Who is God?

This is a simple, yet profound subject. It is simple in the sense that a child can understand, yet so profound that theologians can write entire books about the subject.

While typing, I just looked at my 12 year old daughter and asked her, "Who, or what, is God?"

The first thing that sprang to her mind (and to my 51 year old mind) was Creator. That is a good place to start. That is where the apostle Paul started when he was pushed in front of the podium before a pagan audience in Athens, Greece. The scene is described in the New Testament book of Acts, in Chapter 17. The Greeks had many gods, and as the Athenians demanded to know what Paul believed, the first thing out of Paul's mouth is that the God which Paul is proclaiming is the creator of all things. Pauls says:

God that made the world and all things therein

We learn many other things about God in the Bible. He is: loving, just, holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, present everywhere, eternal (without beginning or end). Some of these concepts are difficult for a finite human mind. The list could likely be made longer. It is sufficient to say that God is certainly demands attention.

When driving the truck, there are certain things you can ignore. There are certain things you cannot ignore. An unhappy automobile driver who flips you off because you are holding him up with your slow truck can be ignored. A state trooper with flashing lights who pulls in behind you cannot be ignored, since after all he has a gun and the full might and power of the state stand behind him. Truck drivers learn to fear state troopers. Once you have lost the equivalent of a week's paycheck to ticket happy state trooper, you learn to fear. God is bigger than any state trooper. State trooper, judges, governors, presidents and kings must answer to God. We do well to take Him very, very seriously.

One of the great problems in the church today is a low view of God and a high view of man. Many of today's teachers do not fear God sufficiently to respect His word. Isaiah, a prophet of the Old Testament, writes in chapter 65:

Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you,
that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear
to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

God demands our respect. He is worthy of our respect.

Basic Axioms or Postulates

To have sound doctrine, you must start somewhere. You cannot pull sound doctrine out of the air. You cannot even discern sound doctrine using human logic alone if, as the Bible says, we are fallen, depraved creatures. A very, very long time ago, in high school, I took a geometry class. I remember that the class had to begin with certain starting rules, I think they were called postulates or axioms. Once you had that groundwork laid, you could go on to build a system of geometry.

Let me put it another way. If you are a truck driver, you know that you have to trip plan. Trip planning includes choosing a legal route, choosing places where you can stop for the night (you can't put a 60+ foot rig weighing 79,000 lbs in someones front yard!), choosing fuel stops, and estimating how many miles to cover each day to arrive on time. But no truck driver can trip plan unless he is told the pickup point, the delivery point, and the appointment times. That information is basic. If there is no load, there is no trip, there is nothing to plan.

The starting place must be the Scriptures - God's Holy Bible. Why?

Man is not all-knowing. To know something of God there must be revelation of God. We know that there is a general revelation of God in nature. Anyone who spends any time observing and contemplating the world around us will quickly discern that a great power is at work. The unbeliever calls this force "nature", or "Mother Earth", or "Chance", but he must call it something. The creators of Star Wars call it "The Force". Only a fool fails to recognize that there is some great force at work (I can say this because the Bible expressly says that those who say that there is no God are fools - Psalm 14:1).

The question may be asked, "Why the Bible"? That is a good question. There are an abundance of Holy Books or other claimed sources of divine revelation: the Koran, the Hindu holy texts, the Pope, the Book of Mormon. You have many choices.

To set forth why the Bible is superior is probably beyond the scope of my ability and certainly beyond the time I have available this morning. In brief, some of the reasons why the Bible is superior include:

• 1. It very accurately describes man. I could hardly belabor this point. The bible is shockingly accurate in describing us in a way that modern psychology and other teachings are not.
• 2. It is historically accurate. The bible very accurately describes the events of the middle east during the past several thousand years.
• 3. The Bible contains prophecies which we know were accurately fulfilled (this is an important reason).
• 4. The Bible is distinct from many other historical books - it shows even its heroes to be flawed men and women. The Bible never sugar coats its characters. (Of course there is one character who did not have flaws).
• 5. The Bible decribes a unique God, one who is completely "other", completely distinct from man.
• 6. The Bible is internally consistent, though having been written by dozens of men from differing occupations and educational levels over the course of centuries.
  

I could go on, and may add to this list if I think of some other distinctives. There are apologists who grapple with and debate the superiority of the bible on a regular basis.

For right now, let us start with the Holy Bible as the beginning point of this discussion of theology.

Easter Monday

It did not seem appropriate to discuss theology on the journal blog or on the devotional blog, so here is a third blog. Sound theology, sound doctrine, is very important, and very much lacking these days.

My wife and I live in Southeast Texas, just outside Houston, and we are incredibly frustrated at times insofar as we cannot seem to find a sound church to attend. We are currently attending an Assembly of God church, but I do not know for how long.

Since I am not theologically trained, I trust the reader will be patient and forgive imprecise or inaccurate use of terms. Helpful corrections will be appreciated.