In his reflective book, “The Quest for God”, historian Paul Johnson frames his search with this opening statement:
“The existence or non-existence of God is the most important question we humans are ever called to answer. If God exists, . . Our life then becomes a mere preparation for eternity and must be conducted throughout with our future in view.
If, on the other hand, God does not exist, another momentous set of consequences follows. . . . .There are no commands to follow except what society imposes on us, and even these we may evade if we can get away with it. In a Godless world, there is no obvious basis for altruism of any kind, moral anarchy takes over, and the rule of self prevails.”
This appropriate reasoning has been, for some time, a major argument against a move on the part of neo-atheists, agnostics, and materialists to establish a God-absent, religion-free, secular based morality. But this defense is not complete without moving beyond simply establishing that He is, to a clearer understanding of who He is.
That can prove challenging. The Christian apologist, Ravi Zacharias, has humorously stated he could think of no more difficult exam question than to “explain God, and give two examples.” C.S. Lewis, in his book, “Miracles”, suggests that perhaps our difficulty in understanding God is more related to our spiritual liabilities than our mental limitations:
“Men are reluctant to pass over from the notion of an abstract and negative deity to the living God.
. . . An “impersonal God”- well and good.
A subjective God of beauty, truth, and goodness inside our own heads- better still.
A formless life force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap, best of all.
But God himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband- that is quite another matter.”
Fortunately, from the scriptures we can get a reasoned foundation of the God we serve. Take, for example, Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”.
HE IS
We begin here, for there is so much truth to be unpacked in these two words.
He is. The reality of God precludes us from limiting Him to a simple premise in a syllogism. Many are content with the God of a deduction. But that is but the Foyer of Faith. Apologetics is an important part of evangelism, but if it is possible for the scientists to lose sight of the living God because they have focused on the wonders of His world, the apologists may stunt their faith by the limitations of logic. God is more than abstract.
Furthermore, He is denotes that He is more than His creation. He is not the diety of the pantheist that finds the divine in everything. The Bible does not begin with an argument for the existence of God, but it does begin with the statement that God is separate from His creation.
(Ge. 1:1). When God responded from the burning bush to Moses’s inquiry about his name, His response, “I am, that I am”, proclaimed that He had no source other than himself. He is outside of His time-and-space-bound creation.
Third, He is implies that He is God, and we are not. This establishes a relationship between the Creator and the created that is foundational in morality and individual happiness. His existence elevates the virtues. For when a society rejects God it tends to idealize baser actions and thoughts. It protects us from the idolatry of our own thoughts and ways and allows him to “direct our paths”.
The verse further rejects the notion that he is absent in that He desires to be sought. A.W. Tozer, in his book, “The Pursuit of God”, looks at several aspects of Christianity; Orthodoxy, Conversion, even the
Bible itself and concludes that they can all become an impediment to God’s desire if there is not a continual diligent seeking after Him.
God is not abstract, He is not absent, He is not impersonal. But He desires to be sought out by his creation so earnestly that he initiates the seeking: through the cosmos that He spoke into existence, the paradigms of thought, our emotions, and our will. No man comes to me, Jesus said, unless the Father draws him.
In 1893, English poet Francis Thompson publish a lengthy poem the beginning of which is:
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
down Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’
