirit also gave men qualities of leadership, as in the case of Joshua. The Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him” (Num. 27:18). In the encouragement given to Zerubbabel in connection with building the temple, he was told, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (tech. 4:6).
In the New Testament the Holy Spirit takes on even more significance than in the Old Testament for He is seen in the miracles of Christ, He descends on the day of Pentecost to indwell every believer, and throughout the present age He works in and through believers to accomplish the work of God. In many respects, the relation of a believing Christian to God is a relationship of fellowship with the Holy Spirit in which the Holy Spirit empowers and enables the individual to lead a life that glorifies God. Though He is the “Sent One” by both Christ and the Father, He nevertheless is equal with them in power and glory and has all the same attributes that belong properly to deity.
THE UNITY OF THE TRINITY
In contrast to the polytheism of the heathen world with its many gods and idols, the Christian faith centers in one God. This God, however, is revealed to be a Trinity, including the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. As such, we distinguish the Father from the Son and both of them from the Holy Spirit. Though described as three persons, they are not three persons in the sense of three individuals, but rather constitute one God.
As stated in Deuteronomy 6:4, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” In the Hebrew the word “Lord” is Yahweh, or Jehovah, meaning “I AM,” the most sacred name of God in the Old Testament and used only with the God of Israel. The word “God,” however, “our Elohim,” is plural referring to the plurality of God and implying the Trinity. Thus Jehovah, the one God who is also Elohim, the three persons, is one Lord, preserving the unity of the Trinity.
All truth seekers struggle to understand the doctrine of the Trinity, but it eludes them because it is beyond anything that one can experience in this life. There is really no illustration of the Trinity though a musical chord may combine several notes, and a beam of light may combine several colors. But this is not clearly parallel to the Trinity. Accordingly, the best procedure is to accept the Bible as true and accept the fact that there is one God who exists in three persons and leave the explanation of this to the life after this.
The fact that there are three persons in the Trinity is stressed throughout the Scriptures, particularly in the New Testament, and there can be little doubt that this is what the Bible teaches. For instance, in Matthew 3:16-17 the record is given of Jesus’ baptism, where there was a voice from heaven saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).
At the same time, while God the Father was in heaven, the Holy Spirit was descending like a dove and lighting on Christ (Matt. 3:16), and Christ Himself was being baptized. Accordingly, all three persons of the Trinity exist as three persons who are also one. The fact of the Trinity is supported by the baptismal formula mentioned by Christ where He instructed His disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19).
The doctrine of the Trinity affirms that there are three persons in the Godhead who are one. However, the members of the Trinity are distinguishable by having certain properties that differ even though they are equal in attributes. Therefore, the first Person is called the Father, the second Person is called the Son, and the third Person is called the Holy Spirit. There is obviously no parallel to this in human experience, and accordingly, the doctrine must be accepted by faith. The doctrine of the Trinity, therefore, presents God as a unique God who differs from all heathen gods as such and is the consistent presentation of the nature of God in the Bible.
God created the world (Genesis 1:1; Isaiah 42:5); He actively sustains the world (Colossians 1:17); He is executing His eternal plan (Ephesians 1:11) which involves the redemption of man from the curse of sin and death (Galatians 3:13-14); He draws people to Christ (John 6:44); He disciplines His children (Hebrews 12:6); and He will judge the world (Revelation 20:11-15).
Pastor Renji George
Mount Church, Cardiff, Wales, UK.
www.mountchurchcardiff.com
YouTube @preachingthetruth3414
