Every parent knows the question is coming. We asked it of our parents, and they of theirs. Who hasn't stared at the clouds by day or the stars by night and wondered what lies beyond. Where did the world come from? What lies beyond the incomprehensibly vast universe? If there is a God, who made him? If someone made him, how can he be God? Our children's questions are our own.

The first biblical reference to God starts the mystery: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1). The Hebrew term here translated "God" is Elohim. The "im" is how the Hebrew language makes a word plural, like putting "s" on the end of a word in English.

If we had no New Testament, we could reconstruct the Christian doctrine that Christ is Lord on the basis of non-Christian writings, nearly all as old as the New Testament books themselves. Here is a brief survey of the evidence, in chronological order.

In recent years it has become popular to claim that Jesus of Nazareth saw himself only as a religious teacher, and that the Church deified him over the centuries. Not according to the eyewitnesses.

Did Jesus really go to hell? If so, why? Does the Bible teach this doctrine? This subject is probably the most confusing issue related to Christology (the doctrine of Christ). The Nicene Creed, also fourth century in origin, makes no mention of such an event. The Athanasian Creed, dated to the sixth century, does. What should we believe? Why does it matter?

Several facts are clear in God's word, and essential to our question. First, Jesus alone claimed divinity. In John 14:9 he asserted, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." Earlier the authorities tried to stone him to death "because you claim to be God" (Jn 10:33). Other religious leaders claimed to reveal God; Jesus alone claims to be God.