Before the beginning…there was God

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Charles L Stanley

Before the beginning there was God is cultural heresy in the 21st century. This is really the dividing point in our culture.

There are the Oneists who believe there is no God outside the universe but that all is really just one. Historically, the major religions holding this view are Buddhism and Hinduism. They take their modern form as New Age and Human Potential Movement thought.

Then there are the Twoists, those who believe the universe was brought into being by the eternally existing God to whom we are all accountable.

These are two radically different world views with radically different presuppositions that will inevitably take one to radically different conclusions about life’s dilemmas. Thus the cultural divide in America and the world.

Before the beginning…there was Trinity

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Charles L Stanley

So some say God is a Trinity. So what?

Lots of Christians don’t like to consider truths that require real intellectual exercise and so claim there is some irreconcilable difference between those who have “an experience” with God and those who live in intellectual debate about things theological.

That is a false dichotomy.

I proffer that one cannot gain the full value of an experience without understanding it through sound Biblical doctrine. And likewise, sound doctrine is worthless if one does not have an accompanying experience with the living God who is the subject of the doctrines.

So, for all who claim a personal relationship with God, let’s do a little thinking. I don’t want to lay out the Scriptural argument for the existence of God as Trinity. For this article, I am assuming it to be true. I do want to look at some of the essential implications of the fact of God as Trinity. Continue reading →

Before the beginning…there was covenant

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Charles L Stanley

I used to think that before God created, he was inactive. He just sat there and did nothing. After all, there was no creation to care for. What was he doing? I know better now.

I certainly don’t know all that God did, but he has made some things known.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29

One thing God did, and I submit the most important thing as far as we humans are concerned, was to make an eternal covenant.

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Heb 13:20-21 Continue reading →

Before the beginning…steadfast love and faithfulness

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Charles L Stanley

Considering God “before the beginning” is, I find, a fruitful exercise. It helps me to clarify the character and nature of God which in turn increases my confidence in him and his promises.

I have the general impression, and maybe it is just my weakness, that when God is said to have steadfast love and faithfulness, such as in Psalm 118 that repeats the refrain, “his steadfast love endures forever,” that most of us have a warm and fuzzy feeling and interpret this to mean something like “God is a nice God.”

In Exodus 34:6 God reveals himself to Moses as “abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Steadfast love is the Hebrew word Hesed and is sometimes translated ”covenant-faithfulness” and the word faithfulness refers to stability, something you can count on.

I love the idea of covenant-faithfulness. Continue reading →

Before the beginning…there was glory.

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Charles L Stanley

Go with me again to that time before time and to that place before places and contemplate God. If we could see there, what would we see?

I know some will think this just so much speculation and naval gazing, but stick with me, there really is something solid and powerful down the page a ways.

Before the beginning, no angels, no demons, no stars, no earth and no people, just God.

We know God is spirit,¹ so there would be no bodies there. A spirit doesn’t have hands and feet or other parts. I know, sometimes the Scripture speaks of things like “the hand of God,” but that is what is known as an anthropomorphism, a two-dollar word that means “the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.” That kind of language is used because we don’t have language that adequately describes something so different from us as God.

So what could we see in that place before places? Continue reading →

Before the beginning…he knew my name

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Charles L Stanley

Once upon a time, before there was time, in a place far, far away, before there were places, God knew my name and wrote it down in a book.

There was no creation yet. There were no birds, no stars, no angels or demons, and certainly no humans. There was only God.

God, the three-in-one God, was going about the business of creating the first covenant, a covenant among the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. One little, but vitally important provision of the covenant to folks like you and me, was a promise from the Father to the Son to give him a people. The tough part for the Son was that he would volunteer to die for those people given to him by the Father. But that was part of the agreement. This covenant was made among the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in eternity and is held together by God’s covenant-faithfulness. Continue reading →

Our God is a happy God

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Admin

There are obviously some people who get their vision of God from somewhere other than my source. I’m not saying there is no such thing as the wrath of God, there certainly is, but his wrath is not at his core. At his core, God is happy.

God is sovereign.

“Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.”
Psalm 115:3

Nothing can thwart God’s plans. What he does is “for his good pleasure.”¹ That is, it is what makes him happy.

When thinking about God “before the beginning,” this thought is particularly important. Before the beginning, there was nothing but God, no heavens, no angels, no demons, no people, nothing…just God. Under those circumstances, upon what would God unleash his wrath? When all that exists is a perfect God, there is no use for wrath, there is nothing to judge and find wanting.

What that must have been like. As the Psalmist says, “Selah”, think about that.

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¹Philippans 2:13