Do YOU KNOW who GOD IS?

How do we get to know anyone? Is it possible to know someone you have never met? For example, can you get to know an artist just by studying his or her artistic work? Starting with these questions, Anna Hart explores how we can get to know God, who we have not met.

Artistic Work

You may get some clues about the type of scenery an artist likes, by studying his portfolio. But what can the paintings tell you about his moral standards, his likes or dislikes? It is unlikely that you would be able to deduce much useful information.

Or think about a musical composition.  Some composers have set scriptural words to pieces of music which are so moving that a listener can be reduced to tears. We might imagine that a composer able to do this would have a strong religious faith. However, this is certainly not always the case, and some very popular religious music has been composed by self-declared atheists.

So a person’s body of work does not, of itself, help you to know the individual. Even people we have met and think we know can react differently from how we expect, for people are unpredictable by nature. It is only when they tell us about themselves that we can start to understand them.

God’s Handiwork

It follows that whilst we can learn something about God by studying His creative handiwork, we cannot conclude that we know what He is like just because we are keen students of nature. We need something more if we are to get to know the God who made the universe. The Bible says this:

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork (Psalm 19:1).

When we look at nature we certainly see beauty, and many people would argue that there is clear evidence of design. There is majesty in high mountains, peace in a babbling brook, glory in a fiery sunset and excitement in a roaring sea. But what does this tell you about the character of God? Nature also gives us earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, storms, hurricanes, beasts of prey, suffering and death.

What do these things tell us about God?

Wrong Assumptions

We often hear people say things like ‘I can’t imagine a God who would disapprove of …’ or ‘I am sure that God would not mind…’ or ‘God would like that’. Read more

 Is YOUR knowledge of the BIBLE

and YOUR belief and worship of GOD 

able to SAVE YOU?

 Not sure? Well consider this passage from JOHN CHAPTER 17

“1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

The Greek word for “know” is ‘genosko’ and it means to have a thorough intellectual understanding of what something is all about.

Do you have this understanding of God and His Son Read more

God is Always Right!

When things go wrong for us we might think that God has got things wrong for us. But He never does that and His purpose is always designed to achieve the best, let John Woodall explains what he means by this.

Why Animal Sacrifices?

Throughout Old Testament times, the worship and service of God involved the sacrificing of animals. God is the King; He can forgive anyone He wants to forgive, but we humans are in this mess of failure and death because we have broken His laws. We can understand therefore that God is right to insist that we realize this: that we admit that He is right and we are wrong. This is the lesson that the sacrificing of animals was meant to teach.

People have misunderstood this.

They have thought that God wanted to be appeased by a gift, or that He wanted to vent His anger in some way so instead of killing the sinner He had an animal killed instead.

This is a big mistake because the Living God is not like that. The facts are the other way round. The sacrifices were not killed to change God’s mind or attitude; they were killed to help the sinner admit that he or she was doing wrong and needed God’s forgiveness.

Just as a child who has done wrong tells his parents that he (or she) is sorry and is then forgiven, so it is with us and God. Read more

OUR Belief In God

There are, and always have been, many opinions on this subject.

• Is there a God?
• Need we believe in God?
• Is belief in God an outdated idea?

The questions and opinions go on, and on. Some people who believe in God are highly educated; others who do not are equally intelligent and nowadays often outspoken. Is there any certain way of knowing? 

Does it depend on education or on current thinking?

EVIDENCE IS ALL AROUND US

Consider the following passage from Romans chapter 1:

“What may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools …” (Romans 1:19–22) Read more

A Pearl of Great Price

When a change of approach proved necessary, Jesus began to teach using parables. His message about a coming kingdom on earth was encouraging some Jewish nationalists to imagine that he was about to head a revolutionary movement which would sweep away the occupying Roman force and establish a Jewish State again. They wanted Jesus to be their king, but he had been given a very different job specification by his Father.

Coming Kingdom

Jesus will come as a king and will rule over God’s Kingdom on earth, as the Scriptures clearly promise:

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.

Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land (Isaiah 32:1–2). Read more

Noah’s Ark given the seaworthy seal of approval by physicists

(It is not a surprise to Bible Students that Science should confirm the Bible True)

By Sarah Knapton

Researchers are saying that the concept of Noah’s Ark would definitely have worked. Photo / Thinkstock

Noah’s Ark could have floated even with two of every land animal in the world packed inside, scientists have calculated.

Although researchers are unsure if all the creatures could have squeezed into the huge vessel, they are confident it would have handled the weight of 70,000 animals without sinking.

A group of master’s students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Leicester University studied the exact dimensions of the Ark, set out in Genesis 6:13-22. Read more

God tells us all He wants us to know about Himself and His purpose, in the Bible.

The Bible is complete in itself. It consists of sixty-six sections (each one called a ‘book’).  It begins, in Genesis chapter 1, by explaining that God created the earth and all the things that live on it, including us.  When the work was completed, everything was described as ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31).

Next we are told how this ‘very good’ state was spoiled when man disobeyed his Creator. But, to recover the situation, we are told how God then began a process that would repair the damage, and make all things ‘very good’ again, in the course of time.

Man was shown that he could be forgiven if he believed what God said, if he confessed his sins, and offered sacrifices that would teach him important lessons.

But he had to be willing to learn.

God’s solution

As the Bible progresses, this ‘way of salvation’ is made steadily clearer.  Generation after generation, mankind made the same mistakes as the first man Adam.  All humans failed to some extent, and sooner or later everyone died.  Then at last Jesus came, born of a woman and truly human as we all are, but begotten by the power of God.

He succeeded where we have all failed.

Unlike us, Jesus resisted all temptation and lived a perfect life.  Then he allowed wicked men to crucify him and he died, of his own free will, as the perfect sacrifice.

In that way Jesus put this troublesome human nature behind him forever, because God his Father raised him to perfect immortal life.  After that the apostles of Jesus went out into the world inviting everyone to follow Jesus, to believe his teaching and sincerely try to live the same way.

Those who obeyed this call would be forgiven and have the hope of enjoying eternal life when Jesus returns as King. Then the earth, which sinful men and women have so misruled, will be filled with God’s glory.

The Bible ends with beautiful descriptions of the earth and its people when that ‘very good’ state has been restored. Sin, pain, sorrow, and even death will be gone forever, and God will be praised by all (Revelation chapters 21 & 22). Read more