Theo 116: The Nature of God 1 Flashcards
What is meant by Personhood?
That which can feel, think, and will has personhood, and is a person.
God is a person
- GOD THINKS - Jeremiah 29:11 - “‘For I know
the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord” - GOD FEELS - Ephesians 4:30 - “Do not grieve
the Holy Spirit of God.” - GOD WILLS - James 4:15 - “Instead,
you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live
and also do this or that.’”
EXODUS 3:13-14 God has a personal name
“Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’
What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’; and He said,‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.”
Mark 12:30 God can be known and loved
“And you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
False impersonal view of God: PANTHEISM 1
Pantheism is found in Hinduism, Taoism,
some forms of Buddhism, Christian Science,
Unity School of Christianity, Scientology,
and Theosophy, and Star Wars.
The Force is “an energy-field created by all living
things” that “surrounds us and penetrates us”
Obi-Wan to Luke Skywalker
Pantheism believes all is God and God is all.
“God is loving, God does not love anybody . . .
God is the love in everybody and everything . . .
God exercises none of His attributes
except through the inner consciousness of the universe and man.” Charles Fillmore, Jesus Christ Heals, Unity School of
Christianity
“God, then, is the substance (from sub - under and state - to stand), or the real thing standing under every visible form of life, love, intelligence, or power. Each rock, tree, animal, everything visible, is a manifestation of the one Spirit - God.” Cady, Lessons in Truth, pp.8-9, Unity School of Christianity
Some pantheists do not believe the world
exists at all.
“There is no Life, Truth, Intelligence, or Substance in matter but all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestations for God is All in all.” Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 468
Some pantheism deny the existence of evil.
“I deny all belief in evil.” Charles Fillmore, Christian Healing, Unity School of Christianity
Since in pantheism God is not personal,
He is unknowable.
“The ignorant think that Brahman is known, but the wise know him to be beyond knowledge.” “Kena,” The Upanishads: Breath of Eternal, translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester, pp. 30-31
JOHN 4:24 God is Spirit
God is spirit, and those who worship
Him must worship in spirit and truth.
1 Kings 8:27 God has no spacial dimensions
“But will God indeed dwell
on the earth? Behold, heaven
and the highest heaven cannot contain You,
how much less this house which
I have built?”
Does God have physical features?
He is sometimes described as having physical
features, but these are best understood
as anthropomorphisms attempts to express
the truth of God through human analogies.
Ezra 8:18 “According to the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of insight
of the sons of Mahli.”
Does God have a human Form
He did take on permanent human form
in the incarnation of Christ. Luke 24:39 “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
False view of God the father physicality: Mormonism
False teaching: Mormonism teaches that
God the Father has a physical body. “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s: the Son also, but the Holy Ghost
has not a body of flesh and bones,
but is a personage of Spirit.”
Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 130:22
According to Paul, Given the fact that God is spirit, how do we relate to God?
Because God is spirit, we relate to Him
through our spirit by faith.
1 Corinthians 6:17 “But the one who joins
himself to the Lord is one spirit with
Him.”
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit
that we are children of God.
Romans 8:16
For all who are being led by the Spirit of
God, these are sons of God.
Romans 8:14
The righteous man shall live by faith.
Galatians 3:11
He is the one and only true God.
John 17:3 “This is eternal life,
that they may know You, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
False Teaching: PolyTheism
False teaching: Mormonism there are many gods.
“God himself was once as we are now,
and is an exalted man.”
Journal of Discourses, Vol. VI, p. 3
What about other gods?
All other gods are false, they are demonic.
1 Corinthians 10:19-20 “What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.”
Is God just like us?
We must be careful not to construct a mental
image of God other than the one the Bible reveals.
Psalm 50:16, 21 “But to the wicked God says, . . .
You thought that I was just like you;
I will reprove you and state the case
in order before your eyes.”
Doctrine of the Trinity: Wayne Grudem
“We may define the doctrine of the Trinity as
follows: God eternally exists as three persons,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is
fully God, and there is one God.”
Theologian Wayne Grudem
Does scripture support the doctrine of the Trinity?
The Bible teaches that there is one God.
1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God,
and one mediator also between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
The Bible teaches that the Father is God.
1 Peter 1:2 “… according to the
foreknowledge” of God the Father, …”
The Bible teaches that the Son is God.
John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through Him,
John 1:14-17 “and the Word became flesh,
and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father,
full of grace and truth … grace and truth
were realized through Jesus Christ.”
The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is God.
Acts 5:3-4 “But Peter said, ‘Ananias,
why has Satan filled your heart to lie
to the Holy Spirit and keep back some
of the price of the land? . . . You have not lied to men but to God.”
The Bible considers the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit together as God.
Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit.”
4 Antimonies in Scripture
An antimony is something that appears
contradictory, but is undeniably true. According to Kant, antimonies’ are a demonstration of the limits of pure reason, and illustrates the inherent limits of pure reason to understanding the true nature or metaphysical reality of things. He defines an antimony antimony as two rational but contradictory statements that are either equally true or equally false
UNDENIABLY TRUE
- The Bible was written by God and the bible was written by man
- There is only one God, and There are three persons
- Jesus is fully God and Jesus is Fully man.
- God chooses who will be saved, and Man chooses to believe and be saved
Why does God have to reveal himself, why can’t we just understand God without revelation?
Because our reason is inherently limited and their are limitations to what we can discover and know about ultimate reality
ISAHIAH 55:8-9
For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares
the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than
the earth, So are My ways higher than your
ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
PROVERBS 25:2
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,
But the glory of kings is to search out a
matter.
DEUTERONOMY 29:29
The secret things belong to the Lord our
God, but the things revealed belong to us
and to our sons forever, that we may
observe all the words of this law.
How does God reveal himself?
Divine and General revelation
False Teaching: Jehovah’s Witnesses on the Trinity
Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the Trinity:
Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the deity
of Christ.
“This One was not Jehovah God,
but was existing in the form of God . . .
he was a spirit person … he was a mighty one
although not Almighty
as Jehovah God is; … he was a God,
but not the Almighty God,
who is Jehovah.”Let God Be True, pp. 34-35
Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the deity of the Holy Spirit. “Far from teaching equality with Jehovah, the Scriptures show that the holy spirit is not even a person… God’s holy spirit is not a God, not a member of a trinity.” The Watch Tower, July 15, 1957
Since Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the deity
of two of the members of the Trinity, obviously
they deny the Trinity. “The obvious conclusion is
that Satan is the originator of the trinity
doctrine.” Let God Be True, p. 101
God is timeless in His own being.
Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha
and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Psalm 90:4 “A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.”
How does God’s timelessness influence His relationship with us
As His child, He has always known and
chosen you.
1 Peter 1:1-2—“who are chosen according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father”
As His child, He has always loved you.
Jeremiah 31:3 ‘I have loved you with
an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you
with lovingkindness.’”
God is timeless but He acts in time.
God sees events in time and acts in time.
Revelation 9:15
“And the four angels, who had been prepared
for the hour and day and month and year,
were released, so that they would
kill a third of mankind.”
