Theology Proper - God

1. Theology Proper - God Systematic Theology Pastor Brett Peterson

2. Who is God? Theology proper is a glimpse at God the Father Describe God the Father….

3. First Assumption – God never changes… • Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the sameyesterday and today and forever. • Covenant: The only difference between the Old and New covenant is the blood of Christ! Both have salvation through faith, blood sacrifice, changed behavior, and relationship. • James 2:23,24; Matt.5:17-24 • 2Co 3:6 who also made us adequate as servants of a newcovenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Pastor Brett Peterson, CCBCU.EDU

4. A CLASSICAL APPROACH • We begin with the God of the Bible • The same God of the Old covenant and the New – physical vs. spiritual • We know him because he has made Himself known • We trust his Revelation • “Scriptural authority comes from God. In its total extent and in all its parts Scripture is the inspired, and thus also the authoritative Word of God. What Paul says, God says.” Spykman, Reformational Theology, 123 • Reason is subordinated to Scripture, yet faith is reasonable. • We do not begin with any a-priori concepts regarding the nature of God or his method of dealing with his creatures • This avoids the problems of blind believism – it gives us a system that is empirically determined through the study of God’s Word. • True theology is not the product of philosophical speculation, it is the absolute truth revealed by a personal God. Pastor Brett Peterson, CCBCU.EDU

5. THE ANTITHESIS- SATAN • Concept offered by Dutch Calvinists • It seeks to provide a way of viewing the entire cosmos as belonging to God • But, short of the heaven, all creation is under siege by the forces of evil • The antithesis is critical to all theological enterprise • It runs through every part of the created order • It affects every issue arising in creation • It reminds us of the danger of relying upon only reason. Pastor Brett Peterson, CCBCU.EDU

6. THE ANTITHESIS • “The antithesis represents a spiritual warfare between good and evil which knows no territorial boundaries. It is not geographically, locally, or spatially definable. The enmity between these two hostile forces does not coincide with two parts of reality, as though one sector of life were holy and the other unholy, or one bloc righteous and the other unrighteous. It is a directional antithesis which runs through all the structures of life. Sin is totally pervasive. Grace, too, lays its claim on all reality. The antithesis may therefore not be dualistically misconstrued as though it drives a wedge between soul and body, faith and reason, theology and philosophy, church and world- with the former viewed as good and the latter as evil.” Spykman, Reformational Theology, 66 Pastor Brett Peterson, CCBCU.EDU

7. REVELATI0N AND REASON • Scientific Investigation employs Logic, the use of Reason: Induction and Deduction • Scientific Investigation employs the use of the senses, perception • Reason and the Senses are both employed to discover absolute truth • Both have validity, enabling us to analyze the data of creation, to think and ponder its implications • Ultimately, revelation is reasonable Pastor Brett Peterson, CCBCU.EDU

8. THEOLOGY AS SCIENCE: • It is a Practical Science; it has more than mere Ontology (existence) • Theology has Teleology; it has purpose and direction • The end of theological inquiry is not merely mental equilibrium – a stagnate state of existance • The goal of scientific inquiry is knowledge that must produce a response and a transformation. • Theology is more than philosophical ascension – it is experienced in all we do! Pastor Brett Peterson, CCBCU.EDU

9. THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY: • The relationship is as follows: • Philosophy is merely a mental exercise • Theology is both mental and spiritual • Philosophy is human understanding • Theology is God’s revelation imparted to human understanding Pastor Brett Peterson, CCBCU.EDU

10. The Attributes of God A quality or characteristic inherent in or ascribed to someone or something.

11. What Are Attributes? • Qualities of the entire Godhead - not just one Person of the Trinity • Permanent - will not change over time • Intrinsic - cannot be gained nor lostInseparable from God’s being, essence and existence • NOTE: Jesus gave up His divine attributes when He became a man:

12. Joh 5:18 For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

13. What Are Attributes? • Phi 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. • Qualities of the entire Godhead - not just one Person of the Trinity • Permanent - will not change over time • Intrinsic - cannot be gained nor lostInseparable from God’s being, essence and existence • NOTE: Jesus gave up His divine attributes when He became a man:

14. Mar 6:5 And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. Mat 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

15. Inscrutability • There is a sense in which God will never be known by any created being • God is infinite, and an infinite amount of time would be required by a finite being to even get close to understanding God • God’s attributes are infinite - even though we can share some of God’s attributes, e.g. love, - our expression of that attribute is only a mere fraction of God’s • We only know what God has revealed. • We will spend eternity getting to know God!

16. General Revelation We can know what God has revealed through His general revelation-creation-physical laws - physics-science-mathematics-biology-morality and conscience

17. Psalm 19:1-4 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

18. Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — His eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

19. The ability to love unconditionally is a reflection of divine love.

20. "It's not for lack of evidence that people turn from God; it's from their pride or their will. God is not going to force anyone into the fold. Love never works coercively. It only works persuasively. And there's plenty of persuasive evidence there.” Norman Geisler, The Case for Christ; quoted in Servant.

21. HOW DO WE STUDY THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • The attributes are in harmony with one another. That is, they complement one another, work together with one another, are not in conflict with one another, and no attribute is superior or inferior to any other. All His attributes are always fully active. So, God can be just and loving without the one being in conflict with the other. This demonstrates the SIMPLICITY of God.

22. “The harmony of His being is the result not of perfect balance between the parts but of the absence of parts. Between His attributes no contradiction can exist. He need not suspend one to exercise another, for in Him all His attributes are one. All of God does all that God does; He does not divide Himself to perform a work, but works in the total unity of His being.” A. W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

23. HOW DO WE STUDY THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • The attributes are in harmony with one another. • We recognize that all God’s attributes are infinite, i.e., they are complete (not maturing or changing), they have always existed completely and always will exist completely. Thus, He is a unique, singular God. There is no one like Him and all other beings exist from, through, and for Him (1 Cor. 8:6). This demonstrates the UNITY of God.

24. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? “An attribute of God is whatever God has in any way revealed as being true of Himself.…An attribute, then, is a part of God. It is how God is, and as far as the reasoning mind can go, we may say that it is what God is, though…

25. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? “… exactly what He is He cannot tell us. Of what God is conscious when He is conscious of self, only He knows. ‘The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.’ [1 Cor. 2:11] Only to an equal could God communicate the mystery of His Godhead; and to think of God as having an equal is to fall into an intellectual absurdity.” Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

26. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes have nothing analogous in God’s created beings. • INFINITY — “God is free from all limitations to His Being and attributes by the bounds of the spacio-temporal horizon of the universe.” God is limitless, measureless and knows no bounds (Job 5:9; 9:10; Ps. 145:3).

27. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes. • INFINITY • ETERNALITY — God is without beginning or end; He is free from all succession of time; He is the cause of time.

28. Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. Psalm 90:2

29. “‘From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God,’ said Moses in the Spirit. ‘From the vanishing point to the vanishing point’ would be another way to say it quite in keeping with the words as Moses used them. The mind looks backward in time till the dim past vanishes, then turns and looks into the future till thought and imagination collapse from exhaustion; and God is at both points, unaffected by either.” A. W. Tozer.

30. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes. • INFINITY • ETERNALITY • IMMENSITY— He cannot be localized in one place. God transcends all spatial limitations; He is present in every point in space with His entire being through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

31. WHAT ARE THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? • INCOMMUNICABLE • COMMUNICABLE • INFINITY • SELF-EXISTENCE • IMMUTABILITY • UNITY • HOLINESS • OMNISCIENCE • OMNIPOTENCE • OMNIPRESENCE • WISDOM • SOVEREIGNTY • LOVE • JEALOUSY • GRACE • PATIENCE • GOODNESS • RIGHTEOUSNESS • TRUTH

32. “God is omniscient; He knows everything. God is infallible; it is impossible for Him to fail. God is inerrant; He never errs. Not only does God not commit error, but He does not inspire error. God is neither the source of nor the inspirer of error. What comes from His divine mind is truth. What He inspires is truth.…If a book has errors, it is not the Word of God. If a book is the Word of God, it does not have errors. We cannot have a book that is both the Word of God and errant.” Sproul, One Holy Passion.

33. “But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?” 2 Chronicles 2:6

34. Psa 139:7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.

35. God is omnipresent through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Where is Jesus today? Col 3:1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

36. Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.“ 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

37. Image – “A masculine noun meaning an image, a likeness, a statue, a model, a drawing, a shadow” Likeness – “A feminine noun meaning resemblance; concretely model, shape” The Hebrew is very clear here – we are made in the physical likeness of The Father and the Son!

38. Angels are the likeness of God as well… Dan 10:16 And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke. I said to him who stood before me, "O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength.

39. Gen 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Gen 5:3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

40. Gen 5:3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; Same words!!!!

41. Where is God the Father? Rev 7:15 "For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.

42. Dan 7:9 "I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire. This is the Father, seated on His Throne

43. Dan 7:10 "A river of fire was flowing And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books were opened.

44. Dan 7:13 "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.

45. Dan 7:14 "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

46. Rev 19:4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!"

47. Rev 7:10 and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

48. What does the Father look like? Let’s ‘see’…

49. Dan 7:9 As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; Rev 4:2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. Rev 4:3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.

50. Rev 1:12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.