In addition, this God is a person. In the so-called religious world, there is a teaching that claims that God is not a person. They believe that God is merely a concept in the human mind, which serves as an object for worship. This kind of speaking concerning God is a great heresy.
The Bible shows us that the God in whom we believe is a person, and as a person He is quite marvelous. Our God is a God who is three yet one. Although God is one, He has three aspects—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father refers to Himself as “I,” and the Son also refers to Himself as “I”; I denotes a person. In John 14:10, the Lord says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” In verses 16 and 17, He says, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality.” These two passages show us that the Son refers to Himself as “I”; this Son will ask the Father, and the Father will give us the Spirit. The Father, I, and the Spirit denote His person. As a person, He has personality. Therefore, our God is not a conceptual object; rather, He is a living person.
Since this God is a person with personality, He has love, mercy, kindness, and even anger; He has the entire range of emotions. Therefore, He is a God as a person, not an abstract object. May you all remember this truth well while you are young. Our God is not something abstract; neither is He a conceptual object of worship. Rather, our God is a person with a personality. Because of this, we human beings are persons, and our person is a reproduction of God. We are persons because God is a person, and we were created according to Him. Therefore, since He is a person, we also are persons. Our God is a God who is a person with a personality.
Furthermore, this God is Spirit (John 4:24). This is truly wonderful. God is Spirit, and He also created a spirit within us. Today we human beings all have a spirit in us. How marvelous that God is life, God is a person with a personality, and God is also a Spirit. This Spirit is unrestricted; He transcends all physical matters.
Our God is not only Spirit; He is also the Word (1:1). Young people may not know that in this universe there is such a Bible which is the speaking of God. Among human beings, if there were not a Bible, then the entire mankind would fall into darkness, not knowing it is God who created the heavens and the earth, not knowing the stories of the universe, and not knowing the meaning of human life, that is, what a man should be or how a man should behave. But praise God, there is such a book in this world called the Bible, which is the Word of God. When the Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil, the devil asked Him to turn stones into loaves of bread, but the Lord Jesus answered him, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). In the Bible are the words that proceed out of the mouth of God.
The Bible is truly precious. I began my Christian life not long after the first European war had ended. At that time, Christians in the Western world, especially in Europe, loved to interpret biblical prophecies. Nearly all of the prophecies in the Bible are outlined in the book of Daniel. I was newly saved and began to study the Bible, so all the reference books I bought were of the prophetic nature. As a result, from my youth through more than sixty years, I have read extensively on prophecies in the Old Testament. For example, in Daniel there is a prophecy concerning a ram and a goat fighting against each other (8:3-7). If we read through the entire book of Daniel, we realize that the two animals are symbolic. The ram refers to the Persian Empire, which is today’s Iran (v. 20), and the goat refers to the Grecian Empire, particularly during the time of Alexander the Great (v. 21).
Later I studied little by little and gained more understanding. In particular, I read The Great Prophecies series written by Brother G. H. Pember, which includes the great prophecies concerning the Jews, the Gentiles, the church, and the entire world. Pember tells us that the prophecies in the Bible are very marvelous. One of the ten great prophecies shows us that Persia is a ram while Greece is a goat, and the two animals fought each other fiercely. History tells us that the bricks in the capital of Persia bore an image of a ram, so that the mark of a ram was everywhere in the city.
Furthermore, after Alexander the Great was crowned, he became the general of the army at only twenty-one years of age. While he was leading the army, he wore horns on his head; the horns he wore were goat horns. Those who have studied Western history might have seen his portrait in their books. Also, the strait between today’s Greece and Turkey is called the Aegean Sea. Aegean comes from the Greek word for goat; even the strait is a “goat strait.” This shows us that the Bible is truly the speaking of God.
In addition, we also see from history that Alexander the Great charged through Europe and came to Asia Minor; not long after he landed, he arrived at Palestine, which is the land of Judea. Though many did not welcome him, in the end he won the victory. When he came close to Jerusalem, the Jewish priests showed him the book of Daniel. He understood it, and knowing that the book referred to him as the goat, he was very pleased. For this reason, he treated the Jews favorably. However, in the end, because he was too happy, he ate excessively and eventually met a sudden death. This is what history shows us. In chapter two of Daniel, the prophecy of the great image, revealing the situation from Babylon at the beginning to the “ten toes” at the end, matches perfectly the world situation.
Immediately after I was saved, I started to study the prophecies in the Bible. One of these tells us clearly that the nation of Israel will be restored. At that time I was still quite young and had a strong curiosity. When I read that particular prophecy, on the one hand I was willing to accept it as true; but on the other hand I felt it was something impossible. The nation of Israel had been destroyed for over two thousand years, the land was taken over, and the people were scattered among various nations in the world and assimilated into different cultures. Because of this, the restoration of Israel would not be an easy task. In the eyes of men there was absolutely no chance for it to happen.
In 1948, while working for the Lord in Shanghai, I paid attention to the news every day. One day, the newspaper reported that the Jews had restored their nation. In one incident, the Egyptians came forward to stop them, but a swarm of bees came to aid the Israelis, wounding the Egyptians. I started reading the Bible when I first was saved, and I knew there is a prophecy in the Bible that says God would care for Israel, even sending the hornets to help them (Deut. 7:20; Josh. 24:12). Accordingly, in 1948 the nation of Israel was restored. When I saw the pictures, I realized that the word of God was truly fulfilled.
Although Israel was restored, the old city of Jerusalem was still occupied by the Jordanians, the Arabs. In 1967, nineteen years later, the Israelis recovered Jerusalem. I was ill at the time, but my joy was beyond description. I started reading biblical prophecies during the 1920s, and after more than forty years, the Israelis had recovered Jerusalem. Thus, the prophecy I read was fulfilled; how could I not rejoice (Matt. 24:32; cf. Jer. 24:2, 5, 8; Hosea 9:10)? In the photographs of the recovery of the holy city, I saw the Arabs being chased about by the Israeli army. This is just as the Old Testament had said, that when God comes to save Israel, He will put dread and fear in their enemies (Deut. 11:25). This is quite wonderful. The little nation of Israel is barely noticeable on the world map, yet the many Arab nations that surround her found themselves powerless in dealing with such a tiny piece of land. God’s hand was surely in this.
We fellowship about these things simply to illustrate the facts, proving that the words in the Bible are the words of God. Not only are these words prophetic; they are all the more spiritual. Prophetic words are factual, and they are being fulfilled; spiritual words are revelations with the supply of life, and they are also being fulfilled. We know that God is life to us; He is a person, He is the Spirit, and He is the word. When we contact Him, what we touch is the Spirit and the word, and what we receive is life. We touch the Spirit and the word, and we receive life. This life is just God Himself.