Belief about deity (God) Flashcards
What is meant by the Apostle’s Creed?
An early statement of Christian belief
What is a cosmological argument?
The argument that there must be a ‘first cause’ and that this was God
Who is the ‘Father’?
One person of the threefold nature of God
What prayer does forgiveness play a part in?
The teaching of forgiveness forms part of the most important and widely used Christian prayer - the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, commonly known as the Lord’s prayer.
What is heaven?
A Christian idea of paradise where the soul goes after death if it is free from sin to have eternal life with God
What is the Holy Spirit?
One person of the threefold nature of God
What does ‘incarnate’ mean?
The doctrine that God took human form in Jesus
What is monotheism?
Belief in one God
What is the resurrection?
The rising from the dead of Jesus Christ on the third day after crucifixion.
Who is the ‘Son’?
One person of the threefold nature of God
What is a teleological argument?
The argument that the world is so complex that is must have had a designer and the designer must have been God
What is the trinity?
The Christian belief that God is three separate persons within One - Father, Son, and holy spirit
What is an ontological argument?
The argument based on the idea that God is greater than anything else people can think of.
Christians believe that there is only one God - what is this called?
Monotheism
Why do Christians think it is difficult to describe God?
They believe He is not like any other living being
What is meant by the term ‘holy’ to describe God?
Special, pure and set apart
What part of the Trinity is being talked about in Genesis 1:2?
(“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth”)
The Father God
What do Christians believe about God the Father?
- Creator and sustainer of heaven and earth; cares for everyone and everything
- Acts as a judge and will punish humans if they do wrong
- Forgiving if humans say sorry for the things they have done wrong
- Almighty (powerful)
- ‘Loving Parent’
- Usually referred to as ‘he’ (male)
What do Christians believe about God the Son in the form of Jesus Christ?
- Jesus was the son of God; God incarnate; both fully God and fully human
- Born of a human mother, lived a human but sinless life on Earth
- Showed people how to live in the right way so that they could enter the kingdom of Heaven
- Showed God’s love by being crucified so that humans could be forgiven of their wrongdoing
- God showed power over death when Jesus rose from the dead (resurrection)
- Jesus ascended to Heaven and at the end of time he will come as judge
What part of the Trinity is being referred to in Luke 30b-33?
(“Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to a Son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”)
Jesus Christ, the Son
What do Christians believe about God in the form of the Holy Spirit?
- After Jesus ascended to Heaven, God sent the Holy Spirit to Earth
- The Power of God at work in the world today
- Used to guide, support and inspire Christians
What part of the Trinity is being referred to in Acts 1:8-9?
(“ ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight.”)
The Holy Spirit
Where can the core beliefs about God be found?
In the Apostle’s Creed.
Give 4 attributes of God.
- Omnipotent
- Omniscient
- Omnipresent
- Omnibenevolent
What is meant by the term ‘omnipotent’?
All-powerful
What is meant by the term ‘omniscient’?
All-knowing
What is meant by the term ‘omnipresent’?
Everywhere
What is meant by the term ‘omnibenevolent’?
All-loving
How else can ‘all-powerful’ be described?
Omnipotent
How else can ‘all-knowing’ be described?
Omniscient
How else can ‘everywhere’ be described?
Omnnipresent
How else can ‘all-loving’ be described?
Omnibenevolent
Give 6 brief statements about why Christians might believe in God.
- Ontological argument
- Cosmological argument
- Teleological/design argument
- Argument from experience
- Moral argument
- Background and upbringing
Explain how an ontological argument might be a reason for a Christian to believe in God.
One Christian thinker, Anselm, said that God should be described as ‘that which nothing greater can be conceived’. This means that God must exist otherwise we could not produce this description.
What great Christian thinker came up with the theory of ontological arguments?
Anselm
Explain how a cosmological argument might be a reason for a Christian to believe in God.
Thomas Aquinas argued that something cannot come from nothing. He carried on to say that, therefore, because there is a universe, someone or something must have brought it into existence. He said that this ‘first cause’ of the universe was God.
However, although Aquinas said that this ‘first cause’ of the universe was God there is no proof of this statement. It is possible that there was a ‘first cause’ of the universe that was not God.
Who came up with the idea of a cosmological argument?
Thomas Aquinas
What is a teleological argument also known as?
Design argument
