The question of who God is can be expressed and explain in depth also to put it in words that carries on endlessly but to begin with, the bible clearly states that “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, all who follow his percepts have good understanding” – Psalms 111:10. In simple words, it means one who takes God seriously. Taking this as the central idea, the Bible says in Genesis that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. God is omnipotent and omniscient. God is transcendent yet immanent. God is supreme yet inherent and dwells within us. To narrow it down and put it structurally;
Spirituality - God is spirit, is not composed of matter or posses a physical nature as John 4:24 states “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”.
Life – God is alive. The very words mentioned by God saying “I AM” in Exodus 3:14 indicates that God is alive.
Personality – God is an individual being, with self-consciousness and capable of feeling even mutual relationship with other personal or social beings. The picture at the beginning of time in Genesis 3 when God comes and relates with Adam and Eve.
Infinity – God is infinite. God is infinite in terms of space, time, knowledge and power. Scripture even backs these statements up.
Constancy – God is unchanging and constant. Matthew 24:35 says that “heaven and earth will fade, but his words will still remain”.
Hi Theo,
ReplyDeleteInspiring writing fren, well done. But i have a question, you said that God is spirit, not composed of matter nor possesses a physical nature. and he clearly is so. However, Jesus did come in the flesh, and after his resurrection, He ascended to heaven in his bodily form. So if Jesus is also God, then wouldn't God have a aspect of physical nature as well?
And if so, then don't you think that the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are not wrong in crafting icons of the image of Jesus? I think since the incarnation of Jesus, we need to change the way we describe God's spirituality as well for i think the incarnation does change a lot of things. I think the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox did catch something that we protestants may perhaps have neglected.
Yours,
Jase Foo
Hi Theo,
ReplyDeleteYour work was simple, to the point and sound. However, I do have a question for you that I have a problem solving myself (I assure you this is a sincere question and not a trick one).
You made the comment that God is infinite with regards to power and strength to which I totally agree. However as an orthodox Christian we believe God exists in three distinct Persons who are co-equal and co-existent. Now if all three of them are infinite in power wouldn't that present a logical conflict? Can the Son who is Almighty destroy the Holy Spirit who is also Almighty? Or can the Father annihilate the Son? If either of them can't then neither of them would be infinite in power because there is something that they are unable to do. At the same time if one of them could destroy the other wouldn't that be an even bigger problem to our theology? How would one solve this problem with regards to God's infinity? Thx :)
To Jase Foo...
ReplyDeleteMuch research… The Bible states in John 4:24 that “God is spirit and those who worship him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”. A point to take note of is that God does not have limitations involved with a physical body. Images of Jesus tend to show ethnic characteristics similar to those of the culture in which the image has been created.1
Actually there are no reliable sources of the picture of Jesus as most of the art depicting Jesus are just artist’s impressions. Once again I would not want to neglect the belief systems of the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox.
My point!
Crafted images of God? Acts 17:24 says that “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of the heavens and earth, does not live in shrines made by man” as he is not destructible. There are many passages in the Bible that suggest God has physical features. According to Milliard J. Erickson, we treat these scriptures as anthropomorphisms – attempts to express the truth about God through human analogies. There are cases where God appeared in physical forms as these will be understood as theophanies or temporary manifestations of God.
God is spirit and Jesus clearly indicated that the spirit does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). In biblical times, God’s spirituality was to counter to the practice of idolatry and the nature of worship. For instance : Mormons contends that an immaterial body cannot exist.2
Source:
1. Wikipedia
2. James E. Talmage, A Study of the Articles of
Faith
yes agree with your conclusion.
ReplyDeleteUnless God becomes real to us, then who God is becomes relevant to us. He needs to be personal to us and indeed He wants to be personal to us. Thus God is not just the Word in the Bible, but the Word incarnated and lived and lives forever as in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Great research on who is God.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sis Poh Kian and Bro Nick Nip..
ReplyDeleteAlso to Samuel and Jason for stirring up faith and mind challenging questions.. Indeed these are questions of the church at large especially among believers and non-believers. I hope my answers are helpful and are based on the what the word of God.