Basic Christian
Doctrines 14
1.
God is Eternal.
God fills
all time and dwells in the realm of eternity (Isa. 57:15). He is the Ancient of
Days (Dan. 7:9). He is not only older than the universe, He is eternal. He
never had a beginning. He has always been the great “I AM”. He is from
everlasting to everlasting (Psa. 90:2). He is, was and always shall be (Rev.
1:8). We cannot fully grasp just what eternity is, though, for we are not
eternal. We are limited by time; God is not. God is eternal in His love and
other attributes. He gives eternal life, which is not merely endless life but
eternal in its quality.
2.
God is
Infinite.
God is
not limited by time; neither is He limited by space. He is infinite. He is
omnipresent, or present everywhere at the same time. He is immense. God is not
only big; He is sizeless. There is no place where God is not. He is a circle
whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. The entire
universe cannot contain Him (Acts 17:24). The universe, therefore, is not
infinite, but God is. He is everywhere, but especially in Heaven. Also, He is
imminent, or near all of us. He is also transcendent, or high above us (Isa.
57:15).
3.
God is Spirit.
God is
spirit, not a spirit (John 4:24). This refers to His being, not the Holy
Spirit. God has no material body. His substance is pure and uncreated spirit.
He is invisible to us now, but one day we will see Him. Being pure spirit, He
is one in being, not having parts. The attributes of God are not parts of God,
but qualities of His whole being. The Mormons are wrong to say God has a
physical body. No, but God the Son became a man and took on a fleshly body
(John 1:14).
4.
God is Unchangeable.
God is perfect,
and therefore never changes (Mal. 3:6). There is no shadow of change in His
being (James 1:17). He is immutable. He cannot change for the better, for He is already perfect. Nor can He change for
the worse, for that would mean He is not perfect. He is not growing, either.
So-called “Process Theology” says God is changing and growing, but God already
knows everything and is everywhere, so He cannot change to a fuller existence.
This does not mean He is stagnant, though. He is perfect in life. And God does
not change His mind or decrees. He is the same yesterday, today and forever
(Heb. 13:8). Everything else changes, but not God (Heb. 1:12).
5.
God is Holy.
God is holy. He is absolutely pure. “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). He is absolutely morally pure. It is not that He became pure by purification, but is pure by nature. He is totally just. His will is Law for all His creatures, but there is no higher law to which God is subject. Also, because we are not holy, God is angry. He is filled with wrath and fury, far more than we can imagine. And it is a pure and holy wrath, not like losing one's temper. God is so holy that He cannot break His own Law. It is the height of blasphemy, then, for any mere sinful creature to accuse God of doing anything wrong. Being angry against sin, God will punish all unrepentant sinners in eternal Hell. Lastly, we are to pattern our ideas and lives after God, for He has said, “Be holy as I the Lord am holy” (I Peter 1:16). We can never be as holy as God, but should strive to obey Him in all things without hesitation or question.
6.
God is Sovereign.
God is King of Kings. He is the
absolute ruler of the entire universe. He is the just totalitarian potentate of
everything, and is subject to nothing and nobody. He is absolutely free and
independent. He does whatever He wants to (Psa. 115:3, 135:5-6, Job 23:13, Dan.
4:25). He owns everything and does whatever He wants to with it. He rules as
King over all (Psa.93:1). He is the supreme judge, above whom there is no
appeal. Therefore, no one can accuse God, for He is the potter and we are the
clay (Rom. 9). Is it not His right to do whatever He wants to with His
universe? (Matt. 20:15).<![endif]>
7.
God is Powerful.
God is
omnipotent, or all-powerful. He is God Almighty. He has all power and strength.
He has all life and energy within Himself, and supplies life and energy to His
universe. Being omnipotent, there is nothing too hard for Him to do. It is
blasphemy to even suggest stupid questions like, “Can God make a rock too heavy
for Him to lift?” He is pure power. He never grows tired, nor sleeps. Even when
He ceased creating all things, He was not resting. Being the highest and
perfect God that He is, He has this infinite power from within Himself, not
from outside Himself.
8.
God is Wise.
God is Omniscient.
He knows all things. He knows every detail of everything that is, was,
or ever shall be. He also knows every possibility of things that could be but
never will be. He knows all answers to all questions. He makes no mistakes. He
remembers everything. He never learns, for He has always known everything about
everything. He knows the future. It is gross heresy to say that God “limits His
knowledge”, as if God could choose to not know something He already knows. He
says He “forgets” our sins by way of justice, not by way of omniscience. God is
also perfectly wise. He knows what is best. He knows all relationships between
facts and how they work out together for the planned end. Finally, God has
perfect self-knowledge.
9.
God is Love.
God is
love. First, God loves Himself. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit all love each
other perfectly. God is not lonely. But God expresses this internal love
externally to His creatures. He has a general love for all things as creatures.
But He also has a special love for His people, which is called election.
Theologians speak of God's love of benevolence (love for the unlovely) and His
love of complacence (love for the lovely). He has grace for the guilty, mercy
for the miserable, kindness for the helpless. God is good. He is patient. God
is generous. He is compassionate. He is forgiving. These and many other terms
are used to say "God is love."
10.
God is Glorious.
God is all
glorious within. He is the God of glory. Within the Trinity, there has always
been an infinite splendor of light and glory that we have never seen or known.
It is the glory of God. It is His plan to reveal this internal glory externally
to His creation. This glory will one day be revealed and reflected in all
things. His love will be displayed in His elect, His wrath in the non-elect. In
turn, this revealed glory will be reflected back to God. In that sense, we are
said to “give glory to God”. What is the glory of God? It is His splendor, His
fame, His beauty. It is the revelation of what He is, all that He is, all His
attributes together in perfect harmony. It is often compared to light in all
its various refracted colors, like the rainbow. It is living glory. And the
focal point of it is the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom God reveals His glory
to creation, and through whom He receives it back again.