Christianity And The Nature Of God

Moving onto the last element of the “God First Theory,” revelation, one finds that through “divine revelation” God speaks to His children, those who have grown and developed a deep, intimate relationship with Him, providing them with the enlightenment of His will through His Spirit. Such a revelation is expressed in John 14:26, which states that the Comforter “shall teach you all things. ” Furthermore, I Corinthians 2:10 speaks of divine revelation, stating that “God hath revealed” things “unto us by his Spirit.” Consequently, divine revelation is offered unto those whom He calls His children. Additionally, God uses “general revelation” in speaking to the hearts of mankind, not just His children, but all of mankind, sharing with them the

We have the two laws, the Law of nature and the law of human nature or moral law. Two world views discussed are the “Life-force” philosophy, an overall creator, or “Creative evolution”, which holds that any variation on this planet evolved from a life-force. You would have to dig deeper to see if they mean one with a mind.

Christianity treads a delicate delineation between faith and reason. At times, the two seem mutually exclusive. During the early stages of Christianity, church fathers argued about the roles of Athens and Jerusalem in Christianity. Some, like Tertullian, insisted Christianity consisted solely of Jerusalem, or faith alone. Others, like St. Augustine and Clement of Alexandria, argued that all truth stems from the character of God, and is thus viable to the Christian. They united Athens and Jerusalem, reason and faith. The interplay of faith and reason shines brightest through the work of Thomas Aquinas, who, like Augustine, believed faith and reason play an intertwined role in revealing truth.

Michael J. Himes, in his book Doing the Truth in Love, describes theology as a way of “talking about God.” Talking about God brings many questions to mind: how do people talk about God when God is a mystery? How do people converse about what they do not know for sure? Many may think theology is inherited and even theologians talk about what they have learned from doctrines and the history they have been taught. Even though theologians know very little about God aside from what they studied, they still know it is important to talk about God. As Himes states, “God is simply too important to us not to talk about.” Although theologians are still figuring out the mysteries of God, they attempt to put forth their opinions and ideas about God in order to inspire people to find their own theology.

The nature of God with a physical presence was also Christian dogma during the New Testament times. Early Christian theology, like its close cousin, Jewish theology, was built upon a literal reading of the Hebrew sacred writings (aka Old Testament scriptures) with its habitual use of direct anthropomorphisms. The early Christians in antiquity, like the Jews, were quite comfortable with this anthropomorphist God in whose image and likeness man was created. This would not be the case for long, for within a few centuries the Christians would feel a need to modify this theological concept by adopting, adapting and merging Greek philosophical elements.

Scripture opens with a witness to the act of God in creation. This fact points to us that understanding the world as the creation of the infinite-personal God is a fundamental starting point in constructing any kind of adequate theology. What is also clear is that it is important to get this understanding right, to the extent that we can do so. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1 HCSB) (Akin, Theology of the church). But with the revelation of the speaking God who has told us what he has done should make us want to please him each and every day and to show him we love him to.

Firstly, scripture has an essential role in the revelation of the doctrine of God, as it is an important part of one of the two methods by which he reveals himself to us, these two methods are general and special revelation. To begin, general revelation is the way in which God evokes his work and light in the nature of man, so that we may acknowledge his worth, as well as the beauty of his traits. This innate trait to recognize the beauty and order of nature is prearranged, so that no man can be excused for an ignorance of the Lord and his existence. In the word of God, it is affirmed, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). We are told that God has intentionally left a mark on us and the world, leaving a signature on all of his creations, so that we persistently ask questions about our creator and his plausible existence. The Lord deliberately created such a divine and natural order of the world,

Groothuis, Douglas R.. Christian apologetics: a comprehensive case for biblical faith. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic ;, 2011.

To question if you were an elect of God's grace, Calvin considered to be pointless for the actions of God are infallible and outside man's comprehension. Calvin cited the words of Jesus Christ to his disciples, “I have... many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now [John 16:12]” (Calvin, 181). This comparison of the apostles inability to “comprehend” the word of God, Calvin argued, remained true for all mankind (Calvin, 182). Knowledge outside of the word of God, such as the knowledge of predestination should not be known by man, for it unattainable and leads astray; Calvin warned those who sought this information privy to God pursued a “foolish as well as perilous” path, leading them “headlong into ruin” (Calvin, 182).

Skeptics and believers alike encounter a variety of questions about Christianity. Whether those questions are the person’s own or are asked of them by someone else, the exploration of how to answer questions about faith, the Bible, and a Christian worldview is often a defining factor in what an individual believes. Timothy Keller’s book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism attempts to answer these questions thoroughly and completely in order to convince the skeptic and affirm the believer.

The relationship between God and humanity brings with it also the seeds of religion as the expression of our connection with God, and therefore of religion as a historical phenomenon. In discussing the fundamental nature of our relationship with God, Schelling approaches the narrative of Genesis in a way analogous to that he uses for the monotheistic dogma. Therefore, Schelling reads the history of the original couple as carrying in itself an account of the ideal or negative image of our relationship with God. In this respect, the Fall as narrated by the book of Genesis is a catastrophic event preceding history, that Schelling argues to be visible a posteriori in the fact that nature fails to display the unity it should have, as it is made unable to do so by the Fall itself. Consequently, Schelling reads the end of the Edenic condition as the key to

While there are definite highlights throughout Simply Christian, there exists also several passages which are somewhat troubling. One such example is found on page 118. The claim is made that Christians are mistaken when they assert that Jesus was “aware of his divinity … in a sense that would have made events like his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane quite inexplicable.” And though Wright admits that this topic brings us “to the borders of theology,” his explanation is far from convincing. Though arguments for Jesus’ divinity are clearly stated later by Wright, he seems to claim that Jesus was not inherently and completely aware of this divinity until, perhaps, he experienced an epiphany one day while meditating or reading the scriptures.

We continue our study of the history of God by looking at His attributes from a number of different viewpoints. We will first examine the view of Classical Theism, then the view of Freewill Theism, and finally that of Open Theism. We begin by defining Classical Theism, also called traditional theism or Augustinian theism.

a) Christians believe many different things about God’s nature; due to the huge spectrum of Christians that there are. However, as a general rule they perceive God as being one of the following four things:

The existence of God has been in question for as long as mankind has existed and thought logically. Many questions have plagued the human mind in regards to God, and there have been many arguments drawn with the hopes of proving the existence of a supreme being whom we know as God. The “God” question has been presented to every individual at some point in their lives. It is a topic that will bring forth never-ending questions and an equal amount of attempted answers. Many philosophers have formulated different rationales when examining the topic of God, some of which include how the word itself should be defined, what his role is in human existence, whether or not he loves us, and ultimately, if he even exists at all. Mankind cannot