“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…” (Gen.1:1)
“And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth…”(Gen.1: 3)
“ He is before all things, and by him all things consist (hold together).” (Col. 1:17)
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female he them.” (Gen.1)
From the final quote above you can see that God created humans in his image. There are some other evidences in the Bible that assume God has a human like physical body (e.g. there are references to God’s throne). This also builds the image of the triune as it may be referring to Jesus, the king of kings.
In Christianity it is a belief (or creed) that God created the earth in six days and on the seventh he rested. In a church many people pray on a Sunday because it is the Christian day of rest. . Some Christians believe that this is just a symbolic statement explaining that God is omnipotent as the earth was created in such a short time because God has infinite power and wisdom.
God Is Triune
The Christian doctrine that God is three “persons”: God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is known as the Trinity. The Trinity does not make Christianity a polytheistic religion because the three persons make one being or one God. Trinity was not invented by the early Christians but over years emerged as a distinctive belief. It has its “seeds” in the teaching of Jesus although the Bible does not directly preach Trinity there are actions and sayings which create the image of Trinity.
Scholars helped form Trinity in the New Testament from taking passages from the Bible and processing them to find the hidden meanings.
In the following there are extracts from the Bible which refer to Trinity:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation… all things were created by him and for him” (Colossians 1:15-16)
Notice that the previous quote explains that there is a representative of God. This accepts Trinity as Jesus is God’s representative on the earth or the direct communicator to God as God cannot interact with humans as humans are far to inferior.
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
(2 Corinthians 13:14)
In the above quote you can see the three components of God are mentioned, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God (father).
The Trinity is represented in the form of a triangle shown in fig.1
Fig.1
Christians view God like a force or being that is in a different dimension from humans. As we have not seen the dimension of God we cannot understand how God is omnipotent and omni-present. No one made God. He has no beginning, no origin. There was never a time when he did not exist. “He made it all he made us all he declared everything good, God is just and fair”. They believe it is far too complex to understand, as it is something that we have not seen before.
Jesus Christ is God’s son, he was born from the virgin Mary as a gift to humanity to show us god’s love. Jesus is now part of God and helps create the triune of God. Jesus was the human form of God the following is an extraction of one of Jesus’ last speech’s explaining his form.
“…I am of flesh and bones…”
Jesus was believed to have been crucified by the Romans, who did not show affection to the messiah. It is a Christian creed that Jesus descended to Hades after his death where he preached to the lost souls in Hell, redeeming most of them. After he head redeemed the lost souls, he was resurrected b the Holy Spirit and accepted in to heaven where he watches over the earth. In a revelation by John there are references to Jesus saying that he may return to the earth to judge the people on Apocalypse and face the anti-Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the messenger of god. With help of the Holy Spirit the Christian scriptures were revealed. The Holy Spirit is usually portrayed as a dove of light. The Holy Spirit is the giver and sanctifier of life. It is responsible for bringing freedom, faith, goodness, joy and peace to the world.
The trinity means three in one: Tri-means three
Unity-means one
RS2: How does a Christian show their belief in God’s authority in their everyday life? How might a Christian follow this authority as well as the authority of the state? (Use examples to state your answers)
Christians show their belief in God’s authority by always abiding by the commandments of God. Because these are the basic rules Christians should abide, the authority of the state should come after the authority of God.
Christians believe that Jesus has always been part of God. He was in the form of man who could communicate to God, and he was crucified because he broke the laws of the state (anyone who shall commit Blasphemy will be executed) by following the laws of God. Jesus declared that he was Messiah, which was an offence to the law of the state. And this resulted with Jesus being crucified. Christianity may never have emerged if Jesus didn’t obey the laws of the state. So this means it is essential to follow the authority of God even if it means to break the laws of the state.
Some of the early Christians living in Rome were killed because they declared they were Christians, so many Christians had to follow the authority of the state like other peoples and only revealed there identity to the government when they were asked. They followed Jesus in there homes privately. So this gives the idea that the Christians followed the authority of God more then the authority of state at that time.
The Ten Commandments are a short set of principles for living. They are the earliest set of laws written by the Jews in the Old Testament. Some of the commandments are religious and some are related to the social system. The first commandment “Serve God alone.” This is a religious commandment it asking Christians to do everything in the name of God. And so every day they must think carefully about there actions. It encourages the attitude of a Christian to be “divine”. This commandment is conflicting with the authority of a (non- theocratic) state. This is because obedience to God can interfere with your allegiance with the states leader. In everyday life a Christian may have to reject some of the states requests from this commandment.
The second commandment “Do not make any images of God and make any idols” this commandment requests that a Christian should not allow images or idols representing a deity. This is a religious commandment and does not conflict with the state’s authority. However it does mean a Christian may not worship to a idol or picture because it is sinful.
The third commandment “Do not use God’s name for evil purposes” this commandment is a religious commandment but when merged with the first commandment it conflicts with the authority of state as even if one civilian is killed it is defined as evil and if Christians must do all things serving God (in the name of God) then doing harm is rejected.
The fourth commandment “ Keep Sabbath day holy”. This commandment is also a religious commandment but interferes with the state’s authority because the state needs to be able to change laws depending on the situation. An example is when in war the state must have people ready to attack or guard at every moment. And making a holiday for everyone of the state could lead to the unnecessary loss to an opponent. This commandment would mean that the Christian might dedicate a whole day of prayer to God.
The fifth commandment is “Respect your father and mother”. This commandment is related to the social system. It can collide with the authority of the state as it means that the respect towards your parents is higher than the respect to the system of the state. It means that a Christian may have to change their schedule to please their parents.
The sixth commandment is “Do not murder” this is also a social related commandment. It can place the interests of state at a threatened position. An example is when there is no other choice but to eliminate a particular person by murder (e.g a person may have encouraged corruption in the government).
The seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth commandments are written in the following “Do not commit adultery”, “Do not steal”, “Do not accuse anyone falsely”, “Do not desire to take another man’s possessions” these are social related commandments. They create a more morally aware society. As adultery, stealing and jealousy are immoral acts.
RS3: “The world is such a terrible place how can there be a God” how far do you agree with this statement?
People of the book (Christians, Muslims and Jews) believe that God would never put such a burden on a soul that it cannot handle, and the earth may not be as terrible as what could occur in the life after death. And they also believe the problems suffered here are a test to decide which path are they taking (heaven or hell).
The Hindus view of this statement would oppose the idea of there not being a God. The view is based on the idea of reincarnation (rebirth in a new form which is decided from the actions of the previous life). So this concludes that there is a God but he has left the decision upon the beings of the earth whether there will be peace and happiness or chaos and evil.
There is also another view to the character of God (it is evil) some sects of Judaism and Christianity accept this view. They believe this because God created evil and let it grow and so God must be evil. So this means that there is God in existence no matter how terrible the state of the world becomes. There is an arguing belief that God is not evil it is based on the idea of light, dark is the absence of light and so evil must be the absence of good so God is good but all things which are evil have chose to become evil by not accepting good.
It is obvious that there are many terrible events taking or have taken place in the past century. We have witnessed two world wars, the holocaust, the bomb that scarred the earth in the 1940’s(Hiroshima and Nagasaki), the gulf war, the bloody battles of the Congo, the ethnic cleansing and human rights violations in Serbia, Macedonia, India, Russia, Palestine, Libya, Nigeria, Korea, China, Spain… the list is growing.
The list above does not give sufficient reason to believe that there is no God, or God is evil because God was not the one who picked up a gun and pull the trigger. God allowed the bullet to penetrate the bone and damage the organs of the victim. The ultimate reason why we have such long lists of terrible events is because the ideological systems that were implemented in the last century show that they have failed to fulfill their objectives (to create a civil society) and do not satisfy human nature.
The suffering of individual people in the world can put the very existence of God at question. This is because God cannot be evil enough to create a situation where people are at such a low position their life is threatened. This does not define the situation terrible. As sadness is relative to happiness (your attitude to happiness is dependant whether you have experienced sadness. An example is in the movie Matrix the crops of humans were lost in the first matrix where everyone was only experiencing happiness.
And because they did not experience sadness they felt their world was terrible & they began a mass genocide.
Practical Spirituality: Space for God, By David Runcorn, Published by Daybreak LTD, London, 1990
World Faiths: Christianity Millennium Edition, By John Young, published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1999, London
The Nature and Character of God, By W.A.Pratney, Published by Bethany house publishers,1988, Minneapolis U.S.A
Page of Christianity- God By Ajmel Younes
