DOCTRINE OF GOD GENESIS 1-2
DOCTRINE OF GOD Does God exist? Who is God?
DOES GOD EXIST? The Bible never tries to prove the existence of God. It simply affirms that God exists. Throughout history, however, some people have expended energy and time trying to prove the existence of God.
DOES GOD EXIST? The Bible assumes that one who seeks after God will find him because God is already present, eager to meet any who search after Him (Hebrews 11:6).
WHO IS GOD? God is a Transcendent Being God is a Dynamic Being God is Absolute Goodness
TRANSCENDENT BEING 1. Before time began and all things were created, there existed nothing and no one but God. Before anything else, God was. (Exodus 3)
As if God were saying... Moses, you cannot see me. But I am more real than anything you can touch and see, because I am life original from whom all other life derives. I am dependent on nothing and no one for my existence. I am pure being, discrete and autonomous.
TRANSCENDENT BEING 2.He is not contained within time (eternal).
Applied to God, eternal does not signify infinite longevity; rather, it refers to the fact that, as the creator of time, God is a nontemporal or timeless being. God cannot be contained by anything he has created, including time, though he can act within time and affect history.
TRANSCENDENT BEING 3. God is a personal being.
God s transcendence does not prevent him from responding with true feelings to situations that develop within his creation. The Bible describes him as being capable of experiencing emotions, such as surprise, disappointment, indignation, pleasure, and love.
TRANSCENDENT BEING Omnipresence Omnipotence Omniscience
OMNIPRESENCE RIGHT: God s energizing power permeates this whole universe because he makes things hold together. WRONG: God is present in all places. For God is not present in the bottle of liquor, in the pornographic magazines... etc.
OMNIPOTENCE RIGHT: God is all-powerful and that he has the ultimate mastery and sovereignty over all things and all beings WRONG: God can do everything and anything. Ex: God cannot be tempted by evil, commit sin, be untrue to himself, commit suicide, or violate his nature.
OMNISCIENCE God is perfect in knowledge. Being the Creator of time, God cannot be unaware of the past, present or future. The Bible also registers God s surprise, disappointment, and even regret at the discovery of what happens on the human scene. He limits his awareness.
WHO IS GOD? God is a Transcendent Being God is a Dynamic Being God is Absolute Goodness
DYNAMIC BEING 1.Dynamic within Himself Trinity 2.Dynamic in His activity Creation Response to sin Jesus Involvement with his creation
WHO IS GOD? God is a Transcendent Being God is a Dynamic Being God is Absolute Goodness
ABSOLUTE GOODNESS 1.The holiness of God 2.The giving love of God 3.The servant love of God
HOLINESS OF GOD holiness is not a quality recognizable among humans 1. God is the creator of Good 2. God is the protector of that which is Good. 3. God is the restorer of Good when goodness is lost.
The tree stood as a No Trespassing sign, as if God were saying, Please, respect and protect the goodness of your humanity. Don t try to play God or to become like God. Only God is immune to evil. Let God be God and you remain content to be humans. If you try to usurp God s sovereignty, you will be destroyed. You will cut yourself off from God and die.
GIVING LOVE OF GOD Q: Why did God create the universe? A: Because God is love (1 John 4:8), he is also a giver. Love yearns to give. In fact, true love cannot stop giving. It gives compulsively and irrepressibly. He gives creation. He gives himself.
SERVANT LOVE OF GOD 1. He rests on the 7th day. 2. He responds to the rebellion of Adam and Eve. 3. He protects them from living forever (Tree of Life). 4. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them (Gen. 3:21).
WHO IS GOD? God is a Transcendent Being God is a Dynamic Being God is Absolute Goodness
PROBLEM OF EVIL
PROBLEM OF EVIL If God is great and good, why did he create a world in which there are evil, pain, and sorrow?
PROBLEM OF EVIL Most religious systems are attempts made at resolving the contradictions of good and evil, of pleasure and suffering, of life and death.
TRADITIONAL ANSWERS 1. We live in a random universe where things simply happen. Events, good or bad, are simply the results of the chance interplay between blind forces.
TRADITIONAL ANSWERS 2. There is no evil. What seems to be evil is simply the absence of goodness.
TRADITIONAL ANSWERS 3. Evil is an illusion, an aberration of our unlearned minds. All things are perfect as they are; evil has no objective existence. Appropriate attitudes and wholesome thought habits can rid us of what we think is evil.
TRADITIONAL ANSWERS 4. The evil that happens to us is justified because it is well deserved. It is moral requital for the wrong we all commit. Beat your child once a day. If you don t know why, he does.
TRADITIONAL ANSWERS 5. Evil is the mistaken result of the creational activity of a finite, limited god who cannot keep up with his runaway creation. Since he cannot be everywhere, he is busy fixing a blunder in one place when trouble develops somewhere else.
TRADITIONAL ANSWERS 6. Suffering and death on the human scene are the result of a gigantic spiritual battle forever waged between two deities: one good, the other evil. We as humans, caught in the crunch, catch the fallout of this cosmic face-off.
TRADITIONAL ANSWERS 7. Evil is God s will.
BIBLICAL ANSWERS 1. We are able to peer into the existence of an order of created beings prior to humans. [Ephesians 6:12] A. principalities B. powers C. rulers of this present darkness D. spiritual hosts of wickedness
BIBLICAL ANSWERS 2. Evil is the result of humans abusing the freedom granted to them by God.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was intended to make them accountable for their decisions. Following the lead of Satan, these first humans challenged the sovereignty of God, just as each one of us does when we sin. Such a challenge constitutes the very essence of evil.
SOVEREIGNTY The ability of humans to defy God and reject his rule inevitably raises questions about the nature of God s sovereignty. How can the Bible affirm divine sovereignty when humans violate it at will? How can divine sovereignty and human free will coexist?
SOVEREIGNTY Humanly defined, sovereignty means control. In order to rule, an earthly sovereign has to be the person in charge and to impose his will on his subjects. They do not have freedom. The monarch or dictator controls a tightly held system of enforcements that prevents or punishes any infractions to his rule. He tolerates no dissent.
SOVEREIGNTY Too often, we project on God this kind of human sovereignty, reducing him to the dimensions of an extraterrestrial tyrant. We think that in order to have his way, God must make everything go his way. Such a view of divine sovereignty is demeaning to the God revealed in Scripture.
SOVEREIGNTY God is always greater than our highest conception of him, and his sovereignty has no common measure with our human practices of sovereignty. God sets objectives and determines the outcome. But he does not have to control the process in order to reach the outcome.
SOVEREIGNTY Despite all the crazy twists and turns of human events, despite the opposition and sometimes by means of the opposition, God s intentions for the world and for those who commit themselves to him will ultimately prevail.
SOVEREIGNTY The fact that God does not necessarily control the processes of history does not exclude his involvement in history whenever he deems it necessary or whenever he hears the prayers of his people. That is, God remains attuned to unfolding history. He yearns to hear from his children prayers that invite him to become involved in their concerns (Lk 11:5 13; 18:1 8).
SOVEREIGNTY Two dimensions to God s sovereignty: a) God is sovereign within history over those who accept his sovereignty and submit to it b) God is sovereign over history in determining its outcomes. Humans have the freedom to bring ruin on themselves and their environments whenever they don t to submit to God s sovereignty.
BIBLICAL ANSWERS 3. Although God does not cause evil, the Bible teaches that he occasionally achieves positive results through it. The Bible teaches that, although God abhors evil, he sometimes utilizes it for beneficial purposes.
BIBLICAL ANSWERS 4. The Bible also teaches that the ultimate value of the objectives God wants to achieve through history transcends the suffering that occurs in bringing them about. In other words, the desired ends are worth the painful process.
THE DILEMMA A holy God creates a world vulnerable to evil. Thus, there is the issue of divine responsibility for the existence of evil. Since it was God who had created the world into which evil would emerge, his responsibility is also involved. Had God not created the world, there would have been no evil.
THE DILEMMA Why did God proceed with creation, knowing that it would become ravaged with evil and that countless numbers of his creatures would doom themselves to eternal death? Or, put differently: Why did God create free will, knowing that it would become self-destructive?
THE ANSWER Because he is love, God is by nature a giving God. When he gives, he is not content with giving galaxies, mountains and lakes, rocks and plants, fish, birds, and cattle. He irresistibly invests in his creation what is most precious to him: he gives himself by giving his own image.
THE ANSWER Because God cannot go against his own giving nature, he creates human beings endowed with the capacity to make decisions. This very freedom that God granted to his image-bearers so that they would reflect his likeness held the potential for rivalry with God, rebellion, sin, and death.
THE ANSWER God neither willed evil nor did he create it. But because he by nature loves freedom and gives freedom, he was compelled by the necessity of who he is to give the very freedom that would turn against him and against itself. God is neither sadistic nor whimsical.
RESPONSE TO JOB God seems to be saying to Job, I know you are suffering because of the evil present in the world, but so am I. We re in this together.
RESPONSE TO US God, lovingly and servant-like, accepts divine responsibility for evil in the world and assumes it upon himself. An arrogant and unholy god could have turned his back on a rebellious and corrupted planet, forsaking it to its self-destructive plight.
RESPONSE TO US But the same giving love that caused God to create the world also compelled him to save it. For God so loved the world that he gave his Son.