Many systematic theologies of the past have succeeded in classifying the moral attributes of God and the nature of His being. However, God did not reveal himself in all the variety of biblical manifestations simply to give us theoretical knowledge about himself. Instead, we find God’s self-disclosure is coupled with personal challenge, confrontation, and the opportunity to respond. This is evident when the Lord meets with Adam, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Mary, Peter, Nathaniel, and Martha. Along with these witnesses and many others (see Heb. 12:1), we can testify that we study to know Him, not just to know about Him. “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God” (Ps. 100:1–2). Every Scripture passage that we examine should be studied with a heart toward worship, service, and obedience.
Our understanding of God must not be based on presumptions about Him or on what we want God to be like. Instead we must believe in the God who is and who has chosen to reveal himself to us in Scripture. Human beings tend to create fictitious gods that are easy to believe in, gods that conform to their own lifestyle and sinful nature (Rom. 1:21–25). This is one of the marks of false religion. Some Christians even fall into the trap of ignoring the self-revelation of God and begin to develop a concept of God that is more in line with their personal whims than with the Bible. The Bible is our true source. It lets us know that God exists and what He is like.
The Bible does not attempt to prove God’s existence.1 Instead, it opens with His existence as a primary assumption: “In the beginning God” (Gen. 1:1). God is! He is the starting point. Throughout the Bible there is substantial evidence for His existence. While “the fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God.’ … The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Ps. 14:1; Ps. 19:1). God has made himself known through His creative and sustaining actions; giving life, breath (Acts 17:24–28), food, and joy (Acts 14:17). God accompanies those actions with words to interpret their meaning and significance, providing a record that explains His presence and purpose. God also reveals His existence by speaking and acting through prophets, priests, kings, and faithful servants. Ultimately, God has revealed himself clearly to us through His Son and through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
For those of us who believe that God has revealed himself in Scripture, our descriptions of the one true Deity are based on His self-disclosure. Yet we live in a world that generally does not share this view of the Bible as a primary source. Many people rely instead on human ingenuity and perception to arrive at a depiction of the divine. For us to follow the steps of the apostle Paul in leading them out of the darkness into the light, we need to be aware of the general categories of those human perceptions.
In the secular understanding of history, science, and religion, the theory of evolution has been accepted by many as reliable fact. According to that theory, as human beings evolved, so did their religious beliefs and expressions.2 Religion is presented as a movement from simple to more complex practices and creeds. Followers of this scheme of the evolutionary theory say religion begins at the level of animism, in which natural objects are considered to be indwelt by supernatural powers or disembodied spirits. These spirits impact human life according to their own devious pleasure. Animism evolves into simply polytheism, in which certain of the supernatural powers are perceived as deities. The next step, according to evolutionists, is henotheism, as one of the deities achieves supremacy over all the other spirits and is worshiped in preference to them. Monolatry follows when the people choose to worship only one of the gods, though not denying the existence of the others.
The logical conclusion of the theory is monotheism, which occurs only as the people evolve to the point of denying the existence of all other gods and worshiping only one deity. The research of anthropologists and missiologists in this century has shown clearly that this theory is not validated by the facts of history or by the careful study of contemporary “primitive” cultures.3 When human beings shape a belief system according to their own design, it does not develop in the direction of monotheism, but rather toward more gods and more animism.4 The tendency is toward syncretism, adding newly discovered deities to the set already worshiped.
In contrast to evolution is revelation. We serve a God who both acts and speaks. Monotheism is not the result of human evolutionary genius, but of divine self-disclosure. This divine self-disclosure is progressive in nature as God has continued to reveal more of himself throughout the Bible.5 By the time of the first post-Resurrection Pentecost we learn that God does indeed manifest himself to His people in three distinct Persons.6 But in Old Testament times it was necessary to establish the fact that there is one true God in contrast to the many gods served by Israel’s neighbors in Canaan, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.
Through Moses, the teaching was asserted, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut. 6:4).7 The Lord’s existence and continuing activity were not dependent on His relationship with any other god or creature. Instead, our God could simply “be,” while choosing to call human beings to His side (not because He needed them, but because they needed Him).
“‘He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else’” (Acts 17:25). God is self-existent in the sense that He does not look to any other source for His meaning and being. His very name, Yahweh, is a statement that “He is and will continue to be.”8 God is not dependent on anyone to counsel or teach Him: “Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?” (Isa. 40:14). The Lord has not needed any other being to assist Him in creation and providence (Isa. 44:24). God wills to impart life to His people, and He stands apart as independent from all others. “‘The Father has life in himself’” (John 5:26). No created being can make that claim, so we creatures are left to declare in our worship: “‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being’” (Rev. 4:11).
SPIRIT
Jesus encountered a woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well one day. Samaritans were regarded by first-century Jews as an aberrant cult, to be avoided. The Samaritans had been forced to give up idolatry, but they had modified the Pentateuch to limit the place of worship to Mount Gerizim, and they rejected the rest of the Old Testament. Jesus exposed the error of their worldview by declaring, “‘God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth’” (John 4:24). This worship would not be restricted by any physical site, since that reflects a false concept of the very nature of God. Worship must be in keeping with the spiritual nature of God.
The Bible does not define “spirit” for us, but it does offer descriptions. God as spirit is immortal, invisible, and eternal, worthy of our honor and glory forever (1 Tim. 1:17). As spirit, He lives in light that humans are unable to approach: “Whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Tim. 6:16). His spiritual nature is difficult for us to understand because we have not yet seen God as He is, and apart from faith we are unable to understand that which we have not experienced. Our sensory perception does not offer any assistance in discerning God’s spiritual nature. God is not shackled by the bonds of physical matter. We worship One who is quite different from us, yet He desires to put within us the Holy Spirit as a foretaste of that day when we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). Then we shall be able to approach the light, for we shall cast off mortality and take on glorified immortality (1 Cor. 15:51–54).
KNOWABLE
“No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18). The Almighty God cannot be fully comprehended by humanity (Job 11:7), yet He has shown himself at different times and in various ways, indicating that it is His will for us to know Him and to be in right relationship with Him (John 1:18; 5:20; 17:3; Acts 14:17; Rom. 1:18–20). This does not mean, however, that we can completely and exhaustively perceive all God’s character and nature (Rom. 1:18–20; 2:14–15). As God reveals, He also conceals: “Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel” (Isa. 45:15).
Rather than detracting from His attributes, this concealing of himself is a confessional declaration of our limits and of God’s infinitude. Because God determined to speak through His Son (Heb. 1:2) and to have His fullness dwell within His Son (Col. 1:19), we can expect to find the most focused manifestation of God’s character in Jesus. Not only does Jesus make the Father known, He also reveals the meaning and significance of the Father.9
By means of numerous invitations God expresses His will that we know Him: “‘Be still, and know that I am God’” (Ps. 46:10). When the Hebrews submitted to the Lord, He promised that divine manifestations would show that He was their God and they were His people. “‘Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians’” (Ex. 6:7). The conquest of the Promised Land was also significant evidence of both the fact and knowability of the only true and living God (Josh. 3:10). The Canaanites and others who were to suffer God’s divine judgment would be made to know that God existed and that He stood by Israel (1 Sam. 17:46; 1 Kings 20:28).
Those who yielded to the Lord, however, could go beyond a mere knowledge of His existence to a knowledge of His person and purpose (1 Kings 18:37). One of the Old Testament benefits of being in a covenant relationship with God was that He would continue to reveal himself to those who obeyed the stipulations of that covenant (Ezek. 20:20; 28:26; 34:30; 39:22, 28; Joel 2:27; 3:17).
Humans have searched for knowledge of the Deity since the beginning. Occurring in one of the earliest periods of biblical history, Zophar asked Job whether the search would yield any results: “‘Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?’” (Job 11:7). Elihu added, “‘How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out’” (Job 36:26). Whatever knowledge we have of God is because He has chosen to disclose himself to us. But even the admittedly limited knowledge we now have is glorious to behold and is a sufficient ground for our faith.
ETERNAL
We measure our existence by time: past, present, future. God is not limited by time, yet He has chosen to reveal himself to us within our framework of reference, so that we might see Him at work before and behind us. The terms “eternal,” “everlasting,” and “forever” are often used by English Bible translators to capture the Hebrew and Greek phrases that bring God into our perspective.10 He existed before creation: “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Ps. 90:2).
We must admit that because we experience time as a measurement with limitations, a full comprehension of eternity is beyond us. But we can meditate on the enduring and timeless aspect of God, which will lead us to worship Him as a personal Lord who has bridged a great gap between His infinite, unlimited vitality and our finite, limited mortalness. “He who lives forever, whose name is holy [says]: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isa. 57:15).
Therefore, completely apart from trying to understand the relation of time and eternity, we can confess: “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim. 1:17; cf. Num. 23:19; Ps. 33:11; 102:27; Isa. 57:15).
OMNIPOTENT
An ancient philosophical dilemma asks whether God is able to create a rock that is too large for Him to move. If He is not able to move it, then He is not all-powerful. If He is not able to create one that large, then that proves He is not all-powerful. This logical fallacy simply plays with words and overlooks the fact that God’s power is intertwined with His purposes.
The more honest question would be, Is God powerful enough to do anything that He clearly intends to do and that fulfills His divine purpose? In the context of His purpose God shows that He is indeed able to accomplish whatever He wishes: “For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” (Isa. 14:17). The unlimited power and might of the one true God cannot be withstood, thwarted, or turned back by humans (2 Chron. 20:6; Ps. 147:5; Isa. 43:13; Dan. 4:35).
God has shown that His primary concern is not with the size and weight of rocks (though He can make them give water [Ex. 17:6] or praise [Luke 19:40]), but with calling, shaping, and transforming a people for himself. This is seen in His bringing breath and life from the womb of Sarah when she was old—as God said, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Gen. 18:14; cf. Jer. 32:17)—and from the womb of the young virgin, Mary (Matt. 1:20–25). God’s highest purpose was found in bringing life from a tomb near Jerusalem as a demonstration of “his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 1:19–20).
Jesus’ disciples pondered the impossibility of sending a camel through the eye of a literal sewing needle (Mark 10:25–27).11 The real lesson here is that it is not possible for people to save themselves. However, that is not only possible for God, but also within His divine purpose. Therefore, the work of salvation is the exclusive domain of the Lord, who is almighty. We can exalt Him, not just because He is omnipotent and His power is greater than that of any other, but because His purposes are great and He applies His great power to accomplish His will.
OMNIPRESENT
The nations that surrounded ancient Israel served regional or national gods who were limited in their impact by locale and ritual. For the most part, these regional deities were considered by their devotees to have power only within the domain of the people who made offerings to them. Although the Lord did present himself to Israel as one who could focus His presence in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle and temple, this was His concession to the limitations of human understanding. Solomon recognized this when he said, “Will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27).
We humans are presently limited to existence within the physical dimensions of this universe. There is absolutely nowhere that we can go to be out of the presence of God: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (Ps. 139:7–10; cf. Jer. 23:23–24). The spiritual nature of God allows Him to be omnipresent and yet very near to us (Acts 17:27–28).
OMNISCIENT
“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:13). God has the ability to know our thoughts and our intentions (Ps. 139:1–4), and He does not grow tired or weary in His activity of discerning them (Isa. 40:28). God’s knowledge is not limited by our understanding of future time, since He can know the end of something from its very beginning (Isa. 46:10).
God’s knowledge and wisdom are beyond our ability to penetrate (Rom. 11:33). That makes it difficult for us to fully comprehend how God has foreknowledge of events that are conditional upon our free will. This is one of those areas that place in us a healthy tension (not contradiction but paradox); Scripture does not give enough information to adequately resolve the tension. It does, however, give us what we need—along with the help of the Holy Spirit—to make decisions that will please God.
WISE
In the ancient world, the concept of wisdom tended to belong to the realm of theory and debate. The Bible, however, presents wisdom in the realm of the practical, and again our model for this kind of wisdom is God. “Wisdom” (Heb. chokhmah) is the joining of the knowledge of truth with experience in life. Knowledge by itself may fill the head with facts without an understanding of their significance or application. Wisdom gives direction and meaning.
God’s knowledge gives Him insight into all that is and can be. In view of the fact that God is self-existent, He has experience that we cannot even imagine and His understanding is unlimited (Ps. 147:5). He applies His knowledge wisely. All the works of His hands are made in His great wisdom (Ps. 104:24), allowing Him to set monarchs in position or to change the times and seasons as He wisely sees fit (Dan. 2:21).
God desires for us to partake of His wisdom and understanding so that we may know His plans for us and live in the center of His will (Col. 2:2–3).
FAITHFUL
The religions of the ancient Near East were devoted to fickle, capricious deities. The grand exception to this was the God of Israel. He is dependable in His nature and actions. The Hebrew word ’amen, “truly,” is derived from one of the most outstanding Hebrew descriptions of God’s character, reflecting His certainty and dependability: “I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness [’emunah ’omen, literally, ‘faithfulness of reliability’] you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago” (Isa. 25:1).
While we use “amen” to express our assurance of God’s ability to answer prayer, the biblical occurrences of the ’amen family of words include an even broader range of manifestations of God’s power and faithfulness. Abraham’s chief servant attributed his successful search for a bride for young Isaac to the faithful nature of Yahweh (Gen. 24:27). The words “truth” and “faithfulness” (’emeth and ’emunah) are, appropriately, extensions of the one Hebrew concept joined together in the nature of God.
The Lord evinces His faithfulness through keeping His promises: “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands” (Deut. 7:9). Joshua exclaimed at the end of his life that the Lord God had never failed him in even one promise (Josh. 23:14). The Psalmist confessed, “You established your faithfulness in heaven itself” (Ps. 89:2).
God shows himself to be constant in His intention to have fellowship with us, guiding and protecting us. Even the sin and wickedness of this world will not claim us if we submit to Him: “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22–23).
Because God is faithful, it would be unheard of for Him to abandon His children when they suffer temptation or trial (1 Cor. 10:13). “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Num. 23:19). God remains stable in His nature, while exhibiting flexibility in His actions.12 When God makes a covenant with people, His vow is a sufficient seal and profession of the unchanging nature of His person and purposes: “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath” (Heb. 6:17). If God were to ever stop upholding His promises, then He would be repudiating His own character.
Paul contrasts the human and the divine natures when he writes of the glory that follows the suffering of Christ: “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). God’s dependability is absolute because of what He is: faithful and true (Deut. 32:4; Ps. 89:8; 1 Thess. 5:23–24; Heb. 10:23; 1 John 1:9).
TRUTHFUL
“God is not a man, that he should lie” (Num. 23:19). The veracity of God is in contrast to the dishonesty of humans, but not just in relative measure. God is perfectly faithful to His word and His way (Ps. 33:4; 119:151), and His integrity is a permanent character trait that He exhibits (Ps. 119:160). This stable and enduring truthfulness of the Lord is the vehicle through which we are sanctified, because the truth proclaimed has become truth incarnate: “‘Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth’” (John 17:17). Our hope rests directly on the assurance that everything God has revealed to us is true, and all that He has done so far to fulfill His word gives us assurance that He will bring to completion what He has begun (John 14:6; Titus 1:1).
GOOD
God is, by His very nature, inclined to act with great generosity toward His creation. During the days of creation the Lord periodically examined His work and declared that it was good, in the sense of being pleasing and well-suited for His purposes (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). The same adjective is used to describe God’s moral character: “The LORD is good and his love endures forever” (Ps. 100:5). In this context, the expression carries the original idea of pleasing or fully suitable, but goes beyond to illustrate for us the grace that is essential to God’s nature: “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made” (Ps. 145:8–9; see also Lam. 3:25). This facet of His nature is manifested in His willingness to provide our needs, whether they are material (rain and crops, Acts 14:17) or spiritual (joy, Acts 14:17; wisdom, James 1:5). This aspect is also in contrast to ancient beliefs, wherein all the other gods were unpredictable, vicious, and anything but good.
We can model ourselves after our generous and compassionate God, for “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).
PATIENT
In a world full of retaliatory actions, often too hastily decided upon, our “LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion” (Num. 14:18). This “slowness” toward anger allows a window of opportunity for God to show compassion and grace (Ps. 86:15). The Lord’s patience is for our benefit, so that we will realize that it should lead us to repentance (Rom. 2:4; 9:22–23).
We live in the tension of desiring Jesus to fulfill His promises by returning, yet wanting Him to wait until more people accept Him as Savior and Lord: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
The Lord will punish the guilty for sin, yet for the present He will utilize His own standard of “slowness,” since His patience means salvation (v. 15).
LOVE
Many of us began our early study of the Bible with memorization of John 3:16. As young Christians we recited it with vigor and enthusiasm, often with added emphasis upon “‘For God so loved the world.’” After further consideration, we find that the love of God in that passage is not being described as a quantity, but rather as a quality. It is not that God loved us so much that it motivated Him to give, but that He loved in such a sacrificial manner that He gave.13
God has revealed himself as a God who expresses a particular kind of love, a love that is displayed by sacrificial giving. As John defines it: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
God also shows His love by providing rest and protection (Deut. 33:12), which our prayers of thanksgiving can focus on (Ps. 42:8; 63:3; Jer. 31:3). However, God’s highest form and greatest demonstration of love for us are found in the cross of Christ (Rom. 5:8). He wants us to know that His character of love is integral to our life in Christ: “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:4).
The most excellent path, the way of love, which we are charged to walk in, identifies the traits that God has modeled for us in His person and work (1 Cor. 12:31 through 13:13). If we follow His example, we will bear the spiritual fruit of love and will walk in a manner that will allow the gifts of the Spirit (charismata) to achieve the purposes of the grace (charis) of God.
GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL
The terms “grace” and “mercy” represent two aspects of God’s character and activity that are distinct but related. To experience the grace of God is to receive a gift that one cannot earn and does not deserve. To experience the mercy of God is to be preserved from punishment that one does in fact deserve. God is the royal judge who holds the power of ultimate and final punishment. When He forgives our sin and guilt, we are experiencing mercy. When we receive the gift of life, we are experiencing grace. God’s mercy takes away the punishment, while His grace replaces the negative with a positive. We are deserving of punishment, but instead He gives us peace and restores us to wholeness (Isa. 53:5; Titus 2:11; 3:5).
“The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Ps. 103:8). Since we have the need to be brought out of death into life, these aspects of God are often coupled in Scripture to show their interrelatedness (Eph. 2:4–5; cf. Neh. 9:17; Rom. 9:16; Eph. 1:6).
HOLY
“‘I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy’” (Lev. 11:44). We have been called to be different, because the Lord is different. God reveals himself as “holy,” qadosh (Heb.), and the essential element of qadosh is separation from the mundane, profane, or normal and separation (or dedication) to His purposes. The commands given to Israel called for maintenance of the clear distinction between the spheres of the common and the sacred (Lev. 10:10). This distinction impacted time and space (Sabbath and sanctuary), but was most significantly directed at the individual. Because God is unlike any other being, all those submitted to Him must also be separated—in heart, intent, devotion, and character—to Him, who is truly holy (Exod. 15:11).
By His very nature, God is separated from sin and sinful humanity. The reason that we humans are unable to approach God in our fallen state is because we are not holy. The biblical issue of “uncleanness” is not dealing with hygiene, but with holiness (Isa. 6:5). The marks of uncleanness include brokenness (see Isa. 30:13–14), sin, violation of God’s will, rebellion, and remaining in the state of being incomplete. Because God is whole and righteous, our consecration involves both separation from sin and obedience to Him.
Holiness is God’s character and activity, as revealed in the title Yahweh meqaddesh, “the LORD, who makes you holy” (Lev.20:8). The holiness of God should not become simply a point of meditation for us, but also an invitation (1 Pet. 1:15) to participate in His righteousness and to worship Him along with the multitudes. The living creatures in the Book of Revelation “never stop saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come’” (Rev. 4:8; cf. Ps. 22:3).
RIGHTEOUS AND JUST
The Holy God is distinct and set apart from sinful humanity. Yet, He is willing to allow us to enter into His presence. This willingness is balanced by the fact that He judges His people in righteousness and justice (Ps. 72:2). These two concepts are often combined to illustrate the standard of measurement that God presents.
Biblical righteousness is seen as conformity to an ethical or moral standard. The “rightness” (Heb. tsedaqah)14 of God is both His character and how He chooses to act. He is straight in ethical and moral character, and therefore serves as the norm for deciding where we stand in relation to Him.
Akin to that facet of God is His justice (Heb. mishpat), wherein He exercises all the processes of government. Many modern democratic systems of government separate duties of the state into various branches to balance and hold one another accountable (e.g., legislative to make and pass laws; executive to enforce them and maintain order; judicial to ensure legal consistency and penalize transgressors). The mishpat of God finds all of those functions within the character and domain of the one sovereign God (Ps. 89:14). The KJV often renders this Hebrew term as judgment, which emphasizes only one of the multiple aspects of justice (Isa. 61:8; Jer. 9:24; 10:24; Amos 5:24). The justice of God includes judgmental penalty, but subordinates that activity to the overall work of establishing loving justice (Deut. 7:9–10).15
The standard that God presents is perfect and upright (Deut. 32:4). Thus, we cannot, in and of ourselves, come up to the standard by which God measures us; we all come short (Rom. 3:23). And “‘he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead’” (Acts 17:31). Yet God also seeks the preservation of His creatures now (Ps. 36:5–7), as well as offering them hope for the future. The incarnation of Christ included the qualities and activities of righteousness and justice. His substitutionary atonement then passed them to us (Rom. 3:25–26) so that we would be able to stand as righteous before the just Judge (2 Cor. 5:21; 2 Pet. 1:1).
In our modern culture parents usually choose names for their children based on aesthetics or euphony. In biblical times, however, the giving of names was an occasion and ceremony of considerable significance. The name was an expression of the character, nature, or future of the individual (or at least a declaration by the namer of what was expected of the recipient of the name).16 Throughout Scripture, God has shown that His name was not just a label to distinguish Him from the other deities of the surrounding cultures. Instead, each name that He uses and accepts discloses some facet of His character, nature, will, or authority.
Because the name represented God’s person and presence, “calling upon the name of the Lord” became a means by which one could enter into an intimate relationship with God. This was a common theme in ancient Near Eastern religions. The surrounding religions, however, attempted to control their deities through manipulation of divine names, while the Israelites were commanded not to use the name of Yahweh their God in an empty and vain manner (Ex. 20:7). Instead, they were to enter into the relationship that was established by means of the name of the Lord and which brought with it providence and salvation.
OLD TESTAMENT NAMES
The primary word for deity found throughout the Semitic languages is ’El, which possibly was derived from a term that meant power or preeminence. The actual derivation, however, is uncertain.17 Since it was used commonly by several different religions and cultures, it can be classified as a generic term for “God” or “god” (depending on the context because the Hebrew Scriptures make no distinction between capital and lowercase letters).
For Israel, there was only one true God; therefore, the use of the generic name by other religions was vain and empty, for Israel was to believe in ’El ’Elohe Yisra’el: “God, the God of Israel” (or possibly, “Mighty is the God of Israel”)—Gen. 33:20.
In the Bible this name is often made into a compound, using descriptive terms such as the following: “’El of glory” (Ps. 29:3), “’El of knowledge” (1 Sam. 2:3, KJV), “’El of salvation” (Isa. 12:2), “’El of vengeance” (Ps. 94:1, KJV), and “’El, the great and awesome” (Neh. 1:5; Neh. 4:14; Neh. 9:32; Dan. 9:4).
The plural form ’elohim is found almost three thousand times in the Old Testament, and at least twenty-three hundred of those references are speaking of the God of Israel (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 68:1). The term ’elohim, however, had a broad enough range of meaning to refer also to idols (Ex. 34:17), judges (Ex. 22:8), angels (Ps. 8:5, KJV), or the gods of the other nations (Isa. 36:18; Jer. 5:7). The plural form, when applied to the God of Israel, can be understood18 as a way of expressing the thought that the fullness of deity is found within the one true God with all attributes, personhood, and powers.19
A synonym of ’Elohim is its singular form ’Eloah, which is also usually translated simply “God.” An examination of the scriptural passages suggests that this names takes on a further meaning: reflecting God’s ability to protect or destroy (depending on the particular context). It is used parallel to “rock” as a refuge (Deut. 32:15; Ps. 18:31; Isa. 44:8). Those who take refuge in Him find ’Eloah to be a shield of protection (Prov. 30:5), but a terror for sinners: “‘Consider this, you who forget ’Eloah, or I will tear you to pieces, with none to rescue’” (Ps. 50:22 see also 114:7, 139:19). Therefore, the name is a comfort for those who humble themselves and seek shelter in Him, but a conveyance of fear to those who are not in right relationship with God.
The name stands as a challenge for people to decide which aspect of God they want to experience, because “‘blessed is the man whom ’Eloah corrects’” (Job 5:17). Job ultimately chose to revere God in His majesty and repent before His power (37:23; 42:6).20
God often revealed something more of His character by providing descriptive phrases or clauses in conjunction with His various names. God first identified himself as ’El Shaddai (Gen. 17:1)21 when the time came to renew His covenant with Abram. Some of the biblical contexts suggest that shaddai conveys the image of one who has the power to devastate and destroy. In Psalm 68:14, the Shaddai “scattered the kings in the land,” and a similar thought is spoken of by the prophet Isaiah: “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from Shaddai” (Isa. 13:6). However, in other passages the emphasis seems to be upon God as the all-sufficient one: “‘’El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me and said to me, “I am going to make you fruitful” ’” (Gen. 48:3–4; see also 49:24). English translators have usually opted for “all-powerful” or “the Almighty” in recognition of the ability of ’El Shaddai to bless or devastate as appropriate, since both these powers are within the character and power of that name.
Other descriptive appositions help to reveal the character of God. His exalted nature is displayed in ’El ‘Elyon, “God Most High”22 (Gen. 14:22; Num. 24:16; Deut. 32:8). God’s eternal nature is represented by the name ’El ‘Olam, with the descriptive term meaning “perpetual” or “everlasting;” when Abraham settled in Beersheba for a long time, “he called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God” (Gen. 21:33; cf. Ps. 90:2). All who live under the burden of sin and need deliverance can call upon ’Elohim yish‘enu, “God our Savior” (1 Chron. 16:35; Pss. 65:5; 68:19; 79:9).
The prophet Isaiah was used by the Lord in a powerful way to speak words of judgment and words of comfort to the nations of his day. The words were not the result of speculation or demographic opinion-poll analysis. The prophet heard from the God who revealed himself. His commission in Isaiah 6 can help to keep our study of God in perspective. There God revealed himself exalted on a royal throne. The great length of His garment confirmed His majesty. Seraphs declared His holiness23 and pronounced the personal name of God, Yahweh.
The name Yahweh appears 6,828 times in 5,790 verses in the Old Testament24 and is the most frequent designation of God in the Bible. This name is probably derived from the Hebrew verb that means “becoming,” “happening,” “being present.”25 When Moses faced the dilemma of convincing the Hebrew slaves to receive him as a messenger from God, he sought out God’s name. The form that the question takes is really seeking a description of character rather than a title (Ex. 3:11–15). Moses was not asking, “What shall I call you?” but “What is your character, or what are you like?” God answered, “I AM WHO I AM” or “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE” (Ex. 3:14). The Hebrew form (’ehyeh ’asher ’ehyeh) indicates being in action.26
In the next sentence, God identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who shall now be known as YHWH.27 This four-consonant Hebrew expression has been known as the tetragrammaton and is usually translated in English Bibles as LORD (in small capital letters). However, lordship is not really an essential aspect of this term.28 Instead, it is a statement that God is a self-existent being (the I AM or I WILL BE) who causes all things to exist and has chosen to be faithfully present with a people that He has called unto himself.
In Old Testament times this name was pronounced freely by the Israelites. The Third Commandment (Ex. 20:7)—“‘You shall not misuse the name of YHWH your God,’” that is, use it in an empty manner or, like a name-dropper, for prestige or influence—originally would have had more to do with invoking the divine name in an oath formula than with using the name in a curse.
Over the centuries, however, scribes and rabbis developed a strategy for upholding this stipulation. Initially, the scribes wrote the Hebrew word ’adonai, “master,” “lord,” in the margin of the scroll whenever YHWH appeared in the inspired text of Scripture. By means of written signals, whoever was reading the scroll publicly was to read ’adonai from the marginal note instead of the holy name in the biblical passage. The theory was that one could not take the name in vain if one did not even say it. However, this device was not fail-safe and some readers inadvertently would utter the name during the public reading of the Bible in the synagogue. But the high reverence for the text prevented the scribes and rabbis from actually removing the Hebrew name YHWH and replacing it with the lesser term ’adonai.29
Eventually the rabbis agreed to insert vowels in the Hebrew text (since the inspired text was originally only consonants). They took the vowels from ’adonai, modified them to suit the grammatical requirements of the letters of YHWH, and inserted them between the consonants of that divine name, creating YeHoWaH. The vowels would then remind the reader to read ’Adonai. Some Bibles transliterate this as “Jehovah,” thereby perpetuating an expression that is a coined word, having, as it does, the consonants of a personal name and the vowels of a title.
By New Testament times the name had become shrouded in secrecy, and the tradition of replacing the ineffable name with the substitute “Lord” was accepted by New Testament writers (which continues in many modern Bible translations, such as KJV, NIV, NKJV). This is acceptable. But we must teach and preach that the character of the “Lord/Yahweh/I Am/I Will Be” is active, faithful presence. “All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of [Yahweh] our God for ever and ever” (Micah 4:5).
The seraphs in Isaiah’s vision combine the personal name of the God of Israel with the descriptive noun tseva’oth, “armies” or “hosts.”30 This combination of Yahweh and tseva’oth (Sabaoth, KJV) occurs in 248 verses in the Bible (sixty-two times in Isaiah, seventy-seven in Jeremiah, fifty-three in Zechariah) and is usually translated “LORD Almighty” (Jer. 19:3; Zech. 3:9–10). This is the affirmation that Yahweh was the true leader of the armies of Israel as well as of the hosts of heaven, both angels and stars, ruling universally as the general chief of staff of the whole universe. Isaiah’s use here (Isa. 6:3) contradicts the position of the surrounding nations, that each regional god was the warrior god who held exclusive sway in that country. Even if Israel were defeated, it would not be because Yahweh was weaker than the next warrior god, but because Yahweh was using the armies of the surrounding countries (which He had created anyway) to judge His unrepentant people.
In the ancient Near East, the king was also the leader of all military operations. Therefore, this title Yahweh Tseva’oth is another way of exalting the royalty of God. “Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? Yahweh Tseva’oth—he is the King of glory” (Ps. 24:9–10).
The seraphs in Isaiah’s vision finally confess that “the whole earth is full of his glory.” This glory (Heb. kavodh) carries the concept of heaviness, weightiness. The use of “glory” in this context is associated with one who is truly weighty not in measurement of pounds but in position, as recognized in society. In this sense, one would be called weighty if one was honorable, impressive, and worthy of respect.
God’s self-disclosure is related to His intent to dwell among humans; He desires to have His reality and splendor known. But this is possible only when people take account of the stunning quality of His holiness (including the full weight of His attributes), and they set out in faith and obedience to let that character be manifested in them. Yahweh does not typically manifest His presence physically, yet many believers can attest to that subjective and spiritual sensation that the weighty presence of the Lord has descended. That is exactly the image conveyed through Isaiah. God deserves the reputation of greatness, glory, kingdom, and power. But it is not just His reputation that fills the earth, it is the very reality of His presence, the full weight of His glory (cf. 2 Cor. 4:17, KJV).
God’s desire is that all persons gladly recognize His glory. Progressively, God has dwelt in glory among people; first in the pillar of fire and cloud, then in the tabernacle, then in the temple in Jerusalem, then in the flesh as His Son, Jesus of Nazareth, and now in us by His Holy Spirit. “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Now we can know that we all are the temple of Yahweh’s most Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16–17).
The name of the “I am/I will be” in conjunction with particular descriptive terms often serves as a confession of faith that further reveals the nature of God. When Isaac asked his father, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham assured his son that God would see to [yireh] it (Gen. 22:7–8). After sacrificing the substitute ram that had been caught in the thicket, Abraham called that place Yahweh yireh, “the LORD will provide” (Gen. 22:14).31
Abraham’s faith went beyond a positive confession of God as simply a material provider, however. His God was one who was personally involved and willing to look into the problem and bring about a resolution. The problem was resolved by providing a substitute for Isaac as a pleasing sacrificial offering. After the fact, we can testify that Yahweh really does provide. But during the trek up the mountain, Abraham trusted God to see to it, since he had assured the servants who were waiting in the distance that both he and the boy would return to them. Abraham’s faith was total abandon to the ability of God to look into any problem and take care of it according to divine wisdom and plan, even if that meant obedient death and then God raising the dead (see Heb. 11:17–19).
The tetragrammaton is used also in combination with a number of other terms that serve to describe many facets of the Lord’s character, nature, promises, and activities. Yahweh Shammah, “the LORD is there,” serves as a promise of Yahweh’s presence and power in the city of Ezekiel’s prophecy by placing His name there (Ezek. 48:35).
Yahweh ‘osenu, “the LORD our Maker,” is a declaration of His ability and willingness to take things that exist and fashion them into usefulness (Ps. 95:6).
The Hebrews in the wilderness experienced Yahweh roph’ekha, “the LORD your physician,” or “the LORD who heals you,” if they listened and obeyed His commands (Ex. 15:26).32 In this way they were able to avoid the plagues and diseases of Egypt and be made whole. Our Lord by His nature is a healer for those who are submitted to His power and will.
When the Lord led Moses and Israel successfully against the Amalekites, Moses erected an altar dedicated to Yahweh nissi, “The LORD is my Banner” (Ex. 17:15). A banner was a flag that served as a rallying point throughout battle or any other common action.33 This function of a raised banner appears typologically in the lifting of the bronze serpent on a pole and in the Savior who would serve as an ensign to the peoples as He was drawing all nations to himself (Num. 21:8–9; Isa. 62:10–11; John 3:14; Phil. 2:9).
When God spoke words of peace to Gideon, he built an altar to Yahweh Shalom, “The LORD is Peace” (Jud. 6:23). The essence of biblical shalom is completeness, wholeness, harmony, fulfillment, in the sense of taking that which is incomplete or shattered and making it complete by means of a sovereign act.34 We can face difficult challenges, as Gideon did in confronting the Midianites, knowing that God grants us peace because that is one way He manifests His nature.
God’s people need a protector and provider, so God has revealed himself as Yahweh ro‘i, “the LORD is my shepherd” (Ps. 23:1). All the positive aspects of ancient Near Eastern shepherding can be found in the faithful Lord (leading, feeding, defending, caring, healing, training, correcting, and being willing to die in the process if necessary).
When Jeremiah prophesied of a king to come, the righteous branch of David that God would raise up, the name that this king would be known by was revealed as Yahweh tsidkenu, “The LORD Our Righteousness” (Jer. 23:6; see also Jer. 33:16). It is God’s nature to act in justice and judgment as He works to place us in right standing with Him. He becomes the norm and standard by which we can measure our lives. Because God chose to make “him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21), we can participate in the promise of God to declare us righteous ourselves. “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).
One way that God has shown His desire to have a personal relationship with His people is through the description of himself as “Father.” This view of God as father is much more developed in the New Testament than in the Old, occurring sixty-five times in the first three Gospels and over one hundred times in John’s Gospel alone. The Old Testament identifies God as father only fifteen times (usually in relation to the nation or people of Israel).
The particular aspects of fatherhood that seem to be emphasized include creation (Deut. 32:6), redemption responsibility (Isa. 63:16), craftsmanship (Isa. 64:8), familial friendship (Jer. 3:4), passing along inheritance (Jer. 3:19), leadership (Jer. 31:9), being honorable (Mal. 1:6), and willing to punish transgression (Mal. 2:10, 12). God is also noted as the Father of particular individuals, especially the monarchs David and Solomon. In relationship to them, God the Father is willing to punish error (2 Sam. 7:14), while being faithful in His love toward His children (1 Chron. 17:13). Above all, God the Father promises to be faithful forever, with a willingness to remain involved in the fathering process for eternity (1 Chron. 22:10).
NEW TESTAMENT NAMES
The New Testament gives a much clearer revelation of the triune God than the Old Testament. God is Father (John 8:54; 20:17), Son (Phil. 2:5–7; Heb. 1:8), and Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3–4; 1 Cor. 3:16). Since many of the names, titles, and attributes of God properly fit under the categories of “Trinity,” “Christ,” and “Holy Spirit,” they are dealt with in greater depth in those chapters in this book. The following will focus on the names and titles that speak more directly about the one true God.
Our term “theology” is derived from the Greek word theos. The translators of the Septuagint adopted it as the appropriate expression to convey the Hebrew ’elohim and its related synonyms, and this understanding is continued in the New Testament. Theos was also the generic term for divine beings, such as when the Maltese said Paul was a god after he had survived the viper bite (Acts 28:6). The term can be translated “god,” “gods,” or “God,” depending on the literary context, much as the Hebrew term ’El (Matt. 1:23; 1 Cor. 8:5; Gal. 4:8). However, the use of this Greek word in no way makes concession to the existence of other gods, since literary context is not the same as spiritual context. Within spiritual reality, there is only one true Divine Being: “We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no theos but one” (1 Cor. 8:4). God makes exclusive claim to this term as a further revelation of himself. The same can be said of the Greek expression logos, “Word” (John 1:1, 14).35
The Old Testament introduces the image of God as Father; the New Testament displays how that relationship is to be fully experienced. Jesus speaks often of God in intimate terms. No Old Testament prayer addresses God as “Father.” Yet, when Jesus trained His disciples in prayer He expected them to take the posture of children together and say, “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’” (Matt. 6:9). Our God is the “Father” with all the power of heaven (Matt. 26:53; John 10:29), and He utilizes that power to keep, prune, sustain, call, love, preserve, provide, and glorify (John 6:32; 8:54; 12:26; 14:21, 23; 15:1; 16:23).
The apostle Paul summarized his own theology by focusing on our need for unmerited favor and wholeness. He opens most of his epistles with this statement of invocation: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:7; see also 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; etc.).
In Greek philosophy, the divine beings were described as “unmoved movers,” “the cause of all being,” “pure being,” “the world soul,” and with other expressions of distant impersonality. Jesus stood firmly within the Old Testament revelation and taught that God is personal. Although Jesus spoke of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Mark 12:26); Lord (Mark 5:19; 12:29; Luke 20:37); Lord of heaven and earth (Matt. 11:25); Lord of the harvest (Matt. 9:38); the only God (John 5:44); Most High (Luke 6:35); King (Matt. 5:35)—His favorite title for God was “Father,”36 given in the Greek New Testament as patēr (from which we derive “patriarch” and “paternal”). An exception to this is found in Mark 14:36, where the original Aramaic term ’abba, which Jesus actually used to address God, is retained.37
Paul designated God as ’abba on two occasions: “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Gk. ho patēr) (Gal. 4:6). “You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom. 8:15–16). That is, in the Early Church, Jewish believers would be calling on God, ’Abba, “O Father!”38 and Gentile believers would be crying out, Ho Patēr, “O Father!” At the same time, the Spirit would be making it real to them that God really is our Father. The uniqueness of the term is in the fact that Jesus gave it a warmth and tenderness usually not found.39 It characterized well not only His own relationship with God, but also the kind of relationship that He ultimately intended for His disciples.
The Almighty God cannot be fully comprehended by humanity, yet He has shown himself in various times and ways, that we might truly know Him. God is incomprehensible and His very existence cannot be proven by mere human logic. Rather than detracting from His attributes, this is a confessional declaration of our limits and God’s infinitude. Our understanding of God can be built upon two primary presuppositions: (1) God exists and (2) He has revealed himself adequately to us through His inspired revelation.40
God is not to be explained, but believed and described. We can build our doctrine of God upon the preceding presuppositions and the evidences that He has given in Scripture. Some Scripture passages attribute qualities to the being of God that humans do not have, while other passages describe Him in terms of moral attributes that can be shared by humans in some limited measure.
God’s constitutional nature is identified most often by those attributes that find no analogy in our human existence. God exists in and of himself, without dependence upon any other. He himself is the source of life, both in creation and sustenance. God is spirit; He is not confined to material existence and is imperceptible to the physical eye. His nature does not change, but stands firm. Since God himself is the ground of time, He cannot be bound by time. He is eternal, without beginning or end. God is thoroughly consistent within himself. Space is unable to limit or bound God, so He is omnipresent, and being able to do absolutely anything consistent with His nature and productive to His purposes, He is omnipotent. Furthermore, God is omniscient, knowledgeable concerning all truth—past, present, and future, possible and actual. In all of these attributes, the believer can find both comfort and confirmation of faith, while the unbeliever is served a warning and motivated toward belief.
The biblical evidences of God’s moral attributes display characteristics that may also be found in humankind, but ours pale in the glory of the Lord’s brilliant display. Of paramount importance in this group is God’s holiness, His absolute purity and exaltation above all creatures. Included in this fundamental perfection are His righteousness, resulting in the establishment of laws, and His justice, resulting in the execution of His laws. The affection God has for His children is expressed by His sacrificial love. God’s love is unselfish, self-initiated, righteous, and everlasting. Furthermore, God shows benevolence by feeling and manifesting affection for His creation in general. He shows mercy by directing goodness to those in misery and distress and by withholding deserved punishment. He also manifests grace as goodness given to the totally undeserving.
The wisdom of God is seen in the divine purposes and in the plans He uses to achieve those purposes. The primary example of God’s wisdom, incarnate and in action, is in the person and work of Jesus. Other expressions of wisdom include patience, whereby God withholds His righteous judgment and wrath from rebellious sinners, and also truthfulness, wherein God stands by His Word and action. Jesus, the Messiah of God, is the Truth in flesh. Finally, there is the moral perfection of faithfulness. God is absolutely reliable in covenant keeping, trustworthy in forgiving, and never failing in His promises, steadfastly providing a way for us. The image of a rock is often utilized to portray our Lord’s firmness and protection.
One other aspect requiring attention within the doctrine of God is that of His activities. This aspect can be divided into His decrees and His providence and preservation. The decrees of God are His eternal plan, and they have certain characteristics: They are all part of one plan, which is unchanging and everlasting (Eph. 3:11; James 1:17). They are free from and not conditioned by other beings (Ps. 135:6). They deal with God’s actions and not His nature (Rom. 3:26). Within these decrees are those actions done by God for which He is sovereignly responsible, and then those actions allowed by God to happen but for which He is not responsible.41 On the basis of this distinction we can see that God is neither the author of evil, even though He is the creator of all subordinates, nor is He the final cause of sin.
God is also actively sustaining the world He created. In preservation He works to uphold His laws and powers in creation (Acts 17:25). In providence He works continuously to control all things in the universe for the purpose of bringing about His wise and loving plan in ways consistent with the agency of His free creatures (Gen. 20:6; 50:20; Job 1:12; Rom. 1:24).
Recognizing this and delighting in the Lord, meditating upon His Word day and night, will bring every blessing of God, for we will understand who He is and how to worship and serve Him.
The psalms are helpful in our worship. Many psalms open with the traditional Hebrew call to worship: Hallelujah! Meaning “Praise the Lord!” (see Pss. 106; 111; 112; 113; 135; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150). In our modern experience this term often serves as a statement of exaltation. However, it began as a command to worship. The psalms that begin with this call to worship usually furnish information about Yahweh that focuses worship on Him and reveals features of His greatness that are worthy of praise.
Serving God begins by praying in His name. This means recognizing how distinct His nature is as revealed in the magnificent variety of His names, for He has revealed himself to us that we might glorify Him and do His will.
1. What obstacles will we face when we express our belief in the existence of God to those who do not share our worldview, and in what ways can we overcome those obstacles?
2. How does God reveal himself to us so that we might know Him?
3. How does our present experience of time affect our understanding of God’s eternity?
4. How does the wisdom of God compare with the popular human concept of acquired wisdom?
5. What part does sacrifice play in the love that God has manifested?
6. In what specific ways have you experienced the grace and mercy of the Lord?
7. In what ways does the holiness of God, as reported in Scripture, help us to avoid the legalism that sometimes hinders some human expressions of holiness?
8. What do the names of God tell us about the personality and purposes of God?
9. In what ways has the theme of God as our Father in the Old Testament been further revealed in the New Testament?
10. What is the relationship between God’s foreknowledge, predestination, and sovereignty?
1Philosophers have attempted to do so. For a brief survey of the so-called rational proofs (ontological, cosmological, teleological, moral, and ethnological) for the existence of God, see L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1941), 26–28. Some consider these as pointers rather than proofs.
2This theory is expressed with numerous variations and became a part of the antisupernatural philosophies and theologies of Wellhausen, Freud, and Nietzsche, as well as those of both Nazis and Communists.
3See Don Richardson, Eternity in Their Hearts (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1961), 52–55.
4Cf. Rom. 1:21–23, 25. Egyptian records confirm this. See Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, trans. by John Baines (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982), 98–99,171. When the Aryans came to India they were already polytheists, but they worshiped only a few gods. Today in India many gods are worshiped and there is also more animism.
7“One” is the Heb. ’echad, which can mean a compound or complex unity.
8See the discussion on Yahweh, p. 134.
9John 1:18, “exēgēsato.” Since no one has seen, or can fully comprehend, the Father, the Logos makes known, or “exegetes,” Him for us, explaining by word and deed. See chap. 9, pp. 229–301.
10Deut. 33:27, “eternal God”; Ps. 102:12, “enthroned forever”; Ps. 102:27, “your years will never end.”
11Gk. rhaphidos. Luke 18:25 uses the more classical helonēs, usually used of a surgeon’s needle.
12Often classified as immutability; cf. Ps. 33:11; 102:27; James 1:17.
13Although the English particle “so” can signify quantity or quality, the Greek adverb houtos is used by John to mean “manner,” “type,” “in this way”; John 3:8; 21:1; 1 John 4:11.
14Tsedeq, R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr. and Bruce K. Waltke, eds., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, vol. 2 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), 752–55.
15Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 288–98.
16For example, Elijah means “Yahweh is my God.” The giving of a name could also be the parent’s means of expressing great emotion: Rachel, in her final moments of life, named her last son Ben-Oni, “son of my trouble;” Jacob renamed the child Benjamin, “son of my right hand,” that is, “son of blessing” (Gen. 35:18).
17Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979), 41–43.
18Jews and most liberal theologians understand it as an “intensive plural” or “plural of majesty”; however, there are no real grounds for this grammatically. The plural could be reflecting the Trinity. See chap. 5, p. 147.
19Eissfeldt, Otto, Trans. by H. H. Rowley and P. R. Weiss, “El and Yahweh,” Journal of Semitic Studies 1:25–37; Jan. 1956. Harris, Theological Wordbook, vol. 1, 44–45.
20Forty-one of the fifty-five verses that contain this term in the Old Testament are found in the book of Job.
21Shaddai comes from an old word for “mountain.” The New Testament translates it pantokratōr, “Almighty, omnipotent.”
22Elyon is a superlative adjective built from the verb meaning “go up,” therefore carrying the idea of “uppermost,” “most high,” “exalted.”
23Seraph means “burning” or “fiery” and suggests that these heavenly living creatures were either literally on fire, were purified by the fire of God, or so reflected the glory of God that they seemed to be on fire. The placement of their wings implies their experience of God: covering their faces in reverence toward God, covering their feet as a gesture of modesty in His presence, and flight as an expression of God’s supernatural, royal grant to accomplish His purposes. The threefold repetition of “holy” means supremely holy. See p. 129 for the meaning of holy.
24Based on a computer text-based search using MacBible 2.4 Hebrew Module from Zondervan Corp., 1991.
25Either hawah or hayah. For a full discussion of etymology and history of interpretation see Harris, Theological Wordbook, vol. 1, 210–14.
26In Ex. 3:12, God said, “I will be with you” (Heb. ’Ehyeh ‘inmakh). Thus the divine name involves purpose and action, not just being.
27In Old Testament times the Hebrew alphabet contained twenty-two consonants and no vowels. Therefore the original text had YHWH, which was probably pronounced “Yahweh,” though the later Jews in Egypt pronounced it Yahu.
28The numerous verses that draw our attention to the “name” focus less on the lordship of God and more on His faithful presence and absolute existence (Deut. 28:58; Ps. 83:18; Isa. 42:8).
29This reverence was disregarded by the Septuagintal translators, who adopted the marginal reading and replaced the tetragrammaton with the Greek word kurios, which is basically equivalent to ’adonai by meaning “master,” “owner,” “lord.”
30Transliterated as Sabaoth (Rom. 9:29; James 5:4, KJV).
31Usually rendered in English “Jehovah Jireh.”
32The form Jehovah rapha is not in the Bible. Rapha’ means “He healed” or “He used to heal.” Roph’ekha combines rophe’, a participle translated “physician” in Jer. 8:22 (KJV, NIV) and Kha, a pronoun meaning “your” or “you.” Kha is singular and emphasizes that God is the physician for each of you individually.
33Harris, Theological Wordbook, vol. 2, 583.
34Ibid., 931.
36Sixty-five times in the Synoptics; over one hundred times in John.
37Occasionally the Greek manuscripts would continue to use the older Hebrew or Aramaic words to make a point or to retain the original flavor of the lesson or figure of speech. In Hebrew, God would be addressed as Ha’av and in the Aramaic used by Jews in New Testament times, ’Abba, both meaning “The Father” or “O Father,” both very respectful terms.
38Later Jews made ’Abba a term of informal address: “An infant cannot say ’abba (daddy) and ’imma (mama) until it has tasted wheat [i.e., until it has been weaned],” Talmud Sanhedrin, 8:70B:VII:G. In New Testament times, however, it was a term of respect. See The New Testament, The Complete Biblical Library, vol. 11. Greek English Dictionary Alpha-Gamma (Springfield, Mo.: The Complete Biblical Library, 1990), 20–21.
39Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: The Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1989), 56–57.
40Both the Scriptures (1 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 4:12) and the Messiah (John 1:1; 1 John 1:1).
41For discussion of the matter of election from Calvinistic and Arminian viewpoints, see chap. 1, pp. 49–50, and chap. 10, pp. 352, 355–60.