Looking For Hope In A Hopeless World, Part 3 (of 3)

 

But what of the First Cause? Monotheism suggests a singular being beyond space/time. Powerful and intelligent they may be, but alone even the Uncaused Cause lacked something that he/she/it needed humanity to experience: a relationship. A being independently complete apart from the universe they have designed, it would seem peculiar to have the imperfection of lacking a relational quality to himself/herself/itself. The highest emotion humanity can manifest, love, is one that requires a subject-object relationship. Did our creator then need to make humanity to experience what they have been missing? Orthodox Judaism and Islam classify Yahweh and Allah as singular personages. The Islamic faith presents the identity of their creator, Allah, as unknown and unknowable, creating an effective barrier to loving or being loved by him. Judaism attests that Yahweh, their covenant God, is a single God who is the maker of heaven and earth. Despite the fact that the Tanakh speaks often of Yahweh’s love for His people, this depiction of Him that Judaists hold would also mean that before creation God did not know love experientally. There was no object to be the subject of His love, so to speak.

This brings me to the Christian God, manifested also as Yahweh, Israel’s covenant God, incarnated also as a man in the person of Jesus Christ. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity resolves the disparity between a “god” that is part of the universe, lacking omnipotence, and a “god” that exists apart from the universe of space/time but lacks any relational quality. Evidence abounds in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, that Yahweh manifested Himself as 3 persons, all of whom were considered “God.” This being, three persons sharing a single essence, is the exemplar of community or fellowship. God, according to the Bible, did not need to create mankind to experience a subject/object relationship. Harmonious love was reciprocated within the Trinity, and it was the desire to share this love with His creation that gave rise to our race. God’s grace or condescending (vertically descending) love would be upon humanity, while man’s worship or vertically ascending love would be our response. From the fountainhead of that love relationship we as His creatures would love one another and so abide in the moral order God imposed upon us. I say imposed rather than created because such order is merely a part of the creator’s eternal nature. It is natural that any morally impure action would be impermissible for a being perfect in Himself. Conscience testifies to the moral order, which was implemented within us as a guard against making destructive choices contrary to the creator’s nature and suffering separation of fellowship with the One who gave us life. Remember, the moral order (so we call it) was to be demonstrative of how we as a created race were to function one toward another (both toward humanity and our creator) on a relational level. The whole of God’s law revealed in what the Jews named the Torah is just that: relational. A personal, relational, all-powerful deity that stands apart from His creation but continues to superintend it is the God that is. He is a reasonable answer to existence, and a satisfactory conclusion to any existential search the wanting mind undertakes.

 

Monotheism as found in Christianity paints a vivid picture. It answers the temporal and shallow worldview of naturalism by replacing subjective and artificial purpose defined only by the individual. It is exchanged with a relevant and objective form of external reference: God’s existence and the purposiveness of life in general and our own in particular. This answer also resolves the worldview of supernaturalism’s problem when it comes to the quandary of God’s identity and nature. Reaching beyond the agnostic’s relative god somewhere beyond the hope of human reach, and infinitely more approachable than lonely deities hiding from the longing hearts of seekers, we find Jesus. When the philosophers and the religious seekers asked the question, “Who is God?” God answered by incarnating as a man. Having flesh and blood, He walked among us so we could see that He was approachable, personable, wise and merciful and loving. He demonstrated these characteristics, having compassion on the wayward race trying their best to forget Him. He destroyed the wall of separation our destructive choices built between us and God by the offering of His own life in our place. Jesus was humanity as it was intended; though fully God He nonetheless was also our human representative, our mediator and our Savior. He obeyed the moral law inherent in God’s nature, revealed first by conscience and then by external revelation. By human choice we destroyed fellowship with our creator; by our creator’s choice He determined to seek and save the lost.

 

The summary of my consideration about the assumptions each of us make without duly considering their nature or reliability is this: introspection is a good beginning to evaluating our own worldview. What do we believe, and on what basis? Are we confident in the existential answers we’ve adopted, or do we even have an answer? If so, could you articulate and defend that answer with reason and evidence? Self-examination is definitely painful, but in this instance could prove infinitely fruitful if we realize the uncertain premises or flawed rationale we base our life’s direction on. To the naturalist, the supernaturalist, the atheist and agnostic: my purpose for writing this is not to offend, but to provoke thoughtful consideration. But if offense transforms into introspection, I am happy for it. My wish is that everyone may conclude their search for meaning in the living God, the God of the Jews, the prophets, the Christians, the universe’s Author and the source of light and holiness. Purpose exists but it is vapid and unsatisfying when we seek to fabricate it ourselves. It is likewise fearful and miserable to live in the shadow of a distant god who does not want to be known, or to know you. Rather, come to the One who once told His Jewish audience: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly,” John 10:10.