In my last video blog post, What God Is Not, I addressed a major categorical mistake that new atheists (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens…etc.) make when describing God. I don’t want to dwell on something I already spoke about, so if you’d like the context for this blog post you’re welcome to view the video here.
Today I wish to direct you to three sections in the Bible that clarify how Christians (and Jews) actually understand God’s nature. Let’s get going.
Courtesy of Joshua Earle from Unsplash.com
1. Genesis 1:1-2:4 – 7 Days of Creation. There is a lot of misinformation on how the creation account in Genesis ought to be understood. The popular media has the tendency to focus on a minority of Christian brothers and sister who believe that God created the world 6000 years ago (the approx. time that all the books in the Bible cover) in seven 24 hour days. I will dive into this in more detail in a later post, but to be clear, that is simply WRONG and doesn’t align with Christian or Jewish tradition.
A Word on Reading the Bible
When reading the Bible we have to approach it in much the same way we approach reading material in a library. Afterall, the word “Bible” comes from the Latin word “biblia,” meaning library. Just like a library is made up of collections of literature spanning different genres so is the Bible. So it’s important to understand that when reading the Bible we have to put on different lenses. In a library I wouldn’t read poetry with the same lense I read a physics textbook.
So what does the 7 Days of Creation tell us about God?
The creation account in Genesis reinforces my thesis in my video: God is not like any mythical creature that were presumed to be part of the physical created order of the cosmos. In fact, the author is actually dismissing ancient pagan gods of the Near East. Civilizations in the ancient Near East (and Middle East) worshiped pagan gods that, they believed, were part of the created universe. According to their myths the world came into being through conflict between deities that represented one of many things in the universe. Humans were simply created to serve the needs (very human needs) of the gods. One of the goals of the 7 Day of Creation is to dismiss the pagan gods as a sort of “gods of the gaps.” It wasn’t they who created the universe, but the God who is outside of space and time and not limited by the limitations of the physical universe.
2. Exodus 7:14-12:29 – The Ten Plagues on Egypt. Like the 7 Day of Creation in Genesis 1 the Plagues on Egypt set out to dismiss the pagan gods (gods of gaps) of ancient Egypt. Once again it is emphasized that God is not limited by the limitations in the created physical cosmos. I have included a chart that has broken down this for you:
| Number | Plague | Plague | Egyptian Deity |
| First Plague | Ex 7:14-25 | Nile into Blood | Hapi, god of the Nile inundation |
| Second Plague | Ex 8:1-15 | Frogs | Heket, goddess depicted as frog |
| Third Plague | Ex 8:16-19 | Gnats | ? [unkown at this point] |
| Fourth Plague | Ex 8:20-32 | Flies | Uatchit, god manifest as Ichneumon fly |
| Fifth Plague | Ex 9:1-7 | Death of Livestock | Apis, bull god; Hathor, cow goddess |
| Sixth Plague | Ex 9:8-12 | Boils and Sores | Shekhmet, goddess of disease control |
| Seventh Plague | Ex 9:13-35 | Fiery Hailstorm | Nut, goddess of sky |
| Eighth Plague | Ex 10:1-20 | Locusts | Senehem, god of pest control |
| Ninth Plague | Ex 10:21-29 | 3 Days of Darkness | Re, Aten, Atum, god of light and sun |
| Tenth Plague | Ex 12:29-36 | Death of First-Borns | Osiris, god of life and patron of Pharaoh |
Citation: Hahn, Scott & Mitch, Curtis, Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Exodus, 2012: p.26.
3. John 1:1-18: Prologue to John’s Gospel – The “Word” – The prologue of the Apostle John is one of my favourite parts of the Bible. In it John affirms that Jesus Christ is God incarnate (God taking on human flesh). He refers to Jesus as the “Word.” So what does John mean by “Word?”
i. First, since John is writing his account of Jesus most likely in exile in Greece (following Christ’s ascension into Heaven there was a great persecution of Christians. Many were killed, jailed, or exiled. John was exiled to Patmos, Greece. It is from there that he wrote his Gospel, two letters, and Revelation), he is appealing to familiar Greek philosophy of the time. John is equivocating Jesus Christ (the Word) with the Logos. The Logos, in ancient Greek philosophy, is the entity through which the universe came into existence.
ii. Second, the Word has ties to personified Wisdom in the Old Testament (Sirach 24 and Wisdom 9). Personified Wisdom in the OT foreshadows the personification of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Wisdom (in the OT sense) or Jesus Christ (in the NT sense) is the intellect which existed prior to any material existence. If you recall my video or even my blog post, Does Believing in God Restrict Your Intellect, I outline that the only reason the universe is intelligible is because there is an intellect behind it. Wisdom, Word, or Logos (or God) is that intellect.
In Conclusion…
I hope that, independent of your beliefs, this post clarifies what Christianity (and Judaism) actually believe God to be.
Questions: Have you ever tried reading the Bible? What did it reveal to you about God’s nature?
