The Fact of God
1. Question: "How do we know that God really exists?" Answer: Many people today would like to escape the authority of God and, therefore, have tried to convince themselves and others that science has done away with God and creation. Men would like to believe that they are accountable only to themselves, therefore they seek either to reject God altogether or else to relegate Him to some intangible, impersonal role in the cosmos, of no direct concern to themselves. Communism, which has already enslaved half the world and is well along in its struggle for the rest of it, is founded squarely on the religion of atheism and evolutionism. Even in Christendom, so-called, God is still recognized in a nominal way, though He is largely ignored in the political and scientific and educational realms, where His authority ought to be most clearly recognized and His guidance most carefully sought and followed.
Yet the evidence for God is so clear and certain that the Psalmist could exclaim that only "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God!" (Psalm 14:1).
The very essence of the scientific method, in common with all human experience, involves the basic principle of Cause-and-Effect. That is, no effect can be greater than its cause. "From nothing, nothing comes!" There must therefore be a First Cause of all things which has at the very least all the characteristics which are seen in the universe which has been produced by it.
Thus, the First Cause must have intelligence, because there are intelligent beings in the universe, and the universe itself is intelligible, capable of being studied and described intelligently. It is an "effect" which must have an adequate "cause," and such a cause must therefore have intelligence in such a high degree as to practically be called "omniscient" (all-knowing).
Similarly, the First Cause must have emotional attributes, since such things as emotions are surely present in the world. The highest and noblest emotion, most men would agree, is that of love, and thus the Cause of love must itself be One who possesses love in a very high degree.
Furthermore, the attribute of "will," or volition, is very prominent among men and, since it did not produce itself, the great First Cause must also possess a sovereign will.
Then there are tremendous reservoirs of power and energy in the universe, spread over innumerable suns and inconceivable distances, and the original Cause of such vast sources of power must itself have even more power and therefore be, as far as we can judge, omnipotent (all-powerful). Since space and time are also real "effects," and since our scientific studies have been unable to place finite limits on either space or time, their original Cause surely must be both omnipresent and eternal as well.
Finally, since moral and spiritual realities are not self-produced and since all men are aware of such entities, it is certain that the First Cause must be both moral and spiritual in an exceedingly high degree. Furthermore, although we may not understand just how "evil" could be permitted in a moral universe, it is surely significant that men everywhere recognize that "good" is better than "bad" and that "right" is better than "wrong." They intuitively know there is a difference between right and wrong, even though they may not always agree as to the precise definitions thereof.
This moral consciousness can be explained only in terms of a great First Cause with a moral consciousness. Thus, merely by application of the basic scientific law of Cause and Effect, we can deduce that the First Cause must almost certainly be One who is eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, volitional, loving and righteous. The Cause is therefore a great Person, and is exactly such a person as the God revealed in the Bible, the One who created and upholds all things, and to whom every man must account in the Last Day.
Some would claim that there was no First Cause—that the universe never had a beginning. But this is precluded by the Two Laws of Thermodynamics, which are the most basic and best-proved of all scientific laws and which control all known events and processes in the universe.
The First Law is that of Conservation of Mass-Energy, and it assures us that the universe is not creating itself, since nothing can ever be truly created by conservative, non-creative processes.
The Second Law is that of Increasing Disorder, and it says that the universe is running down and wearing out. All processes tend toward a state of decay and ultimate death. Eventually, if present processes continue, the universe will die. And, since it has not yet died, it cannot be infinitely old and must have had a beginning at some time in the past.
The universe is not creating itself in the present, but must have been created in the past by a great First Cause, and that Cause must have been a Person! This is the most reasonable possible conclusion of true science and of all knowledge and experience.
Therefore, men who reject or ignore God do so, not because science or reason require them to, but purely and simply because they want to! As the Scripture says, "They did not like to retain God in their knowledge" (Romans 1:28). "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man" (Romans 1:22, 23).
For those who really desire to know God, however, He has revealed Himself perfectly through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1:18). Jesus Christ is God incarnate—the God-man. The perfection of His life and teachings, His atoning death, the certainty of His bodily resurrection, and the glorious life imparted to each one who receives Him by faith as Lord and Savior, all unite in a perfect testimony to the reality of the true God.
2. Question: "How can one God be three persons?" Answer: The doctrine of the Trinity—that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are each equally and eternally the one true God—is admittedly difficult to comprehend, and yet is the very foundation of Christian truth. Although skeptics may ridicule it as a mathematical impossibility, it is nevertheless a basic doctrine of Scripture as well as profoundly realistic in both universal experience and in the scientific understanding of the cosmos.
Both Old and New Testaments teach both the Unity and the Trinity of the Godhead. The idea that there is only one God, who created all things, is repeatedly emphasized in such Scriptures as Isaiah 45:18: "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; ...I am the Lord; and there is none else."
A New Testament example is James 2:19: "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well; the devils also believe, and tremble."
The three persons of the Godhead are, at the same time, noted in such Scriptures as Isaiah 48:16: "I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, there am I; and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me." The speaker in this verse is obviously God, and yet He says He has been "sent both by the Lord God (that is, the Father) and by His Spirit (that is, the Holy Spirit). The New Testament doctrine of the Trinity is evident in such a verse as John 15:26, where the Lord Jesus said: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, He shall testify of me." Then there is the baptismal formula: "baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19). One name (God)—yet three names!
That Jesus, as the only-begotten Son of God, actually claimed to be God, equal with the Father, is clear from numerous Scriptures. For example, He said: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1:8).
Some cults falsely teach that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal divine influence of some kind, but the Bible teaches that He is a real person, just as are the Father and the Son. Jesus said: "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will shew you things to come" (John 16:13).
The teaching of the Bible concerning the Trinity might be summarized thus. God is a Tri-unity, with each Person of the Godhead equally and fully and eternally God. Each is necessary, and each is distinct, and yet all are one. The three Persons appear in a logical, causal order. The Father is the unseen, omnipresent Source of all being, revealed in and by the Son, experienced in and by the Holy Spirit. The Son proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit from the Son. With reference to God's creation, the Father is the Thought behind it, the Son is the Word calling it forth, and the Spirit is the Deed making it a reality. We "see" God and His great salvation in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, then "experience" their reality by faith, through the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit.
Though these relationships seem paradoxical, and to some completely impossible, they are profoundly realistic, and their truth is ingrained deep in man's nature. Thus, men have always sensed first the truth that God must be "out there," everywhere present and the First Cause of all things, but they have corrupted this intuitive knowledge of the Father into pantheism and ultimately into naturalism. Similarly, men have always felt the need to "see" God in terms of their own experience and understanding, but this knowledge that God must reveal Himself has been distorted into polytheism and idolatry. Men have thus continually erected "models" of God, sometimes in the form of graven images, sometimes in the form of supposed written descriptions and false scriptures, sometimes even in the form of philosophical systems purporting to represent ultimate reality. Finally, men have always known that they should be able to have communion with their Creator and to experience His presence "within." But this deep intuition of the Holy Spirit has been corrupted into various forms of false mysticism and fanaticism, and even into spiritism and demonism. Thus, the truth of God's tri-unity is ingrained in man's very nature, but he has often distorted it and substituted a false god in its place.
Furthermore, the truth of the triune nature of the Creator is clearly implied by the profoundly triune nature of the Creation. Thus the physical cosmos is clearly a tri-universe of Space, Matter and Time, and each of these is co-extensive with the entire universe. Space is the omnipresent background of all physical reality, Matter (or "Mass-Energy") is that which is everywhere observed in Space, and Time is the ever-flowing but invisible agent through which we can actually experience the phenomena of Matter and Energy.
Each of these three entities is also itself a tri-unity. Thus, Space is three-dimensional, with each dimension comprising the entire space. Space is measured in terms of one single dimension (e.g., the foot, meter, etc.), but can be seen only in two dimensions and "lived in" in three dimensions. Just as the "reality" or volume of space is obtained by multiplying the three dimensions together, so one might say the mathematics of the Trinity is not 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1, but rather 1 times 1 times 1 equals 1.
Similarly Time is a tri-unity of Future, Present and Past time. The Future is the unseen source of Time, becoming visible moment-by-moment in the Present, and then passing into the realm of the "experienced" Past. Each is the whole of Time, yet each is distinct and necessary for the understanding of Time.
Finally, those phenomena and processes which take place in Space, through Time, which men call Matter, also constitute a remarkable tri-unity. Energy is the unseen source, manifesting itself in Motion, and then experienced in a particular process or phenomenon. Everything that "happens" in Space and Time is measured in terms of its particular rate or motion—how much time to move through a unit of space. But the particular Motion is inseparably linked with the particular kind of Energy which caused it on the one hand, and the particular kind of phenomenon which it produces on the other. The tri-unity of Matter thus is that of Energy continually producing and revealing itself in Motion, which is then experienced through associated Phenomena.
The physical universe is thus fundamentally a Trinity of Trinities! Everywhere we look we see this universal tri-unity of Cause, Event and Consequence—of Source, Manifestation and Meaning. It is, therefore, not at all mathematically unreasonable, but rather intensely realistic, to believe that the Creator of this Tri-universe is a Triune God.
3. Question: "What is the Holy Spirit?" Answer: The Holy Spirit is not simply the spirit, or influence, of God, in an impersonal sense, as the above question implies. Rather, He is a real person, just as real as God the Father and as the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God the Son. He is one of the three divine Persons of the Holy Trinity—one God in three persons.
The mystery of the Trinity is beyond the capacity of our very finite and limited minds to comprehend in its fullness. God the Father is the invisible, omnipresent Source of all being—the God "out there." God the Son, as manifest bodily in Jesus Christ, is God revealed to His creature man—the God-man, Immanuel ("God with us"). God the Holy Ghost is again invisible and multi-present—taking the things of God and making them real and meaningful in human experience—the God "within."
Although beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend by reason, the triune nature of God can easily be understood in the heart by faith. As noted in the previous section, men have always sensed that God must be everywhere in and beyond the universe. Sadly, however, they have often corrupted this truth of God as the eternal and omnipotent Father into the false and inadequate philosophies of deism or pantheism. Similarly they have always felt that God must be capable of being seen or heard by man, but this truth of God as Logos—the Word, the Son—has been grossly caricatured into polytheism, animism, and idolatry.
Men have always felt that God should be experienced in a personal way, as an inner light for individual guidance. This is the truth of God as Spirit, interacting with man's spirit, but too often has this also been corrupted into mysticism and fanaticism—sometimes even into demonism.
But the fact that the Godhead has been counterfeited by Satan's deceptions, or that it is difficult to apprehend intellectually, should not deter us from believing and appropriating the glorious truth of God as revealed in Scripture. Every possible need of life is met in knowing God as Father through receiving Christ as Lord and Savior and the Holy Spirit as Comforter and Guide.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit at the present time may be summarized in part as follows:
Restraint of evil. --The fact that there is still much good in the world, even though the "whole world lieth in the wicked one" (1 John 5:19), is because of the work of the Holy Spirit, both directly and indirectly through His guidance of the lives and actions of individual Christians. When the latter are taken "out of the way" at Christ's coming, to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10), the world's moral and spiritual state will rapidly decay to its lowest state since the days of Noah.
Conviction of sin. --Jesus said, concerning the Holy Spirit: "When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). By various means—conscience, the Scriptures, the testimony of Christian friends, the preaching of the gospel—the Holy Spirit convicts men that they are lost sinners, facing the judgment of God and in urgent need of a Savior.
Regeneration. --When a person responds to the convincing of the Spirit, and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior, then the Spirit imparts a new spiritual life to that person, and he is "born again." "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and [i.e., 'even'] the renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).
Baptism into Christ. --"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Holy Spirit, as He regenerates the new believer, simultaneously places him into the spiritual body of Christ, of which he henceforth is a member. This is symbolized by his baptism in water and his uniting with a local church.
Indwelling the believer.--When a believer has received Christ by faith, the Holy Spirit in some special way indwells his very body from that moment on. "What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).
Instruction.--It was by the Holy Spirit that the Scriptures were inspired (2 Peter 1:21) when they were first written by the prophets and apostles. The unregenerate man cannot truly understand and appreciate the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 2:12-14), but the one who has been born again finds a new love for the Bible, and it begins to open up to him in a new way. This is because of the illumination of his spiritual mind by the divine Teacher, the Holy Spirit. "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth... He shall glorify me (i.e., Christ)" (John 16:13, 14).
Guidance and comfort.--Primarily through the Scriptures, but also, as need be, through both external circumstances and inner conviction, the Holy Spirit will lead the believer in the way of God's will in all things. He will not compel him, of course, but will guide in the way of greatest blessing if the Christian will only allow Him to do so. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).
"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost" (Romans 15:13).
4. Question: "What was God doing before He created the universe?" Answer: It is interesting to note that only the Biblical revelation, out of all the world's religions, speaks about a special creation of all things in the beginning, out of nothing. All of the other religions and philosophies of men, both ancient and modern, have been evolutionary systems, starting as they do with eternally pre-existing matter.
The Bible, unique among the sacred writings of mankind, begins with an eternal, omnipotent, personal God, Who brought all things into being, not out of primeval chaos or eternal matter, but out of nothing! Special creation is a concept absolutely unique to the Bible. To the ancient Israelites, accustomed as they were to thinking in terms of the evolutionary cosmologies of the Egyptians and the Canaanites, this was a radically new idea. The writer of Genesis therefore had to be quite clear and emphatic in his account of creation, in order to keep them from reading their evolutionary preconceptions into it.
This is why the first chapter of Genesis teaches so plainly and definitely that all things—"the heavens and the earth and all the host of them"—were spoken into existence and brought into their finished perfection directly by God alone. He was not in any way dependent upon pre-existing matter or upon natural processes in this accomplishment. Thus, there was nothing at all before the creation period—only God.
Our minds cannot really grasp the idea of an eternal God, existing independently of the universe which He created. But, for that matter, neither can they comprehend the idea of eternal chaotic matter, or an infinite chain of secondary causes extending back to eternity. Our minds are finite and are bound by the framework of the space-mass-time universe in which they function. They cannot successfully comprehend infinity and eternity or any kind of existence outside of and prior to space and time.
But what we cannot comprehend, we can believe. Millions of people through the ages have found mental and spiritual rest through simple faith in an eternal Creator, revealed and incarnate in Jesus Christ.
The special creation of our space-mass-time universe is declared by the introductory statement of the Word of God. "In the beginning (time) God created the heavens (space) and the earth (matter)." The tri-universe thus spoken into existence reflects the triune nature of its Creator. The triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is thus the great First Cause, the source of all meaning and reality.
Skeptics sometimes attempt to ridicule the biblical chronology by saying, "But if creation took place only six thousand years ago, what was God doing before that?" One can surely see, however, that is the same question as, "What was God doing prior to the hypothetical creation of the universe five billion years ago?" Infinity minus six thousand is exactly the same as infinity minus five billion.
In either case, there is only one way in which we could possibly learn anything whatever about events prior to the creation. We can only know what God has been pleased to reveal in His Word. And there are a few such glimpses given us in the Holy Scriptures.
We are given an insight into the heart of God when we hear Christ pray to the Father: "Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24). The three persons of the Godhead apparently shared a mutual love and fellowship in their eternal counsels.
In these counsels, we are told that somehow the Triune God made plans for the history of the universe and its inhabitants prior to the creation. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18). "Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).
And then we learn that a certain body of people would be created who, before they even existed, were "chosen in Him before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4). Furthermore, a "book of life" was prepared in which their names were written, although there would be many born in the future world "whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 17:8).
But God, knowing that man would choose to rebel against His will and thereby deserve nothing but punishment and separation from Him, undertook also to work out a marvelous plan of salvation for those whom He had chosen. It was agreed that God's eternal Son would become a man and would endure the punishment and separation from God which men deserved. He was "foreordained before the foundation of the world" (1 Peter 1:20) to be "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8).
On the basis of this great sacrifice, God could then "promise eternal life, before the world began" (Titus 1:2) to all who would come to God's Son, believing that promise. The marvelous redemption planned by the Triune God was thus "the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory" (1 Corinthians 2:7).
Finally, having planned and provided all details, God then could proceed to the actual work of creation of the universe and its inhabitants, thence to the work of redemption, and finally to the effectual calling and salvation, through the preaching of the gospel, of all those whom He had chosen in Christ.
Thus, it is God, and He alone, "who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Timothy 1:9).
5. Question: "Why did God create the universe?" Answer: It is, of course, presumptuous for man to think he could ever fully understand the mind and purposes of God. "For who hath known the mind of the Lord?" (Romans 11:34). "Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?" (Romans 9:20).
On the other hand, there is no doubt that the mind of man, which itself was created by God, seems intuitively to raise such questions, and this could mean that God actually has placed these very thoughts deep in man's heart. It is certainly true that one of man's most fundamental needs is to have a purpose in life, to know why he was placed here and what his life is all about. The question of God's purpose in creation is, therefore, of profound importance, and it is reasonable to believe that God would make His purpose known to those who seek it in humility and faith.
It is not presumptuous to consider this question unless one does it apart from God's revelation through His Word. Human philosophical speculations, on such subjects as this, should be rejected out of hand, but to seek this information in the Holy Scriptures is both reverent and relevant.
For example, consider the magnificent song of testimony at the throne of God, recorded in Revelation 4:11. "Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Here is conveyed the remarkable news that it gave pleasure to God to create the universe!
But in what way could the creation of the physical universe bring pleasure to its Creator? Certainly it was not just in the abstract contemplation of its vastness and intricacy. "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited" (Isaiah 45:18).
His purpose in creating the earth, therefore, was that it might "be inhabited." Its living creatures would be His pleasure.
But it was not just the wonderful ordered complexity of living things that pleased Him. "He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man" (Psalm 147:10). But, on the other hand: "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy" (Psalm 147:11).
Now we begin to glimpse the answer to our question. It was only man who was "created in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27) and who therefore could "hope in his mercy." All other things were created for man's use and control. "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet" (Psalm 8:6).
We see, therefore, that the physical and biological creations were made for the service of man. Even angels themselves were created as "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Hebrews 1:14).
It may be noted in passing that this fact points up one of the many absurdities of the evolutionary theory. Since the creation was entirely for man's dominion, it is incredible that the Creator would have forced the earth and its other organic inhabitants to endure a five-billion-year preamble of confused and meaningless existence before its master was ever present to try to comprehend and order it.
Thus, as the Bible says: "The Lord hath made all things for Himself" (Proverbs 16:4). More directly, all things were made for man, and man for God. "I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea I have made him" (Isaiah 43:7).
Man's chief purpose, therefore, is to glorify God and to bring Him pleasure, to "fear Him" and to "hope in His mercy." But then here is another problem. This kind of response from man is not forced upon him by God. If it were forced, it could not be genuine. Enforced "love" is a contradiction in terms, and so are mandatory "hope" and required "faith."
Man was consequently created with moral freedom. But freedom to love and trust God necessarily also means freedom to hate and reject God. The Creator, therefore, knew before He created man, that man would sin and thus bring the curse of death into the world (Romans 5:12). And surely the agony of the ensuing millenniums of suffering and death in a groaning creation (Romans 8:22) does not bring pleasure to God. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 33:11).
Nevertheless, God has permitted man's age-long rebellion, because even this has its purpose in His divine economy. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain" (Psalm 76:10). God not only is Creator; He also is Redeemer. He permits the effects of man's sin and rebellion to extend only so far and to endure only so long. Furthermore, He Himself has paid the price for man's redemption and restoration. He has "made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself... whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven" (Colossians 1:20).
Any man who, despite his human sin and failure, still desires to know and love and serve God is thus now free to come and be reconciled to Him, through simple faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God is revealed to him, not only as the great Creator, but also as the loving and merciful Savior. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). And here, finally, God experiences the divine pleasure for which He created the universe: Jesus said, "Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth" (Luke 15:7). "He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11). He, "for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross" (Hebrews 12:2).
There are those, however, who regard this divine desire for personal pleasure as unworthy of an infinite God. Some have even charged Him with selfishness and egotism, with a morbid craving for love and worship from His creatures.
God's "pleasure" from those that "hope in His mercy," however, is not a selfish pleasure, but is infinitely unselfish. Because He is "the God of all grace" (1 Peter 5:10), it is His nature to be gracious. He had created man, and redeemed man for the very reason that He possesses infinite love.
After this brief interruption of an age of sin and suffering, and after He has "restored all things" (Acts 3:21; Revelation 21:5), then all who have been saved will know Him in the fullness of both His creative power and His redeeming grace. His full purpose in creation will thereafter be displayed eternally. "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,... That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4, 5, 7).
The Bible Has the Answer.
Yet the evidence for God is so clear and certain that the Psalmist could exclaim that only "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God!" (Psalm 14:1).
The very essence of the scientific method, in common with all human experience, involves the basic principle of Cause-and-Effect. That is, no effect can be greater than its cause. "From nothing, nothing comes!" There must therefore be a First Cause of all things which has at the very least all the characteristics which are seen in the universe which has been produced by it.
Thus, the First Cause must have intelligence, because there are intelligent beings in the universe, and the universe itself is intelligible, capable of being studied and described intelligently. It is an "effect" which must have an adequate "cause," and such a cause must therefore have intelligence in such a high degree as to practically be called "omniscient" (all-knowing).
Similarly, the First Cause must have emotional attributes, since such things as emotions are surely present in the world. The highest and noblest emotion, most men would agree, is that of love, and thus the Cause of love must itself be One who possesses love in a very high degree.
Furthermore, the attribute of "will," or volition, is very prominent among men and, since it did not produce itself, the great First Cause must also possess a sovereign will.
Then there are tremendous reservoirs of power and energy in the universe, spread over innumerable suns and inconceivable distances, and the original Cause of such vast sources of power must itself have even more power and therefore be, as far as we can judge, omnipotent (all-powerful). Since space and time are also real "effects," and since our scientific studies have been unable to place finite limits on either space or time, their original Cause surely must be both omnipresent and eternal as well.
Finally, since moral and spiritual realities are not self-produced and since all men are aware of such entities, it is certain that the First Cause must be both moral and spiritual in an exceedingly high degree. Furthermore, although we may not understand just how "evil" could be permitted in a moral universe, it is surely significant that men everywhere recognize that "good" is better than "bad" and that "right" is better than "wrong." They intuitively know there is a difference between right and wrong, even though they may not always agree as to the precise definitions thereof.
This moral consciousness can be explained only in terms of a great First Cause with a moral consciousness. Thus, merely by application of the basic scientific law of Cause and Effect, we can deduce that the First Cause must almost certainly be One who is eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, volitional, loving and righteous. The Cause is therefore a great Person, and is exactly such a person as the God revealed in the Bible, the One who created and upholds all things, and to whom every man must account in the Last Day.
Some would claim that there was no First Cause—that the universe never had a beginning. But this is precluded by the Two Laws of Thermodynamics, which are the most basic and best-proved of all scientific laws and which control all known events and processes in the universe.
The First Law is that of Conservation of Mass-Energy, and it assures us that the universe is not creating itself, since nothing can ever be truly created by conservative, non-creative processes.
The Second Law is that of Increasing Disorder, and it says that the universe is running down and wearing out. All processes tend toward a state of decay and ultimate death. Eventually, if present processes continue, the universe will die. And, since it has not yet died, it cannot be infinitely old and must have had a beginning at some time in the past.
The universe is not creating itself in the present, but must have been created in the past by a great First Cause, and that Cause must have been a Person! This is the most reasonable possible conclusion of true science and of all knowledge and experience.
Therefore, men who reject or ignore God do so, not because science or reason require them to, but purely and simply because they want to! As the Scripture says, "They did not like to retain God in their knowledge" (Romans 1:28). "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man" (Romans 1:22, 23).
For those who really desire to know God, however, He has revealed Himself perfectly through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1:18). Jesus Christ is God incarnate—the God-man. The perfection of His life and teachings, His atoning death, the certainty of His bodily resurrection, and the glorious life imparted to each one who receives Him by faith as Lord and Savior, all unite in a perfect testimony to the reality of the true God.
2. Question: "How can one God be three persons?" Answer: The doctrine of the Trinity—that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are each equally and eternally the one true God—is admittedly difficult to comprehend, and yet is the very foundation of Christian truth. Although skeptics may ridicule it as a mathematical impossibility, it is nevertheless a basic doctrine of Scripture as well as profoundly realistic in both universal experience and in the scientific understanding of the cosmos.
Both Old and New Testaments teach both the Unity and the Trinity of the Godhead. The idea that there is only one God, who created all things, is repeatedly emphasized in such Scriptures as Isaiah 45:18: "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; ...I am the Lord; and there is none else."
A New Testament example is James 2:19: "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well; the devils also believe, and tremble."
The three persons of the Godhead are, at the same time, noted in such Scriptures as Isaiah 48:16: "I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, there am I; and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me." The speaker in this verse is obviously God, and yet He says He has been "sent both by the Lord God (that is, the Father) and by His Spirit (that is, the Holy Spirit). The New Testament doctrine of the Trinity is evident in such a verse as John 15:26, where the Lord Jesus said: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, He shall testify of me." Then there is the baptismal formula: "baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19). One name (God)—yet three names!
That Jesus, as the only-begotten Son of God, actually claimed to be God, equal with the Father, is clear from numerous Scriptures. For example, He said: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1:8).
Some cults falsely teach that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal divine influence of some kind, but the Bible teaches that He is a real person, just as are the Father and the Son. Jesus said: "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will shew you things to come" (John 16:13).
The teaching of the Bible concerning the Trinity might be summarized thus. God is a Tri-unity, with each Person of the Godhead equally and fully and eternally God. Each is necessary, and each is distinct, and yet all are one. The three Persons appear in a logical, causal order. The Father is the unseen, omnipresent Source of all being, revealed in and by the Son, experienced in and by the Holy Spirit. The Son proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit from the Son. With reference to God's creation, the Father is the Thought behind it, the Son is the Word calling it forth, and the Spirit is the Deed making it a reality. We "see" God and His great salvation in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, then "experience" their reality by faith, through the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit.
Though these relationships seem paradoxical, and to some completely impossible, they are profoundly realistic, and their truth is ingrained deep in man's nature. Thus, men have always sensed first the truth that God must be "out there," everywhere present and the First Cause of all things, but they have corrupted this intuitive knowledge of the Father into pantheism and ultimately into naturalism. Similarly, men have always felt the need to "see" God in terms of their own experience and understanding, but this knowledge that God must reveal Himself has been distorted into polytheism and idolatry. Men have thus continually erected "models" of God, sometimes in the form of graven images, sometimes in the form of supposed written descriptions and false scriptures, sometimes even in the form of philosophical systems purporting to represent ultimate reality. Finally, men have always known that they should be able to have communion with their Creator and to experience His presence "within." But this deep intuition of the Holy Spirit has been corrupted into various forms of false mysticism and fanaticism, and even into spiritism and demonism. Thus, the truth of God's tri-unity is ingrained in man's very nature, but he has often distorted it and substituted a false god in its place.
Furthermore, the truth of the triune nature of the Creator is clearly implied by the profoundly triune nature of the Creation. Thus the physical cosmos is clearly a tri-universe of Space, Matter and Time, and each of these is co-extensive with the entire universe. Space is the omnipresent background of all physical reality, Matter (or "Mass-Energy") is that which is everywhere observed in Space, and Time is the ever-flowing but invisible agent through which we can actually experience the phenomena of Matter and Energy.
Each of these three entities is also itself a tri-unity. Thus, Space is three-dimensional, with each dimension comprising the entire space. Space is measured in terms of one single dimension (e.g., the foot, meter, etc.), but can be seen only in two dimensions and "lived in" in three dimensions. Just as the "reality" or volume of space is obtained by multiplying the three dimensions together, so one might say the mathematics of the Trinity is not 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1, but rather 1 times 1 times 1 equals 1.
Similarly Time is a tri-unity of Future, Present and Past time. The Future is the unseen source of Time, becoming visible moment-by-moment in the Present, and then passing into the realm of the "experienced" Past. Each is the whole of Time, yet each is distinct and necessary for the understanding of Time.
Finally, those phenomena and processes which take place in Space, through Time, which men call Matter, also constitute a remarkable tri-unity. Energy is the unseen source, manifesting itself in Motion, and then experienced in a particular process or phenomenon. Everything that "happens" in Space and Time is measured in terms of its particular rate or motion—how much time to move through a unit of space. But the particular Motion is inseparably linked with the particular kind of Energy which caused it on the one hand, and the particular kind of phenomenon which it produces on the other. The tri-unity of Matter thus is that of Energy continually producing and revealing itself in Motion, which is then experienced through associated Phenomena.
The physical universe is thus fundamentally a Trinity of Trinities! Everywhere we look we see this universal tri-unity of Cause, Event and Consequence—of Source, Manifestation and Meaning. It is, therefore, not at all mathematically unreasonable, but rather intensely realistic, to believe that the Creator of this Tri-universe is a Triune God.
3. Question: "What is the Holy Spirit?" Answer: The Holy Spirit is not simply the spirit, or influence, of God, in an impersonal sense, as the above question implies. Rather, He is a real person, just as real as God the Father and as the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God the Son. He is one of the three divine Persons of the Holy Trinity—one God in three persons.
The mystery of the Trinity is beyond the capacity of our very finite and limited minds to comprehend in its fullness. God the Father is the invisible, omnipresent Source of all being—the God "out there." God the Son, as manifest bodily in Jesus Christ, is God revealed to His creature man—the God-man, Immanuel ("God with us"). God the Holy Ghost is again invisible and multi-present—taking the things of God and making them real and meaningful in human experience—the God "within."
Although beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend by reason, the triune nature of God can easily be understood in the heart by faith. As noted in the previous section, men have always sensed that God must be everywhere in and beyond the universe. Sadly, however, they have often corrupted this truth of God as the eternal and omnipotent Father into the false and inadequate philosophies of deism or pantheism. Similarly they have always felt that God must be capable of being seen or heard by man, but this truth of God as Logos—the Word, the Son—has been grossly caricatured into polytheism, animism, and idolatry.
Men have always felt that God should be experienced in a personal way, as an inner light for individual guidance. This is the truth of God as Spirit, interacting with man's spirit, but too often has this also been corrupted into mysticism and fanaticism—sometimes even into demonism.
But the fact that the Godhead has been counterfeited by Satan's deceptions, or that it is difficult to apprehend intellectually, should not deter us from believing and appropriating the glorious truth of God as revealed in Scripture. Every possible need of life is met in knowing God as Father through receiving Christ as Lord and Savior and the Holy Spirit as Comforter and Guide.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit at the present time may be summarized in part as follows:
Restraint of evil. --The fact that there is still much good in the world, even though the "whole world lieth in the wicked one" (1 John 5:19), is because of the work of the Holy Spirit, both directly and indirectly through His guidance of the lives and actions of individual Christians. When the latter are taken "out of the way" at Christ's coming, to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10), the world's moral and spiritual state will rapidly decay to its lowest state since the days of Noah.
Conviction of sin. --Jesus said, concerning the Holy Spirit: "When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). By various means—conscience, the Scriptures, the testimony of Christian friends, the preaching of the gospel—the Holy Spirit convicts men that they are lost sinners, facing the judgment of God and in urgent need of a Savior.
Regeneration. --When a person responds to the convincing of the Spirit, and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior, then the Spirit imparts a new spiritual life to that person, and he is "born again." "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and [i.e., 'even'] the renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).
Baptism into Christ. --"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Holy Spirit, as He regenerates the new believer, simultaneously places him into the spiritual body of Christ, of which he henceforth is a member. This is symbolized by his baptism in water and his uniting with a local church.
Indwelling the believer.--When a believer has received Christ by faith, the Holy Spirit in some special way indwells his very body from that moment on. "What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).
Instruction.--It was by the Holy Spirit that the Scriptures were inspired (2 Peter 1:21) when they were first written by the prophets and apostles. The unregenerate man cannot truly understand and appreciate the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 2:12-14), but the one who has been born again finds a new love for the Bible, and it begins to open up to him in a new way. This is because of the illumination of his spiritual mind by the divine Teacher, the Holy Spirit. "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth... He shall glorify me (i.e., Christ)" (John 16:13, 14).
Guidance and comfort.--Primarily through the Scriptures, but also, as need be, through both external circumstances and inner conviction, the Holy Spirit will lead the believer in the way of God's will in all things. He will not compel him, of course, but will guide in the way of greatest blessing if the Christian will only allow Him to do so. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).
"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost" (Romans 15:13).
4. Question: "What was God doing before He created the universe?" Answer: It is interesting to note that only the Biblical revelation, out of all the world's religions, speaks about a special creation of all things in the beginning, out of nothing. All of the other religions and philosophies of men, both ancient and modern, have been evolutionary systems, starting as they do with eternally pre-existing matter.
The Bible, unique among the sacred writings of mankind, begins with an eternal, omnipotent, personal God, Who brought all things into being, not out of primeval chaos or eternal matter, but out of nothing! Special creation is a concept absolutely unique to the Bible. To the ancient Israelites, accustomed as they were to thinking in terms of the evolutionary cosmologies of the Egyptians and the Canaanites, this was a radically new idea. The writer of Genesis therefore had to be quite clear and emphatic in his account of creation, in order to keep them from reading their evolutionary preconceptions into it.
This is why the first chapter of Genesis teaches so plainly and definitely that all things—"the heavens and the earth and all the host of them"—were spoken into existence and brought into their finished perfection directly by God alone. He was not in any way dependent upon pre-existing matter or upon natural processes in this accomplishment. Thus, there was nothing at all before the creation period—only God.
Our minds cannot really grasp the idea of an eternal God, existing independently of the universe which He created. But, for that matter, neither can they comprehend the idea of eternal chaotic matter, or an infinite chain of secondary causes extending back to eternity. Our minds are finite and are bound by the framework of the space-mass-time universe in which they function. They cannot successfully comprehend infinity and eternity or any kind of existence outside of and prior to space and time.
But what we cannot comprehend, we can believe. Millions of people through the ages have found mental and spiritual rest through simple faith in an eternal Creator, revealed and incarnate in Jesus Christ.
The special creation of our space-mass-time universe is declared by the introductory statement of the Word of God. "In the beginning (time) God created the heavens (space) and the earth (matter)." The tri-universe thus spoken into existence reflects the triune nature of its Creator. The triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is thus the great First Cause, the source of all meaning and reality.
Skeptics sometimes attempt to ridicule the biblical chronology by saying, "But if creation took place only six thousand years ago, what was God doing before that?" One can surely see, however, that is the same question as, "What was God doing prior to the hypothetical creation of the universe five billion years ago?" Infinity minus six thousand is exactly the same as infinity minus five billion.
In either case, there is only one way in which we could possibly learn anything whatever about events prior to the creation. We can only know what God has been pleased to reveal in His Word. And there are a few such glimpses given us in the Holy Scriptures.
We are given an insight into the heart of God when we hear Christ pray to the Father: "Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24). The three persons of the Godhead apparently shared a mutual love and fellowship in their eternal counsels.
In these counsels, we are told that somehow the Triune God made plans for the history of the universe and its inhabitants prior to the creation. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18). "Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).
And then we learn that a certain body of people would be created who, before they even existed, were "chosen in Him before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4). Furthermore, a "book of life" was prepared in which their names were written, although there would be many born in the future world "whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 17:8).
But God, knowing that man would choose to rebel against His will and thereby deserve nothing but punishment and separation from Him, undertook also to work out a marvelous plan of salvation for those whom He had chosen. It was agreed that God's eternal Son would become a man and would endure the punishment and separation from God which men deserved. He was "foreordained before the foundation of the world" (1 Peter 1:20) to be "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8).
On the basis of this great sacrifice, God could then "promise eternal life, before the world began" (Titus 1:2) to all who would come to God's Son, believing that promise. The marvelous redemption planned by the Triune God was thus "the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory" (1 Corinthians 2:7).
Finally, having planned and provided all details, God then could proceed to the actual work of creation of the universe and its inhabitants, thence to the work of redemption, and finally to the effectual calling and salvation, through the preaching of the gospel, of all those whom He had chosen in Christ.
Thus, it is God, and He alone, "who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Timothy 1:9).
5. Question: "Why did God create the universe?" Answer: It is, of course, presumptuous for man to think he could ever fully understand the mind and purposes of God. "For who hath known the mind of the Lord?" (Romans 11:34). "Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?" (Romans 9:20).
On the other hand, there is no doubt that the mind of man, which itself was created by God, seems intuitively to raise such questions, and this could mean that God actually has placed these very thoughts deep in man's heart. It is certainly true that one of man's most fundamental needs is to have a purpose in life, to know why he was placed here and what his life is all about. The question of God's purpose in creation is, therefore, of profound importance, and it is reasonable to believe that God would make His purpose known to those who seek it in humility and faith.
It is not presumptuous to consider this question unless one does it apart from God's revelation through His Word. Human philosophical speculations, on such subjects as this, should be rejected out of hand, but to seek this information in the Holy Scriptures is both reverent and relevant.
For example, consider the magnificent song of testimony at the throne of God, recorded in Revelation 4:11. "Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Here is conveyed the remarkable news that it gave pleasure to God to create the universe!
But in what way could the creation of the physical universe bring pleasure to its Creator? Certainly it was not just in the abstract contemplation of its vastness and intricacy. "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited" (Isaiah 45:18).
His purpose in creating the earth, therefore, was that it might "be inhabited." Its living creatures would be His pleasure.
But it was not just the wonderful ordered complexity of living things that pleased Him. "He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man" (Psalm 147:10). But, on the other hand: "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy" (Psalm 147:11).
Now we begin to glimpse the answer to our question. It was only man who was "created in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27) and who therefore could "hope in his mercy." All other things were created for man's use and control. "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet" (Psalm 8:6).
We see, therefore, that the physical and biological creations were made for the service of man. Even angels themselves were created as "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Hebrews 1:14).
It may be noted in passing that this fact points up one of the many absurdities of the evolutionary theory. Since the creation was entirely for man's dominion, it is incredible that the Creator would have forced the earth and its other organic inhabitants to endure a five-billion-year preamble of confused and meaningless existence before its master was ever present to try to comprehend and order it.
Thus, as the Bible says: "The Lord hath made all things for Himself" (Proverbs 16:4). More directly, all things were made for man, and man for God. "I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea I have made him" (Isaiah 43:7).
Man's chief purpose, therefore, is to glorify God and to bring Him pleasure, to "fear Him" and to "hope in His mercy." But then here is another problem. This kind of response from man is not forced upon him by God. If it were forced, it could not be genuine. Enforced "love" is a contradiction in terms, and so are mandatory "hope" and required "faith."
Man was consequently created with moral freedom. But freedom to love and trust God necessarily also means freedom to hate and reject God. The Creator, therefore, knew before He created man, that man would sin and thus bring the curse of death into the world (Romans 5:12). And surely the agony of the ensuing millenniums of suffering and death in a groaning creation (Romans 8:22) does not bring pleasure to God. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezekiel 33:11).
Nevertheless, God has permitted man's age-long rebellion, because even this has its purpose in His divine economy. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain" (Psalm 76:10). God not only is Creator; He also is Redeemer. He permits the effects of man's sin and rebellion to extend only so far and to endure only so long. Furthermore, He Himself has paid the price for man's redemption and restoration. He has "made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself... whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven" (Colossians 1:20).
Any man who, despite his human sin and failure, still desires to know and love and serve God is thus now free to come and be reconciled to Him, through simple faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God is revealed to him, not only as the great Creator, but also as the loving and merciful Savior. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). And here, finally, God experiences the divine pleasure for which He created the universe: Jesus said, "Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth" (Luke 15:7). "He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11). He, "for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross" (Hebrews 12:2).
There are those, however, who regard this divine desire for personal pleasure as unworthy of an infinite God. Some have even charged Him with selfishness and egotism, with a morbid craving for love and worship from His creatures.
God's "pleasure" from those that "hope in His mercy," however, is not a selfish pleasure, but is infinitely unselfish. Because He is "the God of all grace" (1 Peter 5:10), it is His nature to be gracious. He had created man, and redeemed man for the very reason that He possesses infinite love.
After this brief interruption of an age of sin and suffering, and after He has "restored all things" (Acts 3:21; Revelation 21:5), then all who have been saved will know Him in the fullness of both His creative power and His redeeming grace. His full purpose in creation will thereafter be displayed eternally. "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,... That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4, 5, 7).
The Bible Has the Answer.
