Who is God? Article I

 Who is God?  I

By  Oyam Atnhoj Sucram

The Question

The question, ‘Who is God?’ is a sensible question. It is a question asked not only by those who are involved in a spiritual search of some kind, those who already believe and follow God, but also by atheists and agnostics. The question is asked with fervor for those seeking God, with a grimace by the atheist, with a sense of doubt by the agnostic, and with hope by those living a life of faith.

The question is asked properly when it is asked with a “Who.” Because God is not a what. By saying god is not a what, the approach is made to consider what and even who God is not. This can help answer the initial question. God is not an abstraction of all things the human mind can comprehend. God is not a conglomeration of thoughts nor is God the total of all parts of created matter in the universe. This would be the pagan belief of pantheism. 

And yet even given the proper question and an appropriate answer, many still fail to get any sense of who God. One reason for this is because some will view any explanation through their own myopic lens or narrowed sense of reality, or at the very least are tempted to do so. Now I am not saying such persons are idiots. I am pointing out, there exists in the human psyche the temptation to have a view certain things with a prejudice. This becomes a preferential and even indifferent treatment of any answer to the question.

It is not hard to find those (And I am including all categories of persons) who relegate the answer to their own individual musing. Unfortunately, this is done by the faithful and unfaithful. We tend to invent our own synopsis on how God operates, stemming from our own foregone conclusions. This underscores a prejudice. We end up making God in our own image.

While the question can be answered, any explanation will reveal only what man is capable of understanding about God, which is not very much. I suppose we can compare it to the ancients' understanding of the Sun. They knew it was there, but their knowledge was limited compared with the knowledge we have today. But that limited knowledge does not replace or deny the existence of the Sun. I would hate to disappoint you with what is contained in this short article.  This is because while approaching the question, some answers can be ascertained for the person and their soul to make an assent or discernment whether to follow God or not. But you will never be able to understand 100% 'who is God?'

However, ask yourself this question. Think of someone you know very well. Even though you can see and hear them, do you know them 100%? 

So, Who is God?

The beginning answer to the question is to acknowledge God as a person. God is a divine person. But this answer is only when speaking of God in singularity. God has revealed himself as three persons, God the Father, God the son, who is Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. There is no other divinity besides God and He does not share his God-hood. He is not a part of a semblance of divine persons such as Zeus and Aphrodite are in Greek Mythology. Nor is he the sum total of a conglomerate of divine persons, such as a dependency on other entities to make Him fully God. God is one. If God was not a person, how could we possibly be granted a way through His grace to be reunited to Him. No one can be reunited or have a relationship with a inanimate object or “Cosmic” force.

As a person, God is not some fermenting gas out there in the cosmos. God is not some cosmic intelligent force within creation. As a person God can be spoken to and answer back. As a person God can chose to come and be with us, or not. As a person God can choose how He wishes to reveal Himself and to whom. God is outside of creation yet His will permeates creation.

These personable attributes are God’s way of allowing us to hear and understand His call. It is similar in the ways we can understand other human beings.

Another part to the answer of this question is, God exists, He always has existed in that he had no beginning, always will exists. God is outside of creation yet His will permeates creation. God is not part of creation. This is a stumbling block for many who try to create an argument against God and they end up having their own definition by placing Him inside and as part of creation.

God is “Being.”

Often in the acknowledgement or at least in a conversation about God, He is referred to under the title of “Supreme Being.” This title is helpful for understanding but it must be used correctly. God is not “A” Supreme Being, such as one in a list of other supreme beings or from a successive chain of supreme beings. Rather, God is “THE” ‘Supreme Being.’ In the Book of Exodus God reveals to Moses who He is by the name “I Am Who Am.”[1] Names used in the Old Testament are not relegated to an identifying label. Rather a name spoke of a nature or condition. By saying this, God revealed that He “IS Being.” In other words, He always eternally was, is, and always will be. God has no beginning and no end. He is the source of all that came into existence.

God as “Being” means He is above all creation and that all things are created through Him. He is the absolute root cause for all that came into existence. He created space and time and nothing in creation can overcome Him, nor is he subject to creation. This is why in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the very first phrase says; “In the Beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” It does not say; “In the beginning was God,” because if it did it would place God inside of creation. For the ancients, this was a radical shift, because all the gods from other religions had their place in, as part of or subject to creation.

As God, for sake of creation he creates from His absoluteness and of course is the source for any absolute we can observe or know. Because of this He cannot deceive nor be deceived. Nor will he deny himself as to who he is. When we say 'God' we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same, faithful and just, [2]

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[1] Exodus 3:13-14

[2] CCC 2086