W W W W  World Wide Web Witness Inc.  Home Page             What is New

THERE LIES A DIFFERENCE
PARALLEL TO THAT BETWEEN CREATOR AND CREATURE.

It is interesting that men as "animals" appeal to those who show they are not so, by their capacity to discuss the difference. You might as well call a Volkswagon a type of Boeing 737 because both have wheels, metal and motion as an aim. The difference is so crucial operationally, that any such nomenclature would at once suggest the speaker to be

a) incompetent

b) insane or

c) humorous - unless, of course he/she had an axe to grind which temporarily blinded to simple fact. No system of names which makes no difference for things as important as the similarity is likely to be of use, except for barbaric prejudice.

Man is

not an animal, if words-and-systems are to retain meaning and value.

Man is a spiritual being. Of course it is entirely true that he often acts far worse than mere animals; distorting and abusing his special powers. However, even using a Boeing for joyriding over bays would not remove its special features, merely misuse or overlook some of them. The capacity is basic as a criterion for the name which defines the type of being. This capacity may be called forth rarely, misused; but it is still a capacity which is crucial to defining.

So too, in case you think we are exalting the race, rest. It is far from the fact. Man is ALSO a creature. Not an animal, but a spiritual being; yes. But also: not God but creature, man is that too. He is related as creature FROM the Creator WHO made the race. (See SMR Chs.1-3,10.)

That out of the way we return to what God can do. ANYTHING HE PLEASES. That is what He can do. You try it on: of course you cannot. You do not have that sort of inordinate power. God does. He tells us so often what He will do, and then does it, that any rational doubt is dismissed by the evidence, quite apart from systematics. (See SMR chs.8-9.)

Now however we come to another interesting feature. God CANNOT lie. In SMR pp. 28ff. we go into the reasons why this is so. It is NOT that He is part of some system which inhibits Him, as if He were frustrated any time He would wish to lie. That is not what the Creator, at the least, must be, as shown. Nevertheless it is still true that He cannot do it. In addition to our reasoning on the topic, we READ this in Titus 1:2. He CANNOT!

We can readily understand this if we use the liberty the Lord has given us in making us, to THINK. CAN a surgeon of major moral gentility and immense concern and sympathy for his patients BY CHOICE cut their aortas for the flick of it, the snip of it, the whim of it? You might say 'yes', and it is indeed true that a temporary insanity might affect him and so forth. But TO THE EXTENT he is definable as we started, and stays rational, that is, in character without invasive disorders of the mind subverting his aims, ideals or nature, he might very readily say, OH I COULD NOT DO THAT! We would at once understand what he meant.

With God, there is an unchanging nature as we showed (SMR loc.cit.) and of course, as He affirms; and hence the fact that even the benevolent surgeon might be drugged etc., does not apply as a parallel in this matter. God CANNOT lie. IF He could , He would not be what God as a minimum, must be.

Some people seem at times to have some difficulty in realising that what may be SHOWN NECESSARILY to be the case does not imply that the one to whom it refers is BOUND FROM OUTSIDE, in some sort of forced action. Inability to act may be BECAUSE of what one BOTH IS AND CHOOSES TO BE. When we speak of God, the nature He has is no result of the making of another (who would, in that case, be God if ultimate, while it is of course of GOD that we speaking - that would merely represent a logical 'slide' as it is called). His nature is what He WANTS, always wants, always knowing all things and their ends and being what He wishes without conforming to new criteria since there is nothing new to Him. All this was explained in SMR loc. cit..

God COULD do anything if He wanted to; there are things He does not WANT to do, and as to these, LYING is one which HE CANNOT do, being who He is. It would represent a DENYING OF HIMSELF, an intra-divine war on Himself, which since He is what He wants to be, is myth-making nonsense. War comes when what is wanted cannot be obtained without it, or a nature at war with itself expresses itself in this way. When there is NOTHING to force or frustrate it is ridiculous, and simply here would postulate contrary to the case.

In mathematical terms, in strict parallel to usage there, we COULD say that asking whether GOD COULD LIE would be a meaningless question. This could be said. I prefer to say that it is a question incorporating a definition of God contrary to fact and hence a misdirected question. It is like asking whether elephants can fly. Of course they could if the hurricane were strong enough, but that is not what is meant. As to what is meant, no, they can't. That is not the way they are. THEY cannot alter that. GOD DOES not alter what He is; there is nothing to force Him, and He always is precisely what He wants to be, free from any research, development, desired or forced. He HAS His desire, and no force can move Him. Hence He cannot lie and that is the way He wants it. His will and His being are in infinite accord. No one else is like that, except that the children of God grow more and more like that, being however BORN of God into His family, creatures re-created. It is nothing 'new' - just bringing them back to where they ought to be (Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10)

That is the nature of the case then. GOD CAN DO WHATEVER HE PLEASES. Actually you read it in Psalm 115.

God CANNOT LIE.

MAN CANNOT DO WHATEVER HE PLEASES.

Man CAN LIE.

God is THE CREATOR. Man is a CREATURE.

Man is NOT an animal. Man is a spiritual being who is answerable.

He is answerable to God. God will judge him.

God has already judged Jesus Christ, set forth as a penalty bearer to satisfy justice.

God has already raised Jesus Christ, set forth as a pardon bringer, having defeated death,

which had no hold on Him.

What He has done is available for the entire human race, so that

instead of being SIN-CLAD CREATURES, they become, on entering His Kingdom,

Spiritual Beings Re-born.

The re-birth is not a mere experience, but is the work of God in a new creation,

one in addition to that which created the race; and it puts into being persons who

are inhabited by the God who made them - for Himself.

Among other cans and can'ts, is this:

You can't have it both ways.

You either repent and find the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord, or you don't.

If you don't, you are operating like the Boeing in Bay Flights, and of course about to ditch shortly. You should be sitting in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) operating as per creation and in terms of regeneration, salvation and guidance of God. You may of course refuse. You are a spiritual being and this is one of its operating criteria.