characters of God

1.How big is God?

The question "how big is God? " pops up in two divergent contexts: serious philosophical discussions and children's Sunday school. In the latter, the answer usually given is "bigger than you can imagine! "—setting up the follow-up question: "bigger than my house?! " In philosophy, particularly metaphysics, the question of Gods size is likely to take the form of discussions of the nature of reality, the existence of the supernatural, etc. Intellectuals may chuckle at the child who asks, "How big is God? " but the child could just as easily laugh at the philosophers confusion about reality.

In dealing with the issue of how big God is, we should first state that God is not made of "stuff"; therefore, He has no dimensions, and spatial descriptions do not apply to Him. God is not "made" at all but is preexistent, eternal, with no beginning and no end (Revelation 22:13). He is existence, and without Him nothing else can exist. God exists outside of and independent of His creation.

God is "spirit" (John 4:24) and as such has no physical or material form. This characteristic of God is difficult for us to understand. We have a spirit linked to a physical body and are closely tied to the material world. We naturally think in terms of length, depth, and height. We feel that, if we can measure something accurately, we can understand it better. So we invent measuring devices; we speak in terms of angstroms, inches, meters, miles, and light-years. But we run into a problem when we try to measure God; we find He is immaterial and therefore immeasurable. He is infinite in every way. God resists quantification and will not submit to our attempts to scrutinize Him, classify Him, and decipher Him.

How big is God? Very big. More than that, God is transcendent; He is so "other" that we can never fully understand Him. At the same time, we are made in His image, and He loves us (Genesis 1:27; John 3:16). He has communicated to us through His Word and His Son, Jesus. Whether the question of God 's bigness comes from a child in Sunday school or from a metaphysics, the answer comes down to this: He is "big" enough to make the universe and "small" enough to know and love us.

2. Does God have a physical body?

Both the Bible and good philosophy report that God is non-physical - spirit. In John 4:24 it is said that God is spirit (see also Luke 24:39; Romans 1:20; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17). This is why no material thing was to be used to represent God (Exodus 20:4). But this can also be shown by reflecting on what God is. Philosophically the same truth comes through. All that is created is necessarily finite and limited. But the first cause (God) is uncreated, and therefore must be non-finite, or infinite. That which is beyond the finite must, by definition, be infinite, and the Bible states that God is beyond creation (1 Kings 8:27; Job 11:7-9; Isaiah 66:1-2; Colossians 1:17). That which is physical cannot be infinite - for you cannot add finite parts together until they reach infinity. Therefore God is spirit as opposed to physical/material in His Being. This does not mean He cannot localize a physical appearance. God is not composed of matter nor any other imaginable substance. He also cannot be measured, is not spatial, and has no true location (presence is a different concept).

Knowing this truth can help us understand the metaphorical speech often used to describe God or, more often, God's actions in Scripture. In the case of God, once all finitude is negated from a statement, what is left is what is actually true. If nothing is left, then it is a pure metaphor. Some metaphors use attributes from creation itself (2 Samuel 22:3). Others use man's attributes (anthropomorphism - Deuteronomy 33:27). In this way we can go from what we know by experience to what we know through the metaphors. For example, when Scripture describes God's mighty arm we know that arms are by definition limited - but might is not. So God's mighty arm is actually unlimited power to act (what we call omnipotence). When Scripture describes God's mind, we know that minds are limited, but knowledge is not. God's mind is actually His infinite knowledge (what we call omniscience).

There were times in the Bible when God appeared in a physical body in order to be seen by men in a form which they could perceive without danger to themselves. Because God said, "No man can see me and live" (Exodus 33:20), He chose at certain times to reveal Himself in human form. These occurrences are called theophany's (Genesis 12:7-9; 18:1-33; 32:22-30). Every theophany wherein God takes on human form foreshadows the incarnation, where God took the form of a man to live among us as Emmanuel, "God with us" (Matthew 1:23).

3. How old is God?

Age is a number that represents a span from beginning to end. In order to determine age, there must be a beginning. Human beings count age, beginning with our birthdays. The moment a baby is born, we start counting. It has been seven days since he was born, we say, so he is one week old. Two months old. Four years old. The time of a person's lifespan always begins at the date of his or her birth.

God did not have a beginning; therefore, we cannot assign Him an age. He is outside of time, so the question "how old is God? " is a non sequitur. God created time as part of this universe to mark the passing of seasons and years for us (Genesis 1:14; Psalm 104:19). But He is not subject to time. In the New Testament, He describes Himself as "the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end" (Revelation 1:8, 11; 22:13). Alpha is the beginning letter of the Greek alphabet, and omega is the last. In the Old Testament, the Lord describes Himself as "the first and the last" (Isaiah 44:6). God is saying that He is always present at all times. There is no past or future with God. Everything is as though it were occurring right now. That's hard for us to comprehend since we are so bound by time.

When God identified Himself to Moses for the first time, He said that His name was "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14). From those Hebrew words, we extract the more familiar name for God: YAHWEH. By saying that His name was "I AM, " God was teaching Moses that He was incomparable to any other. He is above, beyond, and all-encompassing. Time cannot confine or define God. In revealing His name, God made a statement of His own self-sufficiency, self-existence, and immediate presence.

God always has been and always will be. He has no beginning and will have no end. Asking "How old is God? " is an example of a category mistake imputing a quality to something that properly belongs only to things of another category. Other category mistakes are evident in questions such as "How long has this gravel been dead? " (It was never alive) and "What does the color orange sound like? " (Colors are not sensed audibly). The question "How old is God?" assumes that God should be categorized as having age, but He is timeless and does not belong in the same category as things subject to time.

Jesus had a physical birth on earth around the year 5 BC, but that was simply the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, who exists outside of time. The Lord existed before His physical incarnation. In fact, the Bible says the earth was created by Him and through Him (Colossians 1:16; John 1:1–3). Before Abraham was born, Jesus said, "I am" (John 8:58).

In short, God does not have an age. He is timeless. He is eternal (Genesis 21:33). He holds the universe together, and without Him nothing would exist (John 1:3). If God had an age, that would mean He had a beginning and there was a time when there was no God, and such a thing is impossible. Because God has always been, we can trust that He will always be and the future is secure for those who put their trust in Him (Psalm 9:10; Proverbs 30:5).

4. Is there any conclusive proof of God?

The answer to this question depends greatly on what is meant by "conclusive" proof of God. Can we reach out and touch God or see Him in the same way that we touch and see people? No. But there are countless ways one can know assuredly that God does exist, that He is real, and He is who He says He is. We will look briefly at three ways of proving His existence using both science and the Bible.

1. Proof of God: The Law of Cause and Effect. This law of science states that every cause has its effect and every effect has its cause. This law is the basis of all science. As such, this law bears a relationship to the origin of the heavens and the earth. In fact, scientists agree that the universe has not existed forever, that it had a beginning at some point in time.

The theory of relativity, which is almost universally accepted among scientists, has certain implications for this Law of Cause and Effect. One is that the universe defined as time, space, matter, and physical energy had a beginning, that it is not eternal. And it is through Einstein's equations that scientists can trace the development of the universe back to its very origin, back to what is called the "singularity event" when it actually came into being. Science has proven that the universe really did have a beginning. This means that if the universe had a starting point in history, then it obviously began to exist, and it must have a cause for its existence.

Therefore, if the universe needs a cause for its coming into being, then that cause must be beyond the universe which is time, space, matter, and physical energy. That cause must be something similar to what Christians call "God." Even Richard Dawkins, probably the most prominent proponent for atheism in our time, admitted in a TIME magazine article that "there could be something incredibly grand and incomprehensible and beyond our present understanding." Yes, and that is God!

We can best summarize this cosmological evidence with the following statements:

(1) Whatever begins to exist must have a cause for its existence.

(2) The universe began to exist.

(3) Therefore, the universe must have a cause for its existence.

(4) The attributes of the cause of the universe (being timeless, existing outside of space, and so on) are the attributes of God.

(5) Therefore, the cause of the universe must be God (Genesis 1:1).

2. Proof of God: The Law of Teleology. Teleology is the study of design or purpose in natural phenomena. This law of science essentially means that when an object reflects a purpose, goal, or design, it must have had a designer. Simply put, things do not design themselves. This holds true for the things in the universe, which proves that it had to have a Designer.

For example, the earth in orbiting the sun departs from a straight line by only one-ninth of an inch every 18 miles—a very straight line in human terms. If the orbit changed by one-tenth of an inch every 18 miles, it would be vastly larger, and we would all freeze to death. If it changed by one-eighth of an inch, we would be incinerated. The sun is burning at approximately 20 million degrees Celsius at its interior. If the earth was moved 10% farther away, we would soon freeze to death. If it were moved 10% closer, we would be reduced to ashes. Are we to believe that such precision "just happened"? Think about it: the sun is poised at 93 million miles from Earth, which happens to be just right. Did this happen by chance or by design? It's no small wonder that the psalmist alludes to God as the grand designer: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. . . . [The sun] rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other" (Psalm 19:1, 6).

3. Proof of God: The Laws of Probability and Fulfilled Prophecy. There are 1,093 prophecies in the Bible that refer to Jesus and His Church, and each one of those prophecies was fulfilled! The Old Testament contains 48 prophecies that pertain to the crucifixion of Jesus. When applying the laws of probability to calculate the likelihood of several events taking place at or near the same time, all probabilities have to be multiplied together. For example, if the probability of a single event occurring randomly is 1 chance in 5 and the probability of a separate event occurring is 1 chance in 10, then the probability that both events will occur together or in sequence is 1 in 5 multiplied by 1 in 10, which yields 1 in 50.

In considering the fact that several different prophets who lived in separate communities over a span of a 1,000 years made predictions of Christ 500 years before His birth, the odds against these prophecies coming true are simply beyond our wildest comprehension. For example, the chances of one man (Jesus) fulfilling just 8 of the prophecies attributed to Him are one in 10 to the 17th power (that's a number 1 with 17 zeroes).

Consider this: imagine covering the entire state of Texas with silver dollars to a level of two feet deep. The number of silver dollars needed to cover the whole state would be 10 to the 17th power. Mark one silver dollar with a "X" and drop it from an airplane. Then thoroughly stir all the silver dollars all over the state. Then blindfold a man and tell him he can travel wherever he wishes in the state of Texas. Then somewhere along the way, he is to stop and reach down into the two feet of silver dollars and pull up the one silver dollar that has been marked with the "X." What are the chances of his doing this? The same chance the prophets had of eight of their prophecies being fulfilled in any one man in the future (based on the work of Peter W. Stoner and Robert C. Newman in Science Speaks: Scientific Proof of the Accuracy of Prophecy and the Bible [Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1963, pg. 101-109].)

The Bible with all its fulfilled prophecies proves the existence of God. Through the law of probability and the mathematical odds of prophecy being fulfilled, we can know assuredly that there was a divine Designer and Author of the Bible. The same One who brought the universe into existence. "You may say to yourselves, 'How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?' If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously" (Deuteronomy 18:21-22).

Finally, God, the Creator of the universe and Author of our salvation tells us, "Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please" (Isaiah 46:9-10).