Who Does God Think He Is?: A Study into the True Nature of God
()
About this ebook
Our world today has exponentially come face-to-face with suffering and death.
Does God sovereignly control what happens to us or lovingly care? The answer seems to be “no” until you look into the true nature of God. The author invites you to explore with him God's fundamental essence as witnessed by God's own words and actions and the words and actions of those who knew Him best. Men like Job, Jacob, and Jeremiah who experienced the bitterness of life while walking under the shadow of death. The questions of good and evil, as well as, sin and suffering are raised, and definitive answers are given as the author shows God's nature to be clearly expressed through the realms of His goodness, evidenced by the redemption of His love, and experienced through the riches of His grace.
“Steve’s book tackles great, profound questions that believers and those without faith ask. He answers those questions with firm biblical truth, with solid scholarship, and yet with a practical voice. As I read Steve’s book, many times I said to myself, ‘I need to use this in a message.’ I recommend this book to all pastors and to all laypersons who wish to step out into the deep and consider the character of God.”
--Chet Martin, former Wabash Conference Superintendent, Free Methodist Church
“Steve Hickman has written a helpful book that deals forthrightly with such questions as: ‘If God is sovereign, why does he allow disasters that wreak so much havoc and deliver so much suffering to innocent people?’ He does not give simplistic answers but delves into God’s character. He reinforces every point with appropriate and insightful Scripture references. I commend his book to every pastor and serious Bible student.”
--Ron McClung, Assistant General Secretary, The Wesleyan Church
“A most interesting and meaningful book! The reader will be challenged, enlightened and motivated to overcome life’s circumstances through the power of God. Steve Hickman has raised great questions and provided dynamic answers to the questions that so many ask. A great read!”
--Stan Toler, Bestselling Author and Speaker
Related to Who Does God Think He Is?
Related ebooks
Ignite: How to Fuel Your Soul's Passion for God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Winning Dad: How to Finish First with Your Kids Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOpposition Gives You an Opportunity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPreparation for Eternity with God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Uzziah Syndrome: 40 Keys to Finishing Your Life and Ministry Well Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving in the Light: An Exposition of the Letters of John Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoar on Purpose Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Broad Road: A Story of Two Paths of Eternal Consequence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDefeating Your Goliath: Slaying the Giants in Your Life Starts with You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Grow Your Heart’S Garden for God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Deadliest Sin: A Penetrating Look at the Poison of Pride in a Leader Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChrist Honouring marriage: It can be yours too! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Little Book of Big Laughs Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Work Hard, Pray Hard: The Power of Faith in Action Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Faith Once Delivered: Original Christianity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTime With God For Fathers Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Acres of Diamonds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Everlasting Gospel: Salvation from Sin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSet Aflame: The Story of One Man on Fire for God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod's Unfailing Purpose: The Message of Daniel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Marriage, Family and the Image of God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSuffering? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings“Discipleship and Discipline Second Edition”: “...Making Disciples of All the Nations...” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife in Christ Jesus is a Life of Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIdentity Theft Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBreaking the Cycle of Sin!: Lessons Gleaned from the Judges a Wake up Call for Today’s Christians. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCollected Writings On ... Exploring Biblical Faithfulness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod Loves Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus Christ, God's Relationship of Grace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy Haven't Things Changed in Your Life? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Christianity For You
Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Boundaries and Goodbyes: Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Law of Connection: Lesson 10 from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Start Again Monday: Break the Cycle of Unhealthy Eating Habits with Lasting Spiritual Satisfaction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Changes That Heal: Four Practical Steps to a Happier, Healthier You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5NIV, Holy Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grief Observed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Enoch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild at Heart Expanded Edition: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Workbook: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries with Kids: How Healthy Choices Grow Healthy Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Lead When You're Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Who Does God Think He Is?
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Who Does God Think He Is? - Stephen Hickman
©2015 by Stephen Hickman
©2015 Dust Jacket Press / SHICK Books
Who Does God Think He Is?: A Study into the True Nature of God
ISBN: 978-1-943140-69-5
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed at the address below:
Dust Jacket Press
P.O. Box 721243
Oklahoma City, OK 73172
http://www.dustjacket.com
Ordering information for print editions:
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Dust Jacket Press address above.
Individual sales. Dust Jacket Press publications are available through most bookstores. They can also be ordered directly from Dust Jacket: Tel: (800) 495-0192; Email: info@ dustjacket.com; http://www.dustjacket.com
Dust Jacket logos are registered trademarks of Dust Jacket Press, Inc.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from New International Version.
Scripture quotations marked NIV
are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV
and New International Version
are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Cover & Interior Design: D.E. West / Dust Jacket Creative Services
Digitally Published by Dust Jacket Press / SHICK Books at Smashwords
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
.
D E D I C A T I O N
To my late parents Lanham and Charlotte Hickman for their exemplary faith. To my siblings John, Edward, Grace, Dean, and Molly and families for their endearing friendship. To my first Free Methodist congregation in Greenacres, Florida and my present FM congregation in New Castle, Indiana for their encouraging fellowship. Last but not least, to my wife Joann, my sons Derek and Scott and families for their endless favor.
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
COVER
TITLE
COPYRIGHTS
DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE: Exploring God’s Fundamental Essence
CHAPTER ONE: God’s Opposite
CHAPTER TWO: God’s Formal Introduction
CHAPTER THREE: A Fascinating Expression
CHAPTER FOUR: God’s Full Exposure
CHAPTER FIVE: Holiness: God’s Fundamental Essence
PART TWO: Extracting God’s Fundamental Essence
CHAPTER SIX: Goodness: The Expression of Holiness
CHAPTER SEVEN: Righteousness and Justice: The Extension of Holiness/Goodness
CHAPTER EIGHT: Goodness Questioned
CHAPTER NINE: Goodness and Suffering
CHAPTER TEN: Meaningful Choice
PART THREE: Exclaiming God’s Fundamental Essence
CHAPTER ELEVEN: God’s Foremost Desire
CHAPTER TWELVE: Love: The Evidence That God is Holy/Good
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: God’s Ultimate Demand for the End of Our Age
PART FOUR: Experiencing God’s Fundamental Essence
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Principles of Grace
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: A Portrait of Grace
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: A Pattern for Grace
ENDNOTES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I N T R O D U C T I O N
FACING AN IDENTITY CRISIS
Years ago, a television program called To Tell the Truth
created for its viewers the following premise:
A panel of three guests was given a short biography of a successful person whom they had never seen or met. This mystery person would then enter the room with two others and, when asked to identify themselves, all three would respond that they were this individual. From the short biography the panel of guests would then question each mystery person in order to determine who was telling the truth and who was not. Then each guest would guess which of the three he or she believed the real mystery person was. The host of the show would then say, Will the real Mr. or Mrs. _______ please stand up?
Today, with all the tragedies that have hit our world, including 9/11, the Asian tsunamis, hurricane Katrina, and hurricane Sandy, the Church, as well as society, is asking for the real God to identify himself and explain, Who does God think he is in allowing such tragedies to occur?
Yet, God continues to veil himself, either because the wrong questions are being asked of him, or the so-called expert’s biography of him is distorted. I believe both cases to be partly true. Let me illustrate.
When dealing with these tragedies, many hurting people have questioned the nature of God by asking, What God would allow such awful tragedies to take place?
If we answer this question by identifying God as a loving God who cares for humankind,
then they respond mockingly by saying, What a joke! If that is love, then I want no part of it.
If we answer by identifying God as a sovereign God who controls the affairs of mankind,
then they respond skeptically by saying, If he is sovereign, then why didn’t he stop these tragedies from happening, especially when the majorities were natural disasters? He should at least be blamed for allowing Mother Nature to overstep her boundaries.
Now, the two answers given concerning the love and sovereignty of God were factual but were the wrong answers to the above question. You see, if God’s nature is primarily love and/or sovereignty, then he should have saved those that perished or should have stopped those tragedies from occurring. But the underlying answer goes much deeper than God’s love or sovereignty. It centers on the true nature or identity of God, which when known and truly understood, sets him apart from the question itself and also apart from those who asked it.
Who does God think he is? Well, he knows who he is, but apparently we do not, for if we did we would not give such answers to a suffering, hurting people. Instead, if God really needs to be defended, we could answer the above question with a question, as Abraham did when faced with the imminent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham looked the angel of the Lord in the face and asked, Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?
¹ The Lord’s reply to Abraham clearly implies the answer to be: Of course he will.
In the following chapters, I pray that you and I will get such a glimpse of the true nature of God that once we experience his glorious presence, we will so fully love and trust him that never again will any person, problem or peril shake our confidence in God or require us to defend him. Instead, may we join with the choir in heaven as they sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb:
Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty.
Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.
Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.²
P A R T O N E
EXPLORING GOD’S FUNDAMENTAL ESSENCE
C H A P T E R O N E
GOD’S OPPOSITE
During my years of teaching in the classroom, I met many students with questions concerning the nature or character of God. To stimulate them in their search for answers, I would ask them to finish the following statement: Black is to white as Satan is to ______.
The answer they gave would reveal how much they truly understood about God’s character.
Before we explore the correct answer, let’s go back to another classroom where God, who goes by the name Lord, is the teacher and the Old Testament saints are the students. The class I will call, Introduction to God 101
and to begin the class I will have God give the students a pre-test to evaluate their knowledge of who he is. The pre-test contains the six questions below. (Although I have created this setting in my mind, yet the questions are direct quotes from Scripture, as well as the dialogue between God and one of his students.) Why don’t you and I take the test as well?
1. ‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One.
¹
2. Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor?
²
3. Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way?
³
4. Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?
⁴
5. In comparing humankind to the Lord, how would he regard all the nations of the earth?⁵
6. To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?
⁶ Before the teacher can collect the papers and go over the answers, a student by the name of Job, one who has recently suffered some great tragedies, raises his hand to interrupt the
Lord, desiring to put him to the test by asking him questions. When the Teacher seemingly ignores Job, then Job mutters under his breath, Oh, that I had someone to hear me! . . . let the Almighty answer me.
⁷ I would give him an account of all my steps; like a prince I would approach him.
⁸ God, realizing that Job really doesn’t know to whom he is talking, nor what he is talking about, finally stops the class long enough to answer Job.
He says to Job: "Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words? Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? . . . Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east? Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth, to bring an end to the night’s wickedness? . . . Can you direct the movement of the stars – binding the clusters of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion? Can you direct sequence of the seasons or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens? Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?⁹ Now, these are only a few of the barrage of questions God asks Job. As a matter of fact, God asks him fifty straight questions before he says to Job, Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?
¹⁰ When Job realizes he cannot answer one of the fifty questions, he replies to the Lord, I am nothing – how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.
¹¹
Job seems to realize at this stage that he is nobody but he still hasn’t realized totally who God is, so God gives him more questions to answer. The Lord says to Job, Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. Will you discredit my justice and condemn me just to prove you are right? Are you as strong as God? Can you thunder with a voice like his? All right, put on your glory and splendor, your honor and majesty. Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud. Humiliate the proud with a glance; walk on the wicked where they stand. Bury them in the dust. Imprison them in the world of the dead.
¹²
Finally, Job realizes not only who he is, (I am nothing), but who God is, and so he replies to God, I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I – and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me. You said, ‘Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’ I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
¹³
Job returns to his seat, sits down and, finishes the pretest.
The purpose of the above scene is not for us to focus on the teacher or the students but the questions God asks and the answers given. Going over the answers to the questions completes the teacher’s objective for his first class. Let’s go back and listen, as God asks each student to answer each question with a statement:
1. No one can be compared to you, oh Holy One, nor considered your equal!
2. No one has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor!
3. No one has enlightened the Lord, or taught him the right way!
4. No one taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding!
5. Before the Lord all the nations are as nothing; they all regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing!
6. No one or image can be compared to the Lord! In light of the above answers, what is God trying to teach them and us about his nature and character? These answers tell us the Lord is as follows:
1. The Lord is incomparable: He