Lesson 4
What Is God?
One of the more misunderstood concepts among atheists
and believers in God alike is the question of what
God is. Many people have a physical "old man
in the sky" concept like the picture to the left. We have
a tendency to create God in our image instead of
the other way around. It seems we all fall into the
trap of conceiving of a God that has the same weaknesses
and prejudices that we do, and we totally miss the
real nature of God. We also cause enormous problems and doubts
which are precipitated by our physical and anthropomorphic
visualization of God.
From both a Biblical and a logical standpoint,
it should be clear that God cannot rationally be understood as a
man or a physical entity. We read descriptions of God in
the Bible and, without exception, these descriptions are non-physical
and non-anthropomorphic. Consider this partial list:
John 4,24: "God is a Spirit: and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
Matt. 16:17: "... Blessed art thou,
Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in
heaven."
I John 1:5: "God is light, in Him is
no darkness.
I John 4:16: "God is love;
and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth
in God, and God in him."
I John 4:8: "God is love."
Numbers 23:19: "God is not a man.
that He should lie; neither the son of man,
that He should repent: hath He said, and shall
He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall
He not make it good?"
Isaiah 55:9: "For as the heavens are
higher than the Earth, so are my ways higher
than yours, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Job 9:32: "For he is not a man, as I am,
that I should answer him, and we should
come together in judgment."
It is true that physical or human descriptions
may be applied to God when the Bible explains how God does things.
Consider these examples:
Psalms 36:7: "How excellent is thy
lovingkindness, 0 God! therefore the children of
men put their trust under the shadow of thy
wings."
Isaiah 1:15: "And when ye spread forth
your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you..."
I Peter 3:12: "For the eyes of the Lord
are over the righteous, and His ears are
open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is
against them that do evil."
Numbers 11:2: "And the Lord said unto
Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short?..."
Acts 11:21: "And the hand of the Lord
was with them..."
This use of accommodative language is familiar
to all of us. When we talk about "the long arm of the law," do we
mean that breaking a speed limit might cause a hand to
come out of the sky and pick us up out of our car? Does "the face
of America" refer to an actual face? These are words used to
describe how something is or acts. So, too, are such descriptions
of Gods activity. All descriptions of God, however, are totally
non-anthropomorphic and non-physical.
It may sound, then, as if God cannot
be understood and, while our minds do have limitations, this is
simply not the case. What we do have to do to understand God's
nature is to apply a technique of science. How do we understand
an electron? We cannot see an electron because it is too small.
We cannot bear, touch, smell, or taste a single electron
for the same reason. What we do to understand an electron is to
study its properties. By rubbing a hard rubber rod on a cat and
touching it to a detector, we can establish some of its
properties.
By more elaborate experiments, we can establish
other properties. Eventually, we can identify so many properties
that we can begin to use electrons for practical devices
like television sets. The same method is involved in understanding
atoms, neutrinos, photons, mesons, and a variety of other
phenomena in science. Things like love, loyalty, patriotism,
and the like are handled in the same way.
To understand God, we must study His
properties. What is being done when the Bible says things like
"God is love," "God is light," "God is a Spirit" and the like? These
are properties of God, aren't they? The Bible is simply
using a logical scientific technique to help us comprehend
something which does not lend itself to empirical
observation. We can understand God at least as completely
as we can comprehend an electron by this technique.
Most misunderstandings about God
and man's relationship to Him are rooted in this
difficulty. Let's examine a few instances of this.
God and Time
One of the more important attributes of
God to understand is the fact that God is independent of time.
God created time! All points of time are now to
God. The Bible points out these relationships with
passages like this:
II Peter 3:8: “But, beloved,
be not ignorant of this one thing. that one day is with the
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years
as one day.”
It is important to realize that Einstein
verified the relative nature of time. Time is not an ethereal
substance evenly flowing through the cosmos. Time is a created thing,
existent so that matter can exist and so that the physical
world can be. Think of the understandings which are linked to the
realization that God is independent of time!
How can God hear all of our prayers at
once? God has all of eternity to listen to the last
second prayer of a pilot as his plane goes down in flames. Time
does not limit God.
How long did God need to create the
Earth? None at all! God created time. He could have
done everything or anything in an instant or He could take trillions
of quadrillions of years.
What is Eternity? It is that situation
where time does not exist!! Realize that if there is no
time, there will be no death, either. Death is dependent on the
passage of time. There will also be no physical pain or
tears or crying! All of these things depend upon time. What we have
is a perfect congruence with Revelation 21:4 –“...there
shall be no more death. neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain: for the forever things are passed
away.”
Where did God come from or who created
God? If God created time, then He was in existence before
the beginning. This means God had no beginning and He was not created.
In fact, the only way physical matter can exist is
to be created by a time-independent God. When time stops, as II
Peter 3:10 states, matter will dissolve.
God
and Space
One of Einstein’s more interesting concepts
involves the relationship of time and space. The
point is that space and time are intimately related.
In astronomy today, we speak of “space-time,” indicating this
interdependence. To visualize this, you might think of how
you could travel if you were independent of the time limitations.
If time does not pass for you, you could be in California, New
York, Miami, and on the Moon all at the same time--instantaneously.
We even say “If only I had time, I would do…”
(whatever we didn’t get done). We all recognize that time
limits what we can do an where we can be in space.
If God is independent of time, then
logically follows that He must also be unlimited in space. If every
piece of time now to God, then every point in space must
also be here and now to God. The idea that God is everywhere makes
perfect sense when looked at in this way. Passages like Act
17:28 (“For in Him we live, and move, an have our being...”)
take on a realistic connotation if we really think of the true
nature of God. Even the ancient Biblical characters did
not understand the nature o God to this extent. Adam and Eve though
that they could hide from God. David thought he could commit
a terrible sin with Bathsheba and somehow God would not find out.
The followers of Jesus could not understand that Jesus’
kingdom “is not of this world.”
Today the same problems and misunderstandings
exist. Many people do not understand that in God “we live and move
and have our being.” We have people who feel that their
behavior in the church buildings and in their daily lives are independent
of each other. If we really understand and believe that
“in Him we live and move and have our being,” then deliberate hypocrisy
and living in opposition to Biblical principles are impossibilities.
We also introduce insecurity and failure to believe God
makes a difference when we fail to understand His nature.
In later lessons, we will continue this
theme by looking at what man is. What does it mean to say that
man is created in the image of God? It cannot refer to our
physical likeness because God himself is not physical. What
is the soul? How are we different than an ape or a dog? All of these
concepts, as well as the whole subject of evolution, relate
back to the spiritual nature of God.
© John N. Clayton
Lesson 4 Questions
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