5-Minute Christianity

Last time I mentioned that exists outside of time. When I was a Children’s Pastor, I tried to help kids understand this by using the analogy of a parade. When we watch a parade, it comes by us as a sequence of floats and bands and performances. When we’re sitting on that curb, we see what’s in front of us. We can remember what’s already gone by us, but that’s the past. We begin to hear what is still coming toward us, but that’s the future. That’s still to come. In this analogy, God would be up above, and he would see the whole parade at one time. Everything that we experience as our past, present, and future, God experiences all at once. Everything is in the present for God because he’s not bound by time.

Last time I said that God is eternal. He never had a beginning and will never have an end. It’s difficult for us to grasp this, but before anything else existed, God was there. And he will always exist. But even in talking about God being eternal, we use references to time because we don’t have any other frame of reference that we can relate to. We talk about eternity past and eternity future. But the reality is that God is outside of time. He doesn’t experience events in succession like you. You’ve had events that happened in your past, you have the events of your life today, and you’ll have more events happen tomorrow and into the future. For God, everything is the present and he experiences it all at once.

What does it mean that God is eternal? For something to be eternal would require that it never had a beginning and that it will never have an end. In the entire universe, there is nothing that’s eternal except for God. God did not begin and he will not end. One place we can go in the Bible to learn this is Psalm 90, verse 2. The English Standard Version says this: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” That Psalm is attributed to Moses and when he said from everlasting to everlasting, he was looking in both directions - eternity past and eternity future.  God is always present, no matter how far back or how far forward you go.

Last time, I said that that there are aspects of God that never change. In saying that, we also need to remember that God does act differently and feel differently in different situations. For example, the Bible tells us that God loves all people. The Bible also tells us that God will act differently toward those who place their faith in him as compared to those who reject him. He acts differently in each of those cases. It’s critical for Christians to understand this. God hates the sin of Christians and much as he hates the sin of those who reject him, but his response is very different because he has forgiven the sins of his children. So, instead of being the recipients of his anger, we are the recipients of his compassion.

The Bible tells us that there are many aspects of God that are unchangeable. In particular, he’s unchangeable in his being, his attributes, his purposes, and his promises. In each of those areas, God is unique in this regard. As humans, our being or nature changes. For example, someday we will exchange our current bodies with new and glorified bodies. Our attributes change. Even the things that we intend to do and the promises we make can change. But in each of those areas, God doesn’t change. His nature and attributes are always and forever the same. Everything he intends to do will be done. Every promise will be kept. And that's good news because we know we can count on him and trust him in all that he has said.

Is it possible to know God? The Christian response is yes, and no. We can’t know everything there is to know about God. We’re bound by the confines of space, time and limited knowledge. God doesn’t have any of those limitations. God is omnipresent, infinite and omniscient. The Bible says in Psalm 145 that God’s greatness is unsearchable. In other words, we’ll never fully know him. Thankfully, Jesus became a man and lived here on earth. Jesus was known and he told us that if we know Him, we know God the Father. Though we can’t know God perfectly, we can know God personally in Jesus. And that’s far better and more important because that's how we find eternal life.

Do humans share a universal sense that there is a God? Despite how an atheist or agnostic might think, Christians would answer yes, and here’s why. The Bible teaches that God created all people, in all places and at all times with an inner sense that he exists. In Romans 1:19, Paul talks about people who don’t believe in God and he says this: “What can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.” When people don’t believe this, Paul said in verse 25 that it’s because they exchanged the truth for a lie. So, the Christian belief is that those who don’t believe in God have rejected an inner sense that God has placed in all people.

Does God exist? When you read the Bible, you don’t find an argument for the proof of God’s existence. There’s no passage that lays out the case or responds to the premise, "Here’s how you know there is a God." Philosophers and theologians have laid out arguments for the existence of God, and there are many books that talk about that. When you come to the Bible, the Bible simply assumes that God exists. In fact, the Bible begins with the assumption that there is a God. It says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The Bible then goes on to introduce us to that God. So, the Bible is very matter-of-fact regarding the existence of God.

The doctrine of the Bible’s sufficiency implies that an action is not a sin unless the Bible says it is. Christians also distinguish between something being sinful and something being wise. Asking the question “is what I’m about to do a sin?” is a great place to start, but it’s not the only question. For example, a behavior might not be a sin, but there might be some good reasons to avoid or limit that behavior. My point in the last episode was not to say we should do whatever we want as long as it’s not a sin. My point was to clarify that we should not call things sin unless the Bible does.

Since Christians believe that the Bible is God’s Word, that means there’s no higher authority. Stated positively, it means that we do as the Bible commands. But it also means that we don’t add commands to the Bible that’s aren’t there. To say it another way, nothing is a sin that the Bible doesn’t classify as sin, either by clear teaching or by principle. I grew up in a tradition that tended to do this. For example, we thought it was sinful to use playing cards because some people use cards for gambling. The proper way to think about our behavior is that the Bible is sufficient in what it teaches so we don’t add to or take away from any of its commands.