May 18 2022
WHERE IS GOD?
“Where is God?”, Jesus wondered when he was dying. “Where is God”, people ask, when they see a senseless war in Eastern Europe. “Where is God”, we wondered, when the future of the most talented people was cut short in the Holocaust? “Where is God”, is today the perennial question for us, the dreading disaster, living in fear, humanity?
I could also ask: Where is Bach and his music, or where is Rembrandt and his paintings, or where is Shakespeare and his plays? We would have never heard of these marvelous creators if they had lived their lives in Leipzig or Amsterdam of London and had not been given their abilities free reign. They did, and the world is richer because of their works of art.
So, what has all this to do with God?
Simple. God would not be there without his creation. No Matthew Passion without Bach. No King Lear without Shakespeare. No God without Creation. Why then, I ask, why do we not honor God the same way? We pay untold many millions for a Rembrandt. Bach is still the standard by which all music is judged. But God, His creation, His marvelous act of making this world, still, the subject of all our investigations, and the basis of all that lives and moves, and has a being, what have we done with it? That is the ultimate question facing us to day.
Where is God?
“I shall hide my face, to see what their end will be,” says Deuteronomy 32: 20. God has disappeared on the corporate level. 1John 5:19 tells it all: The Evil One reigns, and his aim is to destroy creation, even though God is still there for you and me.
And the Bible?
We call the Bible Holy, but my reading how the different books in the Hebrew Bible, and their origins create many questions about when and where and how and who wrote the different books, makes the holiness of the Bible a question. That does not mean that I value the Scriptures less, but it does mean that these inspired books are infused with human thoughts and their inconsistencies. But creation is – was – perfect.
Where is God?
We know him by two means: first, by the creation, preservation and government of the universe; which is before our eyes as a most elegant book, wherein all creatures, great and small, are as so many characters leading us to contemplate the invisible things of God, namely, his power and divinity, as the apostle Paul saith, Romans 1:20. All which things are sufficient to convince men, and leave them without excuse. Secondly, he makes himself more clearly and fully known to us by his holy and divine Word, that is to say, as far as is necessary for us to know in this life, to his glory and our salvation.
So, what does Romans 1: 20 say?
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
The above is a direct quote from the Belgic Confession, a standard of many Reformed Churches. Dietrich Bonhoeffer has drawn the logical conclusion, as summarized by Dr. Sabine Dramm, in her book, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an introduction to his thought.
Her conclusion is, actually, quite striking: “What Bonhoeffer presents as specific to the Christian faith is the perception of God and the world as one.”
This is fully in line with Romans 1: 20, That’s why Revelation 11 is a direct condemnation of our generation, the 21st people. Here’s what it says:
The time has come for judging the dead,
and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
The time has come for destroying those who have been “Destroying the earth”. That is a clear indication that destroying the earth is an unforgivable sin, unless we confess and change our ways. We have to admit to ourselves that creation is holy, is akin to God, something the indigenous people have always regarded as such. We have to believe that Jesus died to restore creation to the state before Adam and Eve fell for Satan’s wiles. Of course, he also died to forgive our sin.
We must constantly, without letup, see that the world and all it contains, plants, animals, trees, stars, sun and moon, air and oceans, is of divine origin, and reflects God’s wisdom and unfathomable greatness.
Where is God?
We find him in Creation, just as we find Bach in his music, Shakespeare in his plays. Creation is our final destination. Its renewal is at hand.