Opening Question: 

When you hear the term God, what are your initial thoughts relating to the Creator of the world?

 

God

Most people all over the world believe in some form of god or higher power.  Some people believe in a single Supreme Being, the Head over all things.  We have all been created by this God, and yet so many people wonder what He is like and want to know more about his character

 

Take a minute and write you general thoughts about who you think God is, let your imagination run and guide your thoughts.

Let’s now take the time to explore some of the characteristics of God defined by the Bible.  We will be using the Bible as our sole documented source for defining the characteristics.  We understand that this may be exclusive in nature; however, the Truth Adventure is focused on one direction, and that this adventure can mean stepping outside of boundaries we are not comfortable doing and are willing to challenging previous thoughts and upbringings.

Be willing to explore and venture into uncharted waters.

 

God exists.

1. Reason from cause:

The world we live in had to be created somehow. Somebody or something must have caused it to come into existence. If we were to take all the pieces of a mobile phone and placed in a bottle, after a million years of shaking would the mobile phone be ‘accidentally’ put together and running. Our planet along with the other planets, the moon, and sun are placed in a precise location and moving at a rate to produce a perfect environment for humans to exist.  Someone has caused it to happen, and it is not by accident or randomness coming together over time.

 

     2.  Reason from design: (Gen. 1:2-26)

A computer not only exists physically but required a designer to bring it into existence. Take the first Apple Macintosh® for example.  It was created by Steve Jobs and Steve Waskinak.  It was created for a specific purpose, to provide a means of creating and computing. It was not designed as an ant house. The colors of the birds and flowers, the sounds of all the animals, and the vastness of creation show that someone has designed it with a purpose. If we were to examine the human body in more detail, we would discover we are composed of multiple complex systems (respiratory system, digestive system, nervous systems, circulatory systems, etc.) which shows we are meticulously designed and very complex.

 

     3.  The Moral argument: (Gen 1:27-28)

Humans were created like God.  Man is intellectual and has a moral nature showing that the Creator must not be merely an inanimate force but a far superior, living, intelligent moral being.

 

     4.  Conscience argument:

Man is born with an awareness in a Supreme Being and it’s in our inherent nature to know this. But how does one really know this?  No tribe on the planet, in all of time, has been discovered lacking this idea. Remote tribes have been discovered in modern history to have worshiped something higher/larger than humans.  Every person inherently knows some Being created and controls the universe. The Bible details this in Romans,

 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them . . .  – Romans 2:14-15 (ESV)

     5.  Arguments from the Bible:

The Bible is given to us as the Holy Scriptures, and it describes to us the attributes of God in details. Let’s look at Genesis 1:1 ‘In the beginning, God…’ He existed before anything. He was, is, and is to come.  God is also described as the Alpha and Omega – the beginning and the end.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. -Romans 1:20

 

A person can be characterized by personality. The American Psychological Association (APA) states: “personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.”  (ref: https://www.apa.org/topics/personality ) God is a person and not merely an influence or an unseen force or energy.  Unlike an idol, which cannot see, feel or respond, God has living characteristics similar to all humankind.

Let’s look at some of these characteristics described in the Bible.

• God is living – (Jeremiah 10:10,  I Thessalonians 1:9)
• God sees – (II Chron 16:9)
• God knows – (Psalms 94:11)
• God laughs – (Psalms 2:4)
• God is full of Joy – (Psalms 16:11)

 

God is Spirit.

 

God has neither flesh, bones nor blood. He is a Spirit who is invisible to our eyes and has no form.

God is a Spirit, and His worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.  – John 4:24 

 

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen’  -I Timothy 1:17

As we discussed in the previous lesson on Sin, Exodus 20:4-5a states, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God,…’ God being a Spirit, prohibits us from representing Him in any physical form.

God is Creator.

 

All over creation we see God’s magnificent nature combined.  We see His power, attention to details, intelligence, orderliness, beauty, wisdom, communication, love and so much more. From the smallest detail to the vastness of the universe, God provided order and purpose for everything.

The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.    -Psalms 19:1-4

 

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
    “‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
    as even some of your own poets have said,
     “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’   -Acts 17:24-28

 

God is a Father.

 

God is the father to all humans. He made us in his image to reflect his moral attributes. He loves us and care for us, even in the midst of the brokenness of the world we live in.

 

 ‘A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families…’ -Psalms 68:5-6

 

‘How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God…’ -I John 3:1-2a 

 

It is His fatherly love that reaches out to us, forgives, and allows us to be restored. Although we all have earthly fathers, we should never measure our heavenly father by the limited way our earthly fathers have treated us (good or bad).

Our only response is to believe in this magnificent and powerful God.  However, there are some more attributes we will cover tomorrow.

 

Debriefing Questions.

1. If someone drew a ‘cockroach’ and said that “This is the image of God.” What would be your response? Why?

2. Did you notice the transferable and non-transferable qualities of God? What would you say to someone who says that he thinks he is God?