Theology - THE FACT OF GOD

THE FACT OF GOD

Whether or not there is a supreme personal intelligence, infinite and eternal, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, the Creator, Upholder, and Ruler of the universe, immanent in and yet transcending all things, gracious and merciful, the Father and Redeemer of mankind, is surely the most profound problem that can agitate the human mind. Lying as it does at the foundation of all man's religious beliefs, it is bound up with the temporal and eternal happiness of the individual and the welfare and progress of the race.

The Scriptures assume the fact of God without giving any argument to establish or prove it. Thus our chief ground of belief in the reality of God is found within the pages of the Bible. The Bible, therefore, is not intended for the atheist, who denies the existence of God, nor for the confirmed agnostic who denies the possibility of knowing whether there is a God. Neither does it have value for the infidel who rejects the revelation of God and hence the God of revelation. The atheist rejects the idea of God because he cannot discover Him in the material universe. But God as Spirit does not belong in the category of matter and therefore is not discoverable by merely natural or material investigation.

Before one can be an atheist and positively assert that there is no God, he must presumptuously assume for himself the wisdom and 42

ELEMENTAL THEOLOGY

omnipresence of God. He must explore the entire universe to be sure that no God is there. An agnostic's claim doesn't imply omniscience as the atheists's does, but rather he opts for ignorance.

The word agnosticism is derived from the Greek negative a,

"not," and the Greek tern ginasko, "to know," thus meaning "not knowing.

Professor Huxley coined the term to express his own attitude. It was likely suggested by the name given to an early sect (the Gnostics), who pretended to special knowledge.

Infidelity unreasonably rejects any possibility of a divine revelation, for it is evident to the unbiased mind that the God of nature is also the God of revelation, because many proofs of the one can be offered for the other. The infidel, however, rejects the Bible as a divine revelation and therefore rejects that which it reveals and refuses to believe in the God of the Bible.

Established by Reason

Though there are many arguments that may not be accepted as conclusive proofs of God’s existence, they may still be regarded as corroborative proofs of His existence.

The argument from universal belief: "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse; because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. . . . And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient" (Rom. 1:19-21,28 - cf. Job 32:8; Acts 17:28,29; Rom. 1:32; 2:15).

This argument from universal belief cannot be overlooked. W.

Evans notes that "man everywhere believes in the existence of a Supreme Being or Beings to whom he is morally responsible and to whom propitiation needs to be made. Such belief may be crudely, even grotesquely stated and manifested, but the reality of the fact is no more invalidated by such crudeness than the existence of a father is invalidated by the crude attempts of a child to draw a picture of its father" (The Great Doctrines of the Bible, p. 14).

The argument from cause and effect.

It is an accepted principle that every effect must have an adequate cause. All elements, therefore, which are an effect must reside at least potentially within the cause. Certain elements are characters of the material universe that argue for the existence of God as we know Him through the medium of divine revelation.

The element of intelligence or purposeful tendency. Order and harmony are marks of intelligence. By this is meant that order and harmony are invariably conjoined with intelligence. If this be true, and these qualities are found in nature, then the existence of intelligence in nature is proved beyond all peradventure. An illustration of this order and harmony in nature is the molecule, which is a definite mass of electrons combined in the most exact arithmetical and geometrical relations.

2. The element of personality.

Man, possessed of personal being, argues for the existence of God as a personal Being. We know that we exist. We cannot rationally doubt that fact, for the knowledge is immediate and carries with it its own certificate of certainty. From this the next step is inescapable. The fact is almost forced upon us that we are not self-caused. This immediately brings with it the correlative truth that we must have been caused by someone other than ourselves who must have had sufficient power to produce us as personal spirits. We were caused either by a personal agency or by an agency that was not personal. There is no other choice. Here we appeal to the axiomatic truth of reason that the cause must be adequate to produce the observed effect. A personal effect thus had a personal cause.

3. The element of man's mental, moral, and emotional nature.

Man is possessed of mentality and morality. Therefore these qualities must be included in the cause which produced him.

"Man has an intellectual and moral nature, hence his Creator must be an intellectual and moral Being, a Judge, and Law-giver. Man has an emotional nature; only a Being of goodness, power, love, wisdom and holiness could satisfy such a nature, and these things denote the existence of a personal God.

"Conscience in man says: "Thou shalt,' and Thou shalt not,"'I ought,' and 'I ought not.' These mandates are not self-imposed.

They imply the existence of a Moral Governor to Whom we are responsible. Conscience, there it is in the breast of man, an ideal Moses thundering from an invisible Sinai the Law of a holy Judge. Said Cardinal Newman, 'Were it not for the voice speaking so clearly in my conscience and my heart, I should be an atheist, or a pantheist, when I looked into the world.' Some things are wrong, others right: love is right, hatred is wrong.

Nor is a thing right because it pleases, or wrong because it displeases. Where did we get this standard of right and wrong?

Morality is obligatory, not optional. Who made it obligatory?

We must believe that there is a God, or believe that the very root of our nature is a lie (W. Evans, The Great Doctrines of the Bible, p. 17).

4. The element of power. The heavens and the earth and man himself are the witnessing results of a power that is both superhuman and supernatural. This is evidenced both in their origination and in their preservation. All nature bears impressive witness to a universal and wonderful creation and mainte-

nance.

The argument from evident harmony of belief in God with existing facts. When we come to consider the earth in itself_ that is, apart from the other members of the solar system - we find no escape from the conviction that a creative hand fashioned it. How else could the things, which only the willfully blind can fail to observe, be accounted for? Voltaire has well said that "if there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him

From all that we can learn through astronomical investiga-tion, that which is obviously true of the earth in the way of purposeful tendency is also true of other planets and systems which have come under telescopic observation. Belief in a self-existent, personal God is in harmony with the facts of the phenomena of the natural world. Since God exists, a universal belief in His existence is natural, and human history is given transcendent meaning.

Established by Revelation

The argument from divine revelation is drawn from the content of the Scriptures themselves. From the commencement of modern science, apparent inconsistencies between nature and revelation have constantly been emerging which, for the time, have o-casioned great offense to zealous believers; but in every instance, without exception, the error has been found to exist either in the too hasty generalizations of science from imperfect knowledge of the facts, or from a prejudiced interpretation of the Scriptures.

Invariably, mature science has been found not only to harmonize perfectly with the letter of the Word properly interpreted but moreover, gloriously to illustrate the grand moral principles and doctrines therein revealed.

"A great deal of our knowledge rests upon the testimony of others. Now the Bible is competent testimony. If the testimony of travelers is enough to satisfy us as to the habits, customs and manners of the peoples of the countries they visit, and which we have never seen, why is not the Bible, if it is authentic history, enough to satisfy us with its evidence as to the existence of God?" (W. Evans, The Great Doctrines of the Bible, p. 18).

THE NATURE OF GOD

Revealed by His Attributes

Since time began, man has sought to picture or portray God by imagery, painting, and word description, but has always fallen far short. For how can finiteness ever hope to comprehend and express infinity? God's own chosen people tried to present measurements and descriptions of Him to their fellowmen and so made idols of metal and said,

"These be thy gods, O Israel, which

brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (Exod. 32:4). But they failed utterly to get the faintest conception of God into their molten images, as is seen by the depth of depravity into which their substitution of idols in place of the true Jehovah worship sank them.

Nor have modern attempts through science and philosophy been more successful, for our God is not to be measured nor pictured nor "found out unto perfection

The nature of God is best revealed by His attributes. We must be careful not to think of them as abstract, but as vital mediums through which His nature is revealed.

"The term attribute,' in its application to persons or things, means something belonging to persons or things. The attributes of a thing are so essential to it that without them it could not be what it is; and this is equally true of the attributes of a person. If a man were divested of the attributes belonging to him, he would cease to be a man, for these attributes are inherent in that which constitutes him a human being. If we transfer these ideas to God, we shall find that His attributes belong inalienably to Him, and therefore what He is now He must ever be" J. M. Pendleton, Christian Doc-trines, p. 42).

The attributes of God, then, are those essential, permanent and distinguishing characteristics which may be affirmed of His Being.

His attributes are His perfections, inseparable from His nature and conditioning His character.

There have been many attempts by theologians to arrange the attributes of God in classes. They have been styled natural and moral attributes, communicable and incommunicable, positive and negative, absolute and relative. To all these divisions and epithets of designation objections can, no doubt, be made. Possibly the classification of natural and moral attributes in God is as good as any. These have been defined thus:

"The natural [attributes of God] are all those which pertain to His existence as an infinite, rational Spirit. ... the moral are those additional attributes which belong to Him as an infinite, righteous Spirit" (A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, pp. 137-38).

The Nature of God:

Natural Attributes

The life of God:

1. The meaning of life.

Life may be regarded as that form of existence, spoken of as the animate as distinguished from the inanimate, embracing a force (principle) and a condition, the force of which is the determining factor of all relations caused and sustained, both internal and external, the condition of which is that constituted by these relations, so caused and sus-tained.

This difference in the use or application of the word life is too often overlooked, and much confusion of thought is the result.

It cannot be too well understood that this word life has two important uses. As to the first, Professor Drummond remarks:

"To say that life is a correspondence is only to express the partial truth. There is something behind. Life manifests itself in correspondences, but what determines them? The organism exhibits a variety of correspondences. What organizes them? As in the natural so in the spiritual, there is a Principle of Life! We cannot get rid of that term, however clumsy, however provisional, however much a mere cloak for ignorance. Science, as yet, is unable to dispense with the idea of the principle of life" (Drummond, Natural Law in the Spiritual World, p. 228).

The principle of life works like an individual potter upon the same plasmic matter of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen but with a different plan that brings about all the animate forms of life - plant, tree, bird, beast, and man. Similarly, in light of the natural law in the spiritual world, the principle of spiritual life is the Christ-life.

Our second use of the word life has reference to a condition of existence. This is the most common use. Indeed, it is believed that too many know no other use of the term. This is the service Paul makes it render in 1 Corinthians 15:19: "If in this life (condition of existence] only, we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Webster says that life is that state of being alive; that condition in which animals and plants exist, as distinguished from inorganic substances and dead organisms. The three principal distinctions are

(1) the power of growth,

(2) reproduction, and

(3) automatic or internally initiated adaptations to changes in the environment.

Standard Encyclopedia says: "Life may be defined as the internal and external activity of an organism in relation to its environment." Life is the continuous adjustment of internal activities to environmental conditions, ending when the relations between the two become unfavorable. While these definitions are true as far as they go, they deal with life only as a condition of existence. Life itself remains unknown and undefined.

E. Y. Mullins notes similarly, when relating life to God, that "life is a term which cannot be fully defined. Science defines it as correspondence between an organ and its environment. But it must mean far more as applied to God, since God has no environment. The life of God is His activity of thought, feeling, and will. The total inward movement of His Being enables Him to form wise, holy, and loving purposes and execute them" (The Christian Religion in Its Doctrinal Expression, p. 219).

These two factors of life in general, force and condition, when used of God, then, are to be regarded as possessed by Him to an infinite degree.

2. The scriptural fact of life as a divine attribute:

"For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself' John 5:26 - cf. 2 Chron. 16.9; Ps. 94:9,10; Jer. 10:10; Acts 14:15).

3. The life of God illustrated and demonstrated in the Scriptures:

"People tell us of their own accord about the visit we paid to you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and ELEMENTAL THEOLOGY

a real God" (1 Thess. 1:9 Moffatt - cf. Jer. 10:10-16; Hab. 2:18-20).

These passages present several striking contrasts between

Jehovah and other gods:

True God

Living and True God

Made the earth by His power

Former of all things

Everlasting King

idols

graven image, molten image

.. work of errors

they shall perish

..

, no breath in them

falsehood

Doctrinal statement: By the sharp distinctions drawn in the Scriptures between the gods of the heathen and the true God, the fact of life as a divine attribute is clearly shown. Unlike the gods of the nations, Israel’s God hears, sees, feels, acts, and therefore is a living Being.

The spirituality of God.

This truth opposes the false teaching of materialism that the facts of experience are all to be explained by referring them to the realities, activities, and laws of physical or material substance. Materialism ignores the distinction between mind and matter and refers all the phenomena of the world (that which is apparent) to the functions of matter.

Spirituality is fundamental to the being of God. It is the mode of God's complete and triune existence. God is more than a condition of being, like space or time. He is an agent, an actor, a living being and spirit life.

The truth of the spirituality of God is revealed in our spiritual being. God is not only our Creator but the Father of our spirits.

We are His offspring John 4:24; Acts 17:28,29). All the essential characteristics of our spirits may be ascribed to Him in an infinite degree, for "He is a rational being who distinguishes with infinite precision between the true and the false; He is a moral being who distinguishes between the right and the wrong, and He is a free agent whose action is self-determined by His own will" (A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, p. 140).

The term spirit may be regarded in contrast to matter.

The two substances embrace all the objects found in the knowledge realm. There is no substance of which it can be said that it is neither matter nor spirit. The world of matter is all around us. We see it in the earth and its productions, the sea and its treasure, the sun and the planets revolving around it. Our senses bring us into contact with the universe of material nature, and we hear, see, smell, touch, and taste. It is manifest, too, that matter is capable of great changes. It may be fashioned into many forms and aken through many processes of refinement. Gold may be purified seven times - that is, purified to perfection - till every particle of dross is taken from it; and the diamond may, by laborious and persevering effort, be fitted to sparkle in a monarch's crown; but no operation performed on matter can endow it with thought, will, or reflection. These are peculiarities of mind and spirit.

The meaning of God's spirituality. God as spirit is incorporeal, invisible, without material substance, without physical parts or passions, and therefore free from all temporal limitations.

From the foregoing, it is seen that God as spirit is to be apprehended not by the senses of the body, but by the faculties of the soul, quickened and illumined by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.

2:14; Col. 1:15-17).

2. The scriptural fact established: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" John 4:24).

"God is a Spirit": the indefinite article is not found in the Greek text but has been supplied by the translators. There is no indefinite article in the Greek language. "God is Spirit “ seems consistent with the succeeding clause, "they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." No article is supplied.

Doctrinal statement: God is spiritual in nature, i.e., in His essential being God is spirit.

3. The scriptural fact illuminated

a. By Old Testament teaching: "Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LoRD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that fieth in the air, the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LoRD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

But the LoRD hath taken vou, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day..

.. Take heed can

selves, lest ye forget the covenant ofthe LorD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LoRD thy God hath forbidden thee" (Deut. 4:15-21,23 - cf. Isa. 40:25).

The worship of God through the medium of images and things temporal was forbidden, because no one had ever seen God and therefore could not know how He looked; neither was there any resemblance between the material things of earth and God who is spirit (Exod. 20:4).

b. By New Testament teaching:

"Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:39 - cf.

Acts 14:8-18; 17:22-29; Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17).

Physical eyes see only objects of the material world, but God is not of the nature of the material world; hence, He cannot be seen with the material eye.

Doctrinal statement: From the teaching of the Old and New Testaments it is evident that God is spirit, without flesh and bones, and therefore does not come within the scope of physical vision, neither is He capable of correct material representation, because of His essentially spiritual nature.

4. The scriptural fact interrogated

a. What is meant by the statement that man was made in the image of God? Answer: There are a number of things that may be included in the image and likeness of God in its relation to man.

- Man was made in the personal image and likeness of God.

Both are personal beings.

- It may refer to a triune image and likeness. God possesses a tri-unity of persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man possesses a tri-unity of parts: spirit, soul, and body: "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23).

- It certainly refers to the intellectual and moral likeness:

"And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Col.

3:10); "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4.24)

b. What is meant by the physical terms which are applied to God as though He were a man (cf. 1 Kings 8:42; Job 34:21;

Ps. 102:25; Nahum 1:6; 1 Peter 3:12)? Answer: Such anthropomorphic expressions are to be understood only in the sense of being human terms used in order to bring the infinite within the comprehension of the finite, to enable man to know God.

"It is very important to remember that human language is the precipitate of human experience. Hence, all the terms it has at command are terms which are in a sense vitiated for its purpose by the radical limitation. For how can any terms which have been created to express human experience, and have human associations clinging about them, be adequate to set forth the inner life of the Divine, which has no analogy in human experience and therefore no terminology in human language?" (A. S. Peake, Christianity: Its Nature and Its Truth, pp. 98-99).

"Though God would not have man believe Him to be corporeal, yet He judged it expedient to give some pre-notices of that divine incarnation which He had promised"

(S. Charnock, Discourse Upon the Existence and Attributes of God, p. 115).

c. How are the passages which state that men saw God to be reconciled with those which declare that God has not been and cannot be seen?

Men see God

Men cannot see God

Exodus 24:10;

Exodus 33:20

33:18-19, 21-23

lohn 1:18

Judges 13:22

Isaiah 6:1

Colossians 1:15

Answer: There is no real contradiction between these passages. The first group refers to the manifestations of God, while the other refers to God in the invisible essence of His being, which is spirit.

To illustrate: "A man may see the reflection of his face in a glass. It would be true for the man to say, 'I saw my face, and also true to say, 'I never saw my face.' So men have seen a manifestation of God, and it is perfectly true that those men saw God. No man ever saw God as He is in His (Christianity: Its Nature and Truth, PP. On a me a likeness between the former with its finite powers, and the latter with its infinite perfections, which is helpful to a better understanding of the divine. There is a real truth in the record of our creation in the image and likeness of God, and personality is the deepest truth of that image and likeness.

Those proofs that establish God’s existence may also be adduced to establish His personality. Thus universal belief which argues for God's existence is belief in a personal God. The argument from cause and effect does the same. Man, as a personal effect, demands a personal God as an adequate cause of himself.

And so it is with the argument from intelligence in nature. So far as we know, rational intelligence has no existence apart from person-ality; hence that which argues for an intelligent cause of the universe demands that the cause be personal.

1. The meaning of God's personality. Personality may be defined as existence possessed of self-consciousness and the power of self-determination.

Personality is not to be confused with corporeity or existence in a material body. Rather, when properly defined, personality embraces the collective properties and qualities which characterize personal existence as distinguished from impersonal existence and animal life; for we regard animals as possessing natures rather than personalities. Personality therefore represents the sum total of traits necessary to describe what it is to be

a person.

In respect to these personal traits there must not only be consciousness - for the beast has that - but self-consciousness; there must not only be determination - for the beast has that also - but self-determination, the power by which man from an act of his own free will determines his acts.

The constituent elements of personality are three: intellect, or the power of thinking; sensibility, or the power of feeling: and volition, or the power of willing. Associated with these are conscience and the freedom of choice. If it can be proved that to God are ascribed operations of intellect, sensibility, and will, then we may affirm His personality.

2. The scriptural fact of God's personality established:

a. By names which are given to God which reveal personality.

One of the important names by which God has made Himself self known is "Jehovah." It is this name and its many combinations through which He has revealed Himself in the various relations which He sustains to men. Jehovah was revealed to Israel at the time when they were called to trust God in a new and covenant relationship.

All that the name Jesus means to us, "Jehovah" meant to ancient Israel. It meant to them everything in the way of salvation and blessing. Elohim is God as Creator of all things, but Jehovah is the same God in covenant relation with those whom He has created. Jehovah means the eter-nal, the immutable One, He who was, and is, and is to come.

He is the God of Israel and the God of those who are re. deemed, and thus now "in Christ" we can say "Tehovah is our God."

The name "Jehovah" is combined with other words, which form what are known as the "Jehovah titles.

- "I AM": "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you" (Exod. 3:14 - cf.

John 8:58).

„This name reveals self-consciousness. TAM THAT I

AM" is the thought behind the name "Jehovah. things are involved: the self-sufficiency of God, His absolute sovereignty, and His unchangeableness.

The whole history of the children of Israel gathers round the covenant that God made with them at Sinai.

That covenant consisted of two terms: first. "I will be vour

God " and then Ye shall be my people." Their subsequent history is simply a record of how they came to know who Jehovah is and what He was willing to be to them and what they ought to be as His people. Every need of Israel was met in lehovah their God.

- "Jehovah-Jirch" (The Lord will provide): "And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-fireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen" (Gen. 22:13,14).

This name reveals personal provision. This was the name given by Abraham to the place where he had sacrificed a ram provided by God instead of sacrificing his son Isaac. The Lord sees and provides for the necessities of His servants.

- "Jehovah-nissi" (The Lord our Banner): "And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi" (Exod.

17:15 - cf. Josh. 5:13,14; Ps. 20:7).

This name reveals personal leadership. This name Moses gave to the altar which he reared to signalize the defeat of the Amalekites by Israel under Joshua at Reph-idim. God is here shown as the Lord who leads us against the enemy and in whose name we are more than con-querors. The suggestion is that the people should rally round God as an army gathers round its standard.

"Tehovah-rapha" (The Lord that healeth): "And [the LORD] said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LorD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee" (Exod. 15:26).

This name reveals personal preservation. The word means to mend as a garment is mended, to repair as a building is reconstructed, and to cure as a diseased person is restored to health. All healing, both direct and indirect, is from God. He is our saving health.

- "Jehovah-shalom" (The Lord is our Peace): "Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LorD, and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites" Judg. 6:24 - cf. Eph. 2:14,15).

This name reveals God as personal peace-giver. This was the name given by Gideon to the altar he built at Ophrah alluding to the word spoken to him by the Lord,

"Peace be unto thee." The title might be rendered, "The Lord who is the peace of His people." In combining faith in the divine provision with reliance on Jehovah for victory in every circumstance, we find the seeret of peace.

- "Jehovah-raah" (The Lord my Shepherd): "The LorD is my shepherd; I shall not want" (Ps. 23:1 - cf. Ps. 95:7).

This name reveals personal guidance, guarding, and goodness. All that the shepherds were to their flocks and more, God is willing to be to His own.

- "Jehovah-tsidkenu" (The Lord our Righteousness): "In his davs Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safoly; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" Jer. 23.6 - cf. 1 Cor. 1:30).

This name reveals God as imputed personal righteousness in meeting our personal obligations and requirements to Himself. Israel had no righteousness of her own; she was a wayward and rebellious people. So God revealed Himself to her, not only as Jehovah, but as "Jehovah-tsidkenu.

* This relationship had to be entered

into before Jehovah could be experienced in His various attributes.

- "Tehovah-sabaoth" (Jehovah of Hosts): "And this man went up out of this city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LoRD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli.

Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LorD, were there" (1 Sam. 1:3).

This name reveals personal headship and control. In Hebrew usage, host might mean an army of men, or the stars and the angels, which apart or in conjunction made up the host of heaven. So Israel is called the host of Jehovah. The general meaning of the term is well. expressed in the term "Lord Omnipotent." With the acceptance of the idea of divine omnipotence, the heavenly forces were regarded as united into a confederacy under the dominion of the one God, the Lord of Hosts.

- "Jehovah-shammah" (The Lord is present): "It was round about eighteen thousand measures; and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LorD is there" (Ezek.

48:35).

This name reveals personal presence. This is the name to be given to the new Jerusalem, restored and glorified as seen in the vision of Ezekiel. lehovah returns to the temple which He had forsaken, and from that time forward the fact of supreme importance is that "He is there, dwelling in the midst of His people.

- "Jehovah-elyon" The Lord Most High): "For thou, LorD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods" (Ps. 97:9 - cf. Ps. 7:17; 47:2; Isa. 6:1).

This name reveals personal preeminence. God is spoken of as the God of gods and is presented as sitting on "a throne, high and lifted up." Such expressions, together with this name, are simply assertions of God’s supremacy and absolute sovereignty. He is the Transcendent

- "Tehovah-mkaddishkim The Lord that sanctifieth thee):

"Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LoRD that doth sanctify you" (Exod. 31:13).

This name reveals personal purification. The name suggests God in the subjective aspect of His saving or redeeming work. He is the God who separates from sin and to Himself those whom He saves.

Doctrinal statement: The names which are used of God in the Scriptures imply personal relations and actions, and thus signify personality.

b. By the personal pronouns used of God

- Thee and Thou: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent" (John 17:3).

- He and Him: "I love the LorD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live" (Ps. 116:1,2).

If God were a mere force or principle, the pronouns representing Him would of necessity be neuter. But such is not the case, as is seen by these and other passages of Scripture. The personal pronouns which are used of God represent Him as a person, always being masculine gen-der.

Doctrinal statement: The personal pronouns which are used of

God imply and prove His personality.

c. By the characteristics and properties of personality ascribed to God

Grief: "And it repented the LorD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart" (Gen. 6:6).

Grief is a personal emotion which is here ascribed to God due to the personal attitude and actions of men. Grief argues for personality.

- Anger: "And the LoRD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LoRD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice" (1 Kings 11.9). The anger here is the personal, though holy, resentment of God which He felt toward Solomon because of his perfidy and faithlessness after he had been so highly favored and hon-ored. Only a person could be capable of such resentment.

- Jealousy: "For the LoRD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LorD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth" (Deut. 6:15). The jealousy of God, unlike that of man, is holy. It is simply His regard for His holy name, will, and government. It is a personal element and reveals personality in its possessor.

- Love: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent" (Rev. 3:19. Love involves three essential elements of personality: intellect, sensibil-ity, and will. Therefore God must be personal, for love is

- Persona. "These six things doth the Lows hate: yea, seven

are an abomination unto him" (Prov. 6:16). Something impersonal is incapable of hating anyone or anything.

Only personality is capable of hatred.

Doctrinal statement: God possesses the characteristics and properties of personality and, therefore, of necessity must be a person.

d. By the relation which God sustains to the universe and to men. The God of the Bible is not only to be distinguished from the God of the pantheist, who has no existence separate from His creation, but also from the God of the deist, who has created the world and put into it all the necessary powers of self-action and development and set it going and left it to so of itself. Says Wallace, the co-laborer of Darwin: "I believe that the universe is so constituted as to be self-regulating. Why should we suppose the machine too compli-cated, which was so designed by the Creator as to work out harmonious results? The theory of continual interference is a limitation of the Creator's power."

If the fact is conceded that God was interested enough in the world to create it, we can in no way account for his immediate loss of interest in it. Any theory which fairly and ELEMENTAL THEOLOGY

honestly admits God as Creator cannot deny His continuous agency. God is personally and actively present in the affairs of the universe.

- As creator of all things: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1 - cf. Gen. 1:26; John

1:1-3; Rev. 4:11).

In thinking of God as the Creator, we must attribute infinite and eternal power to Him. This power must have existed before it was exerted and manifested in Creation.

As everything before creation is eternal, it follows that the creative power was eternal. Nor is this power impersonal.

The simplest idea of power is that of ability to do something, which is always connected with the thought of the personal. Hence there is not power apart from those who possess and use it. Genesis ascribes all the works of creation to the living God. There is no room for evolution without a flat denial of divine revelation. There is growth and development within but no passing or evolving from one sphere to another, for all God's works are perfect. He is presented as distinet from nature as its creator, and comments upon it and commends it as good.

Some writers see a gross discrepancy between the account of the Creation as found in Genesis and the indications suggested by the geological strata of the earth. According to these indications, the material universe is of great age = just how great no one seems to know of a certainty. There is a diversity of opinion as shown by the following: Professor Ramsay makes it fully 10,000 million years. Eugene Dubois makes it about 1,000 million years; Goodchild, about 700 million years. Darwin made it more than 300 million years. Sir Oliver Lodge made it more than 100 million years. Professor Sollas makes it about 55 million years; Dr. Croll, almost 20 million; Professor Tait, almost 10 million.

It is true in this, as in other instances, that there is no conflict between the Bible when correctly interpreted and the facts of mature science. The six days, commonly known as days of creation, were probably not such at all, but days of reconstruction. We have the record of the original creation in Genesis 1:1, while Genesis 1:2 describes a chaotic condition that came about subsequent to the creation of the material universe. How long after, we do not know. It may have been a period as great or greater than the longest of the above estimates.

This reads in the King James Version, "And the earth was without form and void," but it may with equal authority be translated, "The earth became without form and void Rotherham renders it, "Now the earth had become waste" (The Emphasized Bible).

"In Isaiah 45:18, we read, 'Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it, He created it not in vain' - so our Authorized Version has it; but the original word translated in vain' is exactly the same as that translated in Genesis 12 without form,' and is rendered in both places in the R.V. 'waste; perhaps 'desolation' better conveys the true meaning. In any case, we have here God's own statement that Genesis 1:2 does not describe the original condition of the earth, for when He first created it "He created it not waste for desolation]:'

"On the other hand, we read in Job 38:4-7, when God first laid the foundations of the earth,' which would appear to correspond with Genesis 1:1, the conditions were such that 'the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy,' indicating that perfect state of blessedness which we should naturally expect to find as coming fresh from the hand of God.

"Indeed, Dr. Bullinger has pointed out that the Hebrew word for creation implies that the creation was a perfect work, in perfect and beautiful order.

"As to how and why this earth, once so beautiful, ever became waste and void. we cannot speak with certainty.

It is, however, a striking fact that there are only two other places in the Bible where the words translated in Genesis

1:2 without form' and void' occur together - viz., Isaiah

34:11, translated 'confusion' and 'emptiness,

* and Jeremiah 4:23. In both these cases the expressions are used in connection with destruction caused by God's judgment on account of sin" (S. Collett, All About the Bible, pp. 250-51, italics in original).

Therefore, we can infer that a cataclysmic judgment fell upon the earth and its inhabitants, leaving it in the waste condition described. As to the identity of these inhabitants we cannot be sure. It has been thought that the demons are the representatives of this race and that their disembodiment is a part of their punishment for some unknown sin.

Doctrinal statement: The creation of the universe and of man proves the personality of the Creator - God.

As preserver of all things: "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3 - cf. Col. 1:15-17).

As creation has to do with the origin of things, so preservation has to do with their continuance. God sustains a continuous personal relation to his creation. The deists deny this by saying that God withdrew after His work of creation and left the universe to a process of self-development and self-action. The most strenuous objection to this is that it denies to God interference according to His divine wisdom, as seen in incarnation, in redemp-tion, in providential intervenings, and in answered prayer. The divine power operates through the order of natural law which God has established, yet He carries on a special continuous activity in the upholding of the uni-verse. This activity is that of Christ, the immanent God by whom all things consist, or hold together, who upholds

"all things by the word of his power.

Doctrinal statement: The preservation of the universe and all its parts in orderly relations demands and proves the personality of God.

As benefactor of all life: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matt. 10:29,30

- cf. 1 Kings 19:5-7; Ps.

104:27-30; Matt. 6:26).

Life in all of its aspects is God's gift to His creatures.

That of which He is the Author, He is also the Sustainer.

The Bible accredits God with the sustenance of all living creatures. Of men, Paul says, "In him we live, and move, and have our being." lames declares that "every good gift63

and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.

" David ascribes the provision of creature food to God: "These wait all upon thee; that thou mavest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather." Jesus depicted the Father's loving provision for birds and men, saying, "Your heavenly Father feedeth them."

Doctrinal statement: The personality of God is revealed in the universal and adapted supply of all His creatures' needs.

- As the ruler and overruler in the affairs of men: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28 - cf. Gen. 39:21; 50:20; Pss. 75:5-7;

76:10; Dan. 1:9).

Victor Hugo, recognizing the overruling divine hand, said, "Waterloo was God." In the exercise of His infinite wisdom and power, God so personally directs and controls the free actions of men as to determine all things in accordance with His eternal purpose and their best wel-fare.

Wordsworth says, "God foresees evil deeds, but never forces them."

The Scriptures teach that this providential governing of God is universal, including all the actions of all God's creatures: that it is powerful, being the rule of omnipo-tence; that it is wise, as the outworking of God's infinite wisdom; and that it is holy, as is demanded by His moral excellency.

Careless seems the great avenger;

History's pages but record

One death grapple in the darkness, Twixt old systems and the Word.

Truth forever on the scaffold;

Wrong forever on the throne;

But that scaffold sways the Future;

And, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God, within the shadow

Keeping watch above His own.

- James Russell Lowell

Doctrinal statement: God has a hand in human history, sustaining a personal relation to the affairs of men and nations, and therefore is a person.

- As the father of His children: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:26 - cf. John

1:11-13; Heb. 12:5-11).

The fatherhood of God is really a New Testament revelation, for the Old Testament reveals but little of the sonship of Jesus Christ. It makes only a few references to the Messiah as the Son of Jehovah, which could not be thoroughly understood until Christ came and made their meaning clear. Therefore, until Christ was revealed as Son, God could not be known or understood as Father, for fatherhood apart from sonship is inconceivable. and unthinkable. Hence it became the mission of Jesus Christ to make God known as the Father. And ac-cordingly, in His prayer in John 17, He said: "And now, O Father. Glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name [i.e., the name of Father] unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world" (vv. 5.6).

Thus the fatherhood of God is the infinite and eternal relationship which God sustains to Jesus Christ, His eternal Son, and is also applied to the redemptive and flial relationship which God sustains to the repentant, believing sinner, through the merit of the atoning death of Christ. And as it is true that the fatherhood of God cannot be known except as it is revealed in the sonship of Jesus Christ (Matt. 11:27), so is it also true that that fatherhood cannot be possessed or experienced by man save through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, it is absolutely inaccessible. "No man," said Jesus, "cometh unto the Father but by me." A father God is of necessity a personal God. To admit the fatherhood of God, therefore, is inevitably to acknowledge His personality.

Doctrinal statement: We are the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. God's personality is revealed in His fatherhood.

The tri-unity of God. The word tri-unity is derived from two Latin words, tres and unitas, "three" and "unity," which together express the doctrine of three-in-one, or the Trinity. This truth opposes the following errors:

- Sabelhanism, or a modal trinity, holds that there are but three aspects or manifestations of one person;

- Swedenborgianism holds that "the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three essentials or elements of one God," which make one, just as the spirit, soul, and body make one man;

-Tritheism holds that there are three gods rather than the three personal distinctions in the one God.

The persons in the Godhead, taken to mean three, as though they were three deified beings, constitute not a trinity at all, but a triad.

The trinity of God is well stated in the Athanasian Creed, which reads, "We worship one God in trinity and trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance." The trinity is, therefore three eternally interconstituted, interrelated, interexist-ent, and therefore inseparable persons within one being and of one substance or essence.

1. Unity of being. This truth opposes the error of polytheism - the doctrine of many gods. "No other truth of the Scripture, particularly of the Old Testament, receives more prominence than that of the Unity of God." says Dr. Evans (The Great Doctrines of the Bible, p. 26). The prevailing conception of God in the patriarchal age was that of almightiness, or, better still, all-sufficiency. "I appeared to your fathers as El Shaddai - God Almighty.” This is to give increased potency to the simple idea of might, which seems to carry with it the exclusion of other powers or deities and to lead directly to the conception of the unity of God.

a. The meaning of divine unity. By the unity of God is meant, not that He is possessed of a single personality, but of oneness of essence and being as the one and only deity. It is to be noted that while the unity of God is a real and true unity, yet it is a compound rather than a simple or single unity.

Though the Scriptures compel belief in the oneness of being in God, they admit the tri-unity of the personality within that being, hence the unity of God becomes the basal truth in the doctrine of the Trinity.

b. The scriptural fact of the divine unity established -

- By reason.

In proof of the divine unity one might refer to the system of nature as indivisible, bearing the impress of one almighty agent in all its wide realm, from the revelations of the telescope to the wonders of the microscope, with all intervening displays of the oneness of design. Among all the planets, constellations, systems, and galaxies of systems which fill the vast spaces surrounding our earth. there is marvelous coordination and cooperation, which show that they are all parts of a complete whole, and God unites them and makes them such. It is the unity of God that saves all of these from being a "multiverse" and causes them to be a universe Applying this term to God is designed to teach that there is one, and but one, God. The doctrine of God's unity is involved in His self-existence and in the eternity of His Being. It is evident that there is need of only one self-existent being in the universe, for self-sufficiency and sovereignty are allied to self-existence.

A self-existent being must be a self-sufficient being, able to do whatever he chooses to do.

One self-existent being forever supersedes the necessity of another; and not only so, but renders the existence of another impossible. There cannot be two self-existent beings for the very good reason that self-existence implies possessing all perfection. If there were two such beings, they would each possess all perfections, and would therefore be essentially one and the same.

They would fill the same sphere - a thing impossible if they were two and not one. The existence of more than one God does not come within the limits of possibility. The attribute of self-existence establishes this position, and the attribute of eternity fortifies it For if one God has existed from eternity, there has been no place for another. The eternity of God is a conclusive proof of His unity" J. M. Pendleton, Christian Doctrines, pp. 45-46).

-

- By revelation:

"Hear, O Israel, The LORD our God is one LORD" Deut. 64 - cf. Deut. 435, Isa. 43.10,11, 446 45.5, Mark 10:19, 12:29, 1 Tim. 25).

Doctrinal statement: Reason and revelation both clearly establish the truth of the oneness of God.

3. Trinity of personality. Though the Bible teaches the unity of God - that there is one and only one God - it also teaches that in the one Godhead there is a distinction of personality which is threefold - Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. This does not The Doctrine of Godmean that the three divine persons are three in the sense in shich the race. one, or that they are one in the sense in which The one indivisible divine essence, as a whole, exists eternally as Father and as Son and as Holy Spirit; that each person possesses the whole essence, and is constituted a distinct person ho certain incommunicable properties - not common in him with the others" (A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, p. 167).

Personal distinctions between these three are seen by the use of the personal pronouns I, Thou, He; consultation among them and a distinct order of operation.

"The word Person in its Trinitarian sense is not wholly free from objection, but it seems to be understood by orthodox writers that there is no better word. The objection is that it cannot be used in its common acceptation as applied to human beings.

It needs modification. For example, person in the ordinary use of the term means a distinct and independent being, so that one person is one being, and a hundred persons are a hundred beings. But in the Godhead there are three persons and one Being. The dissimilarity in the two instances is manifest" J. M.

Pendleton, Christian Doctrines, pp. 64-65).

"Originally, this [word meant mask; hence the phrase, three persons, originally bore a Sabellian significance that Father, Son and Spirit were terms expressing three different aspects.

The sense of the term has shifted so that now three persons in a common language would imply not the same individual in three aspects. but three distinct individuals; but we cannot apply that to the doctrine of the Trinity; otherwise, we fall over at once into tritheism. We may say that the truth lies between the sense of person as aspect and its sense as individual, but how we are to combine the distinction with the unity is a problem wholly beyond the wit of man, because we have no analogy in our experience to qualify us for understanding it. For us, persons are mutually exclusive individuals; the persons in the Godhead are mutually inclusive: there is a mutual indwelling of each in the others" (A. S. Peake, Christianity - Its Nature and Its Truth, p. 99).

a. The meaning of trinity. By the trinity of God, He is one in being and substance, possessed of three personal distinctions, revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

b. The scriptural fact of the Trinity. The objection sometimes raised that neither the word Trinity nor any explicit state. ment concerning it is found in the Bible can be equally true of other truths and terms of theology, such as the personality of God, free agency, or substitution; but the realities which they denote are there.

J. M. Pendleton says: "I receive the FACT that it ithe Trinity] exists, simply because I believe that the Scriptures reveal the FACT. And if the Scriptures do reveal the fact that there are three persons in the Godhead; that there is a distinction which affords grounds for the respective appellations of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; which lays the foundation for the application of the personal pronouns, I, Thou, He; which renders it proper to speak of sending and being sent; to speak of Christ as being with God, being in His bosom, and of other things of the like nature in the like way, and vet to hold that divine nature equally belongs to each - then it is like every fact revealed, to be received simply on the credit of divine revelation" Christian Doctrines, p. 65, italics in original).

(1) As taught in the Old Testament. It is taught in the Old Testament by implication and intimation rather than by direct statement. The theological conception of the Trinity does not endanger the truth of the unity of God. The burden of the message of the Old Testament is the divine unity. Yet the Trinity is plainly intimated in a sixfold way:

- By the Hebrew name for "God," which is found most frequently in the plúral form Elohim. See, for exam-ple, Genesis 1:1. It expresses the divine nature in its essential completeness as embodying a plurality of personalities. The plural Elohim is not a survival from a polytheistic stage, but expresses the divine nature in the manifoldness of its fullnesses and perfections, rather than in the abstract unity of its being.

- By the use of the Hebrew word for "one." The Hebrew word for "one" in the absolute sense as used in such expressions as "the only one" is yacheed and is never used in the Hebrew to express the unity of the Godhead. On the contrary, the word echad, which denotes compound unity, is used for that purpose.

The plural word was used for the one God despite the intense monotheism of the Jews, because there is a plurality of persons in the one Godhead (cf. 1 Tim.

2:5; Mark 12:29).

By the plural personal pronouns used for God (Gen.

1.26 compared with Isa. 40:14 and Gen. 1:27). Some would say that us in Genesis 1:26 - "Let us make man . . .

- refers to God's consultation with the angels on the grounds that He takes counsel with them before He does anything of importance. But Isaiah 40:14 - "With whom took he counsel?" shows that such is not the case; and Genesis 1:27 contradicts this idea, for it repeats the statement "in the image of God," not in the image of angels. The proper translation of this verse should not be "let us make," but "we will make," indicating the language of resolve rather than of consultation (cf. Gen. 11:7; Isa.

6:8).

- By intimations in various passages, such as Psalm

2:6-9: "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LorD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel" (ef. Acts 13:33).

In Zechariah 2:10,11, One who is called the Lord is sent by the Lord of Hosts to dwell in the midst of Israel.

- By allusions to the Holy Spirit and His work: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. 1:2).

- By the theophanies or appearings of deity, especially that of "the Angel of the Lord," who is distinguished from and at the same time identified with God.

"And the angel of the LoRD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou has not withheld thy son, thine only son from me"

(Gen. 22:11, 12 - cf. Gen. 16:7-10, 13; 21:17,18).

- By direct statement (Isa. 48:16; 61:1,2).

Doctrinal statement: By the Hebrew name for "God," the Hebrew word for "one," by the use of the plural personal pronouns, by suggestions of Father and Son who are regarded as divine persons, by allusions to the Holy Spirit, and by the theophanies, the doctrine of the Trinity is intimated, implied, and directly inferred in the Old

Testament.

(2) As taught in the New Testament. The doctrine is clearly taught here, not by implication or intimation, but by explicit declaration or demonstration, as follows:

- In the apostolic commission: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28.19.20). In these parting instructions to His disciples, we find Jesus bearing definite testimony to the truth of the Trinity.

He gives us here the baptismal formula, thus making provision for keeping the doctrine of the Trinity constantly before the church. Every Christian is baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus he is shown to be in covenant relation with each of the persons of the Godhead as named.

The language implies that each name represents a person and that the persons are equal.

- In the apostolic benediction: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all' (2 Cor. 13:14).

The personality and divinity of each person of the Godhead are recognized every time this benediction is pronounced. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the communion of the Holy Spirit are invoked in immediate connection with the love of the Father, showing that the three persons are the same in substance - i.e., deity - and equal in power and glory.

- At the baptism of Jesus: "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt.

3:16,17). The Father spoke from Heaven, the Son was being baptized in the Jordan, and the Spirit descended in the form of a dove.

- In the teaching of Jesus: "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever" John 14:16 - cf. John 16.7.

11). The Trinity is taught by Jesus, who, having been sent by His Father, now promises to send the Spirit. as a Paraclete, to take His place; to comfort, instruct, and strengthen those whom He was leaving.

- In the Pauline teaching with regard to the gifts of the Spirit in relation to the church: "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all" (1 Cor. 12:4-6 - cf.

Acts 20:28). The doctrine of the Trinity has been held through the centuries of the Christian era, as evidenced in its creeds and hymns: Apostles' Creed, Gloria Patria, and Doxology.

Doctrinal statement: By the threefold manifestation at the baptism of Jesus, the threefold reference in the apostolic benediction, the mention of three divine persons, and the teaching of Christ and of Paul, the doctrine of the Trinity is plainly and positively taught in the New Testament.

(3) Summary of New Testament teaching

- A Father who is God: "To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1:7).

- A Son who is God: "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom" (Heb.

1:8).

- A Holy Spirit who is God: "But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God" (Acts 5:3,4).

The Father, then, is all the fullness of the Godhead invisible; the Son, of the Godhead manifested, and the Spirit, of the Godhead acting immediately upon

the creature.

c. The Trinity illustrated.

A skeptic had questioned the possibility of the Trinity. "Tell me how the candle burns," asked a believer. "The tallow, the cotton, and the atmospheric air produce the light," answered the skeptic. "But they make one light, do they not?" "Yes," came the reply of the one convinced.

The following further illustrations have been suggested: the fountain, stream, and river; the cloud, rain, and rising mist; color, shape, and size; the three dimensions of space; the spirit, soul, and body in man; and the legislative, judicial, and executive functions of government.

While these analogies show the possibility of the Trinity in unity, yet they are all imperfect analogies of the divine. The distinctions in all of them are impersonal, while those in the Godhead are personal. In these it is a trinity of parts or aspects or functions, while in the being of God it is a trinity of persons. They are of value when used to illustrate the possibility of tri-unity, but not to prove the doctrine of the divine Trinity.

There are no perfect analogies of the Trinity, for it is above finite comprehension and beyond human reason to understand. Many analogies have been advanced which, though each falls short in some particular, aid us in understanding trinity in unity.

The self-existence of God. Some have attempted to define the attribute of self-existence by saying that God is the cause of Himself. Lactantius said, "God, before all things, was procreated from Himself. God, of His own power, made Himself. He is of Himself, therefore He is such as He willed Himself to be." Jerome said,

"God is the origin of Himself and the cause of His own substance.

This error springs primarily from assuming that the existence of Cod must be accounted for on the principle that every beginning must have a cause. This is not so, for God never began to be.

We might say, however, that the ground or reason (rather than the cause) of God's existence is His own immanent perfection, i.e., it is a perfection of God to be uncaused.

The meaning of God's self-existence. This attribute means that God is independent of all else than Himself for the continuity and perpetuity of His Being.

"This, of course, means that the causes of His existence are in Himself. ... The life is inherent. Unlike the life of creatures, it comes from no external source. If there were no creatures in the universe, their non-existence would not in the least, affect the existence of God. It did not affect His existence before He performed the work of creation. He had 'life in Himself when there was life nowhere else. In the total absence of life outside of Himself, all the possibilities of life were in Himself.

"We are never to forget that in Him creatures live and move and have their being - are dependent on Him for life, motion and existence; but His self-existence makes Him absolutely independent. The causes of their existence not being in themselves, creatures are of necessity dependent on the Creator, to whose will the reasons of their existence are traceable. The reason of God's existence is in Himself alone, and His self-existence is an inalienable attribute of His nature. When He interposes His oath to confirm His word He swears by Himself, saying, 'As I live,' leaving His oath to rest on the immutable basis of His self-existence. In the boundless range of human and angelic thought, there will never be found a more profound mystery than the self-existence of God. It defies finite comprehension.

God alone knows how He exists, why He has always existed, and why He will exist forever" (J. M. Pendleton, Christian Doctrines, p. 43).

2. The scriptural fact of God's self-existence: "For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself" (John 5:26 - cf. Acts 17:24-28; 1 Tim. 6:15,16

Weymouth

"God is. His name is evermore, I AM. It certainly can be no limitation of God that He is absolutely unlimited and independent, that He is uncreated and eternal, endowed from all eternity with all possible perfection as the absolute Spirit" (S. Harris, God, the Creator and Lord of All, 1:120).

Doctrinal statement: God is self-sustaining and has been from all eternity. His self-existence is an essential attribute of Himself. It is His nature to exist.

The eternity of God. The attribute of self-existence suggests that of eternality, or it may be said that the two attributes are suggestive of each other. For if the causes of God's existence are in Himself, reason will admit that these causes have been in operation from eternity, and if He is an eternal being, then He must be self. existent. There is no past, present, or future with God so far as His knowledge is concerned, but an eternal "now."

God had no beginning and will have no end. He knows events as taking place in time, but He is not limited by time in any way. He recognizes some events as past, and others as future in relation to present events. But past, present, and future are equally known to Him. We tell of events one by one as they occur. God sees all events in a connected whole as if they were one.

1. The meaning of God's eternality. Eternity is infinite duration, i.e., duration without beginning or end. Punctum stans express it - an ever abiding present. Eternity is limited in our thinking by time and space. He that "inhabited eternity" is beyond our finite comprehension. In reality God's thoughts, purposes, and acts are inseparable and without succession.

Wordsworth said, "Our noisy years seem moments in the being of the eternal silence The word eternal is sometimes used in three senses:

a. Figurative meaning: denoting antiquity or indefinitely long duration, such as

"eternal mountains" or "the eternal

snows.

b. Limited meaning: denoting an existence having a beginning but which will have no end, such as that of the angels, the souls of men, and the punishment of the wicked.

c. Literal meaning: denoting an existence with neither beginning nor end - God. A poet has written:

Eternity transcends all finite bounds of Time, Knows nothing of Duration, with successive years, Before Thy vision, panoramic and sublime Past, present, future, at one glance appears, Unnumbered cycles pass before Thy review,

The new is as the old, the old is as the new.

It is reported that an institutionalized person, when asked to give his understanding of God's eternity, replied: "It is duration, without beginning or end; existence, without bounds or dimension; present, without past or future. His eternity is youth without infancy or old age; life without birth or death;

today, without yesterday or tomorrow."

J. M. Pendleton wrote, "The God of the Bible is the only Being who is absolutely eternal, His existence having neither beginning nor end. In this sense eternity is an attribute peculiarly His own, and on the throne which is 'forever and ever' He must ever sit in majestic isolation. There is no being like Jehovah" (Christian Doctrines, p. 45).

2. The scriptural fact of God's eternality: "Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba; then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines. And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LoRD, the everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days" (Gen.

21:32-34 - cf. Exod. 3:14; Deut. 33:27a; Pss. 90:2; 93:2;

102:24-27; Isa. 44:6; 57:15; Heb. 1:12; Rev. 1:8).

Doctrinal statement: The Bible asserts the fact that God is eternal; His existence had no beginning and will have no ending; He always was, always is, and always will be.

The immutability of God. The self-existence and eternity of God may be considered arguments for His immutability. As an infinite being, absolutely independent and eternal, God is above the possibility of change.

"Creatures change, everything earthly changes, but God changes not. He is and must be eternally the same, for He is infinitely perfect, and infinite perfection prevents and precludes change. There can be no change which does not imply impertec-tion. It is needless to say that imperfection is implied in a change for the worse, for such a change would indicate imperfection be-fore, and treater inserfection after, its occurrence. It is also true that a change for the better denotes previous imperfection, for such a change is toward perfection. Now, God, whether we consider Him as possessing natural or moral attributes, is absolutely perfect.

There can be no addition to the number of His natural attributes, and there can be no increase of their capacity and power. . LEMENTAL THEOLOGY

would be absurd to suppose that God can be more self-existent, more eternal or more omnipotent than He is. It is equally absurd to suppose that His natural attributes can be alienated from Him, or that He can lose them in any way.

"As to the moral attributes of the Divine Character, they also are unchangeable. They bear the stamp of perfection. If God, how-ever, could change in His moral attributes it would imply imperfection in His moral character. If, for example, He could become a better Being than He is, it would imply that He is not perfect in goodness. If He could be more just, then justice has not reached its climax in Him. If He could be more faithful to His word, His veracity would not be perfect. If He could be more holy, it follows that He is not infinitely holy now.

.. God in His moral as well as in His natural attributes is immutable, and therefore His character is unchangeable" J. M. Pendleton, Christian Doctrines, p. 47, italics in original)

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;

Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away,

Change and decay in all around I see;

O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

- Henry F. Lyte

1. The meaning of God's immutability. By "immutability," as used concerning God, we mean that God in His nature, attributes, and counsels is unchanging, for these, as belonging to an infinite being, are perfect and therefore admit to no possible variation.

Immutability does not imply inactivity or immobility, for God is infinite in power and energy. Nor does it imply lack of feeling, for God is capable of infinite sympathy and suffering and of great indignation against iniquity. It does not imply that God is incapable of making free choices, for to God belongs the inalienable right to choose ends and the means of attaining them. Nor does it prohibit God from progressively unfolding and carrying out His plans and purposes.

We might sum up the meaning of God's immutability by saying, it is His moral personal self-consistency in all His dealings with His creatures. The tune of a simple song like 'Home, Sweet Home may be played on an instrument with variations.

But through all variations the tune runs in self-consistent unity to the end. God's immutability is like the tune. It is His self-consistency manifesting itself in endless variations of method"