I came to the surprising realization that we did not share a number of basic conceptual ideas about God. To be precise, I believe the following upon my reading and studying of Scripture:
- God is immutable.
- God is Himself the paradigm of objective moral values.
- Mankind has been crafted in God's image and as such, possess several unique attributes.
- We possess the ability to reason.
- We possess free will.
- We are intrinsically moral beings.
Now the last point of this subset is one of fervent debate amongst many philosophers past and
present. That human beings possess an innate knowledge of objective moral values and responsibilities.
We human beings tend to view such an admission as grievously deleterious.
Indeed many would struggle against such an admission with such vehemence as to nearly lend credence to the concept simply by virtue of their raving invective against it.
The more studies science conducts with infants in this field, however, the more we understand that
even small children possess some rudimentary knowledge of moral judgment and are capable of
exercising their own moral judgments on those around them.
This is not to say that children, during their formative years, are not in need of a guiding hand
to help sculpt the more refined features of their (to ironically borrow a phrase from Sam Harris) moral landscape.
But let's go back to the starting point.
God is immutable. We know this from Scripture very clearly. How?
Well, because quite simply, God Himself says so.
(Mal 3:6) For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
(Heb 13:8) Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
(Psa 102:26) They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
(Psa 102:27) But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
(2Ti 2:13) If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
(Heb 6:17) Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
(Heb 6:18) That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
(Jas 1:17) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
These Scriptures seem to make it abundantly clear, that God's nature is unchanging.
He is our rock and our fortress because He never changes. We change; He does not.
Because of this, His character itself is a great surety for us.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ is referred to as 'Faithful and True'.
But what about being the paradigm of moral values?
For us to answer this question, we must first ask ourselves, what is sin?
And a good way, I believe, to examine this topic of sin is to take a close look at the first sin
in the garden of eden. We all know the story very well.
God instructed man that he could partake of everything except the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
God informed man of what would happen if he disobeyed. Adam and Eve chose disobedience and
rebelled against the perfect will of God. Sin, then, is a rebellion against the nature of God Himself.
To me, this explains a lot. 1 Samuel 15 makes a good deal of sense when examined in this light:
(1Sa 15:22) And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
(1Sa 15:23) For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
Here the Scripture draws a direct comparison between disobedience and witchcraft and idolatry.
This is strong language. But it makes perfect sense if we start from the premise that sin is a rebellion
against the nature of God. Every time we selfishly enforce our values over those of God, we commit
a moral crime against the Source of those selfsame morals.
When David commits adultery, he says:
(Psa 51:4) Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Proverbs repeatedly makes statements like these:
(Pro 11:1) A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
(Pro 12:22) Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.
(Pro 16:5) Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
(Pro 17:15) He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.
This word abomination is tô‛êbah which means something which is morally disgusting.
Of particular interest to me are Proverbs 14:31 and 17:5:
(Pro 14:31) He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.
(Pro 17:5) Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.
The word for reproach here is châraph which means to expose shamefully, to defame or blaspheme.
Why would the Scripture use such strong language in reference to those who mock and oppress the poor and downtrodden?
How exactly do you blaspheme your Maker by oppressing the poor?
These verses make sense only if doing so were a direct violation of God's nature.
In oppressing the poor, we commit injustice and blaspheme our Maker in whose image
we were made.
We have disobeyed the moral law of the moral lawgiver, and we are immediately aware of it because
the voice of our conscience speaks to us, apprehending us of our guilt.
How did Adam and Eve react when they ate the fruit?
They immediately became aware of their guilt.
When God came to find them in the cool of the day they had hidden themselves from Him.
Indeed when we violate moral laws, we feel an immediate and automatic sensation of guilt
and accountability. But this makes absolutely no sense if God did not exist and there were only
immaterial objective moral values. Guilt is a distinctly personal reaction.
When one runs a stop light, one does not feel guilt toward the stop light.
To do so would be foolishness, as it is just an object indicating what we are meant to do.
One does not feel guilt for disobeying an object. One feels guilt toward a personal causative
agent. I feel guilt toward someone if I hurt them. I feel guilt for taking something that did
not belong to me from someone else. In this manner, then, feelings of guilt brought about
by violations of moral law only make sense if there is a moral Lawgiver.
Our conscience convicts us of guilt. Through it we can apprehend the true and objective nature
of the moral values which inhabit our world in spite of the fact that they are intangible and immaterial.
Paul writes in Romans that
(Rom 1:18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
(Rom 1:19) Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
(Rom 1:20) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
And:
(Rom 2:14) For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
(Rom 2:15) Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
We also know that we can damage our conscience over time by repeated disobedience.
(1Ti 4:1) Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
(1Ti 4:2) Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
The Greek used here for 'seared with a hot iron' is kautēriazō which is the root from which we obtain
the word cauterize. It means by implication to render insensitive.
And we know from the Scripture that God, through the regenerative workings of the Holy Spirit
during salvation, is capable of healing and restoring our conscience, although this process
may be one that continues over a period of some time as God continues to purge us of the vestiges
of our former life.
(Psa 51:10) Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
(Heb 9:13) For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
(Heb 9:14) How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
(Heb 10:19) Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
(Heb 10:20) By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
(Heb 10:21) And having an high priest over the house of God;
(Heb 10:22) Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
But why do we possess this innate awareness of moral values at all?
Why is it that we seem to possess a conscience and a refined sense of moral obligation and accountability when animals seemingly do not?
This leads us to the third point of our original argument, which is that man is made in the image
of God; crafted with certain attributes which I believe are gifts of His nature.
We know this from the creation account itself:
(Gen 1:26) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
(Gen 1:27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
(Gen 2:7) And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
If God is a spiritual Being, it makes sense for at least part of us to be spiritual in nature as well.
(Joh 4:24) God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
The word for breathed in the creation passage in Genesis is neshâmâh and it is sometimes used in concordance with rûach which refers to the spirit of a rational being.
Job clarifies this concept for us when he says things like the following:
(Job 27:3) All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
(Job 32:8) But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
(Job 33:4) The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
(Job 34:12) Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment.
(Job 34:13) Who hath given him a charge over the earth? or who hath disposed the whole world?
(Job 34:14) If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;
(Job 34:15) All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.
Job says that if God were to recall His Spirit and breath, all flesh would perish.
(Isa 42:5) Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
(Isa 57:16) For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
God says that it is He that gave breath and spirit to the people which inhabit the earth, and He Himself has crafted the souls of men.
(Jas 3:9) Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
James repeats the concept that we are made after the similitude (or image) of God.
Psalm 139 is, as many well know, a detailed descriptive passage of a human life.
(Psa 139:13) For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
(Psa 139:14) I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
(Psa 139:15) My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
(Psa 139:16) Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
The purpose of this essay is not to go much further than this, in establishing a firm Scriptural basis
for the concepts detailed at the beginning. And (at least to my admittedly limited understanding),
we have produced substantial evidence from the Word for these points:
That God is an immutable being, that he is the unchanging paradigm of objective moral values and obligations and the things which we consider virtuous and true,
and that we are beings crafted in His likeness with an immortal spiritual nature capable of
apprehending the moral truth(s) of the world which surrounds us.
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