What Is God?

Is there a God? Were the full truth known, that is the livest question among men today; especially within their hearts.

Ask yourselves the question! You will soon have to admit that you acknowledge the existence of a power, far beyond your own, operating in your lives, and in surrounding nature. No one can rid himself of that feeling. That power we call God.

Questions concerning God have occupied all men, in all ages. The inward demand, however vague in expression, to know Him, and to know about Him, is most insistent in every human soul. This is because the very riddle of existence is involved in the knowledge of God. If we know God, we shall understand the foundations of the universe and the real meaning of life.

All people really believe in God. In that respect, king and peasant, scholar and child, civilized and savage, have been and are alike. The evidence for His existence is so overwhelming that, tutored and untutored peoples alike, find their chief joy in worshiping Him.

The few who say that there is no God, the atheists, are merely fooling themselves, by using another name for the universal power that they recognize. In moments of great need when the aeroplane bursts into flames, or the ship is sinking, or death beckons in some other form, there are no atheists. They who call themselves atheists are usually materialists, to whom the whole universe consists only of inert matter and blind forces, operating as a machine, sure to run down, and come to a dead end. Atheists live for the moment only.

The most convincing evidence for God's existence remains the ancient and universal one—the feeling that issues from the spiritual nature of every rational creature. This spiritual power, if carefully guarded, is as reliable as eye or ear. And when untold generations of people have this inward recognition of His existence, we have evidence of the highest reliability. The eye of one person may be deceived; but if the multitude see alike, doubt vanishes. When generations of people come to a common conclusion, it is founded in truth. That is the principle in Lincoln's famous dictum: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time."

That evidence for God is supported by the common experience that, through belief in God, and association with Him in prayer and righteous living, and by listening to the voice of conscience, come the greatest known human joys. This evidence, through man's spiritual experience, remains the firmest foundation for faith in the existence of God.

Faith in God has been confirmed and strengthened, as our knowledge of the material universe has increased. There was a time when men felt that chance ruled in nature. That was a time when untruth and occultism had their day. People who were caught by the false doctrine of the dominance of chance, moved about with fear in their hearts. Something unforeseen, out of the surrounding darkness, might at any moment destroy their welfare, or even themselves. Man's invasion of the unseen physical world, through the doors of science, contributed much to restore our faith in the goodness of nature, and the existence of an overruling God. Every new discovery brought light, and banished darkness. That which, formerly, seemed mysterious in nature, was explained in simple terms. Courage replaced fear. And light has increased with every new searching; the old suspicions have passed away. Nature has been found to be helpful, not hurtful. Man and nature have become friends.

This new and increasing knowledge has brought about an intelligent comprehension of nature. We have found that, above all things, the universe in which we live, and of which nature is an expression, is orderly in its every procedure. Every occurrence, if understood, is a product of order. Disorder and chaos, the residues of chance, are abhorrent to the universe and its normal contents.

This discovery was like an overwhelming light, illuminating every recess of knowledge, already won or in the winning. Foul chance, and its ugly fortune-telling, deceiving brood, were laid to the ground. Men walked thenceforth more erect, with heads held higher. The orderliness of nature made it seem as if a new world had been made for the world's family.

That was not all. Reasoning and reasonable men soon perceived an even greater truth. Back of all order is intelligence. Order is the product of intelligence, and appears only through intelligent action. Leave the parts of an automobile scattered over the shop floor, and, throughout the eternal ages, they will never, of themselves, be assembled into an automobile. Only when intelligence guides the hand will part be connected with part, until the motor car is ready for use.

Just so with the universe, and with God, declares the common sense of man. The parts of the universe are in orderly connection with one another, from the motions of the heavenly bodies, to the molecular building blocks of matter. There is no clashing among the parts. The universe works and moves more smoothly than any man-made machine. The universe, therefore, is being directed by an intelligent Power, God. Every new proof of order in nature has been another proof of God's existence.

When this knowledge became current, men could have shouted for gladness. They read with new unstanding the words of David, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth forth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." fn

We began to understand that all things are a reflection of divine intelligence, of God. The beauty of earth and of life speaks of Him. The emotions awakened by the beauty of flower, mountain, and sky, of the painting, sculpture, or poem, point to a God. The whisperings of the soul of worshipper or creative worker bear the same testimony.

So, whether we look within or outside ourselves, there is evidence for the existence of God. No truth in all the world is more firmly established. Whoever has not satisfied himself as to God's existence has not used the full complement of his powers in the search, or has used them only in part. If you have not done so, you are missing much.

Despite the opinion of many, no special faculties are needed to discover God. Every person possesses the powers necessary to find Him. God may be discovered by the use of our normal faculties, such as we all possess. It must be so, for the impress of God must be upon all His works. Every created thing, in all its manifestations, must bear witness of Him. In the words of modern revelation, through the Prophet Joseph Smith: "All these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the least of these hath seen God moving in His majesty and power." fn

Now, many of you are thinking that it is not enough to know that there is a God. You want to know what He really is, His nature, and attributes. About that there are endless differences. Superstition, tradition, fear, vain imaginings, nonsense, are mingled in the contending views. Each interpretation sets up a different God. Thus have come the number and variety of Christian beliefs; each founded, if carefully analyzed, upon a specific and different conception of God and the divine nature.

The world's confused belief in God is unacceptable to the mind. Only one belief concerning Him can be true; the others must, to some extent, be untrue. Could the real truth about God be established, it would become easier for the whole world to come to a unity of doctrinal faith. Such a correct understanding of God is the world's most urgent need; for did we have it, we might hopefully, and securely, approach the long-desired era of peace and goodwill among men.

One group of so-called believers in God teach in substance that He is man-made. That is, they admit, with tongues in cheeks, that there is a God. But, in the same breath, they explain that God is always a product of the human mind. Early peoples, they say, worshipped tribal Gods, of stock and stone. As the people developed, their conceptions changed, until, in time, God became a Being of spirit. This simply means that God is made by man, and in the image of man; instead of man being made in the image of God. Such colossal self-sufficiency is of the impudent order of King Canute defying the tides of the ocean. The notion of a man-made God is a variation of atheism.

Another group of believers in God, many of them sincere Christians, have fallen into a belief incomprehensible to the human mind. To them, God is a universe-filling something, which has intelligence, He is a "creative mind," but impersonal. He has neither form nor dimension. Some have gone so far as to say that, though He fills the whole universe, every part thereof, yet He dwells complete, every part of him, in every human heart. This utterly baffles human intelligence. It transcends the limits of comprehension. It is beyond the power of explanation. There is, nowhere, intelligent, understandable, contact between such a god and man—man so sorely in need of being led by a divine hand.

We might as well worship the forces of nature, which are space filling, everywhere present. But it would, indeed, be asking too much of intelligent man to bow down to worship electricity, or any other natural force, even if it were endowed with intelligence. Though, admittedly, we cannot understand God fully, He must be comprehensible in so far as He touches our lives. Otherwise man and God remain as strangers, even as citizens of foreign lands, one to the other.

There is only one conception of God that satisfies the human mind and soul. By the very nature of us, we are driven to personify God. Despite philosophical dust thrown in our eyes, we cannot help but think of God as a person, in whose image we feel that we are created. Even the churches that cling to the doctrine of a spacefilling "creative mind," picture Him in schoolbooks and Bibles, as a man, usually with a very long beard; or give Him a sculptured figure in the narrow dimensions of marble or metal.

There is no use in side-stepping the issue, as was done recently by one of the world's foremost Churchmen, when he said that Christians "believe in an Author of the universe who, for want of an adequate word, must be called personal." fn Nor can intelligent man accept the doctrine that God is not a person, yet possesses the attributes of personality, such as "will, consciousness and purpose." fn That is merely mixing incompatibles.

We need not try to fool ourselves. We think of God only in the figure of a man. The scriptures, fairly read, reveal Him as a person. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." fn The personality of God runs through all religious experience. He is a personage. And, we are lost, befogged, upon the sea of thought, if we try to expand this personage to fill all space, or to crowd Him into a human heart.

On this matter, the position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is definite and clear. We know that God is a personage in whose image man is made; that He has a body of spiritual substance; and that His divine attributes are reflected in man's nature. We further believe that, through the Spirit of God, an influence which proceeds from Him, and which fills all space, He reaches outer-most space, and every individual heart. But He, of Himself, is not everywhere present. Even we poor, mundane, men and women operate through agents—machines or messengers. We use the telegraph or telephone, and now, the radio, to transmit our thoughts to far away places. We need not go there in person. About such a conception there is nothing really mysterious.

This is the key to the misunderstanding which has vexed and is vexing many a seeker after God. He and His power have been confused, until the worship due Him has been given to His power.

In such a personification of God we follow Jesus, the Christ, who said, "And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me." fn And, "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." fn

Latter-day Saints accept cheerfully the challenge that making God personal reduces Him to the stature of men. We answer, with glowing joy, that the doctrine of divine personality lifts man toward the stature of God.

One evidence, perhaps the most important, for God and His personality, remains.

Many men, during humanity's long record on earth, have declared that they have seen God and conversed with Him. Their testimonies have been substantiated. Unless these men have spoken the truth, much of our religious structure falls to the ground. In every instance, these men have seen God in human form, as an individual, as a man.

In our own day, Joseph Smith, the Prophet, declared that he saw God and was instructed by Him and His Son. Though he says that their "brightness and glory defy all description," yet these heavenly beings stood before him as personages.

This, then, is the safe foundation upon which we may build our faith, our religion: God is a person. We, His children, are like unto Him. Humble as we may be, by the standards of eternity, we are in the very image of God. We are of the order of the gods.

Footnotes

1. (Psalms 19:1, 2)

2. (D. & C. 88:47)

3. (Dean Inge, in Drawbridge, The Religion of Scientists, p. 79)

4. (Drawbridge, ibid., p. 136)

5. (Genesis 1:27)

6. (John 12:45)

7. (John 14:7)

(John A. Widtsoe, An Understandable Religion [Independence, Mo.: Zion's Printing and Publishing Co., 1944], .)