What is the truth about God? by Roy Davison

http://www.oldpaths.com/Archive/Davison/Roy/Allen/1940/god.html

What is the truth about God?

With regard to non-believers, Paul said: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25 RSV).

The truth about God remains true, whether it is accepted or not. Nor can the consequences of truth simply be wished away.

What is the truth about God?

God is.

The existence of God is evident from His works:
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world”
(Psalm 19:1-4). 

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:20-22).

God’s eternal power and Godhead are evident “being understood by the things that are made.”

Yet many have rejected the one true God and have become adherents of some fake, materialistic religion. Or they resort to atheism that involves the deification of nature by ascribing godlike creative power to unintelligent, dead matter.

Who says there is no God?

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1).

The philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, in writings between 1882 and 1889 declared: ‘God is dead’. His writings have been influential in philosophical and atheistic circles since then.

Nietzsche admitted that the loss of belief in God would cause a breakdown of traditional moral values, but he believed that without faith in God a new Übermensch would arise, a higher form of man.

He criticized Christians for taking care of the weak, which according to him interfered with the progress of evolution through natural selection by enabling inferior people to reproduce.

Hitler used ideas of Nietzsche as the basis for his extermination of the physically handicapped and certain races that he considered inferior, in order to advance Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’.¹

Nietzsche at the age of 44 became completely insane in 1889. The doctors thought he had acquired syphilis from prostitutes but perhaps he had a brain tumor.

A year earlier Nietzsche had written a book in opposition to Christianity and Christian morality entitled ‘The Antichrist’. In its conclusion he says: “I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity.” He suggested that instead of dating time from the birth of Christ, it should be dated from the last day of Christianity, namely from the year his book appeared!²

In 1889 he wrote to a friend: “The world will be turned on its head for the next few years: since the old God has abdicated, I will be ruling the world from now on.”³

Nietzsche was insane for eleven years until his death in 1900.

Nietzsche is dead. God lives, unhindered by people, über or not, who say that there is no God.

The truth about God is found in the Bible where the attributes of God are described.

God is holy.

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8). 

God is one.

“The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Mark 12:29).

“For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:5, 6).

In Scripture the one true God is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit [see for example John 4:24; 20:28; Colossians 3:17]. Thus Christians are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).

God is Creator.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Genesis 1:1-3). Notice that the Spirit and the Word of God were active in creation. Godspoke the universe into being by the power of His Spirit.

Later the creative Word of God came as Savior in the person of Jesus Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3).

God reigns.

God is sovereign. “The LORD shall reign forever and ever” (Exodus 15:18). “God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne” (Psalm 47:8). “The Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” (Revelation 19:6).

God has spoken.

God has made His will known to man.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good” (Mica 6:8).

“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7).⁴

“God who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1, 2).⁵ The teachings of Christ have been passed on to us by His apostles in the Bible (Romans 16:25-27).

“God is love” (1 John 4:8) .

“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

God saves.

“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4, 5).⁶

God gave His Son.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9, 10).

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

God sent His Spirit.

“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (Jesus promised in John 15:26).

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Galatians 4:4-6).

The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and inspired the apostles to preach the message of Christ and record it in sacred writings that come down to us in the Bible.⁷

God calls us.

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling” (2 Timothy 1:9).⁸

God is worthy to be praised.

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God” (Psalm 48:1).
“I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:1- 3).

“I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised” (Psalm 18:3).⁹

God will judge us.

“God shall judge the righteous and the wicked” (Ecclesiastes 3:17).

“He shall judge the world in righteousness, and He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness” (Psalm 9:8).

“So then each of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).

“Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:29-31).

What is the truth about God?

God is. God is holy. God is one. God is Creator. God reigns. God has spoken. God is love. God saves. God gave His Son. God sent His Spirit. God calls us. God is worthy to be praised. God will judge us.

Do you want to serve God?

Believe what God has revealed about Himself in the Bible. Believe the saving message of His Son, Jesus Christ. Confess your faith in Him. Repent of your sins. Be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of your sins. Rise from the water of baptism, born anew, to serve the one true God in spirit and truth. Serve Him faithfully until death and He will give you the crown of life.¹⁰ Amen.

Endnotes:

¹ Nietzsche himself was opposed to antisemitism, however.
² Downloaded from the full text of “The Antichrist” on Nov. 6, 2018 from
https://archive.org/stream/theantichrist19322gut/19322.txt
³ Downloaded on Nov. 6, 2018 from http://www.leonardsax.com/Nietzsche.pdf
⁴ See verses 7-11.
⁵ See also Hebrews 4:12, 13.
⁶ See also 2 Samuel 22:47 & Psalm 62:1, 2.
⁷ See Acts chapter 2 & Romans 16:25-27.
⁸ See also 2 Peter 1:2-4 & 1 Peter 5:10, 11.
⁹ See also Psalm 113:1-3, Psalm 96:1-13 & Psalm 145:1-3.
¹⁰ See James 1:12 & Revelation 2:10.

Roy Davison

The Scripture quotations in this article are from
The New King James Version. ©1979,1980,1982,
Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers unless indicated otherwise.
Permission for reference use has been granted.

Published in The Old Paths Archive
(http://www.oldpaths.com)