"DEAR GOD, YOU SURE DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'RE ALIVE" - Day 5

Day 5 – “I AM THAT I AM”

The first thing to remember about God’s nature is that it could be no different from what it is.  –PAUL CHAMBERLAIN

 This, then, is what we have learned thus far:

     • God’s existence and nature are separate topics.

     • Belief in God’s existence should precede any study of His
         nature.

     • God’s existence should not be reconsidered as His nature is
         explored.

An analogy may help to reinforce the third point. Suppose you and I travel to a remote part of the earth to inform a tribal chief of the existence of New York City. Having never heard of such a place, he has no idea whether or not we are telling the truth. He has no reason to believe that New York City really exists. Suppose we then proceed to tell him what Manhattan is like, but instead of describing buildings higher than the hills, lights bright enough to turn night into day, and people as numerous as the trees in the forest, we describe to him a desolate place inhabited by wild animals, replete with abundant foliage, rarely visited by humans. Again, he has no reason to believe us. If New York City exists, our description may or may not be true.

Now imagine that we take this man to the Big Apple and let him experience it firsthand. As far as the existence of New York City is concerned, seeing would become believing. The man would know once and for all that New York City is real. Even though it is not what he imagined, its existence would no longer be an issue. He would know intuitively that the existence and nature of New York City are separate subjects, that it remains a real place even if its character happens to be different than previously thought.

In my first book I told you about my belief in the existence of God. In this book I will discuss His nature and character, what I believe He is like. Having firmly established to my satisfaction, and hopefully to yours, that God exists,¹ I encourage you to tenaciously cling to that belief as we ascend the slope of His nature. Even if my description of God turns out to be different than you had anticipated, I urge you to resist the temptation to look back and question if He is real. That primitive, illiterate tribesman had enough common sense to know that New York City’s existence and nature are separate issues. When it comes to the subject of God, so should we.

I sometimes imagine a time in the future when we all will stand in the presence of God and know, more than ever before, that He is and who He is. If it turns out He is different than we had imagined, it will be a matter of small consequence. We will know then what we should know now: God determines His existence and nature; we do not determine them ourselves. On that day, God will be very real and His nature, however aligned with our preconceptions, will be nonnegotiable. He will be to us what He was to Moses years ago: “I AM THAT I AM.”² Our only choice will be to retreat in denial and fear (Moses’ initial response) or to bow in acceptance and awe (his ultimate response).

Daily Quotation

Paul Chamberlain, Can We Be Good Without God? (Downer’s Grove: Ill.: InterVaristy, 1996), 187

¹At bare minimum, I hope the reader of 5 Reasons would at book’s end agree with Mortimer J. Adler:

The conclusion that God exists has not been proven or demonstrated. Nothing that has been said should result in conviction with certitude. I, for one, am left with something less than that, but something that is, in my judgment, more desirable than its opposite. I am persuaded that God exists, either beyond a reasonable doubt or by a preponderance of reasons in favor of that conclusion over reasons against it.  I am, therefore, willing to terminate this inquiry with the statement that I have reasonable grounds for affirming God’s existence.  – How to Think About God (New York: Collier, 1980), 150.

²Exodus 3:14