Ask An Evangelical: Is God Self-Sufficient?
What do you want to know about Evangelicalism? Submit your question here.
Is God Self-Sufficient?
Based on a definition found at Merriam-Webster, my knowledge/belief of the Bible; and other Evangelical’s opinion on the question, I confidently state my conviction that God is self-sufficient.
The dictionary says, ‘self-sufficient’ is being “able to maintain oneself…without outside aid.” You won’t have any problems finding that helping others or needing help is an important biblical topic. In this Woman’s Day article, there are 16 verses from Scripture that talk about helping others. Or you can check out this search for ‘examples of people being helped in the bible’, where you’ll find plenty more. This need to be helped indicates humankind is not self-sufficient; but what about God?
God Has It Figured Out
As I understand the Bible, it teaches that God created everything. Sometimes man thinks he’s got everything figured out and can be equal to God. Believe it or not, there’s a joke about this that goes:
“There’s a scientist and God. And the scientist challenges God to a contest of who can make the better human being. God tells him that he’s on, at which time the scientist, in great delight, bends over to pick up some dust to make his human being. Then God says, ‘No, no…you go and find your own dust.’”
On the same page as this joke, the writer tells how our creating is different than God’s. For instance, I’m crafting this article but only with the help of my HP computer and years of learning how to compose articles. But God’s creation powers go so far beyond that.
He Created It All
The first chapter of the Bible starts out by telling us that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Unlike the scientist in the joke, he didn’t have any resources external from himself. Now, as an Evangelical Christian, I don’t pretend to understand how He did that because it’s so far removed from anything I can humanly imagine, but I do believe it.
So what about other Evangelicals? I won’t provide links to each result found in my search for ‘does God need us’, because there were over 3 billion, but these articles all answer that question in accordance with my views, and each organization identifies as Evangelical.
- God is holy, eternal, almighty, and totally self-sufficient. He does not need any created being – GotQuestion.org
- The God of the Bible is one who does not need us at all. – The Gospel Coalition
- God can only “be.” He is “I am,” meaning He exists infinitely and independent of anything, without beginning or end – Place for Truth
The bottom line to our reader’s question, ‘Is God Self Sufficient’…YES (at least in my humble opinion).
