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Independence


God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” (Exodus 3:14)
 
          A few days ago, I wrote about God being incomprehensible. Today's passage touches on one of those incomprehensible attributes of God. He is self-existent. The "big word" for this is aseity. Aseity is "The divine property of being completely independent of everything distinct from God himself. Everything other than God depends on God, but God depends on nothing besides himself."[1]
          As a writer, and particularly as a writer of fantasy, I often see the relationship between a writer and the book as a metaphor for the relationship between God and man. The world and characters in a book are created by the author. Nothing within the book creates the author. The author existed before the book began and continues to exist after the book is finished. The author is independent of the book, but the book is dependent on the author.
         I still can't understand the idea of a being that had no beginning and has no end. That doesn't mean that such a being can't exist, just that I can't understand it. That's one of the things that makes me believe that the god described by Scripture is God. So many of the classical gods were described as being born or as being dependent on or subservient to another god. Most polytheistic religions have a "supreme" god who rules over the others. Even the Eastern religions' concept of the God being part of the universe (or the two being the same in some manner) makes God dependent on the universe. If the universe comes to an end, God (or some part of him) must also end. In other words, they follow the human pattern. They were made in man's image. A god with neither beginning nor end, who is independent of the universe, is outside of man's image or understanding, and therefore is more likely to be the truth about God.

[1] Evans, C. S. Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press
 

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