God?
God & The Da Vinci Code?
God & Sex?
God's Wrath?

Is there a God?
(extract from Joshua: Power to Win, Kevin Logan)

OUR OWN senses give more than a strong hint that something is out there. This 'something' gave the game away when visible beings and things like us and the universe were caused to appear.

There are said to be three alternative causes for our existence - a creator, chance, or that the universe, in one form or another, has always existed. For many, it demands too much blind, unsupported faith to believe that the beauty and complexity of life is mere accident.

The idea about matter/universe always existing is unprovable, unknowable and hard to credit. Many still want to ask, 'but what was the cause?' Millions choose to say that there is a cause who is also a designer. If the Universe was a fraction out from its present measurements & forces, it couldn't exist.

At the other end of the scale, biologists argue how highly complex molecules could not exist without an intelligent designer (Prof. M.J. Behe, Darwin's Black Box - the biochemical challenge to evolution). The Designer is also a giver of intelligence. And this makes the something into a Somebody.

This is the Bible's stance. The act of creation tells us so much about the Creator. He is immensely large, powerful, eternal (because he has to have created time as well as space). He is also different from us. He is a Creator and we are creatures.

Apostle Paul puts it well in Romans 1:18 onwards. The invisible God's presence is shown by the glory that is visible. So then, there are impressive signs that this God has revealed himself through the natural world.Now, if we humans are left to ourselves at this point, we begin to make-up the character of this 'Large Somebody' from our fears, hopes and appetites. Our fears make gods that must be bought with sacrifices.

continued in next column.....

Human hopes produce the secular religions like atheism, humanism and Marxism. We are our own gods and we can cope on our own, thank you very much. Our appetites drive us to one of two extremes. If we feel guilty about them, we join the sects/cults to cleanse our souls lest the wrath of God gets us. Those who feel good about their appetites will be tempted to design a god who also likes them.

That god can be anything from a New Age goddess to a lovey-dovey, anything-goes Jesus Christ.

This God business gets so messy for two reasons: We're faulty creatures (sinners, for short) and God is perfect. He is totally other. For these reasons we need more revelation. Without it we're in a mess. God realised that, so he made his Word become flesh in his Son. And more. He inspired over 40 writers in three continents and languages, over a period of 1,500 years, to set down his Word in words.

Just a thought: Imagine a god who simply created us and the world and then came to a full stop. He neither sent us instructions in flesh and blood, nor in ink. What Father would send his children into this crazy, dangerous world without some instructions and guidance. It would be a lousy parent who did that to his children. It would be the very devil himself. *

Professor Keith Ward's God, Chance and Necessity (Oneworld) is excellent.