How Shall We Think of God?--"Upon the conception that is entertained
of God will depend the nature and quality of the religion of any soul
or race; and in accordance with the view that is held of God, His
nature, His character and His relation to other beings, the spirit and
the substance of theology will be determined." When one man says, "I
believe in God" he may have in mind an entirely different conception
of God from another man who uses the same expression. There is a
Christian idea of God and there are many non-Christian ideas about
God; it is the latter which keep men from heartily engaging in the
service of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wrong Conceptions of God.--Some of these are:
1. That He is a blind fate or unknowable force. Personality is
denied, and it is asserted that this great force neither sees, cares
nor even knows what men do or do not do.
2. Even if this great force be personal, and knows what is going on
amongst men, He is perfectly indifferent to right or wrong actions.
3. God knows and sees all that is going on, but He has wound up this
universe like a great clock. To help or succour any man in his
distress would disarrange the whole system. Natural law must have its
course; it is useless to pray.
4. God is revengeful or weak; in the first place men seek to keep out
of His way, in the second they do not care.
When men adopt these wrong ideas of God and cherish them they are
fashioned after them in life and character. Here are the
stumbling-blocks which need to be removed before men, who think this
way, can be brought into sympathy with the Church of Christ. Man can
never come into personal loving relations with a Universal Substance
or Force, no matter how mighty it is.
Right Conceptions of God are necessary for the true worship of the
Almighty, for the exercise of proper conduct to our fellow men and for
the upbuilding of our own spiritual life. Never was there a time when
the great fundamental positions of the Bible, in regard to God, needed
to be more plainly stated than to-day. When men stand firmly upon
these positions a whole host of perplexities and anxieties will take
their departure.
The Christian Conception of God has been thus expressed, "God is the
Personal Spirit, perfectly good, who in holy love, creates, sustains
and orders all." The essential matters covered in this statement are:
1. The nature of God. He is the Personal Spirit (Exodus 3:14; John
4:24) who can enter into personal relations with man, and who hears
and answers prayer.
2. The character of God. He is perfectly good, pure and holy (Psalm
25:8; Nahum 1:7; Romans 2:4). Man may have perfect confidence, however
matters may seem to him to go wrong with his imperfect vision of the
world and the happenings in it, that there is a good God who governs
all in the interest of righteousness (Matthew 13:24-30,36-43).
3. The relation of God to all other existences. He creates, sustains
and orders all (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 19).
4. The motive of God in His relation to all other existence; it is
holy love (1 John 4:8).
Supreme power, personality, intelligence and perfect goodness are then
the great revealed truths which the Bible presents to us as the proper
conceptions which we should have of God.
But if it is desired to know what God is like we look at once to Jesus
Christ. He is supreme intelligence. He has power over nature and men
and He uses all with the motive and purpose of a holy love. We know
that He controlled nature, when on earth, and not nature Him. He
taught the great love of God for man. He made it plain that men were
not in a relation as atoms of matter in a whirlpool of action, but as
sons to a loving father.