Who is God?

This article was written for the Oakland Independent July 5, 2017 addition.

Last week I wrote that we should be fine with expressing our unique ideas and listening to the ideas of other people. This week and next I wanted to share some of the ideas that make traditional Christianity unique compared to other worldviews. What I mean by traditional or "orthodox" Christians are those who hold to foundational beliefs that have historically set us apart from other religions and other sects who claim to be Christian. The core Christians beliefs would be held by Protestants like Evangelical Free, Baptists, Covenant, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and most Pentecostal churches like the Assembly of God. Furthermore, older churches like the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox churches, and Episcopalians / Anglicans would also official hold these ideas. For all our divisions, Christian churches still hold many core beliefs in common.

The first area of agreement is in answer to the question, "Who is God?"

We believe in one God who is creator of all other things (Genesis 1, Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 45:5,6). Now to many of us in the Midwest, who only know a one God religion, this might seem obvious, but our society is becoming more pluralistic. We live next to and around many people who perhaps believe in multiple gods or lesser gods associated with the natural world. Furthermore, many people are secular and do not believe in anything outside of the physical world, whether it be one God or other spiritual forces.

Christianity is even distinct from the other two "one God" religions, Judaism and Islam, because we believe in one God, who eternally exists in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons. This concept called "the Trinity" is unique to Christianity and is very often misunderstood by those inside and outside the church. One common misunderstanding claims that we believe in three gods, when in fact we believe that members of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, are eternally unified because they share the very nature or being of God. We claim then that God is one in essence and purpose, but still exists as three persons.  

Another misconception of the Trinity, denies that God is really three persons. Some people claim that the Father, the Son and the Spirit are simply different manifestations of the same person, like the same water existing as ice, liquid or steam. Others deny the divine nature of Jesus and / or the Holy Spirit. For us, if someone denies the Trinity in one of these ways, they do not believe in the same God and that separates you from true Christianity.

The plainest teaching of the Bible makes the truth of the Trinity clear, and the early church leaders wrestled against many of the same misunderstandings we still see today. They declared non-Trinitarian ideas about God to be wrong, and therefore those who believed them were not true Christians. In fact, these truths about God's nature are really just a restatement of the early Christian creeds, which were written to respond to some of the early misconceptions of God (called heresies).

To restate, Christians believe in one Trinitarian God who is apart from and created everything else, and those who believe something else about God are not real Christians because they believe in a different God. Next week, I will present the idea that Christians believe there is only one way to God, namely through the person and work of Jesus. If you disagree with me, I invite you to write a letter to the editor to start, not an argument, but a conversation. As a Christian, I would love to hear what you believe about reality and have a continued discussion about these important ideas.