http://www.oldpaths.com/Archive/Davison/Roy/Allen/1940/god.html
What is the truth about God?
With regard to non-believers, Paul said: “They exchanged
the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the
creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25 RSV).
The truth about God remains true, whether it is accepted or
not. Nor can the consequences of truth simply be wished away.
What is the truth about God?
God is.
The existence of God is evident from His works:
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world”
(Psalm 19:1-4).
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without
excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify
Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their
thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to
be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:20-22).
God’s eternal power and Godhead are evident “being
understood by the things that are made.”
Yet many have rejected the one true God and have become
adherents of some fake, materialistic religion. Or they resort to
atheism that involves the deification of nature by ascribing
godlike creative power to unintelligent, dead matter.
Who says there is no God?
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm
14:1).
The philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, in writings between
1882 and 1889 declared: ‘God is dead’. His writings have been
influential in philosophical and atheistic circles since then.
Nietzsche admitted that the loss of belief in God would
cause a breakdown of traditional moral values, but he believed
that without faith in God a new Übermensch would arise, a
higher form of man.
He criticized Christians for taking care of the weak, which
according to him interfered with the progress of evolution
through natural selection by enabling inferior people to
reproduce.
Hitler used ideas of Nietzsche as the basis for his
extermination of the physically handicapped and certain races
that he considered inferior, in order to advance Darwin’s
‘survival of the fittest’.1
Nietzsche at the age of 44 became completely insane in
1889. The doctors thought he had acquired syphilis from
prostitutes but perhaps he had a brain tumor.
A year earlier Nietzsche had written a book in opposition to
Christianity and Christian morality entitled ‘The Antichrist’. In
its conclusion he says: “I call Christianity the one great curse,
the one great intrinsic depravity.” He suggested that instead of
dating time from the birth of Christ, it should be dated from the
last day of Christianity, namely from the year his book
appeared!2
In 1889 he wrote to a friend: “The world will be turned on
its head for the next few years: since the old God has
abdicated, I will be ruling the world from now on.”3
Nietzsche was insane for eleven years until his death in
1900.
Nietzsche is dead. God lives, unhindered by people, über or
not, who say that there is no God.
The truth about God is found in the Bible where the
attributes of God are described.
God is holy.
“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is
to come!” (Revelation 4:8).
God is one.
“The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Mark 12:29).
“For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or
on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us
there is only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and
we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all
things, and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:5, 6).
In Scripture the one true God is revealed as Father, Son and
Holy Spirit [see for example John 4:24; 20:28; Colossians
3:17]. Thus Christians are baptized “in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
God is Creator.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on
the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over
the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and
there was light” (Genesis 1:1-3). Notice that the Spirit and the
Word of God were active in creation. God spoke the universe
into being by the power of His Spirit.
Later the creative Word of God came as Savior in the person
of Jesus Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning
with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him
nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3).
God reigns.
God is sovereign. “The LORD shall reign forever and ever”
(Exodus 15:18). “God reigns over the nations; God sits on His
holy throne” (Psalm 47:8). “The Lord God Omnipotent reigns!”
(Revelation 19:6).
God has spoken.
God has made His will known to man.
“He has shown you, O man, what is good” (Mica 6:8).
“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm
19:7).4
“God who at various times and in different ways spoke in
time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days
spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all
things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1,
2).5 The teachings of Christ have been passed on to us by His
apostles in the Bible (Romans 16:25-27).
“God is love” (1 John 4:8) .
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
God saves.
“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior
toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we
have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit”
(Titus 3:4, 5).6
God gave His Son.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life” (John 3:16).
“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God
has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might
live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins” (1 John 4:9, 10).
“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the
Son as Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
God sent His Spirit.
“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from
the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father,
He will testify of Me” (Jesus promised in John 15:26).
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent
forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem
those who were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba,
Father!’” (Galatians 4:4-6).
The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and inspired
the apostles to preach the message of Christ and record it in
sacred writings that come down to us in the Bible.7
God calls us.
“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship
of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). God “has
saved us and called us with a holy calling” (2 Timothy 1:9).8
God is worthy to be praised.
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of
our God” (Psalm 48:1).
“I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name
forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise
Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to
be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:1-
3).
“I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised”
(Psalm 18:3).9
God will judge us.
“God shall judge the righteous and the wicked” (Ecclesiastes
3:17).
“He shall judge the world in righteousness, and He shall
administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness” (Psalm
9:8).
“So then each of us shall give account of himself to God”
(Romans 14:12).
“Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not
to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone,
something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these
times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men
everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on
which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man
whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by
raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:29-31).
What is the truth about God?
God is. God is holy. God is one. God is Creator. God reigns.
God has spoken. God is love. God saves. God gave His Son.
God sent His Spirit. God calls us. God is worthy to be praised.
God will judge us.
Do you want to serve God?
Believe what God has revealed about Himself in the Bible.
Believe the saving message of His Son, Jesus Christ. Confess
your faith in Him. Repent of your sins. Be baptized in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of your
sins. Rise from the water of baptism, born anew, to serve the
one true God in spirit and truth. Serve Him faithfully until death
and He will give you the crown of life.10 Amen.
Endnotes:
1 Nietzsche himself was opposed to antisemitism, however.
2 Downloaded from the full text of “The Antichrist” on Nov. 6, 2018 from
https://archive.org/stream/theantichrist19322gut/19322.txt
3 Downloaded on Nov. 6, 2018 from http://www.leonardsax.com/Nietzsche.pdf
4 See verses 7-11.
5 See also Hebrews 4:12, 13.
6 See also 2 Samuel 22:47 & Psalm 62:1, 2.
7 See Acts chapter 2 & Romans 16:25-27.
8 See also 2 Peter 1:2-4 & 1 Peter 5:10, 11.
9 See also Psalm 113:1-3, Psalm 96:1-13 & Psalm 145:1-3.
10 See James 1:12 & Revelation 2:10.
Roy Davison
The Scripture quotations in this article are from
The New King James Version. ©1979,1980,1982,
Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers unless indicated otherwise.
Permission for reference use has been granted.
Published in The Old Paths Archive
(http://www.oldpaths.com)