Last month's article concluded with the reality that Jesus has defeated death. He is death's killer. That may have been putting the cart before the horse, so we're going to back things up a bit here and try to put things in the proper order so we don't have an accident. The basic plotline of the Bible is that God exists, man has a problem, God has a plan to fix man's problem, and that plan centers on Jesus. So you can see how starting with Jesus, though always a good place to start, is coming in after the game has already been playing for a bit.
The Bible assumes that God exists. This should come as no surprise. God is there in the very first sentence of the Bible and remains present on every page as He speaks directly to his people, through his spokesmen, and finally, through his Son (there I go getting to Jesus again!). God's existence isn't questioned in the Bible. God is present even in the chapters and books that don't mention him by name. He is there, behind the scenes, guiding and directing events to fit the story that he is telling.
Now there are people in the Bible that question God's presence when they're going through a challenging time or when they see something happening that shouldn't be happening if their understanding of God is correct. The questions they have though are questions posed to God himself. They say, "Hey God, where are you?" or something to that effect. Even Job (long vowel, not your 9-5) didn't question God's existence when he lost everything he had. He simply confessed, "God did it." These questions of God's presence are not the same as our questions of God's existence when things go haywire. Doubting God's presence is one thing; doubting or denying his existence altogether is something else entirely.
But this begs the question. Since the Bible assumes God exists, does this mean that we have to as well? Big question. Before I answer this in the affirmative, we have to remember that we all have an authority that we appeal to in crunch time. It could be someone we deeply respect or some other sacred writing or object or an experience or our own reason. The options are endless. We're all listening to or relying on someone or something. It's impossible to not have a "god" that we believe in. With that said, it is through the Bible (and faith) that we come to know who God is and what he is like. Just as you cannot truly know and understand who I am unless I tell you what I'm like in the context of a personal relationship, so it is with God. He stoops to share with us what he is like. He speaks and shows us who he is. That is why the Bible is referred to as God's revelation. He's showing us himself so that we can know him. As creatures on the receiving side of revelation, we don't get to choose how God reveals himself. Our responsibility is to be tuned to the right frequency, to make sure we're hearing from the source.
For most of us, God's existence isn't in question. But who is this God? Apart from the Bible, he is commonly referred to as "the man upstairs." This is okay for a starting point, but if this is where you've ended up after several decades of living then I hope you'll reconsider. What about God as an aging, bearded grandfather? Kind, caring, wise and not as scary as Gandalf? Or we could go the route of the bestseller, The Shack. Here, God the Father is portrayed as an overweight, southern black woman. Just as the possibilities of our authorities are endless, so it seems that our ideas of God are as well. If it's up to us then God ends up looking like whatever we want him to look like. We end up making God in our image—just a dude relaxing on a couch upstairs or a grandpa hobbling around with his walker or a woman with her apron on serving up some grits—instead of recognizing that it's the other way around.
As the pastor of Elk Community Church, I would like to invite all of you to join us on our journey as we seek to continue to discover and enjoy the greatness and goodness of God in his Son, Jesus Christ. We are hosting a summer celebration picnic at Morgan Park on the north end of Loon Lake on Sunday, August 18, at 10:30. Bring a chair and join us for a service on the beach! For directions please contact Andy at (509) 844-6164.
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