THE ART AND THE ARTIST
“We believe in one God, Creator of all things…”
The God of Israel revealed Himself to Moses as “I AM THAT WHICH I AM” (literal Hebrew of Exodus 3.14a) – “I AM” for short (Exodus 3.14b). His name, I AM tells us about who He is. He is being, existence, life itself. He has life in Himself. He doesn’t do anything to sustain His life. He won’t die. He can’t, because He is life. He lives. He is. I AM just is.
Almost every religion in the world could affirm that God is being, existence, life. But the Bible reveals two more ideas about God that separate the biblical religions from the rest: (1) there is only ONE God and (2) this one God created everything else.
The ancient pagans saw the beauty, the complexity, and the mystery of the natural world and worshiped the many things in the world and had many gods (hence ‘polytheists’). They were blind to the ONE God behind the universe and separate from it.
The modern world leans more toward the eastern idea (e.g. Buddhism) that sees the universe itself, the unified whole or “the ONE” as ‘God’. In this view, all, including each of us, is God and God is all (‘pantheism’ – Greek for ‘all is God’). This view maintains the ONENESS but fails to separate God from creation.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims part ways with these views, believing in one God (monotheism) but also that this one God created everything else. We insist that the “everything else” is not Him. It is something apart from Him, something other than Him, and He is other than all of it.
The first of God’s commandments demands a distinction between Himself and His creation (Exodus 20.1-6). We must not confuse God with or think of God in terms of the things created. He is other than the creation.
The Law, the prophets, and the apostles argue that confusing the Creator with His creation will lead our souls down a path destructive of both our humanity and our ability to live in a peaceful society (e.g. Romans 1.22-32).
As an artist’s work expresses things about the artist without being the artist himself, so creation points to a power beyond itself, greater than itself, that is responsible for its creation.
They are made and are not Him. He was not made. He simply is.
The God of Israel revealed Himself to Moses as “I AM THAT WHICH I AM” (literal Hebrew of Exodus 3.14a) – “I AM” for short (Exodus 3.14b). His name, I AM tells us about who He is. He is being, existence, life itself. He has life in Himself. He doesn’t do anything to sustain His life. He won’t die. He can’t, because He is life. He lives. He is. I AM just is.
Almost every religion in the world could affirm that God is being, existence, life. But the Bible reveals two more ideas about God that separate the biblical religions from the rest: (1) there is only ONE God and (2) this one God created everything else.
The ancient pagans saw the beauty, the complexity, and the mystery of the natural world and worshiped the many things in the world and had many gods (hence ‘polytheists’). They were blind to the ONE God behind the universe and separate from it.
The modern world leans more toward the eastern idea (e.g. Buddhism) that sees the universe itself, the unified whole or “the ONE” as ‘God’. In this view, all, including each of us, is God and God is all (‘pantheism’ – Greek for ‘all is God’). This view maintains the ONENESS but fails to separate God from creation.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims part ways with these views, believing in one God (monotheism) but also that this one God created everything else. We insist that the “everything else” is not Him. It is something apart from Him, something other than Him, and He is other than all of it.
The first of God’s commandments demands a distinction between Himself and His creation (Exodus 20.1-6). We must not confuse God with or think of God in terms of the things created. He is other than the creation.
The Law, the prophets, and the apostles argue that confusing the Creator with His creation will lead our souls down a path destructive of both our humanity and our ability to live in a peaceful society (e.g. Romans 1.22-32).
As an artist’s work expresses things about the artist without being the artist himself, so creation points to a power beyond itself, greater than itself, that is responsible for its creation.
They are made and are not Him. He was not made. He simply is.