What We Know about God

Over history there have been a lot of bizarre ideas about what God was like. Some thought He was in a volcano. Some thought He was the sun. Some thought He was in plants and trees. Some thought He was a group of capricious inbred miscreants with a variety of powers and each with its own individual following. Of course, that one was really popular for a long time. The Greeks, the Romans, and the Norse liked that version. In fact, our days of the week are named after that version. Eventually, of course, reason won out. Whether it was the Jewish YHWH or Islam's Allah or the Christian God, we finally figured out that it was one being. And here in the 21st century, we figured out a lot more than that.

We figured out, for instance, that God is not that "evil volcano God", some cruel being wishing to consume His creation. He's not angry at all. No, no, that's some early version. No, God's a nice fellow with only good intentions. Those old "fire and brimstone" types loved to scare their listeners into repentance, but we know better (John 3:36; Rom 1:18; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6; Rev 19:15; Rom 9:22-23).

We figured out that God is good. Of course, that's not nearly as vague as it sounds. We figured out that God is good to us. He is ... what's the popular term ... "omnibenevolent". I don't merely mean that God is righteous. I mean that He's nice. God doesn't do what we would classify as "bad things". He doesn't ordain harsh or unpleasant events to happen to people. He doesn't cause hurricanes or earthquakes or the like. He's a nice God who, apparently, is a victim of a sin-ridden planet just as we are. It is we who have evicted Him from schools and then wonder why there are school shootings, who have evicted Him from government and wonder why there's such corruption, who have evicted Him from the public square and then wonder why there's so many problems. It's not His fault, you see, because one thing we know is that God is good and wouldn't do anything unpleasant to us (Job 21:30; Isa 45:7; Jer 16:10-11; Jer 18:11; Amos 3:6).

And one thing we know beyond dispute. God loves us. Oh, how He loves us. He loves us unconditionally. He loves us and only wants the best for us. You see, that's why He's not that "God of wrath" or some God who brings about some divine smiting or some such nonsense. How could He? He loves us. He loves us universally and equally. He loves us endlessly and without reserve (Psa 5:5; Psa 73:18-20; Jer 12:8; Lam 2:6; Mal 1:2-3; Rom 9:13; Psa 51:17).

Of course, if you bothered to look up any of the references I've offered so far, you'd also discover something else. If these seem to you to be accurate descriptions of God, it turns out that you may not know God nearly as well as you thought, because these oh-so-popular ideas about God are not biblical ideas. They are contrary to the biblical descriptions. And, although we think we're quite advanced, I suspect that many don't know God much better in the 21st century than they did in the days of Roman mythology. And, bottom line, knowing God makes all the difference.