What do we mean by a Big God?

We worship a God who is big enough to know all things past, present and future. We believe that He is the creator and owner of all things – including you and I. This big God has ultimate control over all what happens from great and mighty nations to each individual person on this planet. This big God knows everything – from the number of stars in the universe to our each and every thought. God is not a bystander waiting to see how history will play out. This big God isn’t a far away, distant observer of things happening on the earth – God is interested and involved in today’s world, including what is happening in our lives right now.

We believe that man is free to act according to his or her desires (inclinations). After the fall of the human race our desires, or wills, are opposed to God. So in this state men and women have a distorted view of what will truly make them happy. More importantly they will not freely choose to honor and obey God. True spiritual conversion shines the light of truth on our desires and delivers us from the spiritual blindness that makes rebellion against God attractive. (Romans 8:5-11) We suddenly understand that true joy comes from obedience to Christ, not in endless frustrating attempts to satisfy our self-centered desires. (Colossians 1:13-23) As God awakens our spiritual eyes we find sin to be truly horrid and righteousness and truth to be our delight.

We believe in a Big God who will deliver His people from the slavery of sin by the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Once purchased by the blood of Christ, God the Father will not fail to save His people. We believe the Bible emphatically teaches that God is not passive in promoting the salvation and sanctification of His people. But we are not passive either; God gives us a new heart; therefore we must freely put our faith in Christ.

Because we believe in a big God:

1) We believe that God has not left us in the dark about how He wants us to worship Him. The Bible teaches us that God has specified the how and when of worship – we are not free to make up our own rules! The Bible tells us that the worship that God honors consists of

a. Prayer

b. Reading of the Word

c. Singing songs of praise

d. Preaching

e. Celebrating the Lord’s Supper

f. Celebrating Baptism

Since God created us we trust that worship on His terms will truly glorify Him and by the power of the Holy Spirit this kind of worship will delight believers!

2) Since we believe in a big God we take every hard thing that comes into our lives as from the hand of God who is not punishing us – His wrath has been absorbed by Jesus on the cross. God is giving us these hard things in order to draw us to Himself and make us rely completely on Him. God desires holiness more than He desires our worldly comfort. And in whatever happens we can say, “… we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

What do we mean by a Big Book?

We believe that the Holy Bible is no small book written with mere historical or moral merit. In fact, for thousands of years God-hating men have tried to demolish the Bible – for thousands of years the Bible has withstood and conquered as a supreme book of authority and truth.

We believe that the Holy Bible is “God-breathed.’ It is directly inspired by the Holy Spirit, written by the hand of men called by God, written in their common language and preserved by God for the ages. We believe that the Bible ought to be translated into the common language of every nation.

We believe that the Holy Bible is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. We believe that nothing else may be added by ‘new revelation’ or the traditions of men. We believe going beyond the Bible in an attempt to find ‘deeper’ spiritual knowledge is a sure route to self-deception and spiritual ruin. We affirm that the only sure rule of biblical interpretation is the scripture itself. When there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture it must be searched by other places in the Bible that speak more clearly.

This example may be helpful:

“A typical Tuesday in the life of Chris College, a university student majoring in engineering. His Bible is insufficient as a textbook for his classes in calculus, biology and French; but it does show him the path of duty throughout such a typical Tuesday. It teaches him to pray and read his Bible in the morning, to be diligent and discerning in his studies, and to avert his eyes when the college temptress walks through the library when he is studying. It does provide him with an infallible record of creation and redemptive history. This record does set certain boundaries or limits which guide him in his study of biology and history. Any theory of history or biology which contradicts the historical statements of the Bible he will properly reject.” 1

Though we believe that the Bible is not a scientific textbook we do believe it sufficiently provides the ethical and religious perspective basic to life and essential to a proper understanding of science.

In Conclusion

Knowing that we have a big God gives us comforting confidence in a world of uncertainty—God possesses full sovereignty over all things that come to pass. God is able and willing to save and preserve His people.

Knowing that we have a big Book with divine authority gives us comforting confidence in our quest to reform our church and our lives to properly honor and please God. Testing all things according to the Scriptures keep us from going beyond what God has commanded and keeps us from imposing further burdens not commanded by God on ourselves and others. Knowing we have a big Book provides us with a glorious reason to focus on the preached Word as God’s primary means of converting sinners and building up believers in the faith.

1 Sam Waldron, Exposition of the 1689 Confession, p 44

Posted by Robin on Sunday, March 26th, 2006 at 5:04 pm.

2 Responses to “I believe in a Big God and a Big Book!”
The name of your site alone drew me in! Well done.
I am interested to hear how you feel about contextualizing the rules in other cultures.

Left by Kristopher Keating on April 4th, 2006

The essentials of worship are universal to all cultures (Prayer, Reading of the Word, Singing songs of praise, Preaching, Celebrating the sacraments) … there are things that I would call “circumstantial” elements of worship. For example it seems foolish to expect peoples living in tropical climates to wear western type suits to worship! I guess that’s what I mean by not being bound by man-made rules.