God…Is!

God…Is!
From the outset it is a struggle to define just what
‘God’ is.
Philosophers have sometimes spoken of ‘god’ as that
which is and always has been. Titles such as
‘Unmoved Mover’, ‘First Cause’, ‘Prime Mover’ all
express the notion that ‘God’ is the one who existed
before and apart from the rest of the universe. ‘God’
is the force or being who, as it were, set up the
dominoes and knocked the first one over – causing
the universe as we know it to come into existence.
In Ex. 3:14 the God of Israel boldly lays claim to
these titles: “God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM1.
This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has
sent me to you.' " The God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob is the self-existent One. An outrageous claim
– unless true!
Jesus, who was in the beginning and through whom
all things exist2, made a similar claim about himself:
“’I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I
am!’”3 His hearers were outraged. In one sentence
Jesus identified himself to the Jews as ‘Yahweh’ and
to the Greeks as the Self-Existent-One whom their
philosophers had sought to define.4 An outrageous
claim – unless true!
If we are seeking reality, purpose, answers to some
of the great questions of life… - here is the starting
point: God…IS!
1 Usually transliterated from Hebrew as ‘Yahweh’ or ‘Jehovah’
2 John 1:1-4
3 John 8:58
4 See Paul’s observations on this in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

http://www.kortrightchurch.org/pdf/DDD%20-%20Sept%2017-21,%202007.pdf