How Great is God?
A discussion of God could ask a whole lot of questions. One natural question concerns how great God is. Is he only limited in ability like us or does he have infinite power? Theologians generally believe that the Bible gives us clues that include the following list:
- God is spirit
- He has personality
- He is Life
- God inhabits eternity
- God is unchanging
- How Good is God?
How Good is God?
Another question that is reasonable to ask is whether God is good or evil? Most Christians agree that both creation and the Bible reveal that God is good and that some other words describing him might include:
- Holy
- Righteous
- Loving
- Just
- Genuine
- True
- Faithful
- Benevolent
- Gracious
- Merciful
- Persistent
How Near or Far is God?
Is God a long way off or nearby? Is he everywhere? Does he inhabit objects like rocks and trees or is he way off in outer space somewhere on vacation? Theologians call this God’s immanence and transcendence.
God’s Immanence
How close is God? Sometimes we feel that he is very far away from us. Though he may be metaphorically far from us because our sins have separated us from him at times, the Bible indicates that in actuality, he is very near.
- In Jeremiah 23:24 God is quoted as saying he fills heaven and earth, which would indicate that he is far and near at the same time.
- In Acts 17:27-28 we learn that God is not far from any one of us.
God’s Transcendence
How high above us is God? Is he just like a man, but with superior intelligence? Can we understand God in this life? One of the first principles of theology is that we cannot really understand God, and so he reveals himself to us in ways that we can understand. These are called anthropomorphisms, that God pictures himself to us in human terms.
- In Isaiah 55:8-9 God tells us plainly that his thoughts not our thoughts. We do not and cannot think like he does.
- In Isaiah 6:1-5 God is described as being high and lifted up, transcendent, beyond our understanding.
- Psalm 113:5-6 asks the rhetorical question who is like the Lord.
- So, we human beings like to make models, pictures to help us understand things. The traditional model of God pictures him as high, above us.
- Karl Barth the Swiss theologian described God as unable to be known except by revelation.
- Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard described God as qualitatively distinct, beyond dimension.
- Another historical model of God describes him as above time.
How is God Both Three and One?
- Oneness - God’s oneness is obvious from the Bible. Verses such as Exodus 20 say that we are to have no other gods and Deuteronomy 6 describes God as one. How can we then talk about three?
- Father – the Bible also talks about God being our Father. 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 is an example. The Father is also described as being God in places like 1 Timothy 2:5-6.
- Son – Christians also describe Jesus as God. His name or title is Emmanuel, meaning God with us. Other places such as Philippians 2:5-11 show how that Jesus is God. Hebrews 1 describes that the Son is God. The Old Testament word Lord is used also in the New Testament to mean YHWH or God. One example of this use is John 20:28 where Jesus is described as Lord and my God.
- Holy Spirit – Christians have long recognized the Holy Spirit as also God. Places like Acts 5:3-4 and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 show that descriptions of the Holy Spirit are interchangeable with God.
Three in One
How can God be both three and one? That is a mystery to we who are limited by time and space, yet most Christians agree that the biblical descriptions of God point to that inescapable conclusion. We don’t need to understand the how in order to agree with the facts. Actually, we cannot understand the how. That is why the Trinity is called a mystery. Let’s look at some verses used to draw this conclusion.
- 1 John 5:7 is not a verse that theologians use to support the teaching of the Trinity, simply because it is of doubtful origin, probably inserted by some monk in a later century.
- Genesis 2:24 does provide some help to us. Here we see that one man plus one woman are described as one flesh. It is the same word as used in Deuteronomy 6:4 to describe God being one.
- In Matthew 28:19-20 we see that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all have one name.
- In John 1:1 we read that the Word (Jesus Christ) was God.
Trinity Theories
We human beings cannot leave well enough alone. We need to investigate, explore and discover. The same is true with our understanding of God. Over the centuries, the theological discussion which we call the Trinity has gone through an interesting journey.
- The early view was what we now call the economic view. It was often vague and simple. It was the early church’s ideas about God.
- Later on modalism became popular. This theory saw God as one person with three names or personalities or modes of being. But this was rejected because of things like finding Christ praying to the Father. God does not pray to himself.
- Tritheism was another phase of trying to understand the Trinity among some Christians. This theory saw God as not one but three Gods. Tritheism too was rejected in the long term for obvious reasons. God is one God, not three Gods.
- Orthodoxy is still the main theory of the Trinity today. It is best described using Greek terms – “one ousia in three hypostases” – one Godhead indivisible and yet three persons.
God’s Plan
We all ask questions such as, what is God doing, what are his plans, what does he want? Theologians have discussed this too for the past 2,000 years and come up with some interesting thoughts.
- In Psalms 91 & 121 we read of God’s provision for us
- In Isaiah 46:10-11 God tells us that he will accomplish all his purposes
- Proverbs 16:4 informs us that God made everything for its purpose
- Proverbs 19:21 teaches us that God’s purpose will be established
- In Mark 13:7-10 we read of one of his main purposes, that this gospel must be preached
- Acts 2:23 speaks also of things being according to the plan of God
- In Ephesians 1:11-12 we are comforted that all things that happen are part of God’s purpose
- Romans 8:28 says that all things happen for good to those called
God as Creator
All Christians believe that God is Creator.
- There are many theories as to the how. We are unified that he is responsible for it all.
- One theory of creation is called the ex nihilo theory, meaning that God created everything “out of nothing.”
- Most Christians agree that there is an all-inclusiveness in creation, that God created “the heavens and the earth,” a Hebrew idiom for everything.
- Most Christians also agree that there is no such thing as dualism, that a devil did not create a parallel evil universe such as exists in some religions.
- Why did God create everything? The most logical answer that the Bible seems to give is for God’s own glory (Psalm 19:1).
- God created the angels too.
- We could say simply that everything that is not God comes from him.
- The act of creation was unique in the history of the universe.
- Most theologians agree that nothing was made evil. Evil came about because of bad choices.
- What about science? Some Christians sadly reject science and some scientists sadly reject the idea of God. Yet both fields are filled with facts. How to harmonize the two leaves us with no easy answers. Christians are mostly not experts in biology but theology and scientists are mostly not experts in theology. Too many experts in one field illogically think that they are also experts in another, when they are really not.
- Theories about creation unnecessarily divide Christians. Creation theories include gap theories, various flood theories of geology, literal days theories, age-day theories, pictorial-day theories, polemic theories, majestic prose theories, theistic-evolution theories, and a lot more.
- There are two broad categories of creation theories: old-earth creationism (accepting the majority scientific view of the age of the universe) and young-earth creationism (believing in a 6,000 year old earth, or in some cases up to about 10,000 years).
It is important to remember the unifying fact that all Christians believe that God is Creator.
God as Provider
Does God also provide for what he has created? The theological answer to that is a resounding yes. Here are some ways that he provides. Through:
- Preservation – of his creation
- Government – the entire universe, sin not always prevented but limited, loving rulership, sovereign
- Prayer – God provides as we ask, yet always what is best
- Miracles – intervention out of the ordinary divine providence
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