Who Am I?

Life without purpose is not to be thought of! Life and purpose go together, but purpose and chance are opposites. How could life then, happen by chance, and still have purpose?

My being who I am is special to me. I could not imagine being anyone else. Who are you? Could you just be anybody, or are you, like me, a unique person with character, likes and dislikes, knowledge according to your interests, ideas, abilities? I could go on, but you can see for yourself you are an individual, affected by genes and family traits, but you are ONE. Even identical twins are separate beings, identifiable by differences of some sort. Having established that we ARE, and not figments of each other’s imaginations, let us look at who God is.

I have found that this is easier said than done, but to begin, before seeing who God is, we have to decide on a crucial issue. To define God, you have to believe that God IS.

If you do not have that belief, and think that this great universe did not need a creator, but happened from nothing, I can’t help you, and you will have no further use for this column.

The Bible tells us, Only fools believe there is no God. (Psalms 14 & 56)

Also, Do not argue with fools or you will become like them. (Proverbs 26:4)

We will later examine why the Bible is my authority, but if you are still with me, let us look at who God is NOT.

Pantheists say that God and the world are one. Nature and history, matter and thought, are all related, and I see no evidence of holiness or divinity in such an idea. Going back to early Indian philosophy, history shows Pantheism in many forms, and while related to Brahminism, Stoicism, Gnosticism etc, and very much a part of the more recent New Age movement, it can also include Atheism, for there is no god in such a belief. If God is in everything, then He is in nothing, and if evil and good exist side by side in whatever form, how can he be worthy of respect? He cannot create and be in creation, and if everything is absorbed into one being, after death becoming part of that being, then it is immaterial whether one lives a moral or immoral life. Who wants to worship such an impersonal concept? We see in modern times the idea of “ecotheology”, with many adherents worshipping and wanting to preserve nature, no doubt thinking that the fate of creation is in their hands. They are not god.

Polytheism is the worship of or belief in more than one god. Well the God I worship and serve is One God, and He instructs that other gods should not be worshipped. Note that He does not deny the existence of other gods, but He commands that they be left out of His sphere of relationship. You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:2. That includes the gods of the day, Baal, Molech, Isis, Greek and Roman gods, the many, (approximately 30 million) Hindu gods, ancestors, totems, and the gods of money, sport, status, intelligence, entertainment and self-interest.

Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord; no deeds can compare with Yours. All the nations You have made will come and worship before You, O Lord; they will bring glory to Your Name. For You are great and do marvellous deeds. Psalm 86:8-10.

My God is not Allah, and I will explain more on this later.

Meantime, God is not lost!

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness…

Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts … Hebrews 3:10,13,15.