God is not Christian, Jewish, or Muslim; He is the giver of life and the most powerful being in the world. Christians got their name for the first time in Antioch, more than 30 years after Christ’s resurrection. Unfortunately, it was a mean-spirited name that meant “Little Christs” and was used mockingly to belittle Christ’s followers.
God is not a follower of Christ. Jesus is God in flesh! The idea that God is not a Christian upsets many as we want God to be like us when in fact, we are like Him. Names and religions tend to keep people apart, removing the love of God from the equation. God wants us to stop focusing on labels and instead focus on the love and salvation He brought to us through His Son, Jesus. Find out more about God here, so you can understand His true nature.
Who is God?
God is the creator of all things, having created the heavens, planets, all life, and everything else. He has shown us some of His qualities and made them known through His creation (Romans 1:19-20). God is spirit, so He cannot be seen or touched (John 4:24), and He exists as three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16-17).
God is unchanging (1 Timothy 1:17), has no equal (2 Samuel 7:22), and has no limits (1 Timothy 1:17). (Malachi 3:6). God is everywhere (Psalm 139:7–12), knows everything (Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 40:28), and has all power and authority (Ephesians 1; Revelation 19:6). We cannot know who God is without knowing what He does, because what He does comes from His inner being.
God has always been there, the Bible says in Psalm 90:2. He has no beginning or end, and He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Bible says that God is a righteous and holy being. From the beginning of the Bible to the end, God shows that He is holy. Everything about Him is perfect as He is the manifestation of love. He is too good and perfect to tolerate sin because of His holiness and righteousness.
Misconceptions about God
While many misconceptions about God have made their way through the world, the worst offender remains segregating rational thought and religion, in other words, science. God made the whole universe, put the stars and planets in their orbits, and set up the laws of physics that make everything move.
These laws of nature are always the same, can be seen, and can be used by humans. Because God is the source of all truth, scientific discoveries are not a threat to Christianity but rather an ally. Science just shows more and more of how God made the world.
Next, we often attribute human behavior, feelings, and thoughts to God. This is a big mistake that can keep you from getting to know God well. Even though God made us in His own image, God is not like us. He does not think like us, feel like us, or behave like us. Instead, God knows all, has all power, and can be everywhere at once. While humans are stuck within the limitations of space, time, and matter, God has no such constraints allowing Him to know all things.
The vast majority of the world questions the motives of God, debating His love, justice, and goodness. His motivations are not like ours, so it is not helpful to try to understand Him this way. Doing so makes us think less of God and might make us question His rules, just like we might question the rules of a human leader. But if you see how different God really is, it will be much easier to have faith.
Another harmful misconception assumes God works as our personal genie. We tend to assume God will give us anything we want when instead, He said He would change our desires to line up with His or give us our desires that line up with His will (Psalm 37:4). God does not promise us happiness, good health, or financial security in this life.
Many people struggle to understand how a loving, all-powerful God could exist and allow so much evil and suffering in the world. However, we cannot have free choice and have all of our problems fixed by God. Free choice allowed us to choose God and to give Him real love but also brought in sin, which leads to death and destruction.
God gives everyone the same amount of free will, so we can choose to follow His rules, which are meant to make the world as beautiful and easy to live in as possible. But we can decide to live for ourselves. God does not make slaves, so bad things happen because we have free will and because we live in a fallen world because of our choices. Nevertheless, God still loves us; because of that, He does not try to control us.
Is God a man?
God manifests as a spirit free of human traits and limits. However, we are never without His presence. God was on the earth with Adam and Eve. God came down in the form of man, Jesus Christ, to do what man couldn’t do and to die the death that we deserve.
When Jesus ascended to heaven, God did not leave us alone but sent a counselor, the Holy Spirit.
God has all the traits of a person: a mind, a will, an intellect, and feelings. He talks to people and has relationships, and His personal actions are shown all over the Bible. But first, God is a spiritual being. He is not human-like; instead, we have God-like traits as we were made in His image (Genesis 1:27). But the Bible sometimes uses figurative language to give God human traits so that people can understand God, called anthropomorphism. Since we are physical, we can not fully understand things that are not physical which is why we attribute our feelings to God.
Differences between God and man
While we are made in God’s image, that’s where the similarities stop. To start, God has a full grasp of all things. He can see the past, present, and future clearly, while man can only see what’s right in front of us. Furthermore, God is a creator, our creator!
Man does not create life, trees, heavens, earth, or anything without the materials provided by God. Finally, humans have limits; we are bound by linear time, space, and our physical bodies. God has no such limits and can be at all places simultaneously.
What is God like?
In the history of the world, every culture has had some idea of God’s nature but not always accurate likenesses. Most only manage to describe a small part of God, such as His ability to heal or change the weather, but He also controls a lot more than that. He is strong, but he is much stronger than the sun. He is everywhere, and He is also bigger than everything.
Even though we do not understand everything about God, it is good to know that He can be known. In fact, He has told us everything about Himself that we need to know in the Bible. God wants us to know Him (Psalm 46:10). God is essentially all things good, moral, and beautiful, every good quality in the world free of darkness.
What is a Christian?
A Christian is someone who only puts their faith in Jesus Christ to save them and accepts Him as Lord (Romans 10:9). Jesus is the only one who is accepted as the Messiah and Lord, and we need to follow Him to God, making Him the savior from sin. A Christian also does what God tells them to do and tries to be like Christ, turning away from the ways of the world and choosing God and His Son instead.
How is the Christian God different from other gods?
One of the most important ways that faith in God and Jesus differs from other religions is that He does not ask us to be perfect. No other god gives the gift of salvation or eternity for free. Nor do other gods seek a true and sincere relationship or even goodwill to their followers. But, most importantly, no other gods are real; they are fictitious creatures made up to assuage men and give them a sense of belonging.
Furthermore, God came to us because He wanted love. He even gave us free will so we could choose Him instead of serving as slaves or robots forced to worship. Before we did anything for Him, Jesus died for us. God did not wait until we were perfect before sending His Son to die. In fact, God sent his Son because He knew that without Jesus, we could never get things right.
Other faiths tell us what to do and not to do. In some religions, they are called laws or pillars. You do these things so that you can go to heaven. We do not have to do anything to earn God’s favor. He has already shown us how much He loves us by sending Jesus to die for our sins on a cross in our place. We were brought back together with God, and we did not have to do anything but believe. Finally, only Christians follow a god who not only died for us but fulfilled hundreds of prophecies.
How to know God?
You can know God by opening your heart to his invisible qualities made present in the world. Knowing Him by understanding the intricacies of the world are not possible without an intelligent designer (Romans 1:19-20). Look at anything in the world, a hand, a tree, a planet, and you can see how nothing could happen by chance. When you see these truths, you find faith.
So, faith is where we need to start. The first step toward getting to know God better is to get to know Jesus Christ, whom God sent (John 6:38). Once we are reborn through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can really start to learn about God, His character, and His will (1 Corinthians 2:10). Faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
Prayer allows you to communicate with God and, in turn, learn about His nature. During prayer, we spend time with God, trusting in His strength and letting the Holy Spirit pray for us (Romans 8:26). Finally, we get to know God by spending time with His people, other Christians. You can spend time with other Christians at church and learn to help each other to serve and follow God.
Conclusion
While God is not a Christian, He is the one who sent Christ, or the Messiah, to save man from sin. He is the reason why the Christian faith exists and remains. When you become a Christian, you follow God and His son, whom He appointed to save the world from their own sin. God does not need to be a Christian because He created Christ! He is above religion as the Creators of all things making Him outside of religion and worthy of worship.
