My First Beliefs

You will notice that I start from a very particular position as I write these words every day. It might be helpful if I spelled out plainly that position, so that you can see my bias. Everyone comes from some position when they approach a subject. I do as well.

·        I believe God exists and is involved with His creation.

·        I believe He has the ability to communicate clearly and consistently with us.

·        I believe He did and does in fact communicate to us.

·        I believe He has the ability to preserve that communication across time and culture.

·        I believe that communication is the Scriptures written in the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament.

·        I believe God created us with the ability, young and old alike, to understand that communication.

·        I believe God created us with the ability to respond to the communication.

What this does for me is to anchor me in this world. It gives me a starting point for my whole life. It provides purpose and direction for my journey. I am not left to my own changing mood or circumstance when facing the inevitable difficulties of life. I can connect with the God who created this universe and has interacted and still interacts with it.

Because I believe these things, I can take the questions of life and examine the Scriptures for answers. Because I believe these things I can have confidence that God not only has the answers, but that He wants me to find them and apply them to my life.

This set of basic beliefs also allows me to relax. I don’t have to search everywhere for the answers to life’s questions. Becoming an expert is not necessary. He has communicated in a way I can understand. His communication is not too difficult to grasp. I don’t need a PhD in theology in order to unravel what I need to face life and eternity.

And because He is the God who wants us to be successful at this walk of faith, He has given us enough truth in the Scriptures to navigate through it. The Scriptures do not contain all the Truth that God possesses, but enough for us to live lives in a way that honors Him. We can discover other true things that don’t contradict what is in Scripture and incorporate them into our life. Not much is said about iPads in Scripture, but we can turn one on and use it!

Before the Beginning

John 1:1

But what happened before creation? What was going on before the “Big Shout”? We get the beginning of an answer in the first few verses of the Gospel of John in the New Testament. We get a glimpse into the character and nature of God. The Word, whom we learn in verse 14 is Jesus, is with God in the beginning. We also learn that He is God. Does this mean multiple gods? NO! I like to picture it this way. There is one Being whose nature matches all the attributes of God. The list is too long to spell out here, but here is a link to an imperfect list.

Jesus possesses all these unique qualities and is therefore God. But He is not alone in possessing these qualities. Here in John another is named, God. Jesus and “God” are both present before time began, and are not bound by time. They are of the same essence, but they are separate persons. I know this gets a little heady, so let me see if I can state it the way I tell small children.

Think of a lump of clay that is so special there is only one lump of clay like it. This lump of clay has always been just like this, and it will always be just like this. We can break it into three lumps and that doesn’t change the fact that all three of these parts are made of the same clay. And these three lumps are always connected to each other, relating to each as the closest family. Each lump does some unique things, but all the parts are always there when any one part is working.

I know those of you who have done any theological reading are jumping out of your skin right now. “God is not a lump of clay.” No matter how we try to spell out in human language the mystery of the nature of God we will always fall short. Human language is incapable of expressing infinite ideas with complete clarity. It would be like trying to describe an IPhone to someone from 1800. They have never seen a phone, let alone any computer. They would think you mad when you touch a small shiny box in your hand, hold it up to your ear and talk to someone. You would get thrown in a lunatic asylum.

We have a choice to make at this moment. We can believe Scripture when it speaks on these grand topics, or we can choose to not believe what is written. And the choice we make sets us on two very different roads. When we choose to not believe, we become the ultimate authority in our lives. We choose what we want to believe about life, death, heaven, hell, God, man, salvation, good works…. We generally will pick a believe system that fits comfortably into our current lifestyle and activity. We won’t make our god too radical.

But being a Jesus-follower is extremely radical. He tells us that we must die in order to live. We have a responsibility to our fellow human beings; we can’t live in isolation. Following will make us uncomfortable. We will have to change our attitude and behaviors. There are things that are always right and always wrong regardless of time, culture or circumstance.