What Baptists Believe: God

As Baptists we believe in God. What do we believe about God?

We believe that God is defined in the Scripture. To try and define God apart from Scripture will inevitably lead to idolatry. God has revealed Himself through His Word.

The question then is how does the Bible define God?

Here is our statement on who God is:

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

1) God is spiritual. God is a Spirit. John 4:24. God is not limited to a physical body.

He is invisible.

He cannot be contained to one place.

God is omnipresent. He is in all places at all times.

God is always equally present in all places. He will at times reveal His presence in a greater way. But, God is equally present in all places at all times.

This means we can never hide from God.

This means God can always help us.

Some may argue “What about hell?”

Psalm 139:8

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

2) God is personal. We can know God.

John 17:3- And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

God speaks to us, and we can speak to Him.

God cares for us.

3) God is self-existent.

When the Bible begins (Gen. 1:1) God is there. There is no explanation on how God came to be because He did not come to be. This is what we mean when we say God is eternal.

There was never a time God did not exist. There will never be a time He does not exist.

Isa. 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

Psalm 90:2- Before the mountains were brought forth,

or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

This means that God is not dependent on anyone or anything.

4) God is unchanging. He will continue to be what He has always been.

Malachi 3:6- “For I the Lord do not change;”

5) He is omnipotent.

Job 42:2- “I know that you can do all things,

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

6) He is omniscient. He knows everything.

He never needs advice.

He never needs insight.

He cannot be deceived.

1 John 3:20- God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

7) God is love.

His love is greater than any love.

John 3:16 “so”

These are all attributes of God. They describe God in terms we can understand.

8) There is only one God.

When we read the Bible it is easy to see there is only one God. The Bible condemns polytheism. Religious pluralism is never seen in a good light when we look at the bible.

Deut. 6:4- Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD:

The commandments in Exodus 20 condemn the worship of other gods.

9) God is a Trinity

There is one God who exists in three persons.

Why do we believe this?

Because the Bible says so.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).

The baptismal formula that Jesus gave us is “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Let’s talk about the Trinity for a moment.

It is not teaching there are three gods.

It is teaching that God exists as one being in three persons.

That’s hard to grasp and it should be.

Bad analogies:

The egg- 1/3 each?

Ice- water, ice, steam- Can only be one of those at a time.

Person- father, son, husband. Still only one person.

The Father is not the Spirit, but the Father is God.

The Holy Spirit is not the Son, but the Holy Spirit is God.

The Son is not the Father, but the Son is God.

The three persons share the exact same essence. If you could somehow analyze all three persons, you would see they share the same essence but they are distinct persons.

The Son is just as much God as the Father is.

The Spirit is just as much God as the Son is.

There is no distinction in power, worth, or knowledge among the members of the Trinity. The distinction is only in persons.

That’s hard to comprehend because we are talking about God! Be honest, we wouldn’t make that up. If we wanted to understand God we would make up something more simple than that.

The Trinity is the only way to make sense of what God reveals about himself in the Bible.

It is a necessary doctrine.

Let me give you some more Bible that references the Trinity

Isaiah 6:8

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

2 Cor. 13:14

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

One God.

Three Persons.

This is the only way to properly understand the God of the Bible.

You cannot be a Christian without believing in the Trinity because the object of your faith must be the One True God.

I didn’t say you had to understand the Trinity to be saved. I am saying you cannot reject the Trinity and be saved.

To reject one member of the Godhead is to reject God.

Baptists have always held the to the Doctrine of the Trinity. Someone may say “the word trinity isn’t in the Bible.” They are right. Many words we use are not in the bible. What is in the Bible is the teaching that God has eternally existed in three distinct persons. The word invented to describe this is Trinity.