A Case for GOD
By: Geo (December 5th, 2007)My long sessions with Kumar and Rahul on a single day had been so heavy on me that I didn’t go back to the Soul Café for many weeks. I spent most of my evenings online catching up with friends and discussing with them on a range of topics, thanks to Orkut, and sometimes I was punching in for my blog, and at other times I was doing some reading and research of my own on the happenings around the world. Since I had procured an unlimited broadband connection, I could take the liberty of checking out even the various videos that had been uploaded on YouTube and some of the videos I saw during this time were startling. Man has surely come a long way ahead in technological terms.
There is virtually almost no topic on which you won’t find something on the internet. The access to internet is now possible from anywhere. The kinds of facilities that are being increasingly offered are surely laying the path for man’s greater dependence on it in the coming years. So it seems that the Internet is assuming God like proportions. It was almost looking omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent!!
While I was still trying to analyze and grasp the impact and reach of the Internet, I came across a youngster on one of the Orkut forums, and we went on to discuss on the following lines.
Jeremy: Sir, can you throw some light on some of the attributes of God. I am confused about some of these terms that we commonly use to describe God like omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence!!
Me: Well, at the outset let me just warn you, that these terms themselves are not present in the Bible. These are extra-bible words that describe the understanding we get about God from the Bible.
Jeremy: Okay. Sir, I heard that a New Age teacher teaches that God cannot be omnipresent!
Me: Well they say a lot many things these days but can you explain a bit more.
Jeremy: If evil is present and if God is omnipresent, it means that evil is present inside God! On the other hand if evil is separate from God, as many teach, then God cannot be omnipresent!
Me: Yeah, I understand their dilemma because their understanding of omnipresence is rooted in: “God is all and God is in all and all is God”. Of course God in all His essence is present in every place and not a part or fraction of Him. However the Christian understanding of omnipresence is different. He was omnipresent just as our New Age teacher understands it but that was before he started creation. Then God in his sovereignty decided to create creatures that were other than Him and having their own free will.
Jeremy: How does creating creatures change his omnipresence?
Me: It actually doesn’t in one sense but technically speaking, it does. Let me explain. What is the greatest mathematical figure you can imagine?
Jeremy: Infinity
Me: Okay. What is Infinity minus One?
Jeremy: I suppose Infinity.
Me: Right. What is Infinity minus One million?
Jeremy: I think it is still Infinity.
Me: And what is Infinity minus One trillion?
Jeremy: Still Infinity. Am I right?
Me: Precisely! Infinity is so big that only Infinity can empty it. All of creation put together is much less than Infinity. So Infinity minus ‘all creation and all matter’ is still Infinity.
Jeremy: So what are you saying?
Me: When the sovereign God made infinite number of creatures, he made them outside if him, giving each of them their own free space. Technically speaking his omnipresence was reduced in a way, but still this space is so insignificant in comparison to His Infinity that God can still be called Omnipresent.
Jeremy: But technically He is not omnipresent and so the New Age teacher is right!
Me: Actually, God has chosen to withdraw from this space, for our benefit and not because cannot be Omnipresent. However, he also acts within and through creation, when invited thus filling back at least some of the space! But that He does only on invitation.
Jeremy: What do you mean by “invited”?
Me: Have you not read, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I will come in and dine with him”.
Jeremy: Oh okay. But this teacher also says that if “Evil” is another power that is outside of God and it is challenging God’s power, then just on the basis of such a possibility we can deduct that God is not Omnipotent. Else how could such an “Evil” power come to be in the first place? It only vehemently shows that the assumption of Omnipotence of God is flawed.
Me: These “Evil powers” are ‘powers’ only with regards to man. In the perspective of God, they are just a blot allowed (not arranged) for a short while, so that man would appreciate more (for his own good sake) the holiness and love of God. God is not challenged by these powers in anyway. For God, it only took “love”, to defeat evil..
Jeremy: How did this “Evil” come to be in the first place? Does it not make God the source of evil itself?
Me: Evil is the absence of good. It, like darkness, has no existence of its own, and it draws all its definition and meaning from good. As I said earlier, God did not arrange “Evil” into this creation, He allowed it. The creatures He created were given the ability to make their own free decisions, which included rejecting God and all that God stood for. So when the Archangel rejected God or when the first man did the same, they were doing it inside the Sovereignty of God. God was not challenged in anyway by what happened or will ever happen. God knew everything from the beginning and He is in perfect control. He is omnipotent in that sense.
Jeremy: Can God make a rock that He Himself cannot lift?
Me: This is an old question that has been asked for decades together now. It is a logical impossibility. It’s like asking can God to make a spherical triangle? However, for a moment let us assume that God decides to make such a rock. Now if God were to start making that Rock at all…since he is all powerful, or at least very close to that, He will call for every atom in the universe to become a part of this rock and in that process, the ones who ask this question and me and you all will be sucked into that rock and will never survive to see whether God could lift it at all!!!
Jeremy: Oh that’s true.
Me: Christian claim of Omnipotence of God is well defined. The Bible itself says that it is impossible for God to lie. So the definition of omnipotence has its constraints. God cannot do things that are against His divine nature and character. Omnipotence can be defined as the ability to do whatever that has been decided to be done.
Jeremy: That puts things into a better perspective.
Me: Also God cannot sin. But let us not forget that God chose to become sin. He got himself involved in mankind’s sins when He sent His only begotten Son to be an Atonement. Sometimes we get drawn into such discussions and arguments and forget that it is all about love. Though we are believers, even we cannot claim to be absolutely right about our understanding of God. God is beyond our puny minds. So it is with our incomplete understanding of God that we try to win over others with an apparently flawed understanding of God! It’s good to have such intellectual pursuits but let love encompass all things.
Jeremy: Surely, sometimes in our intellectual pursuits we forget we are spiritual beings badly in need of redemption. But shall we just take a closer look at Omniscience of God too? I need some clarity about it.
Me: Sure. As soon as we hear that word, we immediately conclude that God knows all things and assume that we have understood the full meaning of Omniscience.
Jeremy: Oh is that not what Omniscience means? All Knowing?
Me: Oh sure, that is what it means but there is more to it. Omniscience also means that God not only knows the events that take place but also He knows about every non-event.
Jeremy: Believe me, I didn’t understand it at all.
Me: Yeah, I think so too. What I mean is, He knows “what if” something else had taken place and He also knows all that would have ensued at every stage after that decision. In other words, God possesses knowledge of not only the actual events but also the possible, not only in the present but also in the past and the future. He has complete (total) knowledge of all things and all probabilities.
Jeremy: That is too much.
Me: Of course it is too much for us. Not for Him. His eternity and omnipresence allows Him to be omniscient. But again like in omnipotence, He cannot know about logically impossible things e.g. God cannot know that 1+1 is 3? Some people go to the extent and ask, does God “know” how it is to play soccer?
Jeremy: That’s stretching things too far. But I heard someone say that if God knows everything, then such a God cannot think? Someone who knows everything doesn’t need to think. Only those who are unaware of things need to stop, roll back and think. Why would anyone be attracted to a God who cannot think? I mean, God cannot think! God doesn’t have a mind!
Me: Relax Jeremy. Why does anyone need a God who thinks? What do you want him to think? You want to call him a great thinker? I am grateful and glad I have a God who knows everything. Just imagine, me praying to God about something and God takes on the “think” mode. Just imagine what will happen if God has to think for every issue under the sun! Thank God, He knows everything and doesn’t have to think at all.
Jeremy: Yeah I get your point and agree to that.
Me: Let me tell you Jeremy that you will come across a variety of logical arguments wherein people use lots of assumptions and reasoning to prove that God cannot exist let alone be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotence et cetera. These are not things that we can understand. It’s like nursery kids trying to prove whether Classical Physics is superior or Quantum Physics. Just imagine one kid telling the other that Classical Physics is superior because Newton spoke better English than Planck and the other kid replying that Quantum is better because Planck is more handsome and has a more pleasant style and that Newton cannot cook food so he cannot be a good scientist!!
Jeremy: That’s funny!
Me: I am sure humans and their arguments and reasoning make God laugh too.
Jeremy: But how can we tell them that they are wrong?
Me: We can’t. Even God doesn’t get provoked by the newer and newer reasons and arguments that they seem to come up with. Bible simply calls them fools. Romans 1:18,19 says, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of this world his invisible nature, namely His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So man is without excuse”. Bible goes on to say that man has become futile in his thinking and his senseless mind is darkened. The combined influence of all men cannot suppress the truth for one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!
Jeremy: Amen
Today if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your heart is the call of the Bible writers. There are countless reasons for hardening and turning away from the truth but Today is the only day which many people on the earth will have left with them. Dear reader you maybe one of them. Maybe there is no tomorrow for you. Maybe a few more days or years. But when the curtain falls, the director will walk on the stage and the show will be over. God calls people everywhere to Repent and turn back to Him for His kingdom is at hand.
Tags: God, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, Repent, Rock
June 29th, 2008 at 1:04 am