Lesson 3: God (Part 1)

Lesson three
GOD (Part 1)

We must never think that we can completely define God, that is impossible. But we can look at what God has revealed.

Assumptions
I am going to begin this study by making a few assumptions,

First, I am going to assume that God exists.
In The Joyful Christian CS Lewis dealt with the challenge by Russian cosmonauts who having ventured into space announced, “They could not see God”. Lewis gave four reasons why this might be. The first was that they did not travel far enough out. The second was God is confined to earth. Lewis dismissed these responses as being the religions of “savages” and sadly what the Russian cosmonaut thought of when they referred to religion.
The next reason was that they lacked the correct tools to see God. His last reason was that God exist but is not an object to be found in one place. These are the correct reasons. He concludes “...send a saint up in a spaceship and he’ll find God in space as he found God on earth. Much depends on the seeing eye.”

Second, I am going to assume that when I refer to God I am talking about the God described in the Scriptures.

Third, I am going to assume what we find recorded in the Scriptures is the result of God’s revelation to us.

Lastly, for the sake of organization and time I am going to look at those revelations in Scripture under two topics: The nature of God and the Attributes of God.

The nature of God
Another way to speak about God’s nature is to say, “it is who has God revealed Himself to be.” There are four components to this issue.
First , God is one. This is called monotheism. It states not only the fact that there is only one God (a belief held by Christians, Jews, and Muslims), but also that He is the true God.
Exodus 20:3

Secondly, God is a spiritual being. God does not have a material body, therefore, God can not be confined to one place (like a temple or sacred location) but instead is capable of being everywhere at once. Likewise, no idol can be made of Him, and there is nowhere a person can go that God cannot see them.
John 4: 24

Thirdly, God is a personal being. God can and does interact with His creation. He thinks, He wills, He even has a personal name. And it is possible to have a relationship with Him.
Matthew 6:9

Fourthly, God is a tri-person. This is what is often called the Trinity. And according to both Jewish and Muslims this point disqualifies Christianity as being monotheistic. First let me define the term as expressed in the Baptist Faith and Message: “The eternal God has reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.” (Art. II)
In other words, while the Father, Son, and Spirit differ in what they do (Attributes) they still remain one in being God. They are not three separate gods (Mormonism) nor is it just God in different costumes (Oneness). But it is one God in three persons. Lastly, and this is very important, all three always existed. It was not God the Father first, then Jesus and later the Holy Spirit. All three have always existed because they all three are God.
Confused? You should be. This is one of those things that is true yet hard to comprehend.