MY JOURNAL


My Definition of God

Written: 30 November, 2000

[This was written in response to a post by an atheist who asked for a definition of what a God was.]

My definition of "God" is the Creator and Supreme Being. By "Supreme Being," I mean that his love is greater than any other love, his power is greater than any other power. He probably exists outside of time in the sense that it's all the same time to him: he knows how it will end because he's seen the end. (Or, as the Bible puts it, he is "the first and the last.") This may explain why it is said that God "never changes," because he always was and always will be.

I define God as the artist and we are the paintings. We and our world are signs of God's existence. Like the dc Talk song "Supernatural" says, "God is here, God is there, God is everywhere." Or as another song says, "The Spirit lives in me and you." I guess that Spirit of God is the thing which we are continually fighting when we'd rather do selfish or sinful things instead of being humble and serving God. God is trying to help us follow him. As the Newsboys song "Beautiful Sound" says, "I'm chasing you like you chase me."

I think God is knocking at the door of our hearts, but he lets us have free will on whether we will let him in or not. He doesn't want automatons as followers, but he wants us to truly love him and one another.

This inevitably leads to the subject of whether God is just or not, particularly concerning the ultimate fate of those who reject him. I think the only answer to that question is to trust in God, because he is after all the Supreme Being and Creator. He knows more about it all than we do. God is by definition wiser and more loving than everyone else. That means that we should trust in the rightness of his judgment. As another song reminds us, there'll be no tears in Heaven -- by definition there can't be sadness because Heaven is the state of ultimate happiness and joy. So, somehow God will make it all work out right.

So, according to my definition of God as the Supreme Being, we can see that God is just and worth loving and worth following. God is omniscient, so he knows everything -- more than we do. And since he is omnipotent, he loves us more than anyone else does (particularly impressive since he knows all our most secret sins). Since he knows all our secrets, we can trust him more than anyone else -- there's nothing at all to hide between us. And since we can trust him completely, and we know that his love is greater than any other, then we can trust that he is just.


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