Friday, October 24, 2008

The Nature of God

"Now Mount Sinai {was} all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder."  (Exodus 19:18-19) 

Have you ever contemplated this question?  It is a legitimate question.  “Who is He” is often interspersed with “What is He?” For example, “God is love.” (I John 4:8).  Is this an attempt to answer “who” or “what?”  I guess I would almost have to respond by saying, “both.”

 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."  (John 4:24) “What” He is obviously affects “who” He is.  Who and what He is also obviously affects what He wants from us.   Today I wish to approach this from an evidences standpoint… and look a little deeper into what the Bible actually reveals to us about “what” God is.

I also wish to compare this insight with the laws that drive the universe.   What the Bible reveals about God is exactly what the universe demands for God to be… in order for God to be its creator.


Let’s begin by allowing the Bible to introduce a summary statement concerning the nature of God.
 
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
 
             For, even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing to be wise, they became fools,”   (Romans 1:18-22)

Notice that Paul declares in no uncertain terms that God has made some things evident.  Two things in particular stand out;
           
 

1) Eternal power             
2) Divine nature  (a vast incredible mind-intelligence)

Paul obviously postulates what today is called “intelligent design.” 
Who God is takes a Bible.  What He is has been clearly revealed.

So… can a nuclear physicist believe in God? Most don’t seem to… but should they?

Let’s consider Albert Einstein.    We know him for his famous equation E=MC2,presented in 1905.  This took awhile to bloom but it eventually led to a nuclear bomb.  Note that for the first time in human history, there really was no doubt that energy was absolutely related to the material world.

Energy directly correlates with the material world.  If you rip the material world apart you will release incredible quantities of energy. Can we put it another way?

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”  (II Peter 3:10)

If you are going to “destroy” the elements what are you going to get?  Well, 2000 years ago Peter said it would come with a roar and in intense heat (release of energy).  Did he formulate the exact correlation E=MC
2?  Obviously not.  But did Peter get it right? Oh yeah!

As a side note, in virtually the same breath Peter also accurately described the mindset so common today.

 “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with {their} mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For {ever} since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.   For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God {the} heavens existed long ago and {the} earth was formed out of water and by water.”   (II Peter 3:3-5)

Are things as they have always been?  No, they are not.  The universe is decaying as we march ever closer to our end.  This concept, which is today formulated in different ways, is exactly as Peter had also said it would be.

Frankly this accuracy should help us to believe that what he says will be (through the Holy Spirit) is what really will be. “But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”  (II Peter 3:7)

Consider Paul’s application of this same knowledge….
“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”  (Hebrews 12:28-29)

Really?  Is God a consuming fire?  Well, He is a creating powerful intelligence... that also says He will consume the elements with an intense heat and a roar.  That fits well with what we now know from consuming small amounts of those same elements!

Let’s move on and consider The Large Hadron Collider...

This past month they have fired up the Large Hadron Collider built on the Swiss and French border.  LHC for short.  It has been 20 years in the making.  In a nutshell it is a giant circular tunnel 17 miles around built 300’ underground.

Its design is to accelerate two different streams of energy/particles to near the speed of light going in opposite directions and then smash them into each other.  What’s the point?  To see if they can create what scientists have nicknamed the “God particle.”

Don’t misunderstand the term “God particle,” it is a pejorative term not a respectful one. They are searching for yet another "missing link" in the fundamentals of our universe while denying its creator.

It is an attempt to create what they believe to be one of the original, fundamental pieces of the universe. Mankind has succeeded in tearing matter apart but has not in a meaningful way been able to reverse the process.

Interestingly the Bible gives the missing link in physics accurately as well.

“The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek {Him.} All his thoughts are, "There is no God."  (Psalm 10:4)    These men are looking for the God particle when they should be looking for God.

They are trying desperately to solve the riddle of mass.  Energy has no appreciable mass. So how can incredible quantities of energy take on weight?  They have correctly theorized that there must be a way that such can be done.  Their answer is that there must be a particle they are missing.  So they are trying re-create creation itself in order to find it.

So can you create something from nothing?  Well, as matter of fact you can.  It has been done before.
 “Now faith is the assurance of {things} hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that
what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”  (Hebrews 11:1-3)

Christians have “understood” that things made were not made out of visible things for 2000 years.  What these scientists are searching for, we Christians have known to exist for a long time.  These men in their pursuit of themselves may well demonstrate the truth of Hebrews 11:3 before all the world.

They may be the first ones in history to really “make” matter rather than just changing it around a bit.  It is not too difficult with our level of technology to bang around between hydrogen and helium for example, but too actually create mass is going to be interesting. 

What does it take to do that? Incredible amounts of energy.  Ripping matter apart is not nearly as difficult at putting it together.  i.e. they are try to put Humpty Dumpty back together without tearing him apart in the first place.

Now consider this… and remember that it does not come from an article in today’s National Geographic.  It was written 2000 years ago. To be the creator… where must God come from?
Paul gave Timothy a straight up answer to that very question…

“until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time--He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him {be} honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”  (I Timothy 6:14-16)

The creator of heaven and earth dwells in unapproachable light (energy!).  E=MC
2…?  To create mass God must have, (or be) an incredible source of energy.  He didn’t need to work for 20 years and spend 10 Billion dollars to bang two streams of particles together…

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”   (Genesis 1:1-5)

The issue of light and darkness, energy and matter, life from non-life, and the boundary lines of each were wrapped up in some seven days.

God created the world… and the Bible is the Word of God.  God is exactly what both His Creation and His Bible reveal Him to be.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



Hi I am glad you stopped by our blog. These articles are from an emailing that we did several years ago.   Today most of our work is on facebook

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  Jerry Blount 

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Jerry Blount