In the first part of this series, I discussed the case for a God. Loosely, this God could be classified as an intelligence, or a power, or a being. My argument swayed on creation, whether it be creation or evolution, as well as the Moral law or the Natural law. In this next section, I want to build the case for a specific God, the Christian God.
What we know about this God comes from the Bible, God's Word. The belief is that the Bible's sole purpose is to reveal God. I'm not going to argue the Bible's validity yet, as I will be saving that discussion for a different post. I'm going to go off of the assumed truth that the Bible is an authoritative piece of literature. But I'm not going to exclusively use the Bible as my only argument, as I can also use other historical and scientific evidences. The only issue is what we believe of our God is solely painted in this Bible. So for this case, I'm going to stick with the description that God's Word provides for us.
Now, this is an extremely difficult task for a few reasons. First, no one has even come close yet to describe even part of God's character. Our whole lives are a journey to learn more and more about Him, and even then we won't scratch the surface. Secondly, when we talk about the case for the Christian God, it's a needed discussion point to compare Him with the other gods of the world as well. This is difficult, because I find world religions extremely fascinating, and I by no means want to tear down what others believe.
On the topic of comparison with world religions, I will say this though. I was struck by a quote by C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity (which is a fascinating read especially in regards to this idea of The Case for Christianity), where along the same thought process he says this; "If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own." While Lewis is specifically talking about the moral code here, I believe you can extend this to the gods of all the religions as well. If you compare all the world religion's gods, and I strongly suggest you do (use something like Morgan Freeman's TV series The Story of God), you'll start to see some striking similarities. Not everything is exactly the same, but most of the basics are similar across the board. For Christians, this should not change our beliefs, but should change our behaviour. I'll mention in a second why it shouldn't strike a chord of doubt within us, but first focussing on the behaviour aspect. I think we should respect other religions more. We tend to try to seclude ourselves from those other religions that are false and wrong. Instead, I think we should obey our command to love others, and love them regardless of their religion. In fact, they're closer to the right path than many others!
What separates our God from the others than? Even after I just said there's so many similarities, our God is actually separated from others by quite a bit. While some of the characteristics are indeed the same, God embodies those characteristics in a different, more fuller way. While we can see similarities, we as Christians must know that our God is the only true God. All the other religions are merely worshipping a copy or image or shade of our God. That might sound egotistical or something like that, but that has to be what we believe.
So what separates our God? Character. Our God is the most relational God out there. Christianity is all about the relationship with the higher power. It's on the most personal level out there. It involves the perfect picture of love, mercy, forgiveness, e.t.c. Other religions may scratch the surface, but they always fall short at some point in this category of religion.
Evidence. Scientifically, our God has more proof for Him then there is against Him. From creation through all of history, evidence clearly points to what is recorded in the Bible about God.
Finally, humans themselves point to God. The transformation that can be found throughout history in humans points to the power of God. The current state of humanity points to the records of the Bible and our relationship with God. Our own character mimics the image of God.
Ultimately, each person needs to discover this truth for themselves so that they understand it, and it sticks. Again, the best resource to start with is the Bible. Discover what the Bible says about God, and use that to form your beliefs. Don't be afraid to go out and compare God with others, through discussion and research. Build a case for God yourself.
