Theology

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
THEOLOGY
The Doctrine of God
DR. E. C. BRAGG

THEOLOGY
TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. The Existence of God
A. Some Theories of God
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Atheism
Skepticism and Infidelity
Agnosticism
Deism
Polytheism
Pantheism
Theism
Monotheism

B. Some Proofs of God's Existence
1.
2.
3.
4.

Intuitional idea of God
Intuition is a Primary Truth
Criteria of Intuition
External proofs of God's Existence
a.
b.
c.
d.

Cosmological Argument
Teleological Argument
Anthropological Argument
Christological Argument

C. Man's Natural Ignorance of God
1. Cause and Nature of his Ignorance
2. Question of Heathenism
II. The Personality of God
A. Limits of our knowledge of God
B. God's Personality
1. Three Attributes of Personality
2. God and the Attributes of Personality
3. Considerations Concerning the Personality of God

C. The Unity and Trinity of God
1. Unity of God
2. Trinity of God
a. Definition
b. Not Tri-theism
c. Scriptural Proof of the Trinity of God
D. Names of God
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Elohim
Jehovah
Adonai
Shaddai or El Shaddai
Descriptive Adjectives

III. The Nature of God as Revealed by the Attributes of God
A. Nature of Attributes
B. Attributes of God
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Independence
Eternity
Immensity
All-Sufficiency
Immutability

C. Attributes of God as Personal Spirit
1. The Attributes of Intelligence
2. The Attributes of Will

THEOLOGY
In its limited meaning, Theology is the doctrine of God. In its broadest sense it is the science
or study of God in all of His character and relation to all of His works, thus, when used in a
limited sense, theology is employed only of the department which studies the nature and
attributes of God; but when used in its broadest sense, through common usage, it has come to
designate the whole realm of Christian doctrine, Christian Theology (limited), then is the
doctrinal study of the nature and attributes of the Godhead from the complete teachings of the
Scriptures.
I. The Existence of God
A. Some Theories of God
1. Atheism. This theory says, "There is no God." It denies the existence of any God
at all. It tries to explain every phenomenon by mechanical inherent forces. The
universe and all that is in it started by itself, evolved into its present form by itself,
and is preserved by itself. It is the "fool" of Psalm 14:1; 53:1 which says, "The fool
hath said in his heart, there is no God.” Note: Way back there men were not such as
to air their belief or disbelief in God but "said it in their hearts;" they are much
bigger fools as they became vain in their own conceits; now they shout it from the
housetops as Bob Ingersoll did.
2. Skepticism and Infidelity. These two terms are closely linked with the first term
of atheism, for they mean to doubt or disbelieve the existence of God. A skeptic may
not be atheist in actually denying the existence of God, but he is very close in that he
is very doubtful that there is one. There is little choice between the words "atheist"
and "Infidel." The word "Infidel" is very interesting in that it savors of being untrue,
untrue to every instinct of the soul and every sense perception of the universe.
3. Agnosticism. This theory says there may be a God; but, if there were, He cannot
be known. He must forever be the Unknown and the Unknowable. It is a creed of
negation. The root word from which agnosticism is taken can also mean
"ignoramus." After all, both simply mean, "I don't know." It denies that God has ever
or ever will or, in fact, can reveal Himself to man. It, therefore, denies that the Bible
is the revelation of God. While claiming to know nothing, it claims to know all
things, for, while claiming it can know nothing of God, it claims to know so much
about Him as to dogmatically state His inability to reveal Himself to His creatures. It
is merely a refined infidelity. There is very little choice between no God and one
unknown, as far as His relations to man and the effects of such beliefs upon man's
moral and spiritual conduct.
4. Deism. This view acknowledges that there is a God and that He is the Creator but
denies to Him any personal interest or intervention in the world after that. It holds
the mechanical self-sustaining theory: God created and then withdrew. He left
resident forces, which carry on in His absence. God wound the universe up like a
clock and left it to run itself, to work out every detail, and then to run down. God
made the universe, and then rested ever since. This theory molded much of the
philosophy of the great thinkers of the past two centuries. There is little warmth in

the belief in an absentee God who has no interest in the affairs of this world, much
less of any individual in it, who set the thing going, then left it for other business
away out among other universes or farther, and who cares nothing for what way the
universe takes in its course. Such a theory cannot admit of a revelation such as the
Bible.
5. Polytheism. This is the theory of plurality of gods. Most heathenism or most
idolatry is a religion of polytheism or "many gods." God said of Israel in her
idolatry, "As thy cities, so are thy gods." This is the Tutelary God System. Each city
had its own god, each household its special protection god. There is said to be over
300 million gods in India. As one man said, "Man is certainly stark mad; he can't
make a flea, and yet he will be making gods by the dozens.”
6. Pantheism. This is the identification of God with nature. There is but one
universal substance which is God; everything you see is but a manifestation of God.
God is all; all is God. The place the Bible gives to God above and transcendent to
His works, pantheism confuses and identifies God with His works. God is working
in nature but God isn't nature.
7. Theism. This is the true Bible position. It teaches the existence of as personal
Creator.
8. Monotheism. This teaches the singularity of God. There is only one God. This is
the teaching of the Bible, Deuteronomy 6:4. It is of interest to note that roughly
speaking the population of the world is divided into polytheism and monotheism.
The Mohammedans, numbering probably 400 to 500 million, the Protestants
numbering some 200 million, and the Catholics numbering over 200 million are all
monotheistic (along with the Jews). These total nearly half the world's population of
two billion. The rest of the world is polytheistic (You can number the atheists with a
child's highchair counter. Only the educated ignoramus says, “There is no God.") For
those who accept the Scriptures as the final court of appeal, there could be no other
teaching than the monotheistic. There could be but one Almighty, one infinite, one
all-wise.
B. Some Proofs of God's Existence
1. The intuitional idea of God, That is to say, the idea of God is an intuition of the
moral reason; this means that it is direct knowledge of God. To understand the force
of this argument we must consider briefly what intuitional knowledge is. For full
understanding there must be a study of psychology; but, for our purpose here, we
shall just consider what intuitional knowledge is not, and what is the nature and
criticism of intuitions.
a. Intuition, or first truth, is not mental image making. It isn't that power of
painting mental pictures of forms we have seen or an imaginative combination
of many different parts of images. These are all the results of experience of
observation.
b Intuition furnishes no innate concepts. A concept is an idea formulated
from experience, a notion. You cannot picture a notion. You can picture a rose
but not the general notion of a rose. The newborn babe, for example, knows

nothing in their abstract forms, concepts of such ideas or concepts as personal
identity, self-consciousness, time.
c. It is not a truth written prior to consciousness upon the soul; that would
make the soul a material substance and it isn't.
d. Intuition is not a product of observation and reasoning, but it only arises in
the soul after observation and reasoning. It isn't a knowledge which blooms
neither full-grown without observation nor full-grown at the first conscious
moment.
2. Therefore, an intuition is a primary truth, developed by observation and
reasoning but not produced by them. They are truths which need no proof but are
self-evident. They require no mental process. Illustration: I see a book, and I know it
occupies space. I don't arrive at that by reason, but I know it and wouldn't try to put
anything else in its exact place without first moving the book.
With the intuition of right and wrong, I see a brutal wretch jump onto a cripple
and beat him unmercifully. The sight might give occasion for the intuitional thought,
"That is wrong," but it doesn't put the sense of wrongness in the soul. That is an
intuition already there and needs but the occasion for it to act. Such is the idea of
God. It isn't arrived at by studying the Bible, for many tribes who haven't heard of
the Bible still believe in God. The fact is the Bible couldn't have been given unless
there had been first in man that intuition idea of God to which it could appeal.
Neither could its ethics and moral laws bind the soul except the soul had the
intuitions of moral rectitude of right and wrong.
That is the reason why the Bible sets up no system of argument to prove the
existence of God but appeals directly to the soul, revealing the God the soul already
believes exists.
3. The Criteria of Intuition. An intuition may be tested by a three-fold test.
a. Self-evident. That is, it carries its own proof and admits none. Many of the
great philosophies of the past few centuries have outraged reason by denying
many of the things intuition accepts as self-evident, such as the existence of
matter, of force, and of God. From that they have denied the existence of the
soul and of man himself. They argue, "All I know of matter is what I can
experience with the senses." How do I know they really exist? Maybe they
exist only in my mind, and I am conscious of only the actions of mind;
therefore, how can I be sure the mind really exists?" Men like Alexander Bain
and Dugald Stewart and other philosophers, wavering in a gaze of speculation,
deny to us any intuitional knowledge; from that they deny even existence. Man
has never before thought to question some intuitional truths; they accepted
them and started from there to other arguments. It was left to latter day
speculators to think up a negative essence of nonentity. Intuitional truths need
no proof nor in truth can be proven. I know that I am, and I never think of
proving it.
b. Originality or necessity. That is, it is necessary, for it must be believed. It
cannot be doubted without leading to contradiction or absurdity. It outrages the
very constitution of the mind to deny them. In fact, their necessity can be

shown by the fact that to prove that they don't exist, they must use themselves.
You have to make the witness testify to the fact that he doesn't exist, so for
illustration, to argue from that same universal intuition is absurd.
c. Universality. That is believed by all men everywhere, wherever normal. It
might not always be clear as in an infant or savage, but it is intuitional. Now
the intuition of God meets these requirements. In the study of cause and effect
there is the necessity of believing in God. The mind demands that every effect
have an adequate cause. Here is necessity and originality. The teleological
evidence of design takes our minds unerringly to the thought of a Designer.
The presence of moral obligation demands that we believe in a holy authority,
a God of righteousness who has written His moral law in our very natures. And
the universality of the idea of God gives evidence of intuition in man, pointing
ontologically to the existence of God.
4. External proofs of God's Existence.
a.
b.
c.
d.

The Cosmological Argument
The Teleological Argument
The Anthropological Argument
The Christological Argument
1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
5.)
6.)

The Bible must be accounted for
Miracles must be accounted for
The influence of Christianity must be accounted for
Christ must be accounted for
The fact of conversion must be accounted for
Fulfilled prophecy must be accounted for

C. Man's Natural Ignorance of God
1. The Cause and Nature of his Ignorance
We have noted that man was created with a mind that has certain elements,
which intuitionally recognize God. He has a moral nature, which should respond to
any revelation of God. Man was made to know God. His attributes of faith, worship,
reverence, prayer, rectitude, and intelligence should lead him to recognition of God
and come to some true knowledge of Him. Why then is the universal testimony of
observation that nowhere has anyone, by the unaided human reason, come to a pure
conception of God? It would seem that the healthy mind, with the wealth of
testimony from the realm of nature, with the image of God stamped upon its own
laws reflecting the moral nature of God, would to a mature, pure knowledge of God,
but has this ever been the case? Observation testifies the opposite and so do the
Scriptures, "The world by wisdom knew not God," I Corinthians 1:21 and Romans
1:19-24.
Why this ignorance? What influences are at work in the human heart and upon
the human mind to cause man to sin against his own nature and remain ignorant of
what he ought to know and should know of God? It isn't because atheism is the

universal principal. Atheism is but exception. The whole world worships but at the
altar of the "unknown God." Even with the light of revelation man doesn't think
rightly of God save where there is the special grace of the Holy Spirit illuminating
the soul. The testimony of heathenism is that their conception of God is not just
immature but erroneous and mostly degrading. Max Muhler's testimony of the sacred
books of the Orient says, "They were not only erroneous but downright immoral,"
Many parts could not be translated into the English, they were so rotten. Civilization
hasn't brought to man a better conception. Even where the Bible is had as a universal
book, the unconverted man, instead of thinking straight about God, makes Him to be
a capricious creature, who can do no evil or no good, who forgets his sins (Psalms
10:1), a creature "altogether like unto himself" who will lightly pass over sin and one
who will take every vile creature into His pure heaven, no matter his incorrigible
heart. He will not grant to God even the measure of his own sense of moral rectitude.
Now, why is this prevailing ignorance, when it is in man's very nature to know God?
There is a two-fold influence in operation upon man: Man's own depraved nature
and Satan. Whenever man tries to imagine God, his thoughts are tainted by the dirty
window of his soul through which he has to visualize God and by the archenemy of
God, Satan. He started his battle with man by slandering the character of God in the
garden. He threw doubt into the mind of Eve as to the goodness of God by
insinuating that God was holding from them something they needed. "Yea, God
knoweth that in the day thou eatest thereof ye shall be as gods." He used another lie,
"Yea, hath God said." He succeeded so fully in his first attempt that he has been
using the same method ever since.
a. So the first cause considered is Satan. Satan seeks to insult the majesty of
God. He hates the Godhead and all He stands for. He is a liar from the
beginning and a blasphemer ever since. Why do we have the universal
swearing? Why is there blasphemy against the name and character of God in
profanity every day? Satan controls the minds and hearts. We see more of it
day by day. In popular music, in modern cults and isms the name of God is
blasphemed. Satan seeks to infuse in man his own corrupt views of the
Godhead. He cannot impart to us a new nature, as the Holy Spirit can, but he
doesn't need to. He finds ready at hand in man a fallen nature already suited to
his purpose. He is "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2), "In whom the god of
this world hath blinded the minds of hem which believe not" (II Corinthians
4:4).
As Satan cannot utterly destroy from man the remnants of the image of
God, such as the moral law and intuition of God's existence, he corrupts and
perverts. He has the heathen fetish worshipers cringing at a fearsome, angry,
cruel, hateful God. He has the old Romans drinking and degrading themselves
before a god of lusts and vice, deifying every human immorality. He had the
warlike nations of northern Europe with blood-soaked swords bowing before
warlike gods of Thor and Baldwin. He has the modernistic Protestants of our
day bowing before a weak-kneed God who has no moral backbone, powerless
either to help His own, or punish the evil doer. He has even been so successful

as to cause the philosophers to deny God's personality, power, and even
existence.
b. On top of the activity of Satan must be added the tendencies of the
depraved human nature. It is only through this that Satan can work. Without
that ally within, Satan could have no power over man. He cannot force and is
only able to accomplish his purposes as man freely and willingly obeys him.
As God does not outlaw our freedom when offering salvation, Satan cannot go
beyond it when carrying out his purpose. We must see that man's depravity is a
disease of the soul and mind, a disease which affects the whole man. It enters
into the thinking, the feeling or affections, the motives, the will and, in fact, the
whole man. It is no wonder then that we have the many vile, degrading
abominations man has practiced as sacred methods of worship.
Man has always made his creeds to suit his morals, makes his creeds as an
ideal to attain. He patterns them after the corruption of his own soul; it is no
wonder that he grovels in a mire of spiritual filth out of which it is impossible
to elevate and only plunges him deeper into every unnatural practice. In the
sphere of thought or mind, "They became vain in their imaginations" Ephesians
4:18 R.V. "Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of
God through the ignorance that is in them, harden heart" Sin throws a cloud
over the mind and darkens even the natural light it has. In affecting, it is vile;
in human relations, degraded. The awful catalog is found in Romans1:21-32. In
his spirit he enthrones Satan instead of God; in body he practices impurity
Psalm 14:2-3, Isaiah 1:6. The whole man is sick with the virus of sin.
2. The Question of Heathenism.
Does their ignorance of God carry moral responsibility? Is heathenism a
misfortune or a crime? Some think God should pity rather than punish the heathen.
Some evolutionistic modernists will go so far as to say that we all were in the same
state at one time in the forward march of evolution. "Idolatry is but the innocent
mistakes of childhood." Others say, "They are sincere, and God will count their
sincerity." Some well-wishers who mistakenly think God is like themselves try to
say what God "ought to do" and what "He ought not to do." God is too good to
send those to hell who never heard the gospel.
There are a number of objections to such a theory of the condition of the
heathen. There is one primary underlying error in such reasoning; they mistake the
real secret of man's ignorance of God. Instead of a real desire on their part to find
and honor Him as God, every belief and act of their worship degrades, insults, and
"glorifies Him not as God." Instead of their heathenism and ignorance being a
misfortune, it is a heinous crime; and instead of God overlooking it, it is a marvel
of grace that He allows them to live for a single day. The heathen are creatures
exactly like us. They have the same intuitions, moral and spiritual faculties, and
the same rational and religious tendencies. They differ not one whit from us in
their original make-up. If a willful perversion of the character of God is excusable
in us, it is in them. Where can even enlightened human reason give countenance to
the heinous crimes done by heathenism in the name of religion; brutal lusts,
immoral acts, homicide, fratricide, and infanticide? These are all done in the name

of God. Can they find that in their natural religious intuitions? How unnatural and
monstrous! How it outrages every instinct and intuition, which marks even the
heathen as human being! It wasn't by following the God-given intuitions of the
soul that they conceived such lies. It was by what Peter calls, "This they were
willingly ignorant of." First, "the darkening of their foolish hearts;" or when they
knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Then they changed His glory into
images and vileness; they first had to reject the true knowledge of God in the soul.
The heathen are not only not true to their own natures but are not living up to the
light of natural revelation, the lights of nature, as it reveals God. There never has
been a missionary to my knowledge returning from the field who will say, "The
heathen are living up to that knowledge they have." Romans 2:14 tells us that they
have an accusing within, their own conscience meanwhile accusing or excusing
one another. Probably the greatest proof of their need of a higher revelation and
compulsion of souls by the gospel and its power to save is to be found in our own
natures. Can anyone here in so called civilized nations live up to what he knows is
right, his duty toward God? Does he arrive at right representations of God without
the Gospel? Can anyone here be saved without the Gospel? How much less can
those who are not even surrounded by the indirect influences of the Gospel?
The Scriptural presentation of the condition of the heathen as lost is clear,
"alienated from the life God," (Ephesians 4:17-19); "enemies of God by wicked
works. (Colossians 1:21); "'children of disobedience," (Ephesians 2:2; 5:6); "by
nature the children of wrath," (Ephesians2:3); "without Christ, having no hope, and
without God in the world," (Ephesians 2:12). The whole book of Romans is an
argument stating the fact that all men are without excuse and guilty before God. In
the first chapter, after declaring the power of the Gospel to save all who believe,
Paul gives a terrible indictment of the heathen world and an appalling picture of its
wickedness and corruption. They are declared to be without excuse because of the
measure of light given through external revelation of nature and internal revelation
of their own natures, that is, their consciences (1:19-20). In Chapter two, Paul
shows the philosopher and Jew guilty by reason of the light received and rejected.
In Chapter three, the verdict is given: the whole world guilty before God, verses
12- 13. Immediately afterwards come these words: "How then shall they call upon
Him of whom they have not believed? And how shall they hear without a preacher,
and how shall they preach except they be sent,” (vs. 14-15)? For the universality of
man's lost condition see Psalm 14:2-3.
Heathenism is the consummation of human depravity. It is sin in full bloom in
the intellectual, moral, and religious nature of man. It is the complete degradation
of God's work in man. It is the last stage of prostitution of the God-given instincts
and intuitions of the soul. It is the great object lesson to all men of the course of sin
and capabilities of sin. It brutalizes man and shamefully degrades his Creator, then
complacently says, "I have done no harm." As far as their sincerity goes, it but
further extenuates their crime. It shows a lower level of degradation. They believe
their own lies. To think that they could honor God with what would degrade a man
is to slander and insult God. Heathenism is not a misfortune but a crime, the
ultimate crime of idolatry. They are lost and need the same Saviour the civilized
man needs. It is no wonder that the cause of missions is pushed back to a relatively

small place in our modern program. It is no wonder that the modern church has but
the aim of education, hospitalization, and civilization for the heathen, rather than
giving them Christ. The belief in the lost, damnable state of the heathen is the wellspring of the missionary effort. Cut the belief of out, and you cut the artery of
missions. Unless I believe them lost without Christ, I shall not agonize in prayer
for their salvation. I shall not sacrifice for sending them the Gospel, which would,
if rejected, damn their souls. No, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God," and "there is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we
must be saved." Heathenism reeks with every form of degrading habits,
abominable practices, unmentionable cruelties and crimes, every form of moral
corruption freely tolerated and indulged, all offered in worship to God. "The
wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God."
II. The Personality of God
A. Limits of our knowledge of God
It is the best part of wisdom to approach the subject of God's nature with humility and
healthy realization of our ignorance and limitations. There are two dangers to avoid; that
of assured finality and complete wisdom on the one hand and the vagueness of
inexcusable ignorance on the other. There are those whose attitude is, "We are the people,
and wisdom will die with us," a rushing to the front with exact definitions, positive
explanations, and complete revelations of the Godhead, claiming to explain every
mystery. There is no such thing as theology as a science and exact knowledge. Within
Himself, in His essence, He must remain to our finite knowledge as incomprehensible and
only revealed to us through His works. In the fullness of His person, "He dwells in a light
unapproachable; with minds bearing every infirmity and weakness of fallen man, only
catching faint gleams of light as from the far-off sun we need to confess, "We see through
a glass darkly." On the other hand, there is the danger of agnosticism which says,
"Nothing can be known of God." This type of willful ignorance would exclude any
conception of God. It only says that our conception is partial, incomplete, and finite, but
also that there is no conception possible.
The truth lies between these two extremes. God is known and yet unknown. In His
infinite perfection of being He dwells in the thick darkness. The mind cannot think of Him
as He is in Himself. Through the impartations of some attributes of His in man, some
revelations in nature, and through the Holy Scriptures, He has manifested enough of His
incomprehensible reality upon which faith can rest. We can only know these things of
which we have experience. The only knowledge we could have of God, of His personality
and perfections, is that which we have of ourselves. You may see the accommodations or
divine revelation to this fact throughout the Bible where God is always revealed unto us as
acting with human methods. It speaks of the ears of the Lord, the eyes of the Lord, the
hands of the Lord, the feet of the Lord, always as though He had a body like ours, but the
Scriptures teach the contrary. It is the accommodation of Scripture to the weakness of the
human mind to understand anything or think anything of which it has not had experience.
So it is with the other attributes of God; they are compared to ours. When you ascribe to
God any of our own attributes of personality, you must divest them of all human

infirmities, weaknesses, or imperfections, expand them into infinity and ascribe them to
God. Man sits for the mental portrait of his Creator. He is made in the image of God, and,
though marred by the fall, many of the lines still remain. This is isn't to say that God is just
as man, only extended into infinity, a Super-man, but the part of God revealed to man is
after the pattern God made man. How much is there of God ruling His universe and
communing with Himself, which cannot be revealed to man because of man's limitations
and lack of faculties, only God knows. It probably is as infinite as God Himself is.
Here rests the limitations of our knowledge of God. Further into His infinite essence
we cannot go. Our knowledge is but analogous. We mean, for instance, when we say that
God has knowledge, that there is in Him a relation analogous to what that same term
means in us; not the same kind of knowledge but only by analogy. Two is to four what
three is to six. They are by no means identical, but they bear the same relation. Two is half
of four, and three is half of six. So there is an analogical relation between what we call
knowledge among us and what the Bible means by the knowledge God has; when we try
to realize what God's knowledge is, our minds stagger. We can only say that His is
perfection. His faculties of thought are not as ours; He has no need of memory. He knows
without succession, knows all things without reasoning, comparison, or me. He is not
limited in knowledge by time; so it is with every attribute we ascribe to Deity. They bear a
relation to the same thing in us, but they are different and incomprehensible. His infinite
perfections are veiled under finite symbols. We see but the shadow and that obscurely. We
can have no idea of how much we shall know of a living God when "we shall know as we
are known."
B. God's Personality
In discussing the personality of God and the nature of God, we are to settle the agelong dispute between the Pantheists and such modern thought on the one hand, and the
clear Biblical portrait of God on the other. Pantheism denies the personality of God. Much
of philosophical speculation has dismissed the personality of God, and a lot of modern
atheistic science has ruled out a personal God and placed the laws of nature and the forces
of nature in His place. This is a purely mechanical outlook on the universe.
We readily admit the mystery that surrounds His majestic person. We understand that
the human mind cannot fathom the depths of His nature. Simonides, the poet, when
questioned by Hieron, the King, concerning the nature of God, demanded a day to
consider before answering. When the question was presented to him the following day, he
asked another day of thought, and so on until finally the king demanded to know the
reason for his procedure. He answered that the longer he thought upon the subject, the
greater the difficulty of giving a satisfactory answer. The Bible declares the same thing.
Jobs says, "Behold, God is great and we know Him not, neither can the number of His
years be searched out." Again, "Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out
the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as Heaven. What canst thou do? Deeper than
hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than
the sea." These are the words of Zophar in Job. 11:17, but are a confession of man's
ignorance.
In the first consideration of the personality of God, a few things need to be considered.
First, what constitutes the personality? What do we understand personality to be? Second,

is it proven that God exercises these attributes of personality? Thirdly, some added
considerations.
1. Three Attributes of Personality
a. Intellect - Constituting the power of thought, reasoning, memory,
reflection, perception. Attached to this attribute is that of self-consciousness.
b. Sensibility - The power of feeling, not physically, but emotionally, those
sensibilities of the soul, all the various degrees and modes of love, hatred,
compassion, and spiritual affinities.
c. Volition - The power of choice, freedom of will, involving conscience.
Within this definition of personality resides the moral attributes. To be a person
is to be one who feels a responsibility for his own actions; one who knows
right from wrong.
Every one of these attributes reflects self-consciousness. A person has the power
of standing up and saying, "I know," or "I love" or "I will." These are all denied to
brute creations of blind force. I cannot rationally ascribe them to laws of nature nor
forces of nature nor to plants or animals. Plants have life and a degree of sensibility.
The brute has some perception and motion, exhibiting some crude mental workings,
which denote low intelligence. The differentiating attribute attached to all men,
however, is that of self - consciousness in every act; neither does any sense of
responsibility of right nor wrong, choice of moral ends, show itself in animals. Only
man can say, "I," "me," "mine," myself," and all of the personal pronouns; in this he
resembles the Creator. Herein is the act of murder a transgression of an eternal canon
set by God upon the sanctity of human life. Throw away the element of personality
from man, and killing him would be no more serious than killing a hog, or cow or
any beast. It is only as his personality reflects the image of his Maker that his life
becomes a sacred trust to himself and others; herein he is made in the image of God,
not in physical construction.
2. Is it proven that God exercises these attributes of personality?
a. Intellect. We have considered the Teleological argument, showing
intelligent design and supervision in nature. The Scriptures affirm the fact that
God exercises every mark of intelligence and that to a perfect degree of
omniscience. He not only knows, but knows all things. In Isaiah 1:18, "Come
now, let us reason together, saith the Lord." Here God wants to enter into a
mental contest with man, intellect to intellect. Here is affirmation of reasoning
in the Godhead, in relation to the sum total of knowledge of wisdom, I
Corinthians 1:24, "the wisdom of God"; Romans 11:33, "O the depths of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His
judgments and His ways past finding out;" thinking, Jeremiah 31:20;
knowledge, I Samuel 2:3. These are but a few of hundreds of instances in the
Bible where acts of intellect are ascribed to God. Again we are reminded that
they are transcendent to our own conception of what the terms mean. They are

accommodations to our limited understanding, but they are analogous. There are
mental actions in God, which bear some relation to those same actions in us He is perfect in thought, reasoning, and knowledge. His perfection doesn't in
anywise invalidate the conclusion we infer that He has intellect.
b. Sensibility. There are thousands of passages which speak of God's feelings,
but we shall mention but a few. Probably one of the plainest is Psalm 103: 8-13.
Here is mercy, anger, and pity. The wrath of God is spoken of many times:
Numbers 16:46; in the Psalms, a number of times, 2:5; 58:9; 88:16; 89:46, etc.;
in the New Testament, John 3:36; Romans 1:18; anger, Psalm 7:11;
Deuteronomy 29:24; pity and mercy, James 5:11; love, you would have to quote
the whole Bible to give them all: John 3:16. It is of interest to note that the Old
Testament has more references to the "wrath of God," and the New Testament
to the "love of God." It wasn't until Jesus came, the love of God in human form,
that man saw the love of God, Psalm 91:14; Hosea 14:4; I John 3:1, etc.; affinity
of like natures or affinity of personality to personality, John 6:44; Christ, John
12:32; James 4:8. These true refined sensibilities reside only in personality.
c. Volition. The power of free choice, or self-determination, is ascribed to
God. Psalm 115:3, "Our God is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He
hath pleased." Choose, Isaiah 14:1 or 49:7, Acts 22:14; Ephesians 1:11; James
2:5. Again His freedom, Isaiah 46:10-11 and a very clear passage, Daniel 4:37;
Romans 9:13-23. Certainly all of the attributes of righteousness, holiness, moral
judgment ascribed to God in the Scriptures are a part of His volitional nature.
3. Some added considerations concerning the personality of God
a. The many acts of God, apart from those considered above, are evidences of
His personality; such as God speaking, God writing with His finger on the
tablets of stone, writing upon the wall at Belshazzar's feast, the many active
verbs denoting action in the last chapters of Job, and all of the physical actions
accomplished with purpose. It is only in recognition of His distinct personality
that there is any possibility of the love, parental relationship, and communion
spoken of in the Bible between God and man. These elements of prayer,
worship, and dependence can only be between personalities. You cannot love,
or fear, or adore, or pray to, or commune with, or worship a blind force, or a
law, or a part of nature.
b. The Spirituality of God. God is Spirit as opposed to anthropomorphism,
John 4:24 leaving out the article, which isn't in the original, "God is spirit and
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." Because we
think of the body when we call anyone a person, we have confused personality
with corporeity, physical body, a material substance, in this section we want to
consider the question as to the nature of God's existence. Has God a body? Has
God a body like ours? God is Spirit. The question naturally arises, "What is
spirit?" Is there anything in the realm of our understanding to aid us to
understand pure spiritual existence? Here we meet the difficulty of
comprehending the meaning of pure spirit. It is outside the whole realm of our
experience. We have considered the fact that God has reality of existence and

possesses distinct personality, but He dwells in a different form of man. While it
is impossible for us to imagine pure spirit, still there are some considerations
from the Scriptures, which help us.
1.) Spirit is invisible reality, without material or physical properties, Luke
24:39. This portion is the words of Christ concerning Himself after His
resurrection, distinguishing His own glorified flesh with that of spirit
form: "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and
see; for spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.” These words
are a very plain revelation of the negative qualities of spirit, incorporeal
reality. A spirit has no physical members or properties. Spirit is invisible
to physical eyes. The simple statement of John 4:24, "God is spirit," tells
us the mode of God's existence. He doesn't live in a physical body, limited
in action to the body's motions and bodily activity. Note Numbers 16:22,
"The God of the spirits of all flesh;" likewise in Hebrews 12:9, He is
called, "The Father of all spirits.” He is the Father of all spirits in the sense
that they spring from Him and are like Him. He is contrasted with the
Egyptians in Isaiah 31:3, that the Egyptians are men and not God, and
their horses flesh and not spirit. This argument is based on the assumption
that God is pre-eminently spiritual. The third Person of the Trinity, the
Holy Spirit, is substantially the same with the Father and the Son. He is
Spirit, so must the Father and the Son be Spirit. The Holy Spirit works in
redemption in us and for us and through us, yet is invisible, not revealing
unto us any physical properties. Indeed He could not be physical and still
indwell the Christian.
2.) When the Scriptures ascribe spirituality to God as a mode of His
existence, it denies of Him the properties of matter or declares
immateriality to Him, hence, He is not a being who can be contacted with
any of our five physical senses, nor can He be pictured in our
imaginations. He gave the command in Deuteronomy 4:15-18 not to make
any likeness of Deity. What likeness could be made of Him? In fact God
condemned such image making as ascribing man's corrupt image to God,
Romans 1:23. Here is the folly of idolatry whether it be an idol as only an
image of God or thought to be God. It is the same error in both cases.
Every image is false in two ways. It tries to represent Him who is life itself
with that which is inert, as dead. Again it tries to represent free activity by
that which is a victim of stern necessity.
3.) The spiritual essence of God alone accounts for the attributes of
perfection in the Godhead. A material being cannot be infinite, for if a part
of matter anywhere could be infinite, there wouldn't be any possibility for
a finite matter to exist for matter fills space and excludes all other matter
from that space which it fills. No other matter, therefore, could co-exist in
the same sphere with that matter. If God is infinite, He can be in the same
space with all other existence. Our conception of matter is that it can fill
but one space at a time. It must be located in time and space.

4.) Because God is spirit, He can commune with our spirits, John 4:23-24.
It is only as spirit that God can communicate His will with His intelligent
creatures. He can enter their souls, warm and irradiate them with tokens of
His favor, or depress and alarm them with tokens of His displeasure. It is
only as spirit that He can indwell the saint co-inhabiting the body with our
spirits.
5.) God may manifest Himself in visible form, as the angel of the Lord of
the Old Testament, Genesis 16:7-10, 13; also Exodus 24:9-10; 33:18-22;
Isaiah 6:1. Do these contradict John 1:18, "No man hath seen God at any
time?" The fact is no man hath seen God at any time but only
manifestations of God; not His true essence but only manifestations of
God, as Christ is God manifest. Yet could they see His Godhead? Can you
see my spirit? You but see manifestations of my spirit as it manifests itself
through my human body, but the real essence of my life is veiled behind
those same physical manifestations. When man saw the Christ, they were
not conscious of any specialty in Him marking Him as a revelation of
Deity, even as when the Lord came to Sodom, the Sodomites didn't
recognize His Deity. There is no contradiction of God's essence as spirit
when it speaks of Him showing Himself in Exodus 33:18-23, for in that
very manifestation He declares, "Thou canst not see my face, for there
shall no man see me and live." Note: He uses the sense of His face as His
essence, as in Exodus 24:9-10, "They saw the God of Israel." God
accommodated Himself to human infirmities by giving a physical
manifestation; for by no other method could He reveal Himself to human
perception. God was careful to warn Moses later, "They saw no manner of
similitude when the Lord spoke to them in Horeb out of the midst of the
fire," Deuteronomy 4:15.
c. A consideration of Anthropomorphism. The opposite idea of God's essence
held by many is that He dwells in a literal body of flesh and bones. Their
teaching of God's corporeality is called anthropomorphism or anthropathism.
They literally interpret those Scriptures which predicate of God bodily functions
and organs. It was first taught by the Bebionites, by many disciples of Secinus,
the Egyptian monks, and the sect of Adians. It flows mostly among ignorant
people who have a low conception of God's attributes and existence. The
Musselites hold that God is a man and has a physical body like man. This idea
has led them to repudiate the doctrine of Trinity. It is impossible to conceive of
God being a Trinity and still hold to anthropomorphism.
The conception of material body as ascribed to God arises out of a literal
interpretation of every portion of the Scriptures, where it speaks of God having
or using human bodily organs such as: "The ears of the Lord are not heavy;"
"The eyes of the Lord run to and fro;" and "His arm is not shortened." They say
that means He has those literal organs and members. They use that portion of
Scripture we have already considered where Moses saw the Lord. Probably the
most used is Genesis 1:26, "and God said, "Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness." They say that image and likeness of necessity must be a physical,

bodily image, in fact, very facial image. They forget that the greatest similarity
between God and man is not, nor could be physical, the spiritual and moral
likeness as transcends the physical. Man's personality is patterned after the
Almighty; so His power of reason, loving, and willing are marks of the image of
God remaining, like the walls and pillars of a destroyed city, marking its former
purpose. It is the invisible soulish, spiritual nature of man which is made in the
image of God, as from the following consideration.
1.) It is that portion of man that is eternal. The physical goes back to dust,
but the soul is eternal, Ecclesiastes 3:11 - "Thou hast set eternity in their
heart."
2.) The word "image" and "likeness" in the New Testament is used of
many other than physical properties. In fact, they are used to designate the
new creation in the converted man, Colossians 3:10, "And have put on the
new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that
created him." The new man, made in God's image, couldn't be physical,
and no one would so declare. It is the new nature born within the believer,
yet it is made in God's image. The nature of this new person is described
in Ephesians 4:23-24, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that
ye put on the new man, which after God (or like God) is created in
righteousness and true holiness." Here is the image of the new man,
righteousness and true holiness. That is how it is in the image of God. This
new nature salvation imparts, adds no new physical properties to the
convert, but morally and spiritually man is patterned by creation after the
true God, this pattern being marred and partly effaced by the fall. By
salvation, he is recreated after the image of God in righteousness and true
holiness. Tertullian, the early church father, wrote in combating this
teaching, "Divine affections are ascribed to the Deity by means of figures
borrowed from the human form, not as if He were endued with corporeal
qualities. When eyes are ascribed to Him, it denotes that He sees all
things; when ears are that He hears all things; the speech denotes His will;
nostrils, the perception of prayer; hands, creation; arms, power; feet,
immensity; for He has no members and performs no office for which they
are required, but executes all things by the sole act of His will. How can
He require eyes Who is light itself? Or feet who is omnipresent? How can
He require hands Who is the silent creator of all things, or a tongue to
whom to think is to command? Those members are necessary to man but
not to God, in as much as the counsels of men would be inefficacious
unless their thoughts put their members in motion; but not to God, whose
operations follow His will without effort.”
A careful reading of the Word of God will show that the writers
carefully guard against the perverse application of their bold metaphors
when they ascribe human actions to God, II Chronicles 32:8, "With him is
an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us;" Job 10:4,
"Hast Thou eyes of flesh, or seeth Thou as man seeth?" His arm is not an
arm of flesh or His eyes human eyes. These uses of human metaphors are

mere condescension to human infirmity. They show by analogy that there
are acts of God as well as attributes of God, which correspond to those, for
which we employ those members. How else could it be said of God so that
we would know what is meant, that God hears, if the metaphor of ears
were not used? It merely symbolizes to us the ability of God to see and
know, even as His hands and arms symbolize power, and bowels,
compassion. In this connection it may be noted also that no organs are
ascribed to God similar to those by which we perform the mean and
disreputable bodily functions. Neither are those ascribed to Him which
signalize our infirmities or weaknesses. To eat and sleep, assimilation or
digestion of food is not ascribed to Him. Only those organs by which we
ascribe knowledge or learning, such as the eyes, ears, and minds, and
those by which communication is possible, such as the mouth, lips,
tongue, but not of taste, so also those members, which signify power and
strength such as the arm and hand. Never are any members or organs
ascribed to God which would serve only a sense existence or low physical
being, such as touch or taste.
It may be readily seen from the foregoing considerations the
impossibility of the anthropomorphic conception of God, the ascribing to
God bodily existence. His omnipresence is incompatible with corporeal
existence, for a body localizes. It is incompatible with the incarnation of
Jesus Christ. The Scriptures say nothing of a disincarnation preceding the
incarnation; He tabernacled among us physically only after taking the
form of human flesh. The ascribing unto God of a body is the grossest
conception of the mode of divine essence. God is Spirit and must so be
worshipped.
C. The Unity and Trinity of God
In the consideration of the person of God there are two elements of revelation, which
must be studied. That is the unity of God and the Trinity of God. The terms are
contradictory only to our finite knowledge of God. While they entail mysteries too deep for
the human understanding, still they are the subjects of divine revelation and are subjects
more for faith than reason.
1. The Unity of God. The Scriptures teach emphatically the oneness of God. There is
but one Go, Deuteronomy 4:34; 6:4; Isaiah 43:10, and very plainly, Isaiah 44:6; 45:5;
so also the New Testament teaches the oneness or unity of God, I Timothy 2:5; Mark
10:18; and, Jesus quoting Deuteronomy 6:4 in Mark 12:29. This monotheism of
divine revelation satisfies the soul for a fit object of faith and worship and answers
the dictates of a reason for a single Almighty cause for all existing effects. All nature
is monotheistic. Whether man studies the stars through a spectroscope or studies over
a region of earth, there is a singularity of composition and a uniformity of laws,
which tell to reason a singular divine Creator and Sustainer.
2. The nature of the divine unity: the Trinity of God

a. Definition: It is clearly revealed in the Scriptures that in this Divine unity, in
this one Godhead, there is a multiplicity of persons. The word "person" is a
somewhat modified word when ascribed to each of the three persons of the
Godhead. It is the only word the human language has which could be used to
designate the Trinity, of the one God. The distinctions between the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit are of a personal nature. To each is ascribed deity, and
each has distinct operations and offices. The Trinity of God is the tri-personal
existence of God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. When calling each of the
three members of the Godhead a person, we are meaning exactly the same thing
as when we call three people each a person. For each of three human beings has
a unity and specific peculiarly his own; while each of the Godhead shares with
each other member the same essence or unity of personality. This undivided
essence of the divine nature belongs alike to each member of the Godhead. Each
possesses all the substance and attributes of the Deity. The plurality of the
Godhead is not a plurality of essence, but a plurality of personal distinctions.
The one indivisible essence subsists in three modes, one God manifesting
Himself in three persons. This is not to say numerically that one is three and
three is one, but that God is one in essence, but three only in respect to the
distinctions of that essence; for the human mind to comprehend fully the
mystery of the triune existence of God would necessitate the human mind to be
infinite and deity itself.
b. Not Tri-theism. We may see that this revelation of the Trinity of God is not
tri-theism, or three Gods. In His essential essence God is one. The orthodox
position is called Trinitarianism. The Athanasian Creed gives the creed clearly
of Trinitarianism: "We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither
confounding the persons nor dividing the substance." It is in this sense that we
can understand the immanence of one divine person in another, which permits
the work of one person of the Trinity with possible exception to be attributed to
another. For example, Christ is localized in a glorified human body, "seated at
the right hand of the Majesty on, high, waiting until His enemies be made His
footstool," but through the presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer,
Christ is said to indwell the believer. The Trinity is within the saint in the
presence of the third person of the Trinity, John 14:17, 23, so the Son does the
work the Father sent Him to do, but the order is never reversed. There are
certain offices ascribed to each member of the Godhead, but usually the Trinity
is in operation in each case. As in creation, the Father willed, the Son made, the
Spirit brooded.
c. The Scriptural proof of the Trinity of God. It is patent to the thinking of any
reasonable person that a clear explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity is
impossible. We may draw illustrations from around us, but they do little more
than throw faint light upon the subject; and some of them commonly used only
obscure rather than enlighten. We may speculate, but lacking anything within us
with which to liken the Trinity or any faculty with which to comprehend the
Trinity, we find ourselves just as unsatisfied after a long chain of reasoning. The
doctrine of the Trinity belongs to the realm of faith, not speculation. The
impossibility of a satisfactory answer to the many questions concerning the

Trinity arises: from the very nature of the case. First, because God is Spirit and
our minds belong primarily to the physical world, there will always be
difficulties and mysteries when we try to conceive of spiritual things in the form
of physical thought. This applies not only to the doctrine of the Trinity but to all
other deep spiritual truths of the Word of God. "The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
In the second place, a perfectly satisfactory answer to the question is
impossible because God is infinite and we are finite. God dwells in the light that
no man can approach unto; any philosophical explanation of God coming from
the finite would of necessity fall far short. This is the reason why the Bible
nowhere gives an explanation of the Trinity. Those who deny the doctrine say it
isn't taught in the Bible. The nature of the case doesn't permit any clear
explanation in the Bible. How could the Bible give a clear, doctrinal, lucid,
detailed discourse on the Trinity when we couldn't understand it? The Bible
does teach the doctrine of the Trinity by implication, by clear distinctions in
places where all three are said to be working, and by the use of plural nouns and
pronouns. Some of the proofs of the Trinity:
1.) The Scriptures recognize three persons as God.
a.) The Father is recognized as God, John 6:27, I Peter 1:2.
b.) The Son, Jesus Christ, is recognized as God, John 1:1, 18; Titus
2:13
c.) The Holy Spirit is recognized as God, Acts 5:3- 4
2.) These three are so described that we must conceive of them as three
distinct persons.
a.) Distinctions between the Father and the Son. Christ is the
begotten, and the Father is the begetter, Psalm 2:7; John. 1:14. The
Father is the sender and Christ the sent One, John 10:36. Christ
speaks of the Father as "another," John 5:32, 37.
b.) The Father and the Son are distinguished from the Holy Spirit,
John 14:16-17. He is sent from the Father as a gift, John 15:26), and
sent from the Father and the Son, John14: 26, Galatians 4:6.
3.) The use of the word "one" where speaking of the unity of God is a
compound word denoting compound unity and not simple unity, as in
Deuteronomy 6:4 and Mark 10:18. This can be seen from other places
where the word "one" is used where its compound nature is seen, Genesis
2:24, also the Greek word for one in Galatians 3:28, etc.
4.) The noun for God often used in the Old Testament is plural, "Elohim,"
yet used with a singular verb "bara," Genesis 1:1.

5.) The use of plural pronouns in the Godhead, "Let us make man,"
Genesis 1:26; 11:7; and in Genesis 3:22; also in the commission of Isaiah
6:8.
6.) The passages where God is said to be speaking unto God and sending
a member of the Godhead, Zechariah 2:10-11. Jehovah speaks of Himself
as sent by the Lord, Jehovah of hosts. There are those we have already
referred to of Christ and the Holy Spirit sent, and the Godhead talking to
each other, Psalm 110:1 is explained in Acts 2:34.
7.) The many places where all three are mentioned either as active or
present, or in benediction, as at the baptism of Christ, Luke 3:21-22, the
baptism command, Matthew 28:19 and the benedictions, II Corinthians
13:14.
D. The Names of God
One of the methods used in the Scriptures to reveal the nature and perfections of God is
the use of personal and attributive names. Names have long since ceased to have personal
meanings in the Occident or western civilization. They are merely means of pointing out
individuals, just names of things and persons. In the Orient and Near East from the
beginning of history and even to the present time, names do more than distinguish things or
persons. They have meanings connoting or signifying qualities in the object or person.
Every name in the Hebrew Old Testament not only distinguishes, but may be interpreted
into the English meaning; and many times further light upon Scripture is obtained. For
illustration, the name Jacob was given to him because of his act of taking Esau's place, and
it fits his whole life until changed later by the power of God. Jacob means supplanter, and
we see it fits him when stealing both the birthright and blessing from Esau. When God met
him at Bethel (house of God) and at Peniel (the face of God) and wrestled with him and
prevailed against him, his name was changed when his nature was changed; he became
Israel (prince with God). The names of God are not just arbitrary signs pointing out God
but are each a new revelation of the nature of God. This is also true of the many names of
Christ. It is true of the names of Satan and of the anti-Christ.
There are no less than ten names of God in the Old Testament and many compound
names made up of combinations of these ten names. These ten names are: El, Elohim, Eloe,
Sabaoth, Elioh, Eser-Ieje, Adonai, Jah, Jehovah and Shaddai; but Eloah and Elohim are the
same, one being the plural or compound name intimating the Trinity. Sabaoth is not really a
name but used with another of the proper names. Jehovah, Enyah, and Jah are variations of
the same name, Jehovah. The two most often used and most important are Elohim,
rendered God in the English, and Jehovah, and rendered Lord. The great names of God are
used to signify His perfections:
1. Elohim. This word comes from two Hebrew words, El meaning strength or
the strong one, and Alah, a verb meaning to bind oneself with an oath or to
swear as with an oath. It is the first name used for God in the Bible, Genesis,
1:1. It was He who spoke the earth into existence. He spoke and it was so. It is
the plural word denoting, in the very first verse of the Bible, the Trinity of God.
The etymology of the word Elohim seems to come from two meanings of the

word Alah. One has the meaning to reverence or worship or adore. According to
this meaning, God is placed before us from the very beginning as the only true
object of our worship. As our Creator, He has the right to demand our
allegiance.
The other meaning of the word Allah is to swear as an oath. This gives us
the Trinity as engaged in an eternal covenant. This is the covenant-keeping God.
It shows that with an oath the three members of the Holy Trinity, back from an
eternity entered into covenant as regards the creation and redemption of man.
We read of Christ as constituted a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek
by an oath. We read of the "blood of the everlasting covenant." We read that
Christ was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. The full meaning
would seem to be the Trinity as the only object of man's redemption. In its
various forms this name for God is used some 2,600 times in the Old Testament.
2. Jehovah. This is the other most used name of God in the Old Testament. It is
the most sacred name to the Jews since the exile into Babylonian captivity. The
Jewish Talmud says that the angels of heaven dare not utter it and denounces
fearful vengeance upon any so bold as to blaspheme it. No Jew would
pronounce that name of God. They seem to have derived their superstition of
the name from Exodus 6:2-3, "And God spake unto Moses and said unto him, 'I
am the Lord (Jehovah) and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known
unto them." He is declaring that they didn't know the true import of the name.
That quality of God's character was not revealed unto the patriarchs. It doesn't
mean that they didn't know the name, but there was something in the name that
they had never realized in God. The name Jehovah signifies the essential nature
of God as the one infinite, eternal, and unconditioned God. It, of all the names
of God, incorporates all of the perfections of God as the only true self existence
in the universe. All else derives its existence, but He is alone the underived,
self-existent one, complete within Himself. The name comes from a form of the
verb "to be." When God uses the name of Himself, He uses the first person of
the verb 'to be,' Ehyeh, I Am, or Will Be, Ehyeh, I am what I am, or I AM what
I will be. It is the name as that spoken by Christ. "Who was, and is, and who is
to come." It expresses the absolute plentitude of being. It includes eternity, selfexistence, immutability, simplicity, omnipotence, and omniscience; in short, the
consummation of all possible perfection. In relation to Israel, as God spoke to
Moses, "Tell them I Am hath sent you." It implies His ability to fulfill His
promise. It signifies the all-inclusiveness of the source of every blessing and
work of God. He is contained within Himself, and being all-sufficient, can keep
His promise and fulfill His every word. Here see the richness of the prophecy of
Christ, "Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord
(Kuries-Jehovah), to the glory of God the Father.” Every being shall know at
last that Jesus is at one with the Father, that He is the great "I Am," the eternal,
self-existing God. It is this name Jehovah that God bears a distinct relationship
to man. It is the name of God in redemption. It first meets us in relation to man
when God stood before the sinning pair in the garden, Genesis 3:8, and covered
them with skins. The first distinct revelation of Himself as Jehovah was in

connection with the redemption of Israel from Egypt, Exodus 3:13-17. In God's
redemptive relationship to man, Jehovah is compounded with other names to
signify His supply for every need.
a. Jehovah-Jirer - "The Lord will provide," i.e. a sacrifice for sin, Genesis
22:14.
b. Jehovah - Rapha - "The Lord that healeth," cure for sin, Exodus 15:26
c. Jehovah - Nissi - "The Lord our banner," victory over the flesh,
Exodus 17:8-15
d. Jehovah - Shalon - "The Lord our peace," Judges 6:24
e. Jehovah - Raah - " The Lord my Shepherd," Psalm 23
f. Jehovah - Shammoh - "The Lord is present," in eternity God dwelling
with His own
g. Jehovah - Tsudkenu - "The Lord of righteousness," in the regeneration,
Jeremiah 23:6
3. Adonai. It is spelled with a capital first letter and then small letters in the
Authorized, while Jehovah is always spelled with capitals all the way through. It
means master and in some forms is used of men, but when spelled one way only
it is used of God. It spells God's ownership, lordship, and dominion. This is the
word the Jews substituted for the Jehovah name.
4. Shaddai or El Shaddai, sometimes one way and sometimes the other. It is
translated Almighty or Supreme. It signifies the all-sufficient One in relation to
man's need, the God who is enough. In the Hebrew the word shad signifies the
breast as the nourishment of the babe's life. In applying it to God it would then
mean the nourisher, the strength-giver, the satisfying portion.
5. There are descriptive adjectives with a superlative sense, which are usually
compounded with other names to signify perfection.
a. Ellyon - the Most High One, "high and lofty one who inhabiteth
eternity." It simply means the Supreme God, highest of all beings.
b. Olem - everlasting God, not just to signify His eternity, but the God
over everlasting things.
c. Sabbaoth - When combined with Yahwe or Jehovah-Sabbaoth, Lord of
host, I Samuel 1:3, God over angelic hosts, heavenly hosts, God of
warfare; occurs in the Old Testament more frequently in the crisis of
Israel's need, Psalm 46:4, 11.
When each name of God is understood and contemplated as belonging to our
Heavenly Father, how much our conception of Him is increased; and of our Saviour,
who is the "express image of Him."

III. The Nature of God as Revealed by the Attributes of God
A. The Nature of Attributes
When we wish to come to a closer determination of the nature of God, we are
confronted with the question, is there any sense in which God may be defined? In our
previous topics in the Doctrine of Theology in which we considered "the limits of our
knowledge of God," we saw from the very facts of the case how impossible it is to define,
circumscribe, analyze, or represent in human language God as He is in His absolute
essence. Curil of Jerusalem said, "Our highest knowledge is to confess our ignorance."
Though in His essential essence He remains "the high and lofty one who inhabiteth
eternity," the one who alone 'dwells in a light unapproachable,' still He has been pleased to
give some manifestations of Himself, which reveal certain qualities of His nature. There is
a threefold process of reasoning which helps us to arrive at a clearer conception of God's
nature. In the contemplation of the works of God, we see certain attributes of God, and
from these we arrive at the clearest conception of the nature of God possible to us in our
present state. That this is the Scriptural way may be seen from a number of passages, some
of them already considered. "The heavens declare the glory of God," the works in the skies
show His glory; "The things that are made (reveal) His eternal power and Godhead,"
Romans 1:20.
It is thus we arrive at the estimate of the real unseen character of any individual. When
we see a man doing benevolent acts, we arrive at a conception of his truthfulness and
honesty. We say, "That is an honest man." That is, the character, holy acts, and words must
be derived from a principle of holiness. They are attributes of a principle of God's nature.
He is holy, not only because the Scriptures so state, but they teach in many ways that
holiness is attributed unto God; that is the definition for "attribute." The attributes of God
are those distinguishing characteristics of the divine nature which are inseparable from the
idea of God and constitute a basis for His manifestations to His creatures. They are called
attributes because we are compelled to attribute them unto God.
Here we see the importance of searching the Scriptures to determine most which
attributes are revealed, for they give us the only light of the nature of God which He has
seen fit to give unto us. They are not just certain things we attribute unto God but are
definite outward manifestations of God. They display unto our finite minds definite
qualities residing in the Godhead.
B. The Attributes of God
There is considerable difference of opinion among theologians as to the classification
of attributes. They arrive at practically the same amount of attributes and finally get them
all in and accounted for, but their divergency has more to do with their philosophizing on
the attributes. They recognize them all but hardly know how to classify them. Many of
them use terms, which they themselves are hard to define. There is one line of agreement,
however, which seems to pervade the most of the theological classifications of the
attributes. They divide them into those which reside in God in His relation unto Himself,
what He is only to Himself. They are the attributes commonly called incommunicable,
metaphysical, quiescent, position, and absolute. The other set of attributes has been

variously called relative, communicable, transitory, active, negative, derivative, and
natural. These last signify God in His relations to His works and to man and are called
"communicable" because He is said to have given them to man, but, in truth, only in an
analogical way. They are not the same attributes but only something like unto them,
bearing an analogy to them. The relations are the infinite and the finite.
Dividing all the schedules of attributes, the first or incommunicable or absolute
attributes, are modes of God's being; while the transitory or communicable attributes are
properties of God's nature or determining properties. The former gives all the ideas of
God's necessary existence, eternity, infinity, immensity, independence, and immutability;
around the second is intelligence and will, or all those perfections which could be included
in the idea of a perfect spirit. Dr. Hodge in his Outlines of Theology gives a classification of
the divine attributes, which removes all of the objections against the common
classifications.
1. Those attributes which equally qualify all the rest: infinitude (that which has no
bounds); absoluteness (that which is determined either in its being or modes of being,
or action by nothing whatsoever without itself. This includes immutability).
2. Natural attributes. God is an infinite spirit, self-existent, and eternal, immense,
simple, free of will, intelligent, and powerful.
3. Moral attributes. God is a spirit infinitely righteous, good, true, and faithful.
4. The consummate glory of all the divine perfections in union, the beauty of
holiness.
This outline recognizes that the absolute attributes of God qualify every other attribute.
They pervade and qualify each manifestation. For illustration: God is not wise and infinite,
but He is infinite in His wisdom, so He isn't just immutable and wise, but His wisdom is
immutable, etc. We shall follow this distinction throughout.
We see the absolute attributes or modes of God's existence; we might call them the
universal and all-pervading attributes, for they characterize the whole being and every
manifestation of God.
1. Independence, with reference to self-existence, the grounds of His existence or
being.
2. Eternity, with reference to the duration of His existence or being.
3. Immensity,
with reference to the extent of His existence or being.
4. All-sufficiency, with reference to the content of His being.
5. Immutability, with reference to the identity of His existence or being.
These are all badges of His deity, separating Him from His creatures and works by an
impossible chasm. They are the incomprehensible elements of His nature. They are the
disparagements between the infinite and the finite. We shall never understand them, but
with heads uncovered and shoes off our feet, we worship and adore, confessing with Job,
"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me"; or the Psalmist (139:6), "Such knowledge is
too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain unto it." He is speaking of God's
omniscience and omnipotence.

There is one other consideration before we separately consider these attributes. It is that
of infinity: what is meant by infinity? It is the conditioning word of every one of the
attributes of God, especially of those absolute attributes. We say not only that God is holy;
not only wise, but infinitely wise; not only is He powerful but Omni-powerful, or infinite in
power. What is the meaning of infinite? When we ascribe infinity to God we simply mean
that He has attributes without limit. We aren't affirming that He has no known limits or
bounds but that He has no limits or bounds at all. The difficulties of trying to determine any
bounds of God's nature is not because of human weakness but because there are no bounds.
There can be no increase nor can there be anything taken away. Whatever element exists at
all in the Divine Being exists there not in degree but in illimitable perfection. It cannot be
measured, analyzed, or increased. This infinitude doesn't mean that God included in His
nature every element actual, possible, or conceivable.
Some say, objecting to infinity of God, that there are two contradictions to this truth.
One, "if God is infinite, then He must have all things in His nature, evil included." Second,
"if God is infinite, then all things are included in His essence and there is no finite
existence at all." We won't enter into any philosophical discussion of this theme but to say
this to the first objection: God isn't the sum of all things mathematically, just adding up all
things. God is the source of all things positive; but when He made finite things, He placed
self-limitations upon His own essence by creating and allowing other essences than
Himself. There is in God no weakness, folly, or evil. The infinity of the opposite qualities
exclude these from His nature. To the second objection, God has limited Himself by
creation the finite. It is a self-limitation, but He is in no case dependent upon any finite
condition or reality.
1. Independence. Independence, self-determination, necessary existence, absolute
being are all means of expressing the same thought, that is, that of denying a cause.
All other things to our minds demand a cause, but not God, for God never began to
be. His existence depends upon no outside cause or, in truth, any cause at all. No
combination of elements or of superior will ever caused His coming into being, nor
shall any cause ever cause Him to be reduced into nothingness. He is because He is,
Exodus 3:14, "I Am that I Am." By His very name "Jehovah," God has revealed unto
man this attribute of independence and underived existence. How the mind staggers
when it tries to understand such excellency of existence, but faith believes because it
is necessary to believe it, not only because it is a subject of divine revelation, but also
it is a necessary truth. Caused existence demands uncaused existence.
After all, it is just as much a mystery to our finite minds to comprehend caused as
uncaused existence. How can we understand how something could be made out of
nothing? Creation is as dark to us as God's own uncaused being. "The fact of creation
and the fact of a Creator we can easily grasp, but how the one came to be and other
always was is beyond our compass" (Thornwell). There must be a cause itself
uncaused. To think of an infinite chain of finite causes is foolishness. You would
have a universe of creatures and no Creator, a universe which never had a beginning,
made up of every part which had a beginning. How is that possible? The mind is
never at rest concerning creation and the existence of the finite until it rests in the
belief in the Independent God.

The Scriptures assert God's independence in a number of ways, first, in His name
Jehovah, the "I Am," Revelation 1:8, "I Am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty."
It is needless to cite all of the passages, which assume or declare this truth. Every
passage which speaks of God creating all things teaches His independence. This
attribute, as do the other absolute attributes, pervades every other attribute. He is
independent in His knowledge. He has no teacher and has nothing to learn. He needs
no counselors; His wisdom is original. In power, nothing is derived; He gains no
energy by assimilation and dissipates none by acting. He does what He wills among
the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or
say, "What doest Thou?" With every attribute as grounded in His very nature, they
are as absolute in their independence as relying upon no exterior supply, nor can they
be diminished by usage.
2. Eternity. This has reference to the duration of God's being. As creatures of time,
eternity is a deep mystery to us. When we try to understand eternity or define it, we
must always merely mathematically pile age upon age, period upon period, and arrive
at no closer estimate, for we still must conceive of the pile having a top; each age that
we think of time without limit, and then we think of a place where there is no space.
Thornwell has aptly put the truth in this form: "We deny to God the possibility of age
or decay; He is neither young nor old. Beyond these negations we cannot go, but
these negations impress us with the conviction of transcendent excellence. They
assert an absolute immortality, which surpasses all power of imagination or thought.
Time with its own remorseless tooth destroys everything around us; kingdoms rise
and fall; generation succeeds generation to the regions of the dead; trees wither and
fade and perish; the mountains falling cometh to naught; nature herself waxes old like
a garment and is ready to vanish away. But the eternal God remains fixed in His
being, the same yesterday, today, and forever. His years fail not. How delightful to
think, in the midst of universal change and desolation, that there is one Being who
liveth and abideth forever - one Being who, when the heavens shall be rolled up as a
vesture, the sun blotted out, and the moon and stars bereft of their brightness, can lift
His awful hand and swear by Himself, "Behold, I live forever!" Were all the creatures
annihilated by a single blow and the void of nothing take the place which is now
fulfilled by teeming universe.
The Scriptures are abundant in their expression of God's eternity; see Psalm 90:24; Psalm 102:24-27, (very expressive); Isaiah 57:15, "For thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is Holy," I Timothy 1:17.
3. Immensity. Immensity is reference to the extent of God's being. It has to do with
God's relation to space, as eternity has to do with His relation to time. It implies that
God, in the fullness of His essence, is present to every point of space in every point of
time. When we speak of the omnipresence of God, we mean His immensity in
relation to His creature. It is His presence to them, but His is also where His creatures
never have been, are not now, nor ever shall be. Here again we meet the deep
impenetrable mystery of the Godhead. Immensity is just as incomprehensible as
eternity or independence. We are not only creatures whose every part of existence
depends upon environment and creative power and whose years are but a span, whose
life is swift as a weaver's shuttle, today we are here and gone tomorrow, but we are

also creatures of confinement in a limited point of space. Our thoughts may take them
wings and wander, (especially in a classroom), but our personality is localized to a
point exclusive of all other space. Even our spirits are in one place in a sense that they
are nowhere else; so it is of angels; they must travel from one place to another to
accomplish the ministry entrusted to them. Even though spirit is mystery, too, yet in
its essence or presence they are here and not there, localized to a point in space. This
is true of all created beings as well as material substance. God alone is everywhere in
His infinite plentitude, filling all space with no possibility of extension, nor confused
or mixed with His creation. He pervades all things and every point of space and
beyond space but is never mixed with or confused with His creation. There is no point
of space where one can point a finger or extend a thought and say, "God is not there;"
not that matter filling that space is part of God, but He as spirit is in the same space.
Though He fills all space, He is distinct from the other created objects in that space,
as though He dwelt isolated in a separate, inaccessible region. This is not the
eradication of His power, so that He merely influences or changes or controls all
things by intermediate agencies; but He is there in the very essence of His
personality.
No doctrine of Scripture is taught any more emphatically than God's immensity,
Jeremiah 23:23-24, where it speaks of Him filling all heaven and earth; Psalm 139:710, where it speaks of the impossibility of going where God isn't; Amos 9:2; II
Chronicles 6:18, God cannot be contained by any locality; Matthew 28:20, Christ
with His disciples always, everyone unto the end of the age. How superior this
testimony of the Scriptures to God than heathen idolatry, which made their gods local
deities, circumscribed by space, and conditioned by circumstances! What a proof of
the divine inspiration of the Bible! There is a special sense in the Bible in which God
is said to be present. It is God being especially present in one place as a manifestation
of His rebuke or His favor, as when the cloud rested over the Tabernacle, or He dwelt
in the temple of Solomon or indwells the believer. In this sense we pray, "Our Father
who art in Heaven," also when it speaks of Christ at the right hand of God, and the
Holy Spirit abiding with the Church. God is said to withdraw and hide His face. Not
that His essential presence is diminished, but the marks of His favor withheld. God is
in Hell, revealing the tokens of His displeasure and justice. In these particular
instances God is said to be present locally in a definite place. It is not to say that He is
confined to that locality, or that He is there any more than anywhere else, but only
that His special manifestation or personality is thus said to be there for specific
purpose of blessing, or special working of judgment. While He is spoken of as being
in a certain place, He is still everywhere else just as fully.
4. All-Sufficiency. The all-sufficiency of God has reference to the contents of the
divine Being. He contains within Himself the fullness of perfection and blessedness.
Nothing can be added to Him nor can be diminished. He can never want. He is
sufficient for Himself, and for all His creatures. No wonder the Scriptures say, "If
God be for us who can be against us?" Acts 17:24 clearly teaches this truth. When
you consider the thought of God's existing from all eternity past, until He made man,
a puny counterpart made so much lower than the angels, reflecting even in His
perfection but an infinitesimal part of His maker. Man adds no new glory to His
Maker, by his redemption and worship, but merely gives God opportunity of

displaying the riches of His grace. The Scriptures are rich in their presentation of the
other great truths, so in this one there is no attempt merely to set forth the doctrine but
it is woven throughout the Scriptures in promise, prophecy, and precept. "My grace is
sufficient for thee." Every prophecy carries the guarantee of the God who gave it to
also see its fulfillment. Every promise He has made He is able also to perform. How
wonderful the thought, that though we are weak, and without spiritual resources,
sufficiency is of God. Here are treasures which never could be measured, unlimited.
He is "Our Satisfying Portion."
5. Immutability. The thought of God's immutability has to do with the permanent
identity of God's being, the unchangeableness of His essence. Thornwell aptly says,
"That which never began and can never end, to which nothing can be added and from
which nothing can be taken, which knows no succession and is dependent upon
nothing without, is evidently incapable of change." Change is a badge of our
weakness. It is a sign of finiteness. It implies causation. Change is brought about by
new conditions, environment, and plans. Old plans are invalidated by unforeseen
conditions. Change is brought about by adding or subtraction. Change must be for
better or worse. It is easy to see that the perfect, complete, all-sufficient God cannot
be touched by change. It is the simple dictate of reason caused from our former
considerations. There can be no decrease or increase, not can there be deterioration or
progress with God. If He could change for the better, then He couldn't be already
perfect and He could not change for the worse and still be the infinite God. This selfevident truth is also abundantly taught in the Scriptures, Malachi 3:6, Here is the
simple statement, "For I am the Lord: I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed; Psalm 102:25-26, God is here set over against the changing, decaying
creation, quoted Hebrews 1:12; James 1:17, here is the New Testament counterpart of
Malachi 3:6, the Revised Version is clearer, "Every good gift (or giving) and every
perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights, with whom is no
variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning." There are a few questions to be
answered in the consideration of this truth, they are seeming contradictions to it, but
are answerable and in no wise detract from it.
a. The first and most natural is the anthropomorphic representations in
Scripture which imply change, such as the representation of God as regretting,
changing His purpose, repenting, and grieving. First, we are to remember that
they are anthropomorphisms, not implying any change in God's essence, but a
change in His providences. They are to what these same changes mean in us.
When we read, "It repented the Lord that He had made man," Genesis 6:6, we
need to keep in mind the opposite Scripture, Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man,
that He should lie, neither the Son of Man that He would repent." The change is
not in God, but must lie in a change of His dealings with man, caused by a
change in man. God's immutable holiness and justice makes Him to treat the
wicked different than the righteous. When a righteous man forsakes his
righteousness and does wickedness, his righteousness is not remembered, so
also when a wicked man forsakes his wickedness and does righteousness, his sin
is not remembered, Ezekiel 3:17-21, 18:22-27. There is no change in the divine

essence, causing His change of dealings, but a change in man. The sun isn't
fickle, nor changed because it will melt the wax, while it hardens the clay.
b. The abolition of the Messianic dispensation and the ushering of grace was
no change in God's plan, but the carrying out of His plan. They were all
included in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. God's sending
of His Son into the world to die, wasn't a hurried makeshift, to patch up an
unforeseen effect in the Mosaic economy, but was all a part of the eternal,
unchanging unchangeable plan of God.
c. It has been alleged that creation established a new relation of God as Creator
and necessitated His taking of a new relationship, but creation added nothing
new to God's essence, nor can I conceive of it adding anything to His willing of
creation, for believing in His knowing of all things.
It is well to remember that immutability is not immobility. God's
unchangingness is not of statuary impassiveness nor immobility, but that of
freedom and infinite activity. His infinite immutability includes within itself all
the changes He Himself has willed from all eternity. There is a vast amount of
difference between willing a change and changing the will. The former the
Scriptures affirm of God constantly needs not to change His mind; He who can
perfectly do all things without mistakes, or failures, need not to re-plan and
reconstruct, except where His infinite will has allowed finite powers the ability
to obstruct. Even the allowance of the divine will to finite freedom of will is
included in God's immutability by His foreknowledge. God's immutability is the
grounds of all our hopes and expectations, Hebrews 6:11-20. "Every promise is
in Christ 'Yea and Amen' to the glory of God." There is no yea and nay. How
marvelous to know there is no deception in God, no changing! Throughout all
eternity His purpose will not change, holiness will not turn to iniquity, justice to
cruelty, nor goodness and mercy to oppression. What He is today He was
yesterday and shall be forever. It is blessed to know a life hid with Christ in God
and rest upon His immutability. His immutability is the pledge of His
faithfulness.
C. The Attributes of God as Personal Spirit
We may affirm of God the absolute attributes without thinking of them as belonging to
a person, but we cannot affirm of Him knowledge, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness,
love, and mercy without implying by those very terms that He is a personal God. The
absolute attributes are the attributes of pure being, the infinite perfections of God, while the
second classification we have chosen, that of personal attributes, reveals God as having
personality.
We have divided the attributes of personal spirit into two classifications; those of
intellect and those of will; or those grounded in the intellect, and those grounded in the
moral nature of God.

1. The Attributes of Intelligence
There is one attribute, which includes every attribute of intellect in the Godhead.
It is generic, that of omniscience, though reason and wisdom can be separated from it
as separate workings of God's perfection of knowledge.
a. God's knowledge is eternal. There never was a period when God knew less
than He knows now, nor will there ever be a period when He will know more.
He never learns and never forgets, no increase or decrease can come to His
knowledge.
b. His knowledge is intuitional. "He knows in one simple act." There is no
need of the mental processes through which we reach conclusions and thought.
He needs not to reason in a chain, in order to reach a conclusion. He knows all
things past, present, and future in one simultaneous, infallible act.
Instantaneously His intellect conceives in present reality the stretches of eternity
past, includes every act within creation, every thought of intelligence, and
everything outside of creation, and everything yet to come forever. Is it to be
wondered at that the man of God of old said, "Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me, it is high that I cannot attain unto it." How weak our knowledge is in
comparison. God's omniscience includes:
1.) God has knowledge of Himself, and He only knows Himself; no
archangel or heavenly creature has that knowledge. God is just as
mysterious and majestic and incomprehensible and possible more so to the
heavenly creatures as He is to us. God knows every infinite counsel and
every mysterious, infinite perfection of His own austere Being to
perfection. How different from man who doesn't even know himself.
2.) God knows all things past, everything that has ever been done, by
Himself or His creatures, every feeling, volition, or thought. Like-wise,
God knows everything present. Jesus said, "Not a sparrow falleth to the
ground but that the Father takes note of it." Not an atom can change
composition, not a leaf fall to the ground, not a spot in all creation, or
outside of creation where God for all we know may be carrying out other
works far transcending these, but that He knoweth them all together.
3.) God knows all contingent things, things that have been, things that
would be under another set of actions or volitions. Here arises the question
of man's freedom of will and God's foreknowledge. How can such
knowledge of mine comprehend how I can freely choose, yet God
foreknow my choice? It isn't fatalism, because it isn't necessity, only God's
infinite wisdom and foreknowledge knowing what course I shall pursue.
For human finite, limited reasoning to try to reduce to clear explanation
this divine truth is folly. It is a truth belonging to the saint, and for the
increase of faith rather than reason.
a.) Reason. Though this attribute could be included and is included
in omniscience, still it can be classified separately. Man has two
mental processes, one being that of discursive by which man

rationalizes, perceives things. It is the conscious mental activity of
thought. Then man possesses intuitional knowledge, that knowledge
which is innate within his soul. This is the only process of reasoning
we can ascribe unto God. He has no need of logical processes.
b.) This attribute is included also in omniscience. This is the
attribute by which God chooses and uses the best possible means to a
desired end. It is possible for man to have correct, accurate abundant
knowledge and poor judgment or wisdom. God's infinite wisdom
enables Him to choose the best possible means. The Scriptures are
abundant in their proof of the Omniscience of God, Acts 15:18
declares that "All his works are known unto Him from the beginning
of the world." His understanding is said to be infinite, Psalm 147:5;
He knows all men's thoughts, his words and his ways, Psalm 90:8;
ours sins and secret iniquity, Psalm 38:9; out inner most soul
anguish, II Chronicles 6:30; our hearts are known unto Him, also
spoken of Christ in John 2:25, "He needed not that any should testify
of man: for He knew what was in man;" and in the former verse, "He
knew all men." He knows the future and what man will do, Isaiah
46:10; 48:3-5. There are other portions for further study of the
subject: I Chronicles 28:9; Psalm 44:21; Hebrews 4:12 and many
more. All prophecy shows God's omniscience.
2. The Attributes of Will
We use the word "will" to denote the attributes of God grounded in His moral
nature.
a. Omnipotence. By omnipotence we mean the ability of God to do all things
that He willeth. He can carry out any determination of His will, without
expending His power. His power is not wasted by usage. He expends no
energy by acting. The primary example to our finite minds of God's
omnipotence is seen in creation, the making of something from nothing. It is
not the mere adding of one thing to another, the multiplication of acts of
power which bring to our minds the thought of God's omnipotence, but the
very act of willing something into existence and it is performed. The
omnipotence of God does not carry with it the ability of God to do selfcontradictory things. There are foolish quibblings brought forth in opposition
to God's omnipotence, such as: "Can God make a thing to be a lie, and the
truth at the same time? Can God make a past event not to have taken place?
Can He make something that is, not to be, and still as existing? Can He make
the mountains separate in entity without a valley between them?" Can the
things contradictory to God's very nature, such as lie and steal, change or die?
These things are not objects of power nor are they in the scope of power any
more than time is the same as space or sound is in the scope of vision. The
fact is that no possible thing we can conceive could possibly be the test of
God's omnipotence. His omnipotence, as every other perfection of His nature,

is measurable only by God Himself. His power is infinite as well as His very
nature. God not only can do all things, which we can possibly conceive, but
after we reach the limit of our comprehension, He still can do infinitely more.
The greatest example, we have stated, is in creation. "The worlds made out
of nothing," Hebrews 11:3. There are innumerable other Scriptures, some with
simple statements such as Christ made, Matthew 19:26, "With God all things
are possible;" and Jeremiah 32:17, 27; Job 42:2; Luke 1:37. The word
omnipotent, as used in Revelation 19:6 and God's name of Almighty, have the
same meaning. It is seen in the preservation and sustaining of the universe as
well as its creation. It not only took omniscience and omnipotence to create,
but it takes omnipotence and omniscience to "uphold all things by the word of
His power." What comfort there is in the knowledge we have of God's infinite
power. We are persuaded that what He has promised He is able to perform.
b. Love. There are many other attributes of God encompassed by this
attribute of love. What is meant by the love of God? There is certainly an
analogy between God's love and our love, and yet His love is not only greater
than our love but different than our love. Our love is so much a sentiment,
which comes and goes and varies with different circumstances, but God says,
"I have loved thee with an everlasting love." God's love includes Himself and
all the creatures of His fashioning, even those unworthy of His love. He loves
the sinner, while His holy nature hates his sin. Love is one attribute both of
man and God hard to be defined. It is more in God than an attitude, but His
very essence, which pervades every action and work of His hand. He loves
because He is love; and it is His love, which made Him give His Son for the
whole world, to pour out Himself in sacrifice for erring man.
His infinite love is tempered and fused with His infinite holiness. While
God so loved the world, yet in consistency to His attributes of justice and
holiness He could not save it in its sin, and by merely setting aside the sin, but
must in pure justice to His other attributes, interpose His marvelous plan of
redemption based on expiation. He did not so love the world that He saved it
in contradiction to His other attributes, but in perfect justice with His other
attributes. It is here we see the infinite wisdom and matchless grace of
salvation's plan. Included in the love of God are many active elements, or
expressions of the one love of God. These other expressions seem to be but
various modes of the one element of love in God, expressing itself to His
creatures.
1.) Goodness. Some would make goodness as a separate attribute of
God, but to me it is but the active love of God in doing for His own
creatures. Even the wicked partake of His goodness. In fact, the
Scriptures declare that it is the goodness of God, which leadeth men unto
repentance. "He causeth the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust."
This is God's love giving good things unto men. "Every good gift is
from above and cometh down from the Father of light," James 1:17.
2.) Philanthropy. This word occurs in Titus 3:4 and denotes the kindness
of God toward men in general, the attitude of love.

3.) Pity or Compassion, the response of love to an object of suffering
and misery, "As a Father pitieth those that fear Him," Psalm 103:12;
James 5:11.
4.) Mercy. This is love condescending to objects of compassion. It is
active love working to alleviate the condition of the object of pity.
5.) Forbearance, Longsuffering, Patience. This is love staying the
execution sentence of punishment to give room for repentance. It is love
putting up with the bad manners of the one loved. How often the
Scriptures speak of the longsuffering of God! How His love must have
stayed the execution of sentence against a sinning, evil-mannered,
rebellious race, which His justice would have annihilated! Of Israel, it is
spoken, "God suffered their evil manners in the wilderness.” How
patiently God forbears the dealings with unthankful, unholy men, and
how sweetly patient He is with His own, remembering but that we are
dust!
6.) Complacency. This is the love of God enjoying and delighting in the
objects of His love. God wants our love. He wants us to love Him.
Under Law He demanded it, but, under grace, He infuses it into our
souls by the entrance of His own loving Holy Spirit until His own love is
reflected in our hearts.
These various elements of love reveal to us how God can love the sinner
with infinite good will and kindness, so that he provides escape and restoration
for him, while not loving him with complacency. God's anger is never of
malice, nor ill-will. It is displacency, thus He is said to be, "Angry with the
wicked," yet He loves sinners.
3. Holiness. Holiness is purity of essence, the absence of every impurity and
defilement, and the positive source of all purity and the absolute standard of right.
God's will not only contains all power, but the absolute preference for all moral right
and good. There is no moral impurity or imperfection. He is the highest good. It is not
that He conforms to an external standard of right, but His is the highest standard of
moral perfection. He is holy. Holiness is not merely a negative element by which we
deny to the Godhead certain condemnations and imperfections found in us, but it is a
positive element or attribute of the Godhead. When we seek to define it, we are met
with the same mystery surrounding the other attributes. There is a blaze of intense
light which overwhelms the soul. When the Scriptures speak of the holiness of God's
people, the primary meaning is perfect spiritual health, the health of God in the soul.
It is the antithesis of all that sin does to man, and stands on the opposite pole from sin.
Holiness in man is certainly not the moral perfection it is in God. God commands,
"Be ye holy, for I the Lord thy God am holy." Here He is asking us to be like Him in
respect to holiness. The holiness of God is original; His very nature. Our holiness
begins and ends in God's imparted nature within us, but the holiness of God is
grounded in His own nature. Whatever God does, says, wills, is infinitely pure, right
and holy because He is the author, and becomes by that virtue, the standard of
excellency. This divine rectitude of righteousness of God is the source of all

righteousness and purity in all of God's creation. It would not serve our purpose to
tabulate every portion of the many, which declare the holiness of God. It is the song
of the special angels of the throne who cry day and night before the throne of God,
"Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Host," Isaiah 6:3. It is the song of the four living
creatures of Revelation 4:8; hundreds of times He is called "The Holy One of Israel."
It would be profitable for one who has never done so to take a concordance and look
up each passage where God's holiness or righteousness is mentioned.
4. Truth. Though truth is included within the attribute of holiness, yet it deserves
separate mention as the Bible speaks often of it. It has both the meaning of the
veracity of God and the source of truth.
a. God is truth in that He is the real God, and not merely imaginary as the
gods of the heathen.
b. God is truth in His veracity. Make every man a liar but God the truth. He
is faithful to keep every promise, and reward every work of righteousness or
sin.
c. God is truth because He lacks nothing of perfection. All truth finds
fulfillment in Him. He is the grounds of all truth. Without Him everything
could be doubted as having no reality. No wonder philosophy, in denying the
reality of God, has come to deny all other truth. God's faithfulness is bound up
within this attribute. The Scriptures affirm, "It is impossible for God to lie,"
Hebrews 6:18). Every dealing of God with man is bound up within His
truthfulness. In Psalm 138:2, He declares through the Psalmist, "Thou hast
magnified thy word above thy name." The Holy Spirit is called, "The Spirit of
Truth," John 14:17; in I John 5:6, "Spirit is Truth;" and in I Thessalonians
5:24, "Faithful is He that calleth you who will also perform it." Besides these,
there are hundreds of them.
5. Justice. Justice is also a phase of holiness as is truth. Justice is the demand of
holiness by which God deals with His creatures in conformity to the purity of His
own nature. It is the demand of God's holiness, for moral perfection in His creatures,
and punishing of nonconformity. We see it in the words of Abraham, "Will not the
God of the whole earth do right?" Genesis 18:25. God must act always in conformity
with His own nature. He must demand moral rectitude in His creatures, and must
punish punitively the refraction of His laws. God does not punish sin in order to
reform the sinner, nor primarily to defer others from sinning, but because His infinite
holiness requires Him to. He must be true to His own nature. If He should allow sin to
go unpunished it would stain the secret of why God must provide salvation by the
substitution of His Son for us, the blow fell and God's justice, Deuteronomy 32:4;
Psalm 11:4-7, 19:9; Romans 2:2-16; II Peter 2:9; I John 1:9.