has changed me. With his help I turned away from addiction to alcohol, shallow pleasure and a desire for personal glory through sport. I’ve gone from university dropout to a pastor and a doctor, and lecturer in theology. As I’ve studied the faith, my belief has matured into an intellectual and emotional confidence that the Christian message is true. God has changed my life and my perspective, and for that I am eternally grateful.
I write this book hoping that, as you read it, you too will become gripped by what God is really up to on planet earth. No doubt you will already have a few ideas about Christianity and may have had negative experiences of Christians and the Church. I don’t want you to forget about or trivialise those experiences, but I ask you to set them aside for a moment and read this book with an open mind. I want to apologise on behalf of the Christians who have let you, and others, down over the last 2000 years. Throughout history, a lot of things have been done in the name of Jesus that were not the kinds of things that Jesus would have done. We Christians are not ‘better’ than other people. I hope you will realise that while Christians and the Church have made mistakes, this does not invalidate the message of Jesus himself who, as this book will show, is the centre and end of everything.
In this book, I crystallise the Christian message into five easy to understand and remember words, and then develop the concepts behind them. I call these the 5 R’s of the Gospel (the Christian message). This is your opportunity to consider the merits of the message and where you stand in relation to them and to God. Not all your questions will be answered here, so I have included endnotes that refer to Bible verses or passages. Some of the endnotes suggest different views and ideas that Christians hold on various things. There is also an appendix which will point you to other books that may answer your questions. If you want to check out what I have written, it may be helpful to have a Bible handy and look at the verses as you go. So let’s begin…
In this chapter we will discuss God’s original plan. It’s the story of a glorious cosmic project in which God created humanity to have a relationship with him in an awe-inspiring world. It will give an answer to the question, ‘Why am I here?’
God
The starting point for the Christian faith is God himself. Christianity is based on God’s existence. While most people from history and in the world today believe in a God or gods, the existence of divine beings is disputed by some (especially in the west). Atheists deny that there is a God. Others are agnostics, unsure whether there is a God or that he1 can be known. It is possible that you are one of these people. In this book, I’m not going to seek to philosophically defend or prove God’s existence.2 In fact, I would agree with those who state that God cannot be proved. However, I suggest that a number of factors combine to suggest that belief in God is reasonable and compelling.
First, existence itself indicates a starting point of some sort with a glorious intelligence and power behind the formation of this world.3 Secondly, the order we see in creation which science reveals, from the human cell to the far reaches of space, suggests that creation is not random and that there is a creative force behind it and at work in it.4 Thirdly, the common sense of morality and goodness that is found across human societies suggests the possibility of a God.5 Finally, for me, it is the flow of history and especially the historical person Jesus who brings me to the view that there is a God and that Jesus reveals him to us.
The sweep of the Bible story from creation, to Jesus, to a new creation, is set in the context of the real history of ancient empires, people, places and societies. The 66 books found in the Bible are remarkably coherent with fulfilled predictions, a real account of existence, and a future hope for a fallen world. As I have come to believe in God, despite great doubts, and have accepted Jesus, I too have tangibly experienced his ‘presence’ in my life. All these factors combine to cause me to believe in God and believe that Christ is the supreme revelation of who God is. I hope that whether you are an atheist, an agnostic or a believer in another religious viewpoint, that you will read on and give this message a chance. I pray and believe that as you do, you will be drawn to God and his love.
The Bible starts with the words ‘in the beginning God’!6 Genesis 1:1 points to a dimension that existed prior to the existence of our world, in which God existed. We call this home of God ‘heaven’. By looking at Scripture (the Bible) and the world, we can identify at least five attributes that are critical to understanding why he created in the first place: he is all powerful, creative, loving, eternal and pure.7 Let’s look at these concepts one at a time.
First, God is all powerful. The technical word for this is ‘omnipotent’. This means he can do all things except what is ‘absurd’ or is contradictory to his character. As the ancient Hebrew thinker Job put it, ‘I know you (God) can do all things.’8 God is a super being who is capable of extraordinary and unimaginable acts. This universe with its astonishing glory demonstrates that.
Secondly, God is unimaginably creative – that is, he is a creator.9 At his heart God is clearly a being who loves to design and make stuff – and he is brilliant at doing so! You can see this in the complexity and glory of the universe.10 God is the supreme artist, scientist and musician who has complete command of every artistic and scientific field. Our own art, science, music, and any other creativity, confined as it is to our experience of God’s created order and the minds he has given us, merely reflect the brilliance seen in his world. This world is a product of his awe-inspiring genius and he cares about every part of it wanting it all to reflect his being in its brilliance and goodness.
Thirdly, God is loving – or, as one of Jesus’ first followers and best friends John put it, ‘God is love’.11 The love we are talking about here is not romantic, sentimental, mushy or sexual love. Rather, it is a love that is characterised by compassion-motivated actions on behalf of others – a love that serves and gives. Indeed, ‘love’ in the Bible is really a verb – it is an attitude that leads to action. As such, God is loving by nature and all he does comes from a desire to love and to see love spread. He is relational (i.e. relationships are important to him), yearning from his being to love and to enjoy being freely loved in return.
Fourthly, God is eternal. This means he exists before time, through time and beyond time. Those who study the Bible describe him as ‘omnipresent’, meaning he exists at all points of time in all of his creation simultaneously. The notion of God being eternal is introduced in the first book of the Bible: ‘Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.’12 Later in the Bible, Paul says of God, ‘now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen!’13 His eternal nature is important in that he also wants to grant ‘eternal life’ to every human who has and ever will live.14 His intention is to live forever with us.
Finally, God is pure.15 That is, God is ‘too pure to look upon evil’; he ‘cannot tolerate wrong.’16 Put another way, he is ‘not a God who takes pleasure in evil’, and with him ‘the wicked cannot dwell’.17 Another way of saying this is that God is ‘holy’, meaning that he is without evil and so will not ultimately accept evil in any form. In a sense we can say that God is allergic to evil – he is too pure to live in its presence. Another simple way of putting this is to say that God is entirely good.
This concept is important because it is the basis of God’s justice, whereby he will eventually permanently destroy evil. It also helps us see God’s gracious love and patience in the present as he tolerates the existence of evil in this time of human existence, despite it being utterly abhorrent to him. Furthermore, it points to the nature of heaven – a dimension in which God exists, and which is totally without evil and in which
