The Doctrine of God

Session 2 The Doctrine of God

Our doctrine of God is drawn from Genesis through Revelation, from the Old Testament as much as from the New Testament.

God is the source of all life, glory, goodness, and blessedness, in and of himself. He alone is sufficient and does not require anything from the creatures he made, nor does He require any glory from them.

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The Monotheistic God in which Christians put their faith is both Transcendent (independent and removed from the material world) and immanent (intently involved in the material world).

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The Bible gives two facts regarding the knowledge of God. First, it teaches that God is incomprehensible, but at the same time, it declares that He is Knowable. (Isaiah 55:8- 9, Rom. 11:33-34, John 17:3, John 1:12, Rom. 8:15-16)

Cultural Note:

If one were to ask most people in Western culture today if they believed in God, the answer would most likely be ‘yes;’ however, not everything is as it appears. When Americans say they believe in God, what do they mean? (Look at the graphs)

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According to Pew Research, nine out of ten Americans believe in a higher power; however, only a slim majority believe in God as described in the Bible. The study contends that many Americans who believe in God with absolute certainty have declined in recent years.

Therefore, the new apologist must ask: When someone says they do not believe in God, who or what are they rejecting? Are they rejecting belief in any higher power or spiritual force in the universe, or are they rejecting only a traditional idea of God, perhaps viewing a fanciful picture of God as a bearded man in the sky?

I was raised in a Christian Home

However, sometime in my youth the God in my thinking was shrunken pseudo-deity, far from the God of the Bible. The God who is transcendent and holds everything in His sway was not a real concept in my life.

Once leaving home, and facing the world on my own I came to the stark realization that this God I thought I knew had been reduced something lesser in my life, not the God that we read about in Scripture. What had happened is that I felt detached from the knowable God by shrinking my world view and placing God in a box that I pulled out on Sunday morning or around my religious circles, and then tucked neatly away when I went out in the world.

The Danger of Having too Small a View of God

Few people suffer from a God that is too big, but many suffer from a God who is too small. We all have to take care that our limited ability to conceive or imagine doesn’t restrict our theology of God and his glory.

We cannot allow ourselves to hold a theology that shrinks or diminishes God’s magnitude in our lives and His creation.

The Doctrine of God forms the whole scope of our Christian Theology.

God wants people to remember Him forever by the name of Yahweh or Lord.

The Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4–5 is the most famous confession of faith in the Old Testament: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” We have seen that the Lord is a profoundly holy person who creates a covenant relationship with his creatures. We learn this fundamental truth when God reveals himself to Moses as the Lord.[1](Exodus 3:14-15, “I am, Who I am”)

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Lordship asserts who is in Control.

Some have maintained that God intends to reveal his incomprehensibility: he is telling Moses that no name in human language is appropriate for him. The name is “wrapped in a final inappropriateness so that God escapes and transcends it.” But Scripture never treats the name Yahweh as even slightly inappropriate as a designation of God. Instead, God keeps reminding us of the appropriateness of his name. He is the Lord, and human beings must reckon with that fact.

(Slide)

There is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God.

Because God can never be fully known, those seeking to know God should be deeply humbled, realizing they will always have more to learn. Considering his incomprehensible greatness, the appropriate response to God is a heart of wonder and awe.

(Slide of Sunset)

Here is what plays out in the difference between knowing about God and knowing God.

We could take a picture of a beautiful sunset scene. Like this one that I took one evening last week at Mighty Oaks. Now, you are seeing the picture for the first time. Now you can see it, and recognize it for what it is, however the magnificent glory of God is not like that. No single picture could ever truly capture the glory of God. Glory simply cannot be photographed.

However, I was in Ohio, and experienced the beauty of the sunset in this picture. This is much the way it is with knowing God as apposed to knowing about God. Every true believer knows the glory of God. We are being changed from one degree of glory to another. (2 Corinthians 3:18) While we cannot fully know God right now, we are confident that He who began a good work in us is working to complete that work on the day of Christ Jesus.

Why God is Incomprehensible

The main reasons for God’s incomprehensibility are:

1. God is Infinite, and His creatures are Finite.

We live in a Glory War Today

Each of us are hardwired for the glory of God. We are glory oriented human beings. Ecclesiastes 3:11 we read how God has put eternity in man’s heart, even though he cannot perceive or know what God is doing from the beginning to the end.

As finite creatures it is hardwired into our DNA to seek glory for ourselves. We take credit all the time for what God has done. We want to be sovereign, and we want to be worshiped. We set up our own system of laws and rules that are governed by our own selfish motives and desires.

However, it is clear that only God’s glory can satisfy the glory under that is inside of our hearts and lives. That spec of eternal perspective that is placed in man’s heart must be nurtured and grown. Even though we are finite God in His infinite wisdom and power chose to place the knowledge of the infinite in our hearts.

2. The perfect unity of God’s attributes is far beyond the realm of human experience.

Even though I experienced the beauty of the sunset at Striker lake it is far beyond my ability to fully know and understand the God who painted the sunset and set it in place at that moment in time. 1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us that what we know in part but then we shall know fully even as I have been fully known”

3. Sin's effects on fallen humanity's minds also significantly inhibit our ability to know God.

We know that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in Christ. (Romans 12:2) however, because of sin’s effect on our minds it also inhibits us in our ability to fully know God. In the garden before the fall, Adam and Eve walked and talked with God uninhibited by the fog of sin.

It’s like soldiers speak of the fog of war that clouds their judgement and ability to perform well on the battle field.

4. Another reason that God can never be fully known is that in God’s sovereign wisdom, God has chosen not to reveal some things.

In heaven, God’s incomprehensibility will no doubt be lessened when the effects of sin no longer ravage minds and when he will most likely share some of his secrets. However, God will always be infinite, and humans will always be finite, so he will always be beyond human ability to know exhaustively.

Implications of God’s Incomprehensibility

Because God can never be fully known, those who seek to know God should humbly realize that they will always have more to Learn.

So, our appropriate response should always be one of Wonder and Awe, considering his incomprehensible greatness.

GOD IN EVERYDAY LIFE

The most important thing for your mind to understand is the existence of God. Perhaps that makes the first four words of the Bible the most significant works in all of creation, “In the Beginning God.”

There is no place where the presence and existence of God does not press heavily on His creation. We read about this in Romans 1:20

Romans 1:20 ESV

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Psalm 14 says that anyone who say’s it their heart that there is no God is a FOOL.

The Knowability of God

The incomprehensibility of God could lead someone to Despair or Apathy in the quest to know God.

Paul Trip “Do you Believe.”

Responses to the Existence of God

Group #1

People who Deny the Existence of God.

Group #2

Some people say that they believe in the concept of God but seem to have little desire to know him, and if they feel this way then their belief appears to make little difference in their lives.

Group #3

People who believe in the God of the Bible and, because they do, have come to confess, surrender, and worship Him.

Group #4

There is nothing more important, more central, more heart engaging, and more formative in my life than my belief in my relationship with my Savior and Lord. It is not only at the center of my worldview, but he is the source of all my hope in this life and in the life to come.

Warning:

Remember this is very important, just because someone say’s that they have a belief in “god” does not mean that they are people of faith as the Bible describes what it means to be a Christ follower. Matthew 7:7 “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of heaven.....”

Even though God cannot be exhaustively known, He can be known personally and sufficiently.

God is personal, has definite characteristics, and has personally revealed himself so that he can be indeed known. The multiplication of grace and peace in our lives depends on knowing God (2 Pet. 1:2–3), and this knowledge provides sufficient resources for life and becoming the people God wants us to be.

Knowledge of God in Christ should be our greatest delight (Jer. 9:23–24; 1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 6:14). It is the basis of attaining eternal life (John 17:3); it is at the heart of life in the new covenant (Heb. 8:11–12); it was Paul’s primary goal (Phil. 3:10); and it leads to godly love (1 John 4:7–8).

We see the beauty and grace Revealed in His Creation. Psalm 19:1-4

Psalm 19:1–4 ESV

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,

Implication of the Knowability of God

God’s personal and sufficient revelation of himself should foster solid conviction among believers. We need not live in ambiguity and uncertainty about who God is and what he demands of his creatures.

Nothing is more humbling than acknowledging the Existence of God

It is of utmost importance that we Understand what it Means to Believe in God.

However, God can be known because of his gracious revelation and illumination. God’s knowability should lead to eager, diligent, devoted study of God’s Word so that we can understand him as he has revealed Himself and avoid any false view of God that will dishonor him. We should never grow apathetic in seeking to know God because we are equipped to know and please him with our lives.[2]

Attributes of God

God is Everlasting Psalm90:2

Psalm 90:2 ESV

2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

God is Good James 1:17

James 1:17 ESV

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

God is Everywhere Psalm139:7-12

Psalm 139:7–12 ESV

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

God is All Knowing 1 John 3:20

1 John 3:20 ESV

20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

God is Almighty Revelation 19:6

Revelation 19:6 ESV

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

God is Light 1 John 1:5

1 John 1:5 ESV

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

God is Merciful Ephesians 2:4,5

Ephesians 2:5 ESV

5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

God is Righteous Romans 3:26

Romans 3:26 ESV

26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

God is Truth John 14:6

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

God is Judge Acts 17:31

Acts 17:31 ESV

31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”