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Theology Proper: What is God Like?

Theology Proper: What is God Like?. A Study of the Attributes and Nature of God. WHY THE STUDY OF GOD IS IMPORTANT.

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Theology Proper: What is God Like?

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  1. Theology Proper: What is God Like? A Study of the Attributes and Nature of God

  2. WHY THE STUDY OF GOD IS IMPORTANT • The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10). The way to grow in the fear of God is to know God. The way to know God is to study His attributes. So, if we wish to live wisely in the world we will do well to know God (through the study and meditation of His attributes).

  3. “A divine attribute is a property that is intrinsic in God by which God is distinguished or identified. By abstract thinking God may be conceived apart from His attributes; but He is known by His attributes, and apart from them He would not appear to be what He is.” Walvoord, Chafer’s Systematic Theology.

  4. WHY THE STUDY OF GOD IS IMPORTANT • The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. • There is a danger in not knowing God. • Not knowing God may lead to idolatry. • Not knowing God will lead to sin. • Not knowing God will lead to eternal death. • Knowing God will stimulate spiritual discernment. • Knowing God will produce rest and trust in Him.

  5. Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. (Ps. 46:8-11)

  6. WHY THE STUDY OF GOD IS IMPORTANT • The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. • There is a danger in not knowing God. • Studying the attributes of God will allow us to know more about God, leading us to salvation and ultimately to knowing Him (not just about Him) more intimately, and sparing us from His eternal wrath.

  7. “The foundation of all true knowledge of God must be a clear mental apprehension of His perfections as revealed in Holy Scripture. An unknown God can neither be trusted, served, nor worshipped.” A. W. Pink, Attributes of God.

  8. “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.… “For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.…

  9. “…We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech.” Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy.

  10. HOW DO WE KNOW GOD EXISTS? • God’s existence is assumed by the Scriptures (e.g., Gen. 1:1). • Argument from cause (cosmological argument) • Argument from design (teleological argument) [telos = “end”] • Argument from man (anthropological argument) • Argument from morality • Arguments against God

  11. Arguments against God • Atheism • Agnosticism • Polytheism • Pantheism • Deism

  12. "It's not for lack of evidence that people turn from God; it's from their pride or their will. God is not going to force anyone into the fold. Love never works coercively. It only works persuasively. And there's plenty of persuasive evidence there.” Norman Geisler, The Case for Christ; quoted in Servant.

  13. HOW DO WE STUDY THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • The attributes are in harmony with one another. That is, they complement one another, work together with one another, are not in conflict with one another, and no attribute is superior or inferior to any other. All His attributes are always fully active. So, God can be just and loving without the one being in conflict with the other. This demonstrates the SIMPLICITY of God.

  14. “The harmony of His being is the result not of perfect balance between the parts but of the absence of parts. Between His attributes no contradiction can exist. He need not suspend one to exercise another, for in Him all His attributes are one. All of God does all that God does; He does not divide Himself to perform a work, but works in the total unity of His being.” A. W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

  15. HOW DO WE STUDY THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • The attributes are in harmony with one another. • We recognize that all God’s attributes are infinite, i.e., they are complete (not maturing or changing), they have always existed completely and always will exist completely. Thus, He is a unique, singular God. There is no one like Him and all other beings exist from, through, and for Him (1 Cor. 8:6). This demonstrates the UNITY of God.

  16. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? “An attribute of God is whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of Himself.…An attribute, then, is a part of God. It is how God is, and as far as the reasoning mind can go, we may say that it is what God is, though…

  17. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? “… exactly what He is He cannot tell us. Of what God is conscious when He is conscious of self, only He knows. ‘The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.’ [1 Cor. 2:11] Only to an equal could God communicate the mystery of His Godhead; and to think of God as having an equal is to fall into an intellectual absurdity.” Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

  18. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes have nothing analogous in God’s created beings. • INFINITY — “God is free from all limitations to His Being and attributes by the bounds of the spacio-temporal horizon of the universe.” God is limitless, measureless and knows no bounds (Job 5:9; 9:10; Ps. 145:3).

  19. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes. • INFINITY • ETERNALITY — God is without beginning or end; He is free from all succession of time; He is the cause of time.

  20. Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. Psalm 90:2

  21. “‘From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God,’ said Moses in the Spirit. ‘From the vanishing point to the vanishing point’ would be another way to say it quite in keeping with the words as Moses used them. The mind looks backward in time till the dim past vanishes, then turns and looks into the future till thought and imagination collapse from exhaustion; and God is at both points, unaffected by either.” A. W. Tozer.

  22. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes. • INFINITY • ETERNALITY • IMMENSITY— He cannot be localized in one place. God transcends all spatial limitations; He is present in every point in space with His entire being.

  23. “But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?” 2 Chronicles 2:6

  24. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes. • INFINITY • SELF-EXISTENCE — “The ground of His existence is in Himself.”

  25. 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.’” God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.’”(Ex. 3:14-15) “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself” (Jn. 5:26) “…nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;” (Acts 17:25)

  26. “I AM THAT I AM. Everything God is, everything that is God, is set forth in that unqualified declaration of independent being. Yet in God, self is not sin but the quintessence of all possible goodness, holiness and truth. The natural man is a sinner because and only because he challenges God’s selfhood in relation to his own. In all else he may willingly accept the sovereignty of God; in his own life he rejects it.…

  27. For him, God’s dominion ends where his begins. For him, self becomes Self, and in this he unconsciously imitates Lucifer, that fallen son of the morning who said in his heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.…I will be like the most High.’ [Is. 14:13-14]” Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

  28. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes. • INFINITY • SELF-EXISTENCE • IMMUTABILITY — “God undergoes no change in being, perfections, purposes and promises.” God never grows, develops or differs with Himself

  29. Disclaimer #1: Immutability does not imply immobility. God is a God who is always in action in His relationship with man. But in His being, attributes, purpose and promises there is a complete absence of change. • Disclaimer #2: When Scripture says that God “changes” or “repents,” it does not mean that God has changed. It is an expression of His permissive will in response to man’s fulfillment of a condition in accordance with His preceptive (decreed) will. Remember, God can do nothing that is inconsistent with any part of His nature.

  30. God does not change in relation to His being (Ex. 3:14; Heb. 1:11-12) • God does not change in relation to His perfections (Rom. 1:23) • God does not change in relation to His purposes (1 Sam. 15:29; Dt. 28-30) • God does not change in relation to His promises (Num. 23:19) • God does not change (Mal. 3:6; Js. 1:17)

  31. “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” (Mal. 3:6) Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. (Js. 1:17)

  32. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes. • INFINITY • SELF-EXISTENCE • IMMUTABILITY • UNITY — God is numerically one and is unique. All other beings exist of, through, and unto Him. God is not composite and is not susceptible of division into parts. The three persons of the triune Godhead are not parts of which the Divine essence is composed.

  33. …yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. (1 Cor. 8:6)

  34. Theology Proper: What is God Like? A Study of the Attributes and Nature of God (Part 2)

  35. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s incommunicable attributes. • God’s COMMUNICABLE attributes are not experienced completely in man, but man does demonstrate something of God’s nature in him (Gen. 1:27a).

  36. “There are many of the divine attributes that, if God had not created the world, never would have had any exercise — the power of God, the wisdom of God, the prudence and contrivance of God, the goodness and mercy and grace of God, the justice of God…” John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory.

  37. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s COMMUNICABLE attributes. • HOLINESS — God is “set apart, distinct,” that is, He is free from and set apart from sin. God’s holiness cannot and does not tolerate sin. His holiness refers both to the absence of sin in God and the presence of infinite purity in Him.

  38. “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” 1 Pt. 1:15-16

  39. “We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible, and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine.” Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

  40. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s COMMUNICABLE attributes. • HOLINESS • OMNISCIENCE — God is all (Latin, omni) knowing. His knowledge is perfect and complete, knowing all that is actual and all that is possible. And His knowledge is intuitive — it is immediate (not coming through the senses), simultaneous (not acquired through observation or reason), actual (complete), and according to reality.

  41. God is omniscient • Ps. 139:1-6 — God knows all things that actually exist. • Mt. 11:21 — God knows all the variables concerning things that have not occurred. • Dan. 2:36-43; 7:4-8 — God knows all things that will yet transpire.

  42. “God sees you as much as if there were nobody else in the world for Him to look at. If I have as many people as there are here to look at, of course my attention must be divided. But the infinite mind of God is able to grasp a million objects at once and yet to focus as much on one as if there were nothing else but that one.” C. H. Spurgeon.

  43. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s COMMUNICABLE attributes. • HOLINESS • OMNISCIENCE • OMNIPOTENCE — God can do anything that he wills to do and anything that is in harmony with His perfections.

  44. “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Dan. 4:35) “Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” (Gen. 18:14) “And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;” (Rev. 20:2)

  45. “Nothing is too hard for Him. If God were stinted in might and had a limit to His strength we might well despair. But seeing that He is clothed with omnipotence, no prayer is too hard for Him to answer, no need too great for Him to supply, no passion too strong for him to subdue; no temptation too powerful for Him to deliver from, no misery too deep for Him to relieve. ‘The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’ (Psa. 27:1).” Pink, Attributes of God.

  46. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s COMMUNICABLE attributes. • HOLINESS • OMNISCIENCE • OMNIPOTENCE • OMNIPRESENCE — God is everywhere present and everything is immediately in his presence.

  47. “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’” (Acts 17:24-28) “…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt. 28:20) “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU” (Heb. 13:5)

  48. “Living becomes and awesome business when you realize that you spend every moment of your life in the sight and company of an omniscient, omnipotent Creator.” J. I. Packer, Knowing God.

  49. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s COMMUNICABLE attributes. • HOLINESS • OMNISCIENCE • OMNIPOTENCE • OMNIPRESENCE • WISDOM — the perfection of God whereby He applies His knowledge to the attainment of His ends in a way which glorifies Him most. I.e., how God applies His knowledge.

  50. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Rom. 11:33-36) “…also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.” (Eph. 1:11-12)

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