Post #11 The Doctrine of God - The Attribute Of Divine Eternity - God Without Beginning, Without End

 

Note: the above image is found in Wayne Grudem's "Systematic Theology", 2nd edition, page 204. 

Introduction:

    So far in our series on "The Doctrine of God", we have explored God's existence, knowability, and introduced His attributes. We then considered the Divine attribute of independence (a.k.a "Divine Aseity), which readers may review here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/08/post-9-doctrine-of-god-gods-attribute.html  and God's attribute of Divine unchangeability (a.k.a "immutability") here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/08/post-10-doctrine-of-god-gods-attribute.html 

 
   What we want to do today is explore God's Divine eternity. 

Exploring the four senses of talking about Divine eternity, along with some Biblical passages

       God's Divine eternity has to do with how His infinite being and life operate with respect to His other attributes, as well as in relationship to time itself. As with the other posts in this series, my aim is to attempt to sharpen our understanding of what God is in His being, how He is in His attributes, and who He is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

    As we work on improving our clarity of "Divine eternity", we need to do so step-by-step. We can put together an outline of Divine eternity by noting four main senses.

The first way or sense of Divine eternity is noting how there is no succession of moments in God. 

    Theologian Wayne Grudem gives the following crisp definition of "Divine eternity" in his "Systematic Theology, 2nd edition, page 199,

"God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in His own being, and He sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time, and He acts in time".

    This notion of "no succession of moments" in God constitutes the first part of understanding God's Divine eternity. Theologian Francis Turretin offers a rich yet succinct three-part summary of this concept of "eternity" in his "Enlenctic Theology", volume 1, page 202,

“The infinity of God in reference to duration is called eternity to which these three things are ascribed: (1) that it is without beginning; (2) without end; (3) without succession." 

    We can note that the beginning of Grudem's definition above echoes this core idea of God having no succession of moments in His life, mind, power, or presence. Eternity, in this sense, is foundational to thinking about God (see Romans 1:20; Colossians 1:16-17; 1 Timothy 1:17).

The second sense to understanding Divine eternity is how it relates to God's Divine attributes.
      As we move on, we note again Grudem's definition of eternity in how it pervades all of God's other attributes, such as God's omniscience. Grudem observes, "and He sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time, and He acts in time" (the term "see" here is equivalent to God's knowledge of all things). We could define eternity as: "without beginning, without end, fullness of being without the limitations of time." Passages such as Psalm 90:2; 102:25; Isaiah 57:15; John 1:1-3; Hebrews 9:14; 1 Timothy 6:16; Rev. 4:8 speak to us of God's eternity in this second sense. 

The third sense of Divine eternity has to do with the very life of God Himself in relationship to time.

    To then speak of Divine eternity not only refers to His experience as God (not having successive moments within Himself) but also the way He exercises Himself through His attributes. Hence we have thus far God's experience and activity as God captured by this umbrella attribute of His "Divine eternity". 

      If we then consider a third sense to aid our understanding of God's Divine eternity, we may note the very life of God Himself. Boethius, a 6th century Christian thinker, defines eternity as: 

“the complete, simultaneous and perfect possession of everlasting life.” 

    To say God is eternal means He alone has complete possession and comprehension of what He is, who He is (as Father, Son, and Spirit), and how He expresses His existence in His attributes. You and I do not have a handle on our entire life. I have memories here and there of my past, and I have this present moment, yet I do not know what I will be doing in the next moment. 

The fourth sense of talking about God's Divine eternity has to do with His relationship to time.

    

    Everything in our universe is either "coming" or "going" from one state of affairs to the next. The qualities of "time and space" were made by God. Time and space itself had a beginning. It started in a particular way and carried forth to another state of affairs. How our world and everything in the universe is related to the eternal God requires us to press more into trying to understand His Divine eternity. 

      The 13th century theology Thomas Aquinas described every created thing as going from a state of "potentiality" (that is, where everything is caused by something else and has the potential to become what it was created to be) to a state of "actuality" (when a created thing reaches its full potential for how it was designed). This describes all things that are time-bound and created. 

    God is different. He alone is "pure act", meaning that in God there is no potential to become a better God. God is God. He is eternal. He never had beginning, and thus never had a past. He never had to "grow up", and certainly never has to wonder about the future as well. God transcends time, which is to say, God operates and persists outside and prior to this space-time universe. Hebrews 1:8 says this of the Divine nature of the Son (quoting from Psalm 102:25-27, which speaks to God's Divine eternity in general),

"But regarding the Son He says, your throne, God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of His kingdom."

The writer of Hebrews goes on to note further information of God's relationship to time and space in Hebrews 1:10-12,

"And, 'You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands; 11 They will perish, but You remain; and they all will wear out like a garment, 12 And like a robe You will roll them up; like a garment they will also be changed.'"

    God's eternity (to borrow some from the 5th century writer Augustine) is likened unto a continuous, "eternal now", wherein He equally is Himself and comprehends the past, this current moment, and time yet to come. To put it another way, God operates outside time's constraints, choosing to work within its bounds by His governing sovereignty or providence. Augustine expands on this notion of God's Divine eternity or "eternal now"  in His book "Confessions", Book 11, chapter 13, section 16,

"Thou precedest all times past, and survivest all future times, because they are future, and when they have come they will be past; but You are the same, and Your years shall have no end. Your years neither go nor come; but ours both go and come, that all may come. All Your years stand at once since they do stand; nor were they when departing excluded by coming years, because they pass not away; but all these of ours shall be when all shall cease to be. Your years are one day, and Your day is not daily, but today". 

    What the quote above does is bring in the first sense we spoke of earlier (God having no succession of moments), the second sense of eternity (how His eternity relates to other attributes), the third sense (how eternity speaks of God possessing the entirety of His life and activity), and the fourth sense (God being and operating independently of time and being able to work within time, all the while remaining the same).  

How a Divinely timeless eternal God can work and interract with all He has made. 

    

    Such a God is not limited to the boundaries of time, whether prior to the existence of time and space itself, or with reference to whatever transpires within it. Some theologians assume that a Divine eternal God cannot interract with a time-bound world, since God's Divine timelessness outside of time is embedded within the classical definition of Divine eternity. Some observations from Scripture can serve to show the fallacy of such a reservation. 

     For starters, God's eternal decree of this actual universe and history is why He knows all things and thus can freely interract with us in time, even though He operates and carries on His life independently of it. We see this point in how the Bible talks of God freely acting and deciding things "before time" (Isaiah 46:9-10; Ephesians 1:1-5; 2 Timothy 1:9; Jude 1:25). Such a "decree" means that God freely chose from all the potential versions of history He knew about in His infinite knowledge. Since God is eternal, He didn't have to guess what the future of our actual world would be, since He knew it by virtue of His decretive choice to bring it forth from His mind into a reality of its own (i.e. the doctrine of creation out of nothing). 

     In addition to God's decree (Psalm 115; Isaiah 46:9-10; Ephesians 1:11), we can note quickly a few other examples in Scripture that alerts us to the God of eternity being able to freely move and interract with His time-bound creatures. Take for instance some of the Biblical covenants (see Jeremiah 33:20; Genesis 2:17; 8:22; 15; 2 Samuel 7:13-16; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 9:1-5); the incarnation of the Son of God (Matthew 1:21-23; John 1:14; Colossians 2:9); and the working of the Holy Spirit (Psalm 104; John 16:8-12). These illustrate how this eternal God can and does work within our world.  

Clarifying in our minds Divine eternity and its four senses
    We started with Wayne Grudem's definiton of eternity, "God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in His own being, and He sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time, and He acts in time". We discovered four senses in which we can talk about God's Divine eternity as we build our way to a better understanding (not comprehension) of this attribute. 

1. Divine eternity means God is without sucession of moments.

2. Divine eternity shows why the other attributes of God are without limitation, beginning, or ending.

3. Divine eternity includes the notion that God is in entire possession of His entire life, being, and thus attributes. 

4. Divine eternity entails God being outside of time and yet being able to act within it. 

Meditating on God's Divine eternity raises one's awareness of God.

    Author A.W. Tozer once remarked about God’s Divine eternity and the supernatural realm’s relevance to our lives:2. “A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His Presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality.”

Giving time to think about God’s eternity drives us to prayer and worship. 

    When we pray, we ought to think of prayer as “the greatest adventure”, since we are treading into the very foothills of God’s eternal presence. We could say far more, but let us live in light of this truth that God, is, eternal. In our next post we will look at the Divine attribute of omnipresence. 

Post # 10 - The Doctrine Of God - God's Attribute Of Unchangeability (Immutability) And The Question Of Him Changing His Mind

Introduction:

    In the last post we talked about how God is independent in His existence, without need of support from anything outside of Himself, as well as being self-sufficient. The link to the last post is here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/08/post-9-doctrine-of-god-gods-attribute.html. This attribute of "God's independence" is also known by an older term, "aseity", which in the Latin literally means "from oneself". As author Ron Gleason notes,

“In an absolute sense he (God) is Lord, Lord of all the earth (Ex. 23:17; Deut. 10:17; Josh. 3:13). He is dependent on nothing, but everything depends on him (Rom. 11:36).”

    As we continue on in our journey through the Doctrine of God, my hope is you are finding these posts prompting you to want to know God more. As I heard theologian James Dolezal recently say in a lecture on the doctrine of God, 

"Our goal is two-fold. First, that we would come to realize that we know less about God than we thought we did. Then second, that we would come to understand God better than we do now".

In today's post we want to look at that attribute of God known as "God's unchangeableness" or what older theologians term it, "Divine immutability".

A key Scripture and definition of God's unchangeableness (Divine immutability)

    There are several Biblical passages we could turn to in recognizing why the God of the Bible is the unchanging God. The foremost that comes to my mind is in Malachi 3:6 "For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Some other key passages on Divine immutability or unchangeableness are these Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Psalms 102:26; Hebrews 6:18; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17; Revelation 1:8; Revelation 22:13. 

    It can be difficult to wrap our minds around God's unchangeability, since we ourselves and the universe we dwell is subject to change (remember a few posts back we talked of God's incomprehensible nature, here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/08/post-7-doctrine-of-god-by-nature-god.html). 

    Even features such a time, space, and matter include change to some degree. The angels, though immaterial, still have to move from one place to another and do experience the passage of time, thus pointing to their own changeable nature. God and God alone is immutable (this term derives from the Latin prefix "in" meaning "not" and "mutatis" meaning "change", which when put together spells out "immutatis" or our English word "immutable"). Theologian Wayne Grudem, on page 192 of his second edition "Systematic Theology", define God’s unchangeableness, 

“God is unchanging in His being, perfections, purposes, and promises, yet God does act and feel emotions, and He acts and feels differently in response to different situations.” 

    In having briefly defined and noted key Scriptures about God's Divine immutability or unchangeableness, let's explore how this doctrine functions when considering the classic question of how an unchanging God is described as changing His mind in the Bible.

Scripture does present God as unchanging in terms of His being while seemingly "changing His mind".

     One time I was asked the question of how to makes sense of Scriptures which assert God's Divine immutability and those that state God changes His mind. To begin, Scripture says that on several occasions (for instance in the book of Jonah), that God "relents" or changes His mind. In the Jonah example, we read in Jonah 3:10, 

"When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them." 

    This act of God showing mercy and compassion on the Ninevites provokes Jonah to say these words in Jonah 4:2 

"He prayed to the Lord and said, 'Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.

And He did not do it.'" 

    What had happened? Jonah was told by God to proclaim throughout the city of Nineveh that in three days God was going to judge them (Jonah 3:1-4). Then, the King of Nineveh decreed a time of repentance where everyone was to dress in sackcloth and sit on ashes (a customary ancient form of mourning) and cry out to God for repentance (see Jonah 3:5-9). As we saw already, Jonah 3:10 expresses that "God relented" or "changed his mind".  

    So, some people have asked: "well, how can that be the case?" We read, for instance, in Numbers 23:19 

"God is not a man that he should change his mind nor son of man that he should repent". 

      Yet, there in the book of Jonah, we see God changing his mind.  Although God is by nature unchanging (what theologians call "immutable"), we see instances in scripture where He is described as changing his mind that is referring to God from the standpoint of the creatures. What is going on here? How do we square these two seemingly irreconcilable descriptions of God (unchanging, and then He changing His mind)? 

God, in Scripture, uses two different methods of expressing His nature and identity.

      Scripture talks of God in two ways. There are those verses that speaks of God as He is in and of Himself (what theologians call "univocal language", which is to say, terms having the same meaning for God and for us). So, when God says "I am the Lord who does not change", that "univocal statement" has only one meaning, the same meaning, when God says it and when we hear it.  

    Then, there are those verses in which God adapts the revelation of Himself in forms of figurative language to bridge understanding to His people (what theologians refer to as "analogical language" or language of comparison). The clearest example that explains analogical language is how older writers (such as John Calvin in his "Institutes of the Christian Religion") liken this to a parent speaking baby-talk to their child.

      So, with respect to God from God's perspective, there is no change within Him. His plan, His mindset, is constant or unchanging. To illustrate, whenever I was a child, my mom or dad would take me to do errands or go on a trip. They would tell me at the beginning of the trip - "we're going to the store" or "we're going to Grandma's house". As to their plan and point of view, there was nothing different to alter that plan. They told me what was happening. They were the same mom and dad to me. As a principle of perspective and truth - my mom and dad kept the same unvarying plan and course. 

      But with respect to our finite perspective, as we experience and interact with God from our point of view, it seems as if God does change his mind. Romans 2:4 says this, 

"do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance". 

      So, we understand that it is God's intention to change people and to change their lives. Whenever we read in scripture those places where God is described as "changing his mind", it is God using analogical speech or figures of speech to convey His truth. God does this in revealing Himself  by adapting the revelation of Himself to people so that they can relate to Him.
      In divine revelation, it's God's way of expressing himself in ways that are understandable to us. Scripture itself demonstrates this principle by which God adapted His communication to words in the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek written by the prophets and apostles (over 770,000 words an average English translation of Old and New Testaments). 

    

    In other words, wherever we read in scripture something like "God changed his mind", that's actually Scripture's way of indicating how we experience God through changes within ourselves. 

       The author A.W. Tozer puts it this way, more-or-less:

"that whenever we read of God changing his mind that means there's been a change in the moral situation of the person. So, for example, a person who perhaps all their lives was in rebellion against God and opposition against God hears the Gospel. The Spirit of God does His work in them and now they're responding by faith to Jesus Christ. What has taken place? Has there been a change in God? No. God's always angry at sin and He hates it. God is always gracious and merciful towards those who repent. So what's changed? It's not God. Instead, its the person that's changed." 


      Sometimes we can illustrate it in this way. Say you have the sun and then you have maybe a block of wax and a block of clay. As you sit that block of wax and that block of clay out in the sunlight, the block of clay will harden but the block of wax will soften. Now what has changed? It's not the sun. The sun is shining. It's doing what it always does. 

     The sun does not change relative to the block of wax and the block of clay. Instead, it's the block of clay and the block of wax that has changed.  So, from the perspective and the vantage point of the blocks of clay and wax, there has indeed been a change (a change in the situation of each). In like manner, when we talk about people and how it is they experience what seems to be a change in God, it's actually those persons experiencing a change within themselves.

Closing thoughts:

    Today we have looked at God's Divine attribute of unchangeability, otherwise known as "Divine immutability". We observed how this Divine attribute operates in Scripture. For readers who may desire to read more on Divine immutability, you may consult past posts on the subject relevant to God's emotions and our emotions in light of His unchangeableness here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2020/04/thats-good-question-answering-recent.html and here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2020/04/thats-good-question-how-can-unchanging.html

In our next post we shall consider God's attribute of Divine eternity. More next time....

Post # 9 The Doctrine of God - God's Attribute Of Divine Independence (A.K.A. "Divine Aseity") With Applications

Introduction:

    In our study through the doctrine of God, we've talked about God's existence, knowability, along with an introduction to His attributes. In our study on the attributes of God, we noted two major sub-categories. The first category of Divine attributes is what we call "communicable attributes", meaning those qualities that God shares and somehow communicates to His creatures (particularly human beings). The second grouping are what we called "incommunicable attributes", meaning that God alone bears characteristics unique to His being, activity, and way of relating within Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

    As we turn our attention to that latter group (the incommunicable attributes), we begin with God's attribute of Divine independence. Theologian Wayne Grudem describes God's Independence as follows,

“God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify Him and bring Him joy. God in His being is self-sufficient (Acts 17:24-25; Job 41:11; Psalm 50:11-12)."

    The attribute of Divine independence (also known as the doctrine of Divine Aseity, with the term "aseity" being a Latin term meaning "from oneself") is, in the words of theologian Matthew Barrett, the gateway to entering any study of the Divine perfections or attributes of God.

How God's Independence or Divine Aseity shows us the "Godness of God"

    When you read through Isaiah 43-44, you find celebrated a characteristic of God that is unique to Himself. Isaiah 43:10-11 states, “You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. 11 “I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me." Isaiah 44:6 says similarly, “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me." Astute readers may have caught on to the repeated idea of "I am the Lord, there is no other", which tips us off to this attribute of Divine independence.

    This trait, as I mentioned above, is what Bible teachers call "aseity" (a-say-itee). I like to think of this eternal quality of God as being "God's Godness" or "what makes God - God". Theologian Dr. R.C Sproul writes concerning God's Divine Aseity: 

"When we affirm that God is eternal, we are also saying that He possesses the attribute of aseity, or self-existence. This means that God eternally has existed of Himself and in Himself."

   Unlike everything else, which derives its existence from God (whether the universe, galaxies, people, animals, plants, and so forth) - God is His own source of His own life. The Wetsminster Confession of Faith describes this attribute of God beautifully in its second article "Of God and the Holy Trinity",

"He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things;and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever himself pleaseth (compare Acts 14:11,15; Mal 3:6; James 1:17). 

    God's Divine independence speaks not only to the type of life God enjoys within Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit, but it also distinguishes the kind of God He is in comparison to all He has made. The universe itself is dependent on God, since it was He who spoke it into existence (Genesis 1:1-2; Psalm 33:6). 

    We can comfortably conclude at this point that the Bible teaches this truth of God's independent existence in-and-of-Himself or Divine Aseity (such as Psalm 90:1-4; 102:25-27; Isaiah 40:28-31; 43:10-11; 44:6; John 5:26 and Revelation 4:10). Below are some other Biblical passages that help us see why it is vital to understand this attribute for our lives today.

The Bible's teaching on God's Divine Aseity (Independence)

1. Exodus 3:14 "God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

    Here we see God revealing His most intimate, covenant name - Yahweh or I am who I am. Is it not interesting that at the heart of God's redemption of His people that He would reveal His very name as His very character as the self-sufficient God? This is highly appropriate for God to do, showing that He is uniquely able to save His people. 

2. Psalm 90:1-4 "Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. 3 You turn man back into dust And say, “Return, O children of men.” 4 For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night."

    Here we find God's Divine aseity as a source of comfort to His people. Moses is the author of this Psalm and had been the first man in history to had received the revelation of God's covenant name "Yahweh" which refers to His self-existence or aseity.

3. Psalm 102:25-27 “Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. 26 “Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. 27 “But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end."

    This precious text contrasts God's divine aseity with the relative brevity of the universe. Theologians and philosophers refer to the universe and all of its contents as being "contingent", meaning that it depends on something greater and outside of it for its existence. God is "from Himself" (to use the Latin term associated with our English word "aseity" "a se", meaning "from oneself"). Again this simply means God is self-sufficient and without need of the universe to sustain Himself. Interestingly enough, Hebrews 1:4-13 incorporates Psalm 102:25-27 to describe the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

4. Isaiah 40:28-31 "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. 29 He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary."

Isaiah is centering on God's Divine aseity to provide comfort to the people of God. 

5. Isaiah 43:10-11 “You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. 11 “I, even I, am the Lord, And there is no savior besides Me."

    Isaiah uses the phrase, "there was no God formed and there will be none after me", to demonstrate why the pagan deities possess neither reality nor are worthy of worship. We find this similar type of language used by Isaiah in Isaiah 44:6; 45:6, 11,18. 

    Sometimes we find the best way to begin thinking about God, and such mind-bending concepts as Divine aseity, through describing what God is "not". God is not finite, but infinite. God is not material, but immaterial or spiritual. God is not mortal but immortal. This way of describing God is what we call "apophatic theology", meaning that we state what "God is not". It is oftentimes discovered that once we have asserted what God is not, we exclude all other created things from the category of being we call God. God, and God alone is self-sufficient or "a se" (a-say, the Latin phrase translated "aseity"). 

6. John 5:26 "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself".

    When Jesus asserted the Divine aseity of the Father, He was hardly stating anything controversial, since the Old Testament plainly expresses the Divine Aseity of the Father. However, when Jesus claims that He too possess this same quality, now his opponents find all sorts of red-flags raised in their minds. 

    This is one of several statements found throughout the four-Gospels where Jesus claims Himself to be truly Divine. Divine aseity is at the heart of what makes God-God. Touching His Deity, the Son of God is aseity.

7. 1 Timothy 6:16 "who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen."

    As Paul closes out his letter to young pastor Timothy, he ends with a doxology or exclamation of praise to God. Paul wrote 1 Timothy to instruct a young Pastor on what he needed to preach and how to pastor. Timothy needed to possess a high view of God. Divine Aseity would be at the center of this young pastor's God-centered ministry. This ought to give us a clue today concerning how big of a vision of God we need in the contemporary church.

8. Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

    The Apostle John sees a profound vision of Jesus. This verse is truly a commentary on that one, ineffable holy name "Yahweh" first revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14. We find references to Divine Aseity in other places in Revelation such as Revelation 4:10-11.

Why God's Divine Aseity is so important 

    The modern classic book on the doctrine of God by J.I Packer, "Knowing God", lays out the practical and profound reasons why Christ-followers ought to include God's aseity in their everyday lives:

"In theology, endless mistakes result from supposing that the conditions, bounds, and limits of our own finite existence apply to God. The doctrine of his aseity stands as a bulwark against such mistakes. In our life of faith, we easily impoverish ourselves by embracing an idea of God that is too limited and small, and again the doctrine of God’s aseity stands as a bulwark to stop this happening. It is vital for spiritual health to believe that God is great (cf. Ps. 95:1–7), and grasping the truth of his aseity is the first step on the road to doing this."

Below the reader will find four life-practical reasons for focusing on God's Divine aseity.

1. Aseity is the essential starting place for the worship of God

    To begin, Divine Aseity is important for the worship songs we commonly sing. One of my favorite hymns that celebrates the Aseity of God is the song "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." The lyrics of the hymn begin as follows: 

"Come thou fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing Thy grace Streams of mercy never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise". 

    How do great songs of worship like this hymn rely on God's Aseity? The fact that God is described as a fountain means that He is His own source of blessing. We are dependent on God for everything and celebrate the Triune God of scripture that alone is our source of life and eternal life. A fountain of water feeds itself in producing a beautiful stream of water to be enjoyed by all who look upon it. Likewise, God's Aseity refers to all that we see of Him flowing outwardly from within the kind of God he is: eternal, self-sufficient, infinite, holy, immaterial, changeless, uncreated and many more attributes expressed in the Bible. There is God. There is everything else. The universe and all it contains is not even a footnote in comparison to the vast aseity of God. 

    The Apostle Paul's burst of worship in Romans 11:36 assumes Divine Aseity: "For from Him and to Him and through Him are all things. To Him be the glory for ever and ever, amen."

2. Aseity is essential to understanding God in His Word

    Another reason we could cite as to why God's Aseity is so important is in how the revelation of Himself to us in His Word requires Him to possess this quality. Isaiah brings out three main titles of God: Savior (Isaiah 43:3), Creator (43:15) and King of Israel (43:15). As you read these chapters, you find a repeated phrase that speaks of God's Aseity - namely that God is the only Lord, and there is no other, neither before nor after Him. (Isaiah 43:10-11; 44:6-8).  God's Aseity insures that God is the sole source of salvation, the sole source of all things as Creator and the Sole King over His people.

3. Aseity is essential to waging war on worldliness

    Isaiah then contrasts God who is Aseity to that of man made idols that are not gods at all (Isaiah 44:9-20). Quite the opposite of Aseity is the fact that idolatry is foolishness, since men take blocks of wood or stone and take half for firewood and half to make an image.  Those false gods cannot save, only condemn. 

    Furthermore, idols cannot create but only destroy and they cannot reign but only be worthless. The idols that we combat are those idols that come up in our hearts. Whenever we begin to think that God or Christ is not enough, and that we need to "supplement" He and His word, we have drifted into the realm of idolatry or worldliness (1 John 2:15-17). Only when we see God in His Aseity do we realize the lie of sin, that nothing can fully complete except God alone.

4. Aseity is essential for the work of salvation

    Only the God that is Aseity, the God that is His own Source of life and eternal power, can redeem and forgive (Isaiah 43:10-11;44:21-28).  For example, when you turn to Colossians 2, you discover two essential truths about Jesus Christ: He being truly God and truly man. Take everything you just learned about God in Isaiah 43-44 and apply it to the Son, Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, touching His Divinity, shares the same exact qualities with the Father, being the "fulness of Deity in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9). 

    The Son shares in the same nature of aseity as the Father, meaning He can be regarded as the Savior, Creator and King (Colossians 2:10-11). Equally important is the fact that the Son came to begin sharing in our humanity, meaning He could now die for our sins and raise from the dead (Colossians 2:11-15). By being both truly God and truly man, Jesus Christ's saving work carries with it infinite value and is effectively applied to all who by grace through faith believe on Him (Colossians 2:1-7).

Closing thoughts:

    Celebrate God's aseity. Praise Christ today for His aseity - the quality that makes Him an equal sharer with the Father and the Spirit and thus the source of your salvation. Also praise Him that He came to share in your humanity so that He could shed His blood for you and rise from the dead.

Post # 8 The Doctrine Of God - An Introduction To God's Attributes Along With Examples

Introduction:

    In the opening post of this series http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/07/post-1-doctrine-of-god-map-to-explore.html, we laid out a "map" of the doctrine of God. We have journeyed thus far in our study,

I. The existence of God in posts 1-5.

II. The knowability of God, posts 6-7.

    In today's posts we shall introduce, define, categorize, and give examples of God's attributes.

What are God's attributes?

    Wayne Grudem notes about God's character and attributes in his book "Systematic Theology", page 185,

    "When we come to talk about the character of God, we realize that we cannot say everything the Bible teaches us about God's character at once. We need to decide which aspect of God's character to discuss first, which aspect to discuss second, and so forth. In other words, we need some way to categorize the attributes of God."

    It is here we understand that when we refer to "God's character", we are talking about God's being and attributes. We mustn't think of God's being as seperate from His attributes, but instead understand that God's being is acted out, relayed, and truly the substance of His attributes of perfections. To flesh this point out some more, consider the definition of attributes given by James P. Boice in his "Abstract of Theology", page 65,

    "The attributes of God are those peculiar virtues that mark or define the mode of His existence or which constitue His character". 

    W.G.T. Shedd in Volume 1 of His Dogmatic Theology (the term "dogmatic" is an older term for what is called today "systematic theology") describes God's attributes in this helpful way,

"Divine attributes are modes either of the relation or of the operation of divine essence."

    Shedd's point here is that when I am focusing on one of God's attributes, say His "love", I am not dealing with a part of God. Rather, I am dealing with the totality of God as He is, by nature, the loving God. God doesn't just merely "have love", He is love (1 John 4:8). This operating of God's being applies to all of His attributes, and how they work together. God's attributes of holiness and love, for example, tells me He is a lovingly holy God and a holy loving God. He cannot be loving without being holy and vice-versa.     

Categorizing God's attributes.

    Shedd, Boyce, Grudem, and most theologians group God's attributes into two categories. 

    First, there are what are referred to as "incommunicable attributes", meaning they are unique to God and generally not shared in common with creation in general and human beings in particular. 

    The second category is that of "communicable attributes", which is to say, according to Grudem, "those attributes which God's shares or communicates with us". 

    To illustrate, if I catch a cold from someone, such a disease is said to be "communicable", meaning I take on (have communicated) the virus, its symptoms, and pathology. On the otherhand, my recent appendectomy is incommunicable, meaning that my family members will not also have appendicitis because I had mine. 

What are some examples of incommunicable and communicable attributes?

    I like how Wayne Grudem handles these two categories, since in many other systematic theologies, the two are treated as hard and fast categories. Grudem notes the following,

"However, upon further reflection we realize that this distinctions (incommunicable and communicable attributes), although helpful, is not perfect. This is because no attribute of God is completely communicable, and there is no attribute of God that is completely incommunicable."

    When we look at God's holiness for example, this perfection of God speaks to God's transcendence, that is, how He operates outside the system of creation, is its source, and is beyond the limitations of time and space. We see this aspect of God's holiness in Isaiah 6, where the thrice holy God is beyond the heights and access of the angelic hosts crying out His name, as well as the prophet Isaiah who is well aware of his uncleaness before God. 

    Truly holiness is what sets God apart from all other beings. Yet, we also know too that God calls His people "to be holy, as I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16). The title given to God's people in the Old Testament and New Testament is that of "saints", which quite literally means "holy ones" (see the opening of 1 Corinthians 1:1-2). 

    It is apparent that Grudem's point makes sense of such attributes as holiness being in some cases "incommunicable" and in other cases "communicable". 

    The Westminister Confession of Faith devotes its second article to what it calls "Of God and the Holy Trinity". In the opening paragraph, one of the most beautiful descriptions of God outside the Bible is given, listing off some of God's attributes. The edition I consulted here https://thewestminsterstandard.org/the-westminster-confession/#Chapter%20II

"There is but one only, (Deut. 6:4, 1 Cor. 8:4–6) living, and true God, (1 Thess. 1:9, Jer. 10:10) who is infinite in being and perfection, (Job 11:7–9, Job 26:14) a most pure spirit, (John 4:24) invisible, (1 Tim. 1:17) without body, parts, (Deut. 4:15–16, John 4:24, Luke 24:39) or passions; (Acts 14:11,15) immutable, (James 1:17, Mal. 3:6) immense, (1 Kings 8:27, Jer. 23:23–24) eternal, (Ps. 90:2, 1 Tim. 1:17) incomprehensible, (Ps. 145:3) almighty, (Gen. 17:1, Rev. 4:8) most wise, (Rom. 16:27) most holy, (Isa. 6:3, Rev. 4:8) most free, (Ps. 115:3) most absolute; (Exod. 3:14) working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, (Eph. 1:11) for His own glory; (Prov. 16:4, Rom. 11:36)". 

    Interested readers who want to dig further may see what the Westminister Confession of Faith's portrayal of attributes look like when arranged under the categories of "communicable" and "incommunicable" by seeing the endnote at the end of this post here.1

Wayne Grudem has listed out how he categorizes God's attributes in his systematic theology. I find it instructive that when comparing lists among theologians, we can have a way at least to approach a study of the Divine attributes in an orderly and devotional way. 

Grudem's list of incommunicable attributes:

(Being attributes)

1. Independence.

2. Unchangeableness.

3. Eternity.

4. Omnipresence.

5. Unity (Simplicity).

6. Aseity (Self-Sufficiency).

7. Spirituality.

8. Invisibility.

(Intellectual attribute)

9. Omniscience (Knowledge).

Grudem's list of communicable attributes:

(Intellectual attribute)

1. Wisdom (notice how this could be also incommunicable).

(Moral attributes)

2. Truthfulness.

3. Goodness

4. Love

5. Mercy, Grace, Patience/

6. Holiness

7. Peace (or Order)

8. Righteousness, Justice

9. Jealousy

10. Wrath

(Will and purpose attributes)

11. Will

12. Freedom

(More incommunicable attributes)

13. Omnipotence (Power, Sovereignty)

14. Perfection

15. Blessedness

16. Beauty

17. Glory

Closing thoughts

    In today's post we introduced the third major section of our series on the doctrine of God, going from talking of His existence and knowability to His attributes. In the next post we will begin looking more closely at God's incommunicable attrbiutes by considering God's Divine Independence.

Endnote featuring the Westminster Confession's listing of attributes

"There is but one only ( Deut 6:4;1 Cor 8:4,6) living and true God, (Jer 10:10; 1 Thes 1:9), who is..." 

    Now notice the list of incommunicable attributes given,

1. infinite in being and perfection,( Job 11:7-9; 26:14).

2. a most pure spirit, (John 4:24).

3. invisible, (1 Timothy 1:17).

4. without body, parts, ( Deut 4:15-16; John 4:24 with Luke 24:39).

5. without passions, (Acts 14:11, 15).

6. immutable, (Mal 3:6; James 1:17). 

7. immense,  (1 Kings 8:27; Jer 23:23-24)

8. eternal (Psa 90:2; 1 Tim 1:17).

9. incomprehensible, (Psa 145:3).

10. almighty, (Gen 17:1; Rev 4:8).

11. most wise, (Rom 16:27).

12. most holy, (Isa 6:3; Rev 4:8).

13. most free, ( Psa 115:3).

14. most absolute, (Exodus 3:14).

15. working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will (Eph 1:11) for his own glory (Prov 16:4; Rom 11:36).

    The second paragraph of the same article mentions other incommunicable attributes. I'll comment briefly on some of these.

16. God hath all life (John 5:16, i.e. the immortality of God).

17. All glory, (Acts 7:2, i.e. God's glory refers to how He makes His character visible to our sight).

18. Goodness, (Psalm 119:68, which could be incommuicable, unique to God, but which is also shared with us in a communicable way).

19. Blessedness ( Rom 9:5; 1 Tim 6:15, this attribute of God speaks of the enjoyment He has in being God, the source of His own pleasure).

20. In and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, (Acts 17:24-25, also called "independence" or "Divine Aseity", meaning God exists in and of Himself, without dependance on anything).

    As noted above already, some of these are totally incommunicable (for example, God alone is immutable or unchangeable, eternal, infinite in being and perfection). Whereas some others can be somewhat incommunicable and communicable (such as most wise in an incoomunicable way and human beings capable of exercising wisdom in a communicable way). 

    The Westminster Confession goes on in its section on God's attributes by listing what we know as "the communicable attributes",

1. most loving, (1 John 4:8,16).

2. gracious (Exodus 34:6-7).

3. merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin (Exodus 34:6-7).

4. the rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

5. and withal most just and terrible in his judgments, (Nehemiah 9:6-7

6. hating all sin, (Psalm 5:5-6)

7. and who will by no means clear the guilty, (Exod 34:7; Nahum 1:2-3).

    The Westminister Confession presses on describing what all God does in creation, providence, and redemption. This gives us at least a sampling of many of the attributes of God we read of in Scripture. 

    

Post # 7 The Doctrine Of God - By Nature God Can Never Be Fully Comprehended, Yet He Can Be Truly Known

Introduction:

    In our last post, we noted that in order for us to know anything about God, as well as anything about  anything, God chose to reveal Himself or make Himself known in the general revelation of creation and the conscience and through the special revelation of Scripture. When God created Adam and Eve, He designed them with the capability to know, understand, and discover truth about our world, as well as themselves. He did this by creating them in what the Bible calls "His image" (Genesis 1:26-27; 5:1). 

    In having the capacity to understand anything, mankind as God's "image bearers" could also make sense of God's revelation of Himself. The design of mankind enables human reasoning and God's revelation to fit like hand and glove. Reason without revelation is in the dark. Revelation with no reasoner to receive it remains closed off to creatures. Even after the Fall, human beings still retain this capacity to know things about God (see Genesis 9:6). It is in the Holy Spirit's work of salvation in regeneration by faith that the sinner is awakened. Once the sinner has been "awakened" and raised spiritually from death to life (Ephesians 2:1-3), the simultaneous response of faith and repentance springs forth (John 1:12-13; Acts 16:14; 2 Timothy 2:24-26). It is in the work of regeneration in saving faith that sinners go from merely "knowing about God" to "knowing the true and living God, and Jesus Christ Whom He sent" (see John 17:3).     

     In this post, we want to explore why it was necessary for God to self-disclose Himself in the first place. 

God by nature cannot be fully comprehended.

    Whenever we talk about God in regards to what He is (His nature) and how He is (His attributes), we find that Scripture speaks of Him as eternal (without beginning and end, see Psalm 90:2) and infinite (without limitations in power, presence, and knowledge in regards to what agrees with His Holy nature, see Psalm 139:1-7). Such truths about God as His infinity and eternality point to what theologians call "God's incomprehensibility". This term "incomprehensible" derives from a Latin term that literally means "unable to draw a boundary or a circle around something". Put in modern terms, God cannot be put in a mental box of our making. A God who can be "boxed" so-to-speak is not worthy of our worship. 

    Theologian Wayne Grudem describes God's incomprehensibility as follows,

"Because God is infinite and we are finite or limited, we can never fully understand God. In this sense God is said to be incomprehensible, where the term incomprehensible is used with an older and less common sense, 'unable to be fully understood." 

Grudem later notes,

"It is not true to say that God is unable to be understood, but it true to say that He cannot be understood fully or exhaustively."

    The Bible speaks quite a bit about God's incomprehensibility. Psalm 145:3 tells us for instance about God's greatness as unsearchable "Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable." Other examples, such as Psalm 139:6; 147:5; and Romans 11:33-35, tell us of God's knowledge, wisdom, and ways being incapable of full comprehension by mankind. As I noted earlier, reason without revelation remains in the dark; and revelation without a reasoner to target remains closed off.  

    The Old Testament prophets speak of God's Divine incomprehensibility. Job talks of how God's glory, power, and providence is truly known by him, yet the totality of such glory, power, and providence cannot be "searched" or "traced" (see Job 11:7-9; 26:14; 37:5). Isaiah writes about how God's incomprehensibility of His nature explains why we need Him to stoop down to us in revelation in Isaiah 55:8-11,

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."

    The late R.C. Sproul explains why we as human beings cannot fully comprehend God,

"Incomprehensibility is related to a key tenet of the Protestant Reformation—the finite cannot contain (or grasp) the infinite. Human beings are finite creatures, so our minds always work from a finite perspective. We live, move, and have our being on a finite plane, but God lives, moves, and has His being in infinity. Our finite understanding cannot contain an infinite subject; thus, God is incomprehensible. This concept represents a check and balance to warn us lest we think we have captured altogether and mastered in every detail the things of God. Our finitude always limits our understanding of God."

Nevertheless, we can truly know things about God and in salvation, we can truly know Him.

    Theologian Wayne Grudem gives this practical point of truly knowing God,

"Here God says that the source of our joy and sense of importance ought to come not from our own abilities or possessions but from the fact that we know him."

    God's incomperehensibililty gives us reason for dependence and worship of Him. As I noted earlier,  God is not a God that can be put in a box. The fact God's total being exceeds our ability to master or comprehend Him leaves only one legitimate way to respond - worship.  

    The prophet Jeremiah writes these words about how this incomprehensibile God as truly knowable in in Jeremiah 9:23-24,

"Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord."

    Whenever you consider the worship scenes of God by the angels in Heaven or when He manifested His glory to His prophets here on earth (Isaiah 6; Ezekiel 1; Revelation 4-5), the overwhelming fullness of His very being, far exceeding the bounderies of angelic and human intellect, nevertheless prompts them to worship Him who "dwells in unapproachable light, which no man has seen or can see"(1 Timothy 6:15-16). 

    What is equally remarkable about the worship of God by His people is that they truly know Him. To know God is at the heart of the gift of eternal life in salvation (John 17:3). 

Closing thoughts

    In conclusion then, God is incomprehensibile in regards to our capability to comprehend the unending scale and extent of His being and attributes. Nevertheless, God in His grace Has chosen to stoop down to His creation, and human beings in particular (this "stooping down" is what theologians refer to as "God's condescension", literally meaning "to stopp down"). Many a theologian has used the analogy of how a mother will talk in "baby talk" to her little child for the sake of communicating with the little one to illustrate how an otherwise incomprehensibile God condescends in revelation so that we can truly know Him. 

    In our next post, we will begin to consider God's Divine attributes.  

Post # 6 The Doctrine of God - The Necessity for God to Reveal Himself To Us (With Insights From Dr. Francis Schaeffer)

Introduction:

    So far in our series, we've considered the following in our study of the doctrine of God,

1. We talked about where to begin with the study of God. We made mention of what I called "a map of the doctrine of God". By basing the map loosely off of Wayne Grudem's systematic theology, we noted how we start with God's existence. Whenever we consider the whole scope of the doctrine of God as typically presented in various presentations of the doctrine of God (a.k.a "theology proper"), what we have covered in posts leading up to today's posts represents only the beginning of our post series. Readers may review the first post in this series here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/07/post-1-doctrine-of-god-map-to-explore.html

2. In the second and third posts, we looked at the main names for God which translate as "God" and "LORD" in the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament. We noted how those names point us to understanding better God's nature as the One living and true God, as well as His identity as the Triune God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We noted three questions that can aid us in considering the doctrine of God,

    a. What kind of God is God? (this has to do with His Divine nature).

    b. How is it that God is God? (this deals with His perfections or Divine attributes).

    c. Who is God? (this handles His Triune identity and thus the doctrine of the Trinity). 

Readers may review the second and third posts here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/08/post-2-doctrine-of-god-gods-existence.html

and here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/08/post-3-doctrine-of-god-how-names-of-god.html

3. In the fourth post we talked about how all humanity possess an "inner awareness of God". We first considered how this inner awareness is due to our being made in God's image, along with our ability to detect God's existence in creation and our conscience. We discovered this is the primary and most common way people come to know about God. This fourth post is found here 

4. Then in our last post (post # 5), we once again looked more at mankind's inner awareness of God by understanding how we can show that God exists through various theistic arguments. This represents a second method of knowing about God or providing warrant for belief in God (the term "warrant" refers to the grounds for holding rationally to a certain belief). Interested readers may review the last post here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/08/post-5-doctrine-of-god-role-of.html

What we mean by revelation.

    To say "revelation" means "to make known what was previously unknown". We've discussed already in prior posts of the two sorts of revelation. There is general revelation in which we "know about God" in creation and the conscience (Psalm 19:1-6; Romans 1:18-20; 2:14-15). Then, there is "special revelation" that God has made known His will, His Personal identity, and plan of salvation in the Bible (Romans 15:4; 2 Peter 1:20-21). God by nature is the revelatory God (Exodus 3:14). 

    Even within the Trinity, the doctrine of eternal relations tells us of how the Persons of the Trinity are in a revelatory relationship to one another. The Father perpetually makes Himself knowable and relatable to the Son, the Son doing the same thing to the Father, and then the Holy Spirit reciprocating in like kind with the Father and Son and they with Him (see Matthew 11:27; Romans 11:33-35). Even before creation, God Himself in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was relating and inter-relating, making known and being known within Himself (Psalm 2; 110; Proverbs 30:4; John 14:10-11; 16:28). 

God's knowability through the revelation of Himself.

    So far in the first five posts, we have considered God's existence, and the ways mankind possess an inner awareness of Him through their natural innate awareness or by way of theistic arguments. What we are doing now is moving on to understanding how awareness of God is possible. Such a possibility is grounded in God being by nature the God of revelation. 

    In Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, his section on "The knowability of God" is outlined as follows,

A. The Necessity for God to reveal Himself to us.

B. We can never fully understand God. 

C. Yet we can know God truly.

    These three main points nicely frame the discussion, and so we will use them in helping us grasp what we mean when we talk of God as "The revealing God", and why that is crucial for the possibility of knowing anything about Him and ultimately coming to know Him in the truest sense. For this post we only have time to unpack the first point. 

The necessity for God to reveal Himself to us.

    The late author Francis Schaeffer wrote a trilogy of books in the early seventies that shaped the thinking of Bible-believing Christians for a generation: "The God who is there"; "Escape from Reason"; and "God is there, and He is not silent". 

    The first of these traced how Western culture changed its view about truth and crossed what Schaeffer called "the line of despair", a philosophical shift he detected in Europe beginning in 1890 and in the United States before 1935. 

    This so called "line of despair" had above it the possibility of knowing God, and he making Himself known in terms of truth, reason, and revelation. Then below this "line of despair" we see various disciplines that acquire knowledge of the world and (should at least) be able to infer knowledge about God in all He has made (philosophy, literature, art, music, theology). 

    As Schaeffer pointed out in his first book, Western man rejected what was above the line and through a steady progression, beginning with philosophy in the nineteenth century and progressing through the radical theologies of liberalism and "death of God" theologies of the twentieth century. In short, humanity came to believe in the impossibility of revelation.

    In Schaeffer's second book, "Escape from Reason", he traced in more detail this journey below the line of despair, beginning as I said with the philosophy of the enlightenment and the nineteenth century, through the disciplines of literature, art, music, and theology. 

    It is then in Schaeffer's third book, "God is there, and He is not silent" where we see the triology reach its ultimate conclusion (and which is relevant to the necessity of God's revelation). Schaeffer writes,

"We can say it another way, that the infinite Personal God, the God who is Trinity, He has spoken and He is not silent. There is no use having a silent God. We would not know anything about Him. He has spoken and told us what He is and that He existed before all else, and so we have the answer to the existence of what is. He is not silent." 

    The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 41:21-23 writes of how the God of the Bible alone is, to imitate Schaeffer's point above, "the talking God",

“Present your case,” the Lord says. “Bring forward your strong arguments,” The King of Jacob says. 22 Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place; As for the former events, declare what they were, That we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming; 23 Declare the things that are going to come afterward, That we may know that you are gods; Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together."

    The Psalmist in Psalm 115:2-9 writes further of the necessity of God needing to reveal Himself if we are to know anything about anything or about Him,

"But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of man’s hands. 5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; 6 They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; 7 They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. 8 Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them. 9 O Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield."

    Unless the infinite, personal God has reached outside of Himself to our world and to us, as well as designed our world and ourselves with the capability of awareness of such revelation, we would not know anything about anything nor anything about God. This is why the Apostle Paul writes what he writes in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6,

"Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him."

    In our next post we shall consider that although we can never fully comprehend God, we can nonetheless truly know Him.