If, for some impossible reason, the position for “God” became vacant, what might the job description look like? Being a Judge would definitely be listed. Judging is a god-like activity, and the God of the Universe would have to be the Ultimate Judge of that Universe.
In sustaining the Universe and the required justice that this involves, it can be seen from the Bible that God appoints some human beings to serve as His deputies – as judges.
It would be easy to think that the Bible presents an unimaginably glorious picture of God. After all, He is described as being light. His appearance seems radiate the kind of light that not only blinds the viewer but also attracts them as well. The light that God emanates is not the photonic light of this temporal dimension, but the kind of light which only eternity can sustain. It is the kind of light that warms and comforts those who are drawn to it and the kind of light that warns and exposes those who try to run from it. God’s eyes are described as being like fire – they pierce the soul of the onlooker. When He speaks His voice is variously described as being like mighty thunder or the sound of many crashing waters over a gigantic waterfall. When He speaks, whatever He decrees happens. Everyone who is permitted to be in His immediate presence is not only overcome with a sense of their deepest purpose being awoken – to fully worship the Most Glorious Being in the Universe – but also to discover that in so doing, their deepest longings are infinitely satisfied. Thus, every picture of God on His Throne which the Bible reveals to us is a scene of unimaginable worship. But even though it would be easy to think that the Bible presents an unimaginably glorious picture of God, it declares that what we see is actually just a dim view!
One of the things which gripped me as a new Christian was just how short life on earth was compared with eternity. As I read through the Gospels I was struck by how often Christ made this contrast to put this life into its proper perspective. Even if, as the Psalmist declared, man lives to a ripe old age, his life is but “a breath” – a mere “blade of grass” which sprouts in the morning and withers by the end of the day. This life is no mere dress rehearsal for next. It is of infinite and eternal consequences. The apostle told the Colossians that not a minute of it should be wasted. When it comes to the after-life, despite the teaching of those who identify as liberal Christians, the eternal Gate of Heaven into Paradise is not merely opened for the “religious”, but for the redeemed in Christ. And if we have any compassion for our fellow man we will do all we can to persuade them to repent from their rebellion and to humbly turn to the Saviour to accept His offer of salvation. Yet many will not do this because they are yet to see what Jesus described as the most convincing proof of all.
Can the claims of the Bible be logically sustained and even proved? We examine the five best (and most popular and widely used) objections to the existence of God.
It was C.S. Lewis who said – “You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” Human experience tends to confirm Lewis’s assessment. We are spiritual beings who are intuitively supernatural. Atheists object to this assessment though. They assert that there is nothing supernatural and that the uninformed are not being spiritual but rather “superstitious”. But when Christians, who claim to be spiritual, behave superstitiously and call it “revival”, we have to think that’s an odd Gospel, or perhaps a “Todd Gospel”…