Finding God 101, Part Two

Many know of God. But there is a distinct difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing them personally. I know about all manner of people from actors and politicians to scientists and musicians. But I have never met them and know nothing of real substance concerning their inner thoughts and workings. People are nuanced creatures, filled with ideas and opinions that, as social beings, they are interested in sharing. 

But that is the point: it must be shared for me to know who this person is, and to move beyond the sphere of simply knowing about them. The ecumenist, again well meaning, may suggest that all religions reveal a different nature or aspect of God, and while the Christian faith may have a larger window, it is but one of many such portals. This misses the point of the conversation. Islam’s god Allah rejects the Trinity, Christ as God and Savior, the Jews as the chosen earthly people and in fact goes so far as to say that the Bible is corrupted and the Jews must be killed for followers of Allah to enter paradise. Does this sound like the Biblical God at all? Is this another aspect of the same God who was revealed through the person of Jesus Christ? The Bible reveals the triune nature of God from Genesis to Revelation. It is crystal clear when it puts forth Christ as humanity’s Savior and Israel’s Messiah. God states that the Bible alone contains all humanity needs for life and godliness and issues a warning to all who would visit harm on the Jews.

Everyone knows what a forgery is. Like money, there are forgers that make counterfeits to pass off as legitimate currency, and the closer the counterfeit, the better the odds of achieving success at deception. Again, that is the point: deception. God has not revealed Himself through the Koran, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, the Baha’i faith, et al. Scripture is equally clear that Christ is the only way to God and the only Savior God chose to send. We reject this singular, exclusive path to our own peril. Furthermore, Christ’s claims, which are plentiful and plain, negate future revelations as to further prophecy and succeeding spiritual gurus such as Mohammed, Joseph Smith, or Mirza Ali Muhammad. All who preceded Him are likewise referred to as thieves and robbers, who meant only to harm the sheep. Christ stands uniquely alone as the very image of God, the express image of God’s person, the fullness of deity in the flesh. Otherwise in this tangled ecumenical web of conflicting reports every religion offers one must come to the only logical conclusion if we subscribe to it: God is insane. Every religion, and therefore every time God speaks through a different mouthpiece, He changes His mind about who He is, if He is personal or abstract, if salvation is grace or works, if sin is real, if Hell is real, if material existence is real, if reincarnation or resurrection is mankind’s fate, et al.

The law of noncontradiction states: “contradictory propositions cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time.” Or as the famous example goes, “A is not non A.” To clarify, if God as the Bible defines Him is A, then He cannot also be non A (every other letter of the alphabet) as religions define Him because it contradicts what A says on every fundamental level. One may logically reject the Bible’s definition of who God is and accept an alternative, Hinduism, Islam, etc. But one may not logically accept Biblical Christianity AND Hinduism, Islam, etc. Why? They fundamentally disagree, which brings the character and nature of God into question. This thinking seems to prevail in most arenas, save for spiritual matters. For some reason, many people believe or accept (tacitly or expressly) that spiritual beliefs do not need to be logical because faith is the vehicle that attaches one to it. But faith needs legitimate grounding in reality to be worth anything. Would you believe someone if they told you that the law of gravity was revoked and men could fly, and then encouraged you to leap off of a building? No, evidence would be needed before faith could be asserted. Faith is not blind; to go a step further, legitimate faith is not blind. Faith is founded on evidence that one finds convincing, and intellectual assent becomes a spiritual, emotional bastion when conviction is reached.

Such is true about the nature of God. It would be tantamount to the Red Queen’s philosophy in “Alice Through the Looking-Glass” if we were to believe all religions were equally true, or that all religions had truth in them, especially when exclusionary faith such as Christianity expressly states that because Christ is the truth, all other faith claims by default are false. The Red Queen was quoted as saying, “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” This is where we, as thinking, rational people would have to go to reconcile this notion. To believe what is patently impossible. One may accept God as the Bible reveals Him, and I pray you do. One may accept a rival as the world’s religions reveal him. One may accept no god and subscribe to the religion of Atheism. But what you cannot do without destroying all plausibility and logic, is subscribe to it all, and besmirch God’s name with an insanity of epic proportion. Clarity is necessary when conversation begins, and Christians must be crystal clear as to the identity and person of the God we profess to serve and believe in. When we truly know the genuine article, we may be more adept at recognizing and pointing out the subtle and dangerous counterfeits that abound.