If the blind lead the blind, they are both in for a big fall, and so it is with human parenthood. Our parents are flawed – potentially more flawed than we realise. But in childhood, mother and father are god. They are the limits and extents of the world, and all its truth. We learn how the world is, how we should behave and what we should expect in life from them. They are our model for relationships. Women are like our mother, and men are like our father. Their relationship sticks in the back of our heads as how all relationships are and should be. Girls take on the role their mother took, and boys take on the role their father did. We look to mum for nurturing, and to dad for the limits, authority and validation of who and what we are.
So it follows that we always assume God is like our dad, and project his face and qualities onto a heavenly Father. How you feel towards God is governed by how we feel towards your dad. Part of the search to know the Creator is discovering who He is, and why He is nothing like the dad that brought us up. If your father was distant, violent and punishing, despite all your reasoning to the contrary, your perception of God is that He is exactly the same. If your dad was wonderful, a relationship with God is simpler as you implicitly trust Him and see Him in a loving light. God is spoken of in the masculine as scripture was written in patriarchal language and culture, but He has no gender. We can only understand Him in a semi-human context.
Once you have broken through to the idea that God is likely, you have to ask yourself what He is like. The answer to that question is relatively easy as it is the very purpose of scripture. The Bible is a documentation of man’s relationship with God and describes who He is and what He is like.
And what an incredible question to ask! Imagine learning about the personality and character of the Creator. What a fascinating idea.
First we have to admit that there is absolutely no way we can comprehend the Father. He is too big, too powerful and too extensive for little apes to get their heads round. Scripture tells us that the universe cannot contain Him. Mars is our nearest planet, and it takes 6 months to get there.
We can turn to science to help us understand God’s nature.
The God of the Koran and Hindu Vedas (or other polytheistic divinity structures) are gods restricted to the time and space dimensions of this universe and, therefore, are logically impossible.
A Creator could not have created the universe if He were a part of it (which is why New Age talk of the universe’s “energy” as god is also logically impossible), so he is by nature extradimensional and outside our physical universe. According to particle physics and relativity, at least ten dimensions of space existed at the creation of the universe. Three of these dimensions (plus time) formed the space-time manifold that we can directly observe. The other six of these dimensions exist within the universe as incredibly compact dimensions of space. God must be able to operate in all of those ten dimensions plus more in order to have created the universe.
The God of the Bible is invisible and cannot be seen except if He reveals Himself to us in a three-dimensional form that we can see. A being which exists in dimensions beyond our three spatial dimensions would be invisible to creatures (us) that can only exist in the confines of our universe. We cannot visualize a God who exists in dimensions beyond our own.
The God of the Bible is described as omnipotent. If God were confined to three dimensions of space and one dimension of time, then He could be in only one place at one time. The God of the Bible is described as knowing all that we do and that we can hide nothing from Him. A three-dimensional God would not have the ability to see through walls (Can you?) and could not know what happens outside of his sight. When earth’s mightiest telescopes continue to explore the furthest reaches of the countless galaxies, they are bringing testimony to God’s handiwork. There is nothing that is stronger than God because there is nothing that was not made by God.
Stephen Hawking, George Ellis, and Roger Penrose extended the equations for general relativity to include space and time. Not only space, but also time has a beginning - at the moment of creation. Studies in particle physics have shown that our dimension of time is really only half a dimension, since time can only move forward (time travel is scientifically impossible). If God existed in only one dimension of time, then He would have had to have been created at one point.
The Bible says God exists outside our universe and was not created, but has existed from eternity past to eternity future. The Bible also suggests God created time and was acting before time began, confirming that God exists in at least two dimensions of time. In addition, the Bible states God can compress or expand our time line, based upon what He wants to do. For God to turn a day into 1000 years and 1000 years into a day requires that He exist in at least two dimensions of time.
A three dimensional God would be unable to hear all prayers, since He could not be everywhere at once. In addition, a three dimensional God could not perform any of the signs and miracles of the Bible, since He would be confined to the laws of physics of our three-dimensional universe, which make no allowance His supernatural intervention and violation of natural laws, i.e. miracles.
Since we live in a universe of cause and effect, we naturally assume that this is the only way in which any kind of existence can function. However, the premise is false. Without the dimension of time, there is no cause and effect, and all things that could exist in such a realm would have no need of being caused, but would have always existed. Therefore, God has no need of being created, but, in fact, created the time dimension of our universe specifically for a reason - so that cause and effect would exist for us. However, since God created time, cause and effect would never apply to His existence.
Things that exist in one dimension of time are restricted to time’s arrow and are confined to cause and effect. However, two dimensions of time form a plane of time, which has no beginning and no end and is not restricted to any single direction. A being that exists in at least two dimension of time can travel anywhere in time and yet never had a beginning, since a plane of time has no starting point.
God’s free-will is not hindered by our dimension of time as He stands both above and within our time line, since our line of time runs through His plane of time. Free will and fate can co-exist as God knows what each person will do and can put him anywhere in our time line to accomplish His purposes. Complete free-will and complete predestination is possible in two dimensions of time. If he can move along and stop in our time line at will, then say if 100 million people are praying to Him simultaneously, He is able to stay at that point in our time line for as long as necessary to hear and respond to their prayers.
The topic of omnipotence (the ability of God to do anything, i.e., God is all-powerful) is frequently cited by atheists as proof that the God of the Bible cannot exist. The claim has been made that if there is anything that God cannot do, then God cannot be omnipotent and, therefore, does not exist. The Bible never claims that God can do all things. In fact, it makes a point that there are things that God cannot do. God cannot commit sin. God cannot lie. Therefore, biblical omnipotence does not mean that God can do all things. God cannot do anything that is contrary to His holy character. However, God can do anything that He determines to do. This is a true meaning of omnipotence - the ability to do anything that one sets out to do. Since an all-powerful being will always be able to accomplish whatever He sets out to do, it is impossible for an all-powerful being to fail.
Once we understand our position in relative terms to the Creator, it seems logical to assume that He would have revealed Himself to at least one of the peoples of the earth. The Judeo-Christian God has a name, and a character. Scripture is that revelation and describes who He is and what He is like.
The Creator’s incommunicable attributes are self-existence, infinity, unity, perfection, immutability, omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience. The communicable ones we share with Him (the good side of our nature) are holiness, love, grace, mercy, patience, goodness, righteousness, truthfulness, faithfulness and humility.
Only what God has chosen of Himself to be revealed can be known. One of God’s attributes or qualities is “light”, meaning that He is self-revealing in information of Himself (Isaiah 60:19, James 1:17). The reality that God has revealed knowledge of Himself should not be neglected, lest any one of us come short of entering His rest (Hebrews 4:1).
Let’s start by understanding that God is our Creator and that we are a part of His creation (Genesis 1:1 Psalm 24:1). Man is created in His image – masculinity reflects the “warrior” and His “strength”, and femininity reflects his “heart” and “beauty”. Man is above the rest of creation and was given dominion over it (Genesis 1:26-28). Creation is marred by the ‘fall’ but still offers a glimpse of His works (Genesis 3:17-18; Romans 1:19-20). By considering creation’s vastness, complexity, beauty, and order we can have a sense of the awesomeness of God.
God is eternal, meaning He had no beginning and that His existence will never end. He is immortal, infinite (Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalm 90:2; 1 Timothy 1:17). He is immutable, meaning He is unchangeable; this means that He is absolutely reliable and trustworthy (Malachi 3:6; Numbers 23:19; Psalm 102:26-27). He is incomparable, meaning there is no one like Him in works or being; He is unequalled and perfect (2 Samuel 7:22; Psalm 86:8; Isaiah 40:25; Matthew 5:48). He is inscrutable, meaning He is unfathomable, unsearchable, past finding out in entirely understanding Him (Isaiah 40:28; Psalm 145:3; Romans 11:33-34).
God is just, meaning He is no respecter of persons in the sense of showing favouritism (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 18:30). He is omnipotent, meaning He is all-powerful; He can do anything that pleases Him, but His actions will always be in accord with the rest of His character (Revelation 19:6; Jeremiah 32:17,27). He is omnipresent, meaning He is ever-present, everywhere; this does not mean that God is everything (Psalm 139:7-13; Jeremiah 23:23). He is omniscient, meaning He knows the past, present, and future, even what we are thinking at any given moment; since He knows everything His justice will always be administered fairly (Psalm 139:1-5; Proverbs 5:21).
God is one, meaning not only that there is no other, but also that He is alone in being able to meet the deepest needs and longings of our hearts, and He alone is worthy of our worship and devotion (Deuteronomy 6:4). He is righteous, meaning that He cannot and will not pass over wrongdoing; it is because of His righteousness and justice that in order for us to be reconciled with Him, Christ had to experience God’s judgment when our sins were placed upon Him as our substitute (Exodus 9:27; Matthew 27:45-46; Romans 3:21-26).
God is sovereign, meaning He is supreme; all of His creation put together, whether knowingly or unknowingly, cannot thwart His purposes (Psalm 93:1; 95:3; Jeremiah 23:20). He is spirit, meaning He is invisible (John 1:18; 4:24). He is a Trinity, meaning He is three in one, same in substance, equal in power and glory. He is truth, meaning that He is in agreement with all that He is, He will remain incorruptible and cannot lie (Psalm 117:2; 1 Samuel 15:29).
God is holy, meaning that He is separated from all moral defilement and is hostile toward it. He sees all evil and it angers Him as righteous holy anger, not human sinful anger; fire is usually mentioned in scripture along with holiness. – He is referred to as a consuming fire (Isaiah 6:3; Habakkuk 1:13; Exodus 3:2,4-5; Hebrews 12:29). He is gracious - this would include His goodness, kindness, mercy, and love - which are words that give shades of meaning to His goodness. If it were not for God’s grace it would seem that the rest of His attributes would exclude us from Him. Thankfully this is not the case, for He desires to know each of us personally (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 31:19; 1 Peter 1:3; John 3:16; John 17:3).
God’s thoughts are uncreated and eternal, but divine and human thoughts may have the same objects. God’s thoughts decree what comes to pass. It is possible for both God’s thoughts and man’s thoughts to be true, but God’s thoughts are true because they are His. Our thoughts and God’s thoughts are both validated by Him. God does not need to have anything revealed to Him. God has not chosen to reveal all things to us. God’s thoughts are all non-contradictory.
The Creator has 2 attributes that often cause immense disquiet and misunderstanding when the Bible is read in a non-contextual man – His righteous anger/wrath, and His Jealousy. We are told in scripture that God can hate, and “hates” sin. The question to ask is whether the Father is setting a good example in the way He does things.
The hardest image of God to understand is that of Him as a warrior; two thirds of the Bible describe God’s warring activities. True love and benevolence is not permissive, as any parent will testify to. Loving someone does not mean you allow them to do whatever they want. Love must always come together with justice, and God requires justice, even though He is described as being patient and “slow to anger”. There are 3 different words for “anger” in Hebrew, all referring to different types of feelings and concepts, just as there are 3 words in Greek for “love”. God is a God of divine anger and of judgment. But notice against whom the judgment is directed. It is against those who hate Him and who have rejected Him.
Righteous anger is the anger we should feel in the face of a great wrong or injustice done to us or others. If we didn’t feel a sense of righteous anger in the face of great wrongs there would be something seriously wrong with our conscience, as it signals the difference between right and wrong, or holiness and sin. God’s righteous anger is always justified and not sinful, abusive, selfish or rash, as human anger can be. His nature and being cannot tolerate sinfulness and that which violates who and what he is. Therefore, it is impossible for a just God not to have “wrath” toward sin.
Sin is at enmity with the righteousness of God. The wrath of God is always directed against sin. If this were not so, if God did not become angry over sin, then He would be condoning sin and He would be sinful Himself. If God were not angry over sin, then he would be imperfect and He would not be God. This means that you can never understand grace apart from the wrath of God.
To say that God has hate for no man is clearly untrue. However, it must be noted that this hatred is conditional. Nowhere does God express a hatred for mankind in general without cause, but He does hate the evil. Even in Genesis 6, the grief God feels is on account of the evil of the people. God’s hatred for people is conditional and incited upon certain conditions of disobedience being true of a person. This seems to be a reliable statement, for God’s declarations of hatred for any group or individual are accompanied by the necessary condition of wickedness (evil).
The doctrine that God is a jealous God comes from the Old Testament books of the law of Moses. The “jealousy” is always in the context of idol worship, beginning in the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20. The same Hebrew adjective, qannâ’ (Strong’s H7067) is only used in reference to God and translated into English as “jealous”. Two different Hebrew words are used to describe human jealousy. The Hebrew verb qânâ’ (Strong’s H7065) refers to a passionate jealousy or envy. The Hebrew noun qin’âh (Strong’s H7068) takes on a wide range of meanings from sexual passion (or jealousy) to a zeal for God to anger or envy. God does not envy an human being or anything that any human being possesses. God has no rivals, and divine “jealousy” has an entirely different meaning to human jealousy.
The last chapter in our understanding of the Creator is that He has a name, and it is not just “God”. “Human being” is not your name, “Human being” is what you are. Christianity simply calls Him “Lord” or “Father”, and in Latin He is known as “Dominus”.
In Jewish thought, a name is not merely an arbitrary designation, a random combination of sounds. The name conveys the nature and essence of the thing named. It represents the history and reputation of the being named. It is for this reason that “denying the name of God” is degrading, insulting and sinful, as it effectively proclaims that He is lower than He is. The unforgivable sin of “denying the Holy Spirit” does not mean to withhold, it means to demean or falsely accuse/mis-label. In most contexts it refers to proclaiming that God is evil, or the power of the Holy Spirit is the Devil’s work.
This is not as strange or unfamiliar a concept as it may seem at first glance. In English, we often refer to a person’s reputation as his “good name.” When a company is sold, one thing that may be sold is the company’s “good will,” that is, the right to use the company’s name. The Hebrew concept of a name is very similar to these ideas. When a messenger travels in the name of his king, he carries the power, reputation and will of the master. A name is power.
An example of this usage is in the story of when Moses asks God what His “name” is (what a question). Moses is not asking “what should I call you;” rather, he is asking “who are you; what are you like; what have you done.” God replies that He is eternal, that He is the God of our ancestors, that He has seen our affliction and will redeem us from bondage.
Because a name represents the reputation of the thing named, a name should be treated with the same respect as the thing’s reputation. For this reason, God’s Names, in all of their forms, are treated with enormous respect and reverence in Judaism, hence God is known as “Hashem” or “the name”, which it is not spoken.
The most important of God’s Names is the four-letter Name represented by the Hebrew letters Yod-Hei-Vav-Hei (YHVH, or “Yahweh”). It is often referred to as the Ineffable Name, the Unutterable Name or the Distinctive Name. He is of course also referred to as “Jehovah”, which is a variant of an English vocalisation of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH).
The first Name used for God in scripture is “Elohim”. In form, the word is a masculine plural of a word that looks feminine in the singular (Eloha). The same word (or, according to Rambam, a homonym of it) is used to refer to princes, judges, other gods, and other powerful beings. This Name is used in scripture when emphasizing God’s might, His creative power, and his attributes of justice and rulership. Variations on this name include El, Eloha, Elohai (my God) and Elohaynu (our God). Christ screamed to Him on the cross as “Eloi”.
Almost all angels described in scripture writings carry the name of God with the suffix “-el”. The 7 archangels are the prime example, with Gabri-El (Gabriel) meaning “Messenger of God”, Micha-El (Michael) meaning “Likeness of God”, Rapha-El (Raphael) meaning “Healer of God”, Uri-El (Uriel) meaning “Light Of God”, Ragu-El (Raguel) meaning “Friend of God”, Zerachi-El (Zerachiel) meaning “Command of God”, and Remi-El (Remiel) meaning “Thunder of God”. The angel Azra-El (Azrael) is associated with death, and even Satan’s canonical name (other than Lucifer) is Satan-El (Satanel) or “Prosecutor/Accuser of God”.
God is also known as “El Shaddai”. This Name is usually translated as “God Almighty,” however, the derivation of the word “Shaddai” is not known. According to some views, it is derived from the root meaning “to heap benefits.” According a Midrash, it means, “The One who said ‘dai’” (”dai” meaning enough or sufficient) and comes from the fact that when God created the universe, it expanded until He said “DAI!” (perhaps the first recorded theory of an expanding universe?). The name Shaddai is the one written on the mezuzah scroll. Some note that Shaddai is an acronym of Shomer Daltot Yisrael, Guardian of the Doors of Israel.
Another significant Name of God is YHVH Tzva’ot. This Name is normally translated as “Lord of Hosts.” The word “tzva’ot” means “hosts” in the sense of a military grouping or an organized array. The Name refers to God’s leadership and sovereignty. Interestingly, this Name is rarely used in scripture. It never appears in the Torah (i.e., the first five books). It appears primarily in the prophetic books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, as well as many times in the Psalms.
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