"ISSUES OF DISTINCTION"
The Identity Of God
INTRODUCTION
- Our previous study briefly surveyed some of the arguments for the
EXISTENCE of God:
- The ontological argument (if man can conceive of a perfect God,
one must exist)
- The general argument (the universal belief in God and man's
religious instinct)
- The cosmological argument (every effect must have a cause; the
cosmos is an effect, and its adequate cause is God)
- The teleological argument (evidence of design necessitates a
Designer)
- The moral argument (moral nature in man and sense of "ought"
demands a Moral Person in back of all things)
- The esthetical argument (beauty in the universe and man's
response to it suggests a Supreme Being with an eye for beauty)
-- These philosophical arguments are based upon what is seen in
CREATION, which reveals something of the Creator - cf. Ro 1:20
- But these arguments do not, nor does creation, IDENTIFY who this
Supreme Being is...
- Is He the God revealed in the Bible?
- Is He the God or Gods believed in by Hindus, Buddhists, etc.?
- Or is He some Being yet to be discovered by mankind?
[In this study, we shall take a closer look at the second "issue of
distinction": The Identity of God...]
- THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS ISSUE
- IF GOD IS NOT THE ONE REVEALED IN THE BIBLE...
- Then the Jew, the Moslem, and the Christian are in error
- For they are united in their belief that He is the God of
Abraham
- And that He has revealed Himself through prophets
- Then we should be looking elsewhere to learn who God is
- Either to the eastern religions, such as Hinduism or
Buddhism
- Or perhaps some other religion among the many in the world
- IF GOD IS THE ONE REVEALED IN THE BIBLE...
- Then we owe it to ourselves to carefully read the Bible
- To learn what God has revealed about Himself
- To learn what God expects of mankind
- Then we have narrowed down the choices as to what is the true
religion in the world: Judaism, Christianity, or Islam
[As we proceed to consider arguments for believing that the God of the
Bible is the One True God, a certain line of reasoning will be
followed:
The Bible claims to be the Word of the One True God; if this is
true, we should find evidence of INSPIRATION.
What, then, are evidences that the Bible is really INSPIRED of God?]
- EVIDENCES FOR THE IDENTITY OF GOD
- THE UNIFORMITY OF THE SCRIPTURES...
- The Bible is a collection of 66 books, written:
- Over a 1600 year span
- Over a period of 40 generations
- By approx. 40 authors from every walk of life; e.g.:
- MOSES, a political leader trained in the universities of
Egypt
- PETER, a fisherman
- AMOS, a herdsman
- JOSHUA, a military general
- NEHEMIAH, a cup bearer to a king
- DANIEL, a prime minister
- LUKE, a physician
- SOLOMON, a king
- MATTHEW, a tax collector
- PAUL, a tentmaker and rabbi
- In different places
- Moses in the wilderness
- Jeremiah in a dungeon
- Daniel on a hillside and in a palace
- Paul inside prison walls
- Luke while traveling
- John in exile an the isle of Patmos
- Others in the rigors of military campaign
- At different times
- David in times of war
- Solomon in times of peace
- During different moods
- Some writing from the heights of joy
- Others from the depths of sorrow and despair
- On three continents
- Asia
- Africa
- Europe
- In three languages
- Hebrew
- Aramaic
- Greek
- Which subject matter includes hundreds of controversial
topics
- The origin of man & the universe
- The nature of God
- The nature of sin & man's redemption
- Despite all this, there is harmony and continuity!
- For example:
- "The Paradise Lost of the book of Genesis becomes the
Paradise Regained of Revelation"
- "Whereas the gate to the tree of life is closed in
Genesis, it is opened forevermore in Revelation."
- GEISLER and NIX
- Compare the continuity of the Bible with any other such
writings of man
- Imagine what you would have if you just took ten
authors...
- From one walk of life, one generation, one place, one
time, one mood one continent, one language
- Speaking on one controversial subject
- You would have a conglomeration of ideas, not harmony!
- The reason for the UNITY of the Bible?
- The writers were all inspired by the same God - cf. 2Pe
1:20-21
- Providing evidence that the God of the Bible is the One
True God!
- THE SCIENTIFIC FOREKNOWLEDGE OF THE BIBLE...
- The nature of this argument:
- In the Bible there are scientific truths...
- That were unknown by man with all his wisdom and
resources
- That are stated as facts hundreds of years in advance of
the discovery of these truths by men
- That the writers of the Bible could have known these facts
only through inspiration
- That such evidence of inspiration confirms they were
writing or speaking for the One True God!
- Just a few examples of facts written about in the Bible, but
confirmed only recently with the aid of modern science...
- The roundness of the earth - Isa 40:22
- The suspension of the earth in space - Job 26:7
- The currents in the seas - Ps 8:8
- The springs in the seas - Job 38:16
- All nations of one blood - Ac 17:26
- FULFILLED PROPHECIES FOUND IN THE BIBLE...
- The nature of this argument:
- The prophecies of the Old Testament foretold events in
detail that were beyond the scope of human speculation
- How did the writers do it?
- They attributed it to God!
- And God declared that such evidence was a proof of His
existence and superiority over men and all heathen gods
- Isa 41:21-24; 42:8-9; 46:8-11
- A few examples (Messianic prophecies will be considered in the
next study):
- The fall of Babylon, written two hundred years before it
occurred - Isa 13:17-22
- The fall of Egypt, that it would be destroyed more by civil
war than by outside forces - Isa 19:1-4
- The fall of Nineveh, with its utter desolation - Zeph 2:13-15
- The fall of Tyre, with its becoming a place for the
spreading of nests - Ezek 26:1-5
-- Cf. Introduction To Christian Evidences, Ferrell Jenkins,
pp. 87-107
CONCLUSION
- We have briefly surveyed evidence suggesting the Bible to be
inspired by a Supreme Being...
- The uniformity of the Scriptures
- The scientific foreknowledge of the Bible
- Fulfillment of prophecies found in the Bible
-- Our examples have been few, and simply illustrative; indeed,
entire volumes have been written on this subject
- The Bible is either the work of men or of God; if it is from God...
- Then it is easy to understand how these men could write as they
did
- Then the IDENTITY of the One True God is known:
- He is the God of the Bible!
- And that Book is His Word to us!
- But among those who believe in the God of the Bible, there are
differences...
- Most Jews accept only the Old Testament portion as Scripture
- Christians accept both the Old and New Testaments
- Moslems believe that both the Old and New Testaments have been
corrupted, so as to present an improper picture of Moses and
Jesus
- The core of these differences revolve around another "issue of
distinction": The Identity Of Jesus of Nazareth
That is the "issue" we shall examine in our next study...