#1 On the Nature of God: BACKGROUND and something from NOTHING

The majority of people in this world have only a limited concept of God. As far as this majority is concerned, God can do little and is thus incapable of punishing them. However, this concept is fundamentally wrong! This series of posts seeks to set down the facts that can be logically known about God as being a great, super intelligent and super powerful being.

The fundamental nature or characteristic that distinguishes God from all the false gods that man has conceived of is His ability to create as noted in Genesis 1:1:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Note that this verse contains three facts: 1. God existed before the universe came into being. 2. There was a beginning of the heavens and the earth. 3. God brought the earth and the heavens into being by creating them.

Further, this is the only logical reason for the existence of the material universe. It had to be created by a super intellect from nothing.

The fact that creation of the universe occurred in the beginning means that the universe had a beginning—a zero time before which it did not exist. Before the universe existed, there was nothing—not pieces from which it assembled itself—nothing. At zero time, only God existed. Then God changed that situation by creation.

We use the word create in two different ways. We usually say that Michelangelo created many sculptures, the Pieta being one of the most famous. What Michelangelo was doing was making a sculpture from existing material, marble created by God. It is more accurate to say that someone is making something from existing materials than to say they are creating something.

Another way we use the word create is to describe things constructed in the mind. For example, I place paper and a pencil on the table before me and write down a new short story. However, the paper and pencil played no part in the creative process. All the creation has occurred in my mind. I don’t even have to write the story. I can keep it in my mind and tell people about it from time to time as an oral story. In a miniscule way, creation of a story is like what God did.

In the beginning when there was no existing material—a totally empty space—God created the universe as it is today. God literally created the heavens or the universe from nothing—the moons, the stars, the planets, this earth—everything. This marked the beginning of everything physical. God did what man has never been able to do or ever will be able to do: He created solid objects from nothing. He created electrons, protons, neutrons, and atoms—silicon atoms found in sand and rocks—from nothing. This must have taken tremendous intellectual power and great physical power—much, much, more than man has or can even imagine. Thus, the creation of the universe from nothing is a super great miracle that only God could accomplish and is the logical explanation for the origin of the universe.

Note that at creation nothing was at yet revealed about the purpose or ultimate fate of that which was created. Instead, God preferred to proceed through an orderly process to arrive at His ultimate goal as recorded in the remainder of Genesis, chapter one.

God had to have the mental ability to create a plan, the will to carry it out, and the power to turn it into reality. With this nature, God is truly awesome!

In summary, several facts about the nature of God should be emphasized:

  1. All physical things had a beginning.
  2. God was not created. He has always existed.
  3. God performed a giant and wonderful miracle by planning and creating the heavens and the earth. God is a creative miracle worker.
  4. Such a miracle reflects great glory on God.

Unfortunately, appreciation of the tremendous magnitude of this miracle is not widely found in society today. But it should be.

The next posts will build on these concepts.

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