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The Nature
of God
"What do you mean
by God's 'nature'?"
God's 'nature' means His characteristics, His
attributes, His qualities.
"I read somewhere
that man can't really know anything about the nature of God."
Among others, Smith, George H. Atheism: The Case Against God.
Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books 1989 correctly points out that
man can never truly understand the essential nature of a god.
However, we can have an approximate
understanding of God's nature, a "working definition", and that is all we
really need. God tells us about Himself in the Bible
and He came in person and showed us what He is
like in the person of Jesus Christ.
"What is the nature
of the God Christians believe in? What are His characteristics, His
attributes, His qualities? What is He like?"
Christianity claims that the God of all things is unique in that He alone
has the following divine characteristics (in no particular
order):
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SUPREMACY
The God of Judaism and Christianity is the Supreme Being.
He is not merely a different type of being or a
superior being but the Supreme Being.
-
UNIQUENESS
God is unique. The Bible describes Him in Greek as
monogenesis, i.e., "one of a kind", "having a unique nature."
-
ETERNALNESS
He always has existed and always will exist. He had no beginning and
will never cease to exist. (Also see
IMMORTAL below.)
-
OMNISCIENCE
He knows all things.
-
OMNIPOTENCE
He is all powerful.
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OMNIPRESENCE
He is everywhere at the same time.
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SELF-EXISTENT
God is the only thing that had no beginning, that was not created by something
else.
-
HOLINESS Holy
means pure, undefiled.
-
TRIUNE NATURE
The one God consists of three distinct persons:
-
JEHOVAH - often referred to as the
Father
-
JESUS - often referred to as the Son
-
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Also see Another
Look at the Trinity at http://www.carm.org/trinitylook.htm
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THEISTIC
Deistic and theistic are adjectives from
the field of comparative religion. They describe the relationship between
a god and that which it creates. A deistic god is one that would distance
itself from that which it creates, one the would not get involved in the
activities of the things it created. A deistic god would essentially
be an "absentee father" god -- it would create a universe and then sit back
and says "I made you, but I don't want to get involved. You're on your
own!" The God of the Bible is theistic. He does
not distance Himself from that which He creates. He gets
actively involved in the activities of the things He created.
In fact, the God of the Bible 'micromanages' things.
-
TRANSCENDENT
God transcends that which He created, i.e., He "goes
beyond" that which He created, He is not limited to,
He is not bound by that which He created. For example,
in the physical universe it is impossible for a single being to consist of
three distinct persons, but God is not limited by physical laws, so He
can be
one God and yet consist of three distinct
persons.
Christianity claims that, in addition, this unique God shares the following
characteristics with certain other things:
-
ALIVE The one
God is a living being.
-
PERSONAL
God is a living person with thoughts, reactions, etc., not an impersonal
thing.
-
SPIRIT A
spirit is a living being that is incorporeal,
i.e., it does not possess a physical body. Note that Jesus took
on a physical human body. It is not an inherent part of His
nature. By comparison, our bodies are part of our human nature but we put
on clothes.
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INTELLIGENCE
-
SENTIENCE
A sentient being has intelligence, and also is
aware of its own existence, and aware that there is
a 'big picture'. For instance, cats, dogs, and horses
have intelligence but probably are not sentient.
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IMMORTAL
God is a being that will live forever.
Note the technical difference between eternalness and
immortality: God is eternal because had He had
no beginning. He also is immortal because He will live
forever. Humans, angels, demons, etc., are immortal because we will never
cease to exist, but not eternal because we did not always exist.
It is important to realize that in practice eternal and
immortal are often used interchangeably and the technical
difference is not always maintained.
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SEPARATE God
is separate from that which He created. The universe itself is not
God. (The opposite is pantheism. Some "nature" religions
believe that the universe itself is god.)
Do you know someone who likes beautiful astrophotographs?
Do you wish they would read the Bible? Check this out:
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