God is God
Author’s Note: In this article the “God” we are speaking of is Jesus Christ. He is the only true and living God that exists. There is no other.
God is God: What a simple statement, yet how profound. Most Christians would say, “Of course, we believe that.” But do they? I wonder…
One very important definition of idolatry is: a false conception of God. How many false conceptions of God are taught as fundamental doctrines of the church???
Poor God! He started off with a great plan but Satan moved in and stole the show. (This is the story of Adam and Eve and the Fall of man, in case you didn’t recognize it). Right from the beginning God starts to muff the job. He wanted Adam and Eve to live on and on in the garden but they (and Satan) had other ideas. So things got off to a bad start and have been deteriorating ever since. God sits in heaving dreaming up one scheme after another trying to salvage something from the whole operation. But His success seems limited. His last attempt was to send Jesus, His own Son, to do something. His life was very important and has influenced the world, from His time to the present, but His success in terms of souls being saved, has always been less than 1% of the population in any generation. So God seems to be getting fed up with the whole program. His final solution is to grab (the rapture) the few saints He has and let Satan have the rest. He wanted to save the Whole World (Isa. 45:22) but they refused and rejected Him, so the only thing He can do is wipe out the whole lot or let Satan have them all to play with (torment, torture, and burn) for all eternity.
If the foregoing was any resemblance to the “gospel” that you have heard in most churches or on the radio, it is purely deliberate. This is not God. This is not the God of the Bible but, unfortunately, it is the kind of God who is portrayed in most pulpits.
Let’s consider the God who is God, the God of the Bible, the God who can bring to pass All of His Word, and will.
God is the one and only God. In Isaiah 44:8, God asks; “Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God; I know not any.” Therefore, God is God alone, there is no other God.
God is responsible for all things. God is big enough and great enough to take the responsibility for all things. “I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I the Lord do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7) “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory for ever, amen.” (Rom. 11:36)
God had a plan and a purpose from the beginning before the creation of the world. “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.” (Eph. 1:4). His purpose and goal; “Let us make man in our image.” (Gen. 1:26). This great statement of God’s purpose is reiterated in Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.”
He is in control of all things. “Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. (Eph. 1:11). God knew His plan and purpose from the beginning and “All things are of God” (2 Cor. 5:18). All things are of God! What a tremendous, fantastic, true statement, one which covers every circumstance and condition of life.
Time is essential, critical, and necessary to God’s plan. Probably the most difficult concept for us as human beings to fathom, is the time necessary to accomplish God’s plans. We all want things instantaneously if not before. We are impatient; we want things now. God’s plan is to make us in His image, and this takes time. God can do many things instantly, but He cannot make us “in his image” in a split second. He does, however, have a time line, and all things are moving according to His schedule (not ours)He told Abraham that He would take 1,000 generations (Ps.105:8), to work out those things which He promised him. One of the most important promises to Abraham was that He would bless all the families of the earth through Abraham and his family (Gen. 12:3).
To approach God, to come near to Him to know Him intimately, one must first believe that He is. (Heb. 11:6) That He is What? That He is God, the God He declares Himself to be. The God of all power, might, authority and dominion (Jude 25).
Let the honest, serious-minded person study what God has to say about Himself. Let him also study what God declares His plan to be. (A good way to start would be to study the All’s in scripture) “Let God be true and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4) — particularly those who would defame the character of God by making Him an incredible monster or a blundering fool. He is neither, but He is the great God who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. His will is that none should perish but that all should have everlasting life (2 Pet. 3:9). He can perform all His work and will, for He is God.
