If one hundred random people were asked the above-stated question, the inquirer would receive at least fifty different answers ranging from “a non-existent figment of one’s imagination” to “each individual’s inner-oneness with the universe,” or some such gibberish. And approximately 70% of the people asked would claim to be a disciple of the Biblical God about whom the question was asked. In this series we will answer the question: Who and What is God? We will use His own Words in doing so.

Following the Adam and Eve debacle, we are reintroduced to God as He again involves Himself in man’s individual and corporate life through His relationship with a man named Abram and his descendants. Abram, whose name God changed to Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude,” became the progenitor of the nation of Israel which, due to Abraham’s obedience, were destined to be God’s chosen people. The history of these people is as convoluted as it is heartbreaking. Having been raised up to be God’s light to the Gentile world, Israel (meaning “power with God”) failed miserably in her assigned task as He laments in Isaiah 1:2-4 where we find the Lord, through the prophet, speaking about the nation’s failure to be and do what He had designed her to be and do: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: ‘I have spoken; I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows its owner and the ass its master’s crib, but My people Israel do not know Me. O sinful nation that are a people weighted down with iniquity (Lawlessness); they are seeds of evildoers. They are children who are corrupt and who corrupt others. They have forsaken the Lord and have provoked Him to anger. They have turned their backs on Him.'”

The turning of the back to another is the ultimate sign of disrespect and rejection. In the spiritual realm, everyone obeys a god, either the Biblical God or Satan, the god of this world (1 Cor. 4:4). In the eyes of God, to turn from one is to embrace the other. Supposedly there is an exception to this rule. Those who call themselves “sinners saved by grace” claim the right to obey both God and Satan, thereby turning their backs alternatively to one, then to the other in a sin-repent, sin-repent cycle that supposedly lasts until their final breaths. However, God calls such people vomit in His mouth (Rev. 3:14-20), which is His description of the Laodicean church, the church of this end-time era. Read about church eras using Eras as the key word.

The irony of the statement the Lord made through Isaiah is that lowly cattle know their masters, but God’s people, created in His image and likeness, do not know Him. Animals know the voice of their master, but those who call the Lord their master either do not know His voice (Word), or know it but choose to reject it. Why would salvation seekers do this? Because they do not know who and what God is. Again the question is, why? Because they lack wisdom. Why do the vast majority of church people lack wisdom? The answer is found in one short sentence: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Those claiming to be God’s people do not fear him as did Jesus of Nazareth Whose prayers were answered BECAUSE HE FEARED GOD (Heb. 5:7). How many church prayers are answered? Very few. Why does God rarely answer church people’s prayers? The answer is: lack of fear, which always results in sin. Sin separates us from God (Isa. 59:2), making us low hanging fruit for Satan’s temptations.

Let us now find out who this God is whom His Son, the Creator of the universe (Jn. 1:1-4,14), feared, obeyed and commands all of mankind to fear and obey. Fear and obedience go hand-in-hand. Man neither fears nor obeys God. Who says so? God does. Now let us address the questions asked in the title of this series.

The Words expressed by the Prophet Isaiah were directed to ancient Israel, a nation to which God had revealed Himself in many miraculous ways. Having forgotten who and what He is, His chosen people had turned away from Him and to Satan. Nothing has changed. Neither the Israelites nor the Gentiles nor the Jews of the Middle East know who or what God is. Read Who and Where is Israel Today? Key word–Who. Neither the scientific world nor the educational world knows who and what God is. Incredibly, neither does the religious world where confusion reigns in the form of different gods, different truths, different mental constructs and different codes of conduct. The Baha’i Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Judaism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism, …. The world is full of conflicting, competing, contradicting ideas of who and what the true God actually is, or whether He even exists.

The so-called “Christian” religion cannot decide exactly who or what God is. Nor can self-defined “Christians” agree on what is required of them. Each of Christendom’s hundreds of man-created, man-directed cults (called denominations, faiths, churches, etc.) has its own savior, its own god, its own gospel, its own plan of salvation, its own name–each of which is man-concocted under the power of Satan who controls the convoluted mess through his false prophets. Question: If Jesus is the HEAD (SINGULAR) of the BODY (SINGULAR) that is the CHURCH (SINGULAR), why do the hundreds of “churches” call themselves by different names, have different truths, doctrines, etc. and meet in different places, often within sight of each other. Read Ephesians 4:4,5/ 1 Cor. 12:12; 14:23). But for trees, buildings, etc., I could see three “churches” from my back yard, each of which is different from the others, each of which is “THE” church that God smiles upon and will take to heave, etc., etc. “Satanic” is the word that comes to my mind when I think about “the church” situation. If we can take God at His Word, “abomination” probably comes to His mind. Which is why He issued a command relative to the Institutional Church in Second Corinthians 6:14-7:1. Read that passage for God’s command to His true saints relative to their relationship with professing Christendom.

The problem lies in the fact that, just as the Serpent deceived Eve into believing that she and Adam were better equipped to determine right and wrong than was their Creator, Satan has deceived the religious world into believing the same lie. For proof, consult a phone book, look under CHURCHES, and count. Bear in mind that this involves only those organizations that call themselves “churches.” Currently, there are almost 3000 Muslim mosques within the United States, with more under construction. A recent report revealed that between 2010 and 2020 the United States experienced a 30% increase in her Muslim population. Hamtramck, Michigan’s population is 100% Muslim. Even with the rapid Muslim growth, Hinduism is reported to be the fastest growing religion in the nation. This is the nation that claims to trust in God. The question is: which god? Perhaps a better question would be, which gods? The answer does not matter. Jesus said that few God seekers would follow Him and that all others would follow Satan–the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). Why is America in such a religious mess? The simple answer is that, instead of embracing the one true God as his God, the vast majority of Americans have made Satan their god.

The confusion as to the identity of God is caused by human beings trying to define God’s nature by using their personal ideas of what He is like. However, the only way to learn anything about God is to consult His Holy Bible with a heart (mind) open to His Truth. Read Bible Study God’s Way. Key word–Study. THE HOLY BIBLE IS MAN’S ONLY TRUE SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HIM. He designed it that way and arranged for His Word to be recorded and preserved for thousands of years so that it would be in effect until Christ’s return to earth.. Those who strictly adhere to His commands will, upon Christ’s return rule, first the earth for 1000 years (the millennium), then the universe forever. Read God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe and The Kingdom of God. Key words–Caretakers and Kingdom respectively.

In the following posting we will look to the Holy Scriptures in our search for the answers to the questions asked in the title of this series. Everything we know about God comes from the Bible. Anything outside of that holy tome is purely human conjecture. For this reason I point the reader and listener to the Scriptures themselves. I do not want anyone to take what I say at face value. I can be wrong, as my past ministerial history attests. In the spiritual realm, ONLY GOD’S WORD IS TRUTH, so said Jesus Christ in John 17:17. I take His Word on that. Beyond His written Word the Truth seeker is looking at man’s word which, unless he is quoting God’s, is nothing more than man’s opinion based on man’s wishful thinking. Why settle for man’s opinion when we have the eternal Truth at our fingertips?

Jesus said few would study, seek out, believe and obey His Truth. He also said that, though many would be called to do so, few would be chosen for having done so (Mat. 7:134,14; 22:14). The two heads (Catholicism and Protestantism) and the hundreds of bodies (cults) of the religious beast called “the church,” along with all of mankind’s other religious bodies, prove to the Truth seeker that Jesus was right when He said that only a few would find His strait gate and walk His narrow way leading to the Kingdom of God. The Institutional (counterfeit) Church is Satan’s wide gate and broad way that the Lord warned the seeker about. Let us be among those few who obey the Lord’s command to come out of that counterfeit system and have nothing more to do with it. He declares that then, and only then, He will be one’s God and one will be His child. L.J.