What is God Like?

What is God like?

This is an impossible question to answer with any certainty because only God himself is able to understand himself. However we are able to form some ideas from clues found both in the Bible and from History.

Judaism, and it's later development into Christianity, springs from a history of 'God seeking Man'. This is how they both differ from the many of the other World Religions that are more cases of 'Man seeking God' Click here to read further notes on 'Christianity, its Uniqueness and Why' if required

If you Reader can accept this line of thought a valid next stage is to examine how God has revealed himself to mankind from time to time. The opening verses of the New Testament book entitled 'Hebrews' is interesting, it says - "Long ago God spoke in many different ways to our fathers through the prophets, in visions, dreams, and even face-to-face, telling them little by little about his plans. But now in these days he has spoken to us through his Son ....."

It follows on from this that, if we want to know what God is like, we must examine some of the things Jesus is recorded as having said. On a number of occasions Jesus called God Father (Abba) and encouraged us to do the same. Then in John's Gospel there is a report of a conversation between Jesus and the disciple Philip where - "Philip said, “Sir, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” Jesus replied, “Don’t you even yet know who I am, Philip, even after all this time I have been with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking to see him?" (John 14 : 8 &9 Living Bible)

So if we want to know what God is like we need look no further than Jesus himself.

Jesus coming to live among us reminds me of a story of a man with his young son walking along a country lane. They discovered an anthill that had been partly destroyed by a passing cart wheel. The nest was in disarray with the older ants trying to save the unhatched eggs that had been exposed to danger. The young boy became very disturbed and asked his father how they could help. The father’s answer was that only by becoming an ant could he hope to help.

This story illustrates one part of Jesus' quest in coming to earth as a man, to become an object that we can focus our thoughts upon and thus help us partly understand the none understandable.

Besides this Christian approach to what God may be like there has been much differing speculation elsewhere over the years and yet God has never yet, not surprisingly, been defined with any clarity. The Muslims think of him as 'Master' and the Jews treat God with such reverence that many of them will not even pronounce the name. So definitions of what God is like are as numerous as there are opinions, with mine being no better than yours Reader. The only advice I can give is that, within such considerations, we must never make the mistake of thinking of God as an Object (like we can Jesus). God, the creator of our Universe is neither a He or a She and is, for example, far more splendid than the inside of a Nuclear reactor.

However the wonderful thing is this, although being such an intangible subject, God's loving presence can be experienced within our very being and be just as real as our other emotions such as fear or ecstasy. It's the sort of experience that can make strong, tough men cry for a reason not apparent to those watching.

Such a experience of God's love is unlike any other because it's source is, not from ourselves, but is supernatural and yet undeniable by those who have gone through it. It is this experience that makes 'Second Hand Christianity' so unique among the many world religions available to choose from. Second Hand Christianity is discussed later but, by a click, can be jumped to now if required.

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