Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Is there more than one God?

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Question 5Question 5 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “Is there more than one God?”

The answer provided is, “There is only one, the living and true God.”

At their core, all belief systems are exclusive. Even those who pride themselves on inclusivity are exclusive of those who believe that truth is exclusive. In other words, those who preach tolerance are often intolerant of those who believe in objective truth.

Christianity believes (because the Bible declares) that there is only one God. And as we learned yesterday in Question 4, there are specific things to be believed about that one God as revealed in the Bible.

He is the living and true God, despite those who have proclaimed his death. As Ravi Zacharias has pointed out, God always seems to outlive his pall bearers.

Not only is he living, he is true.

In the Old Testament, the test for one who claimed to speak for God was whether the proclamation came true. Any prophet who prophesied an event that did not happen was to be cut off from the nation of Israel. Because God is true, he takes truth very seriously.

But when we look at the number of fulfilled prophecies contained in Scripture we see that God has a track record for truth. He, and he alone is the true God.

What is God?

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Question 4 - What is God?Question 4 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks,  “What is God?”

The answer given is, “God is a spirit, Whose being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth are infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.”

The first thing that jumps out at me in this answer is that God is a spirit who is infinite, eternal and unchangeable. These are what is called incommunicable attributes of God; they are attributes that cannot be shared with humanity. These are also attributes that cannot be fully understood by us.

God is infinite – without boundaries. God is eternal – he exists outside of time. God is unchangeable – he does not grow or diminish or change over time. We can only nibble at the edges of these concepts and cannot fully understand them.

The answer to Question 4 also lists some communicable attribute of God. These are aspects of God’s being that can be shared with his creatures. Because these are communicable, we are right to pursue wisdom, power (under the direction of the other attributes), holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

As we learned yesterday in Question 3 of the Catechism, our contemplation of this question must be informed by Scripture, which is the means of God revealing himself to us. Therefore, when we think of the communicable attributes that we should pursue, we need to consult the Bible to define those attributes and allow it to define how we should go about pursuing them.

For example, men have at various times defined holiness in various ways. Often, it is thought to result from strict adherence to a set of principles or rules of behavior. Any reading of the Gospels would provide ample evidence that the Bible does not define holiness this way.

The Pharisees were very good at creating and following rules. They held the Bible in high esteem and formulated many rules to guide themselves and others about how to avoid violating any of the commands of Scripture. They thought themselves holy as a result of their rule keeping and encouraged the people around them to think so also.

But Jesus, on many occasions, showed them that they missed the point. Holiness is not attained through rule keeping. Holiness is more about heart and attitude than about external action. Rule keeping cannot change my heart. Legalism always results in failure. That is the bad news.

The good news is that Jesus came to give us a new heart and a new motivation. Jesus paid the penalty for our failure so that we can experience true holiness.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NASB)

How cool is it that God allows us, and empowers us, to take on some of his characteristics!

What does the Bible primarily teach?

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Question 3Question 3 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What does the Bible primarily teach?”

The answer given is, “The Bible primarily teaches what man must believe about God and what God requires of man.”

There are arguments that can be used to prove that the existence of God is probable. While these are helpful in bolstering our faith, they cannot tell us very much about who God is and what he is like.

To understand what we should believe about God, we need help, we need revelation, we need the Bible. Christians have been people of the book from the very beginning because they understood the Bible to be the very words of God.

As creatures, we also need to know what our creator expects from us. How are we to respond to him? What obligation do we owe him?

These are questions that the Bible clearly answers. In his book 18 Words, J. I. Packer writes this:

” . . . God discloses Himself to us by talking to us about Himself, and about ourselves as He sees us. He tells us of  His own past achievement, how He has created, judged, redeemed, raised up men to serve Him, and created a people for Himself. He tells us of His present work, now He orders and governs all things fo the fulfilling of His purposes. He tells us His future plans, sketching for us in mysterious but glowing terms the coming climax of history and the final destiny of His people. He tells us what He thinks about human life and the different ways in which men live it. He gives us directions, and counsel, and makes promises and announces warnings. He teaches us His own scale of values, detailing for us the things that He approves and the things that He hates. Thus, by talking, He reveals Himself. He discloses Himself by telling us about Himself. His revelation is personal just because it is propositional; for it is precisely by making true statements about Himself to us that God makes Himself known to us, and if He did not speak in this way we could never know Him at all.”

The very real question I have to ask myself is whether I am willing to submit to what God has revealed to me. Am I willing to acknowledge him as creator and sustainer? Am I willing to be obedient to how he has revealed I should act?

When I approach the Bible, I find that most of my intellectual problems with it are, at their core, volitional problems. In other words, I find that I want to remain in the position of judge and jury regarding what I am reading. My heart is at times unwilling to submit.

I am thankful that God has revealed himself to us through the Bible. For it is the Bible that tells us of the provision that God made to bring us back into relationship with him through Jesus Christ. Not only does God tell us how we ought to live, he provides us with the ability to do it.

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6, NASB)

The authority that God has given

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Question 2Question 2 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What authority from God directs us how to glorify and enjoy Him?”

The answer given is, “The only authority for glorifying and enjoying Him is the Bible, which is the word of God and is made up of the Old and New Testaments.”

I do spend time reading Scripture, but often it is not with the level of anticipation that is warranted by the nature of the Bible. If I really believe that Scripture is the only reliable guide as to how I can glorify God and enjoy him, I should be more anxious to read it than I am.

In Luke 24, we have the story of the two men on the road to Emmaus who unknowingly meet Jesus along the way. Luke tells us that Jesus “explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). Later the men said this about that encounter, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining he Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).

We the the same Scripture which we call the Old Testament and in addition with have the New Testament. If our hearts are not burning as a result of reading it, the failure does not lie within the Scriptures.

One of the dangers in reading Scripture is that we can read into it what we want to be there. I hesitate to point out examples of this because I am subject to the same tendency. Like the man with the beam in his eye, it would be ridiculous for me to point out the speck in my neighbors eye. A general warning must suffice.

Because of our tendency to read into Scripture, Biblical interpretation must be a team sport. We need the fellowship of other believers around us to challenge us in our blind spots and to assist us in drawing from Scripture the principles we need to make sound choices in life.

We need believers around us to sharpen our understanding of Scripture and sharpen our application to life in this culture at this time.

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