{"id":4246,"date":"2020-12-14T11:17:22","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T10:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/?page_id=4246"},"modified":"2022-06-14T22:57:29","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T20:57:29","slug":"what-is-god-like","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/faq\/what-is-god-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What is God Like?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"iframe-container\">\r\n<iframe id=\"lbry-iframe\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/odysee.com\/$\/embed\/silly-christian-what-is-god-like\/78ebdad253202171e7ea841ddccc534d93b33c84?r=14SSaTUe73AFrRfxhdAosJjg6GX2PUT6\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h3>Silly Christian, you can\u2019t even explain who God is.<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>I would love to explain to you what God is like\u2026 But, to do so\r\nwould be of no value to anyone. All I can know and explain is what\r\nGod revealed to us in the Bible. And that is what I will do!<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>As I have showed you in earlier videos, the Bible is the written\r\nrevelation of God. The name of the God of the Bible is YHWH, which\r\nbasically means \u2018I am who I am\u2019. This is the name He gave Moses.\r\nGod is nothing like the spirit of Alladin\u2019s lamp or Santa Claus.\r\nAnselm said that <i>\u2018God is that, the greater than which cannot be\r\nconceived\u2019<\/i><a class=\"scroll tooltip\" id=\"sdendnote1anc\" href=\"#sdendnote1sym\" title=\"To Endnote\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Trinity<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>God showed Himself as one God, and yet there are three Persons in\r\nthe Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (1 John 5:7)<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\t<i>\u201c<\/i><i>For there are three that bear record in heaven, the\r\nFather, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: \tand these three are one.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Spirit<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>God is Spirit (John\r\n4:24) and as such we can not see or touch Him. But\r\nit is wonderful to know that God became man and lived among us in the\r\nperson of Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 3:16).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Creative<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>God is creative. Just read the Genesis account of creation. Look\r\naround and look at yourself. Blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes, red\r\nhair, black hair, blond hair\u2026 God created us to have an enormous\r\npotency to vary. \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Omniscient<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>He is all-knowing (omniscient). He created the natural laws and He\r\nunderstands them all. It will not surprise Him when you do something\r\ntotally unexpected. He will never say: \u201cWow, I did not expect\r\nthat!\u201d He is the Creator of time and as such He is not under the\r\nrestriction of time. The past, present and future are all under His\r\ncontrol. \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Omnipotent<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>The biblical God is all-powerful (omnipotent). He never grows\r\ntired, bored or disinterested. His power is endless and He will never\r\nrun out of it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Omnipresent<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>God is also all-present (omnipresent). He is everywhere, it is\r\nimpossible to escape Him like Jona found out the hard way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Immutable<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>God is always the same (immutable). This makes Him completely\r\nreliable because you don\u2019t have to wait until He is in a good mood.\r\nYou don\u2019t have to be afraid that He acts out of irrational\r\nimpulses. He is He and always be the same. He has no beginning or end\r\nbecause all that has begun to exist needs to have an absolute cause\r\noutside itself. God, as creator, is the one outside all that exists. \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Holy<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>He is also perfect or, like the Bible says, holy. He is more holy\r\nthan we ever can imagine. He is so holy that He cannot look on\r\nsinfulness. As a perfect being He has never sinned. He cannot even\r\nsin. So when someone asks you whether there is something God cannot\r\ndo, this is your answer: he cannot sin. But this is troublesome for\r\nus. I don\u2019t know about you, but I am far from being perfect. How\r\ncan I come even close to the perfect Creator?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Just<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>Now we also have to talk a little about the consequences of God\u2019s\r\nattributes. Because all the attributes together also brings us to the\r\nconclusion that He has to be absolutely just. He cannot dismiss\r\nsinful behaviour. Every sin, from small to big (if we can even make\r\nthat distinction in light of perfectness) must receive a penalty.\r\nWhen my son steals candy from his brother I, as his father, will tell\r\nhim to apologise and repay the debt. On a bigger scale, we would\r\nconsider it immoral when a judge tells a murderer not to be naughty\r\nagain, and then let the person go free. We demand justice in small\r\nand big cases. It is interesting that most of us understand this. It\r\nis a reflection of our Creator in our conscience. That reflection\r\nshows us that there is no injustice in God.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Depressing<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>I don\u2019t know about you but these attributes are pretty\r\ndepressing when you consider that God is all that, and we can\u2019t\r\neven come close. You don\u2019t have to be an Einstein to know that you\r\nfall short in every way. The Bible is clear: <i>\u201c<\/i><i>For all\r\nhave sinned, and come short of the glory of God\u201d<\/i> (Romans 3:23).\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Love<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>But hold on! We did talk about just a few attributes but not\r\nnearly all. One aspect of God we didn\u2019t mention yet is, love. The\r\nBible teaches us that He is all-loving. He loves us and wants to be\r\nin close contact but at the same time He has to bring forth justice.\r\nAre love and justice two incompatible qualities? You might think so,\r\nright? Wrong! God, in His endless wisdom, came with the perfect\r\nsolution. He, Himself, became man. He lived among us! \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>This man, you probably know as Jesus Christ, never disobeyed any\r\nGod-given rule. He lived a sinless life and as such He could stand\r\nbetween us and God the Father as a perfect Mediator. Jesus offered\r\nHimself as the scapegoat for the whole of humanity. \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>Our Punishment<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>The punishment we deserve is unbearable. Some think the punishment\r\nis like torture in the same way dissidents are tortured in some\r\ncountries right now but than everlasting. Yeah right, like God enjoys\r\nthe idea of having some deranged demons who, as appointed\r\nexecutioners, torment people in the hereafter. No, the Bible depicts\r\na totally different scenario. The punishment is an everlasting\r\nseparation from God\u2019s proximity. This goes for humanity the same\r\nway as for those deranged demons, who, in reality are fallen angels.\r\nWhen judgement comes, God will separate that what belongs to Him,\r\nthat what honours Him from that which is not His. All that what is\r\ngood will be with Him. You enjoy friendship? It will be with God. All\r\nthat what is good will be with Him. Now try to imagine nasty things.\r\nNot hard is it? Enmity, hatred, darkness, bitterness, pain, lies,\r\nfilth, selfishness etc. These things will not enjoy an everlasting\r\nstay with God and they will be send in the place we call hell. The\r\nplace where nothing good exists since all that is good will be with\r\nGod.  \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h3>What did Jesus do?<\/h3>\r\n\r\n<p>Anyway, let\u2019s return to Jesus! What did He do? He, as sinless\r\nman, stepped up and took our place. He provided a way whereby we can\r\nhave forgiveness. He paid our penalty in full. He took upon Himself\r\nall our wrongdoing and together with that load He died. He died a\r\nhorrible death. He did not only died for your little mishap but also\r\nfor the murderers, the thieves, the blasphemers. He took all sin and\r\nafter being beaten to the bone he died on a cross. Sounds horrible?\r\nThat\u2019s because it is! Still, He did that to make sure justice can\r\ntake its course. The wonderful thing is that He did not stay in the\r\ngrave. Although he took all sin with Him, death could not hold Him.\r\nHe never did anything that deserved the death-penalty. After three\r\ndays He came back to the land of the living. Having conquered death\r\nHe now sits at the right hand of God the Father. When you accept His\r\noffer, you too can live with God forever. Jesus will look at you and\r\nsay: <i>\u201cCome now, and let us reason together <\/i><i>[\u2026] <\/i><i>Though\r\nyour sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though\r\nthey are red like crimson, They shall be like wool.\u201d<\/i>\r\n(Isaiah 1:18 AMP).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><br\/>\r\n<br\/>\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><a class=\"scroll tooltip\" id=\"sdendnote1sym\" href=\"#sdendnote1anc\" title=\"Back to text\">1.<\/a>https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/ontological-argument<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Silly Christian, you can\u2019t even explain who God is. I would love to explain to you what God is like\u2026 But, to do so would be of no value to anyone. All I can know and explain is what God revealed to us in the Bible. And that is what I will do! As I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4250,"parent":1086,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[225,308],"tags":[264,262,258,263],"folder":[98],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4246\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4246"},{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=4246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}