Basic HTML Version
He allowed Satan to approach them.
Satan got to Adam through his wife.
Our original parents believed Satan
when he said, "Ye shall
not
surely
die," after God had said, "Thou shalt
surely die" upon stealing the forbid–
den fruit .
When Jesus Christ spoke on earth
4, 000 years later, though He
preached His message from God to
multiple thousands, only 120 people
believed what He said (Acts 1: 15).
No wonder, then, not one of these
religions, sects and denominations,
except the small and persecuted
Church founded by Jesus Christ
(A.D. 31 ), starting with that 120,
knows WHO and WHAT God is! But
there is a reason for that fact. This
will be made clear as we proceed.
Just WHO and WHAT, then, is
God? How does He reveal Himself?
Already 1 have · quoted the apostle
Paul saying to the Athenian intellec–
tuals that God is the Creator, who
designed , formed, shaped and
created MAN.
The prophet Isaiah quotes God
Himself, saying: "To whom then will
ye liken me, or shall
J
be equal?
... Lift up your eyes on high, and
behold who hath created these
things, that bringeth out their host by
number; he calleth them all by names
by the greatness of bis might, for that
he is strong in power, not one faileth"
( lsaiah 40:25-26).
Read this in the James Moffatt
translation in modern English:
" 'To whom will you compare me,
then, and equal me, ' asks the Majes–
tic One. 'Lift high your eyes, Jook up;
who made these stars? He who mar–
shals them in order, summening each
one by name. For fear of him, so
mighty and so strong, not one fails to
appear .' "
Further, God Himself says to the
skeptics: " Now, the Eterna! críes,
Bring your case forward , now, Ja–
cob's King críes, state your proofs.
Let us hear what happened in the
past, that we may ponder it , or show
me what is yet to be, that we may
watch how it turns out; yes, let us
hear what is coming, tha t we may be
sure you are gods; do something or
other, that we may marvel at the
sight!- why," taunts God to the
doubter, "you are things of nought,
you can do nothing at all" (Isaiah
41:21-24, Moffatt).
April 1980
God is Creator of ALL-of every–
thing in the vast universe- the stars,
the galaxies in endless space, this
earth, man and everything in the
earth.
That is WHAT God is- what He
does!
He CREATES! He designs, forms
and shapes. He gives LIFE! He is the
great GIVER! And His law-His
way
of life- is
the way of GIVING, not
GETTING, which is the way of this
world.
But what is God
like?
WHo is
God? There have been many concep–
tions. Sorne believe God is mere!y the
good
or good intentions,
within
each
human-merely sorne part of each
human individual. Sorne have imag–
ined God was sorne kind of ido!
composed of gold or silver, or carved
out of wood, stone or other material.
The Israelites thought, while Moses
was communing with God on Mount
Sinai, that God was, or looked like, a
golden calf.
Many think God is a single indi–
vidual supreme Personage. Sorne
thought He was a spirit.
But the generally accepted teach–
ing of traditional Christianity is that
God is a "trinity"-God in three
Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spir–
it, which they call a "Ghost." The
word
trinity
is not found in the Bible,
nor does the Bible teach this doc–
trine. But more about that later.
God in Prehístory
Now let's go back to the very begin–
ning, in prehistory.
lf you were asked where in the
Bible to find the very earliest descrip–
tion of God in point of the time of His
existence, you probably would say,
"Why, in the very first verse in the
Bible, Genesis 1:1, of course."
Right?
Wrong!
In the time-order of God's exis–
tence the earliest revelation of WHO
and WHAT God is is found in the New
Testament: John 1: l.
" In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. All things were
made by him, and without him was
not anything made that was made. In
him was life, and the life was the
light of men" (John 1:1-4).
"The WoRo" in this passage is
translated from the Greek
lagos,
which means, "spokesman," or
"word" or "revelatory thought."
It
is
the name there used for an individual
Personage. Notice the explanation in
verse 14:
"And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us, (and we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace
and truth."
The Word, then, is a Personage
who was made flesh-begotten by
God, who through this later begettal
became His Father. Yet at that pre–
historic time of the first verse of John
1, the Word was not (yet) the Son of
God. He was made God's son later,
through being begotten or sired by
Goo and born of the virgin Mary.
So here we find revealed originally
two Personages.
One is God. And
with God in that prehistoric time was
another Personage who also was
God-one who later was begotten
and born as Jesus Christ. Yet at the
time described in verse one Jesus was
not
the Son of God and God was not
His Father.
We find regarding the beginning
of His existence, something further
described in Hebrews chapter 7.
Speaking of Melchisedec, who was
king of Jerusalem in the days of
Abraham, it says also that He had
been the High Priest of God. This
Melchisedec, had existed from eter–
nity-"without father, without
mother, without descent, having nei–
ther beginning of days, nor end of
Jife; but made like unto the Son of
God;
abideth a priest continual/y"
(Hebrews 7:3).
Since Melchisedec was
"like
the
Son of God," and abides as High
Priest for ever continually, and Jesus
Christ is now High Priest, Melchi–
sedec and Jesus Christ are one and
the same Person.
Therefore Christ was "without
father, without mother, without de–
scent (in Abraham's time], having
neither begi'nning of days nor end of
life," God also had existed
eternally
with the Word. Jesus, when He was
"the Word," was an immortal being
who had existed ALWAYS- there nev–
er was a time when He did not
exist- without beginning of days. He
was, then, "like" the Son of God–
but He was not yet the Son of God.
He also was God, along
with
God.
These passages show that the
41