GOD AND MOZART
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his first musical work at four or five yars of age. During the short life he lived, Mozart displayed his prodigy by writing over 800 pieces of music, music that continues to be loved and played across the world.
Providentially, his family had a clavier, comparable to a piano, that allowed Mozart to play what he heard echoing within his heart. He could express what resonated in his being, waiting to be freed, even as a young child!
While Mozart's story inadequately illustrates what God IS, it demonstrates why God created the universe. That explanation follows:
Imagine no beginning, but God is already there. He always WAS, but because He is eternal, He always IS. He was not created...He is the Creator. He is eternal with no beginning and no end. By His own words, He was/is all the things we read about in a theology book: All-knowing, All-powerful, All-present. The big terms for those words are omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.
More words called adjectives describe God's essence: love, longsuffering, holy, peace, just righteous, good, gentle, temperate, patient, persevering, and many more. He is unchanging, the same yesterday, today and forever. He is merciful, kind and compassionate, humble yet full of wrath.
How do we know these character descriptions of God? Because He gave us His written word and recorded there everything that He is. He revealed Himself in written language so we might know Him for all that He IS.
He also revealed Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ, His Son, who ministered on earth for three and one-half years. Jesus said of Himself, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."
And when Jesus hung on the cross at the merciless hands of Romans soldiers and an angry Jewish mob, we see the degree of selflessness God IS. Yet, we're getting way ahead of the story.
How and why did all these events happen? What is their origin? and their intended outcome?
Going back to Mozart and his ability to compose music when just a few years old, the boy was blessed to have a musical instrument in his home. He could play on the keyboard what was bubbling in his heart. Without that clavier, the melodies would have remained imprisoned and unexpressed.
Now think of God being all that He is. He says of Himself, "God is love." But how would God demonstrate His love when He was the only One? On whom could He shower the immensity and purity of that love?
The same question holds true for all His other attributes. He did not need longsuffering, yet He IS longsuffering. He did not need mercy, patience, endurance, for He is ALL and perfect. Though He always IS what He IS, He had no way to demonstrate His Person---unless He created the universe. That would absolutely show His greatness as Creator.
He has many other attributes that wanted to be expressed, so He created mankind. Because God is omniscient, He knew how it would all turn out before it happened. Yet, He chose to allow satan to exist even after his betrayal of God before the world began. God also, beause of His endowment of free will, allowed man to sin. God knew man would sin. God knew He would send His Son, the incarnation of Himself, to be living proof of God in heaven and all that He IS. He knew He would suffer separation from His Son when Jesus, He who knew no sin, was made sin for us, so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Knowingly, God chose the plan of redemption, allowing the free will of man to choose or reject Him so as to play out before us all the attributes that He IS. Verse after verse in the Bible expresses the wonder of all God IS, and He gave us the ability to know and appreciate Him and His goodness to us if we so choose. We can KNOW Him!
God wants a people He loves to willingly love Him, too, from a glad and intentional choice that puts Him on the throne of their hearts and adores Him. It is no wonder in these Last Days that God sees the days with joy! They will be over soon, and He will spend FOREVER with His Bride whose garments are washed pure and made holy in the blood of the Lamb of God.
First will come the demonstration of God's final attribute: His wrath against His unrequited love. For centuries God has endured rejection, blasphemy, pride of His enemies, intentional overthrow of His precepts for blatant and vulgar sin, and castigation of His Son. That very opposition to His goodness extended through His Son let Him demonstrate His longsuffering and perseverance.
But one day soon, He will pour out His anger against all those who purposely oppose Him and rail against His holiness. The world has yet to taste such judgment, but it is coming!
God will wrap it up at the Great White Throne judgment when men's own words and actions documented in heaven's record books will display their condemnation to the lake of fire. Forever they will suffer torment such as no one has been allowed to taste and come back to tell. Cast with no remission into an eternity void of God's presence forever.
God will create a new heaven and a new earth as a gift for His bride. Together they will share ethereal joy for all eternity. God will rest, at last. He will have expressed Himself completely to the one, His bride, who loves Him completely. And He will unfold that love throughout eternity!