What God?

Most of the time when I meet someone who doesn't believe in God, I find that I don't believe in the God they don't believe in either.

There are a lot of different ideas about God.

Many popular ideas about God are mixtures of pagan and Christian beliefs.
Some ideas about God are attempts to put complex ideas into terms people can understand and the resulting oversimplifications can lead to incorrect beliefs.
Some are simply based on misunderstandings on what Christians and Jews believe.

The Judeo-Christian concept of God is probably the single most complex concept that the human mind has ever attempted. It is also very poorly understood by a large percentage of Christians. Fortunately, one doesn't have to have a very deep understanding of the concept of God to be a Christian. Even a simplistic, child like understanding can be sufficient. But while simple conceptions of God can be sufficient, they are not the whole story.

This page gives some details about the Judeo-Christian concept of God. Some of it is pretty heavy theological crap and may not be for everybody.

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Some God's (and Other Stuff) I Don't Believe In.

Here are some things you don't have to believe in, just because you are a Christian.

I don't believe there is any powerful super-being who lives out there someplace in space and uses magical powers to mess with events on earth, kind of like superman or the Greek gods in the old movies.
I don't believe in a white haired, long bearded, old man who is God, kind of like old man winter or father time.
I don't believe in a all powerful creature who watches events in the world through some kind of magical mirror or pool or crystal ball and knows everything everybody does, kind of like Santa Claus.
I don't believe in ghosts, spirits, demons, angels, elves, goblins, fairies, and the myriad of creatures that populated third earth in Tolkein novels, Wagnerian operas and Stephen King stories.
I don't believe in Cartesian dualism. I don't believe in a spirit realm or the separation of mind and body.
I don't believe in a soul that inhabits the body and escapes like a wisp or ghost when you die. As a result I don't believe the souls of the dead wander the earth or any other realm and I don't believe you can conjure or communicate with the dead in any form of seance or spiritist ritual.
I don't believe in Ouija boards, ESP, telekinesis, telepathy, precognition, psychics, or the psychic hotline network. I don't believe you can tell the future using cards, sticks, or star charts. I don't believe in Nostradamus or Edgar Cayse. Hell, I don't believe you can predict the weather past three or four days.
If there is life after death, (and you don't have to believe in life after death to be a Christian -- see What Christians Believe for a list of necessary and sufficient beliefs), it will be a result of a new creation (resurrection?).

I am a scientist and I don't have to give up the scientific perspective to be a Christian. For example, I am a Christian and I believe in evolution. I just don't believe that the direction that evolution is following is an accident.

Two Topics: Revelation and the Nature of God

Ok, now to the main ideas of this page. There are two concepts to be covered,

Revelation, or "How do we know about God?"
The Nature of God or "What do we know about God?"

First we deal with the issue of where the knowledge comes from, the method, then with what we have discovered using the method.

From this perspective, revelation is a method, not unlike the scientific method, for finding out about God.

How Do We Know About God?

There are several principles underlying revelation.

God is as God does.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, humans figure out who God is and what God is like, by watching what God does. The primary source for information about God is interpretations of God's action in history. That is why the Bible is primarily a history book. The ancient Jews believed that if you wanted to know God, all you had to do is look at the history of what God had done for and to his people. Most of the "revelations" in the Bible of the nature of God are utterances of individuals who are interpreting history. They are inspired interpretations of historical events.

The idea that we find out who God is from what God does was originated by the ancient Jewish scholars. It was the method adopted by Christ's followers (who were mostly Jews, educated in Jewish ways). As a result, the most important thing about Christ is not what he said but what he did. Christ died for us. It is this interpretation given to the historical events which occurred in Christ's life that makes Christ the ultimate revelation of God.

As the Artist's Personality is Reflected in His/Her Art, So God is Reflected in God's Creations.

Since one of the things God does is create, we can sometimes (at least indirectly) figure out God's intentions by looking at what he made. As a result, Jews and Christians believe that God can be revealed in nature. For this reason, the study of nature has always been a lofty and desirable activity in Jewish and Christian cultures. In cultures and civilizations dominated by religions that hold that god is part of nature, tampering with nature has frequently been seen as dangerous. If you mess with nature (which is god) you may anger the gods. In the Judeo-Christian tradition no such taboo has existed. As a result it is primarily in western civilization that science emerged.

An example may help clarify the complexity and depth of this approach which goes well beyond simple wonder and awe at the beauty of nature. One of the laws of nature which reveals God's intentions is the law of the survival of the fittest. That this law is part of nature is consistent with the idea that history has a direction (and therefore a purpose) and can be taken as a starting point of a search for an understanding of the purpose, (ie: a search for God).

History is the criterion against which revelations must be judged and revelation is the criterion against which interpretations of history must be judged.

All this results in a mutual interdependence of historical interpretation and revelation. Historical interpretations are correct if they are consistent with the revealed nature of God. Putative revelations can be accepted as legitimate if they are consistent with what God has been doing in history. This dynamic (dialectic) interaction between history and revelation results in a phenomenally complex process that can easily surpass the capacity of the human intellect.

Anybody can say "The Lord has revealed to me thus-and-so." How do you know who to believe. Only this way. We must ask, "Is this supposed revelation consistent with what be know about God?" Unfortunately, it is often very difficult to tell. Sometimes it takes generations or even centuries before history reveals who was right in a particular controversy.

For example, some of our forefathers believed that slavery was OK. They argued, presumably thoughtfully and sincerely, that slavery was ordained of God on the basis of a particular interpretation of scripture. Time has led us to see the errors in their understanding. Similarly, the church faces a number of difficult issues today. When we look back on these issues from the perspective of 150 years in the future, the answers to these issues may be much clearer as well.

God continues to be revealed in history today as since the beginning of time.

As long as history continues, we will continue to see God in action. As long as God is in action, we can continue to learn about the nature of God. Revelation did not end at some time in the past, it continues today as we see the events of history and interpret them in terms of what we know about God. Unfortunately humans may not know the meaning of historical events until years, decades, or centuries after they have occurred.

The interpretation is as important as the historical facts.

A number of years ago, there was a popular theological movement which focused on a search for the historical Jesus. Of course, the real Jesus is the foundation of our faith, and history is the foundation of revelation. It follows that the more we know about history, the more we can learn about God. However, it is not just history; it is the interpretation that is most important and while you can't just make up history (although the church has tried to do this a number of times to support particular positions), the un-interpreted facts have little value.

The concepts and ideas derived from interpretations of history, however, can come to have a world changing impact and a life of their own, separate from the history. A story comes to mind concerning the great theologian Paul Tillich, who maintained that Christianity would not be undermined if it could be shown that the historical Jesus never lived. Tillich's students used to joke that if Tillich had heard that an archeologist had proved that Jesus never rose from the dead because he had found the bones of Jesus, Tillich would have exclaimed: "He really did live?" (Moody, D. (1981) The Word Of Truth, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, page 32).

What Do We Know About God, So Far?

The following are basic tenets of orthodox theology which have come to be more or less agreed on by great scholars and thinkers over the centuries.

God is Creator: God created the Universe. In doing so God created time and as a result history. God is not part of creation. We don't know how God did it. We don't know how long it took. The best explanations are those that are provided by modern science, but these details have little theological importance anyway.
Creation is Completely Separate from God: The creator is not of the same stuff as the creation. Creation is not god-stuff that has slowed down and become matter (as in Zen and Buddhist traditions) and matter is not a lower form of the god-stuff as in the Hindu tradition.
God Doesn't Exist: As a result, God doesn't exist in the same sense as stuff exists. We don't know what God is or where God is but you can tear nature down to the last quark and there is only matter and energy, no God-Stuff. This is why we say that God is not some kind of extra-terrestrial being or creature. If you analyze the word creature, it comes from the same root as creation, so you can't apply that term to God. If you look at the word being, it refers to something that "is" ie: has existence in the universe, so you can't apply that term to God either.
Nothing is Sacred: No thing is sacred. All things were created by God but none of them are God. For this reason, Christians, Jews, and Muslims (whose concept of God grows out of the same tradition as the Jewish and Christian) use no idols. No object, person, or place is worthy of worship. It is this principle that has permitted the development of science in the West. When Christians launched the crusades to reclaim the sacred places in the holy land, they were violating this basic principle and were participating in a great heresy. When Jews and Muslims battle over holy places in Jerusalem, they too violate the basic tenets of their own beliefs.
Time is Linear. History is Linear: Christians believe that history has a direction. This position is set squarely against the oriental idea that history is an endlessly repeating cycle, like a top that sits and spins. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, cycles are recognized but seen as moving history forward, like a wheel which rolls round and round but keeps moving forward as it rolls. The idea of a direction implies a goal, a destination, and a purpose. As a result, Christians believe that God has a purpose for creation.
God is Intimately Involved in History: While God is completely separate from the universe, God is completely involved in the universe. Everything that happens, happens by God's design and according to God's purpose. (This is almost an affirmation of Newtonian determinism.) Science too is founded on the idea that nature is predictable and obeys identifiable laws. When an engineer designs a system, he or she implements a set of rules by which the system operates. The rules serve to enable and constrain the system so it will achieve its purpose. Similarly, when we observe the laws by which nature operates to carry it toward it's objective, we are seeing the hand of God the engineer of these laws.
God is good: Some events, outcomes, and occurrences are objectively better than others. Every scientist who affirms natural selection -- the survival of the fittest -- implicitly recognizes this characteristic of nature. The fact that some are more fit than others indicates a value judgement implicit in the laws of nature. Observations such as this along with observation of the acts of God in history lead to the conclusion that God is good. But like Yin and Yang, you can't have good without evil. So this principle implies too, that evil exists.
God is Just: History reveals that God is just. This is the conclusion of the Old Testament writers and of religious and non-religious people everywhere. Social psychologists who have researched the phenomenon refer to it as "the just world hypothesis," a relatively pervasive belief that influences the way people make decisions, form attitudes, and relate to each other (see the work of Lerner, 1980). People seem to have a need to believe in "natural justice." James Baldwin says, "People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply; by the lives they lead."
God is Wrath: Like Yin and Yang, you can't have justice without wrath. If justice will ultimately win, injustice must ultimately lose. People must live and die with the consequences of their behavior.
God is Jealous: God will tolerate no rivals. Throughout history, whenever people have let self interest, greed, or any other object or god come between them and God, the consequences for themselves or their children and grandchildren have been disastrous. Sometimes the consequences don't show up for several generations and it appears that evil people are getting away with it. History shows that even though it may temporarily appear that evil has triumphed, good will ultimately win out.
God is Love: Probably the greatest revelation about God, is that God is self sacrificing love. While God's love was known to the Jews in Old Testament times, it was Jesus and his followers who led us to understand love as the organizing principle which makes everything else we know about God fit together.

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Steve Falkenberg

Steve.Falkenberg@eku.edu