Who Is God?
Who is God? This is one of the biggest questions anyone can ask. So many people have preconceived notions of what God 'should' be like (and some get very confused when they find out that the Bible isn't in agreement with their personal prejudices!) If you want to find out who God is, this is where I would really recommend trying the experiment of reading the Bible without any preconceived ideas.
God is our creator, as is made clear in Genesis. He made not only us, but our world and our Universe. (Here people tend to get bogged down about evolution vs creationism - they are not mutually exclusive!) God is good (here people get bogged down about why bad things happen if God is good; read more here). God is all-knowing and all-powerful (yet again, people get bogged down about whether we actually have Free Will - yes we do; read about Free Will here). God hates sin, yet all of us humans are sinners. Sin is just the most horrible thing there is, from his point of view. God can punish sin exactly as he wishes. Yet he sent down his only Son, Jesus, to die bearing the sins of the world so Jesus might rise up again and save those sinners who choose to accept his offer. (Here people also get confused about why God gave Adam and Eve free will knowing that they would fall). God is more real, more solid, more dense than us or our world.
Now, in the above description, do you see anything about a benevolent grandfather in a robe and sandals who says 'yes' to everything you ask for (even things you don't need or are harmful to you?). Do you see someone who you can approach exactly as you would an equal, without any sense of awe? Do you see someone who is sitting up in the sky looking down from a distance? If this second set of descriptions is a better match for your ideas than the first, then you are probably thinking of the approximation of God taught to children in Sunday School. It's a simplified version for children, a bit like the way a child learns to ride a tricycle but adults can drive a car. We're not children anymore.
If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:
God is our creator, as is made clear in Genesis. He made not only us, but our world and our Universe. (Here people tend to get bogged down about evolution vs creationism - they are not mutually exclusive!) God is good (here people get bogged down about why bad things happen if God is good; read more here). God is all-knowing and all-powerful (yet again, people get bogged down about whether we actually have Free Will - yes we do; read about Free Will here). God hates sin, yet all of us humans are sinners. Sin is just the most horrible thing there is, from his point of view. God can punish sin exactly as he wishes. Yet he sent down his only Son, Jesus, to die bearing the sins of the world so Jesus might rise up again and save those sinners who choose to accept his offer. (Here people also get confused about why God gave Adam and Eve free will knowing that they would fall). God is more real, more solid, more dense than us or our world.
Now, in the above description, do you see anything about a benevolent grandfather in a robe and sandals who says 'yes' to everything you ask for (even things you don't need or are harmful to you?). Do you see someone who you can approach exactly as you would an equal, without any sense of awe? Do you see someone who is sitting up in the sky looking down from a distance? If this second set of descriptions is a better match for your ideas than the first, then you are probably thinking of the approximation of God taught to children in Sunday School. It's a simplified version for children, a bit like the way a child learns to ride a tricycle but adults can drive a car. We're not children anymore.
If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:
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