Who Do You Think God Is?

WHO DO YOU THINK GOD IS?

Genesis 1:1.

In Hyde Park, London, near Marble Arch and Oxford Street, there is a famed ‘Speakers’ Corner’, where such people as Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and George Orwell, and many others known and unknown, at one time and another have exercised their right of free speech. It all began long before, with people making their final speeches before being hanged nearby at Tyburn Gallows (1196-1783)! Anybody is entitled to do this, and it is sanctioned by an Act of Parliament (1872), with the proviso that the police consider the speeches are lawful.

One day in the decades following the end of the Second World War, a man was standing before a modest crowd at Speakers’ Corner, spouting forth his view that ‘There is no God!’ followed by, ‘He hasn’t done anything for me, anyway!’ One passer-by spotted the hole in this argument and heckled accordingly: ‘How do you expect Him to do anything for you if He doesn’t exist!’ This was quite without reference to the Bible, which twice says, “The fool has said in his heart that there is no God” (Psalm 14:1; Psalm 53:1)!

One thing we can say about God, with a great measure of certainty, is that, no matter how we try, we cannot in any way quantify Him. There is a riddle which asks such questions as ‘What is higher than the highest, deeper than the deepest, wider than the widest, broader than the broadest, and greater than God?’ The answer is, ‘Nothing!’

From the outset, the Bible shows us that God is quite without limit in relation to Time. The first statement of the Bible doesn’t offer an explanation, a ‘History of God’ if you will. It simply states the fact: “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1). A Psalm accredited to Moses addresses God in this way: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God” (Psalm 90:2).

The name by which God revealed Himself to Moses (Exodus 3:14) can be transliterated as ‘Yahweh’, and means “I AM” - with the inference of ‘I Am, I Always Was, I Ever Will Be’. Where our English translations have the device of writing “the LORD” in capital letters, this is the name there used. In Isaiah 45:5, for example, we read, “I am the LORD, and there is no other, there is no God beside Me.”

Another proposition that we might consider is one given to us by Jesus: “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). The LORD God is not limited by a body such as we are. God is not to be equated with Space, but He is everywhere present. King David therefore asks, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7).

It is also evident that God is unchangeable. It is said of the heavens and the earth, “They will perish”, but of God “but you will endure” (Psalm 102:26). The Bible also tells us, “The heavens declare the glory of the LORD” (Psalm 19:1).

As time goes on, we are discovering more and more about our universe. And the more we find out, the more we find out how little we know. Theories, as in all departments of true Science, are just that: expendable, subject to change, disproved by evidence hitherto unfound. New theories must be written, new ideas espoused.

This is also true of our theories of the origins of man. Much of the scientific community is still dug-in on the theory of evolution. Darwin himself would be the first to tell them that it only ever was just that: a theory! The Bible tells us that “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).

Somebody commented, by way of apology for using the term ‘God’ disrespectfully: ‘I don’t know why I said that: I don’t believe in God anyway.’ Just because we don’t want to believe in God won’t make Him go away! What if He decided that He doesn’t want to believe in us anymore? It is unthinkable.

Which is more credulous: to believe that everything happened by chance (which still leaves us with no answer as to the origin of Matter itself); or to believe in the infinite, eternal, unchangeable God who created all things of nothing, “In the beginning” (Genesis 1:1)?