Discovery #2 – Keeping it Personal

We addressed the need for God to be infinite, but not only infinite, here.

The next step in developing what we might call our “God Hypothesis”, identifying the key characteristics needed for God to be God, is looking at personal communication. If we are to follow God’s rules and laws, we have to be able to communicate with Him. And He has to be able to communicate with us.

“In the cosmic sense, we cannot know whether there is any existence or reality other than what we experience from the cradle to the grave. In other words, unless there is an infinite and personal God who created the universe and us for a purpose—and who tells us that He did it and why, and where we are headed after death—our crisis remains. That’s why it’s important to know whether God exists and revealed Himself to us,” (Surprised by Faith Study and Discussion Guide, pg.15).

In a nutshell, having a personal but not an infinite god describes many of the early Western religions. If you take any time to read through Roman, Greek, Norse, or Celtic mythology, you will quickly discovery that many of their gods have more problems than the people who worship them! A god with these kinds of problems is no god at all.

If you look at all of the world religions, and filter them through our “God Hypothesis”, that God must be both personal and infinite, three stand alone: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Tomorrow we will look at the three to see if there is some unique quality that distinguishes one from the others, and also explore if there is a way to test whether or not God exists.