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Let's Talk About the Attributes of God
Let's discuss God's attributes. Can you name some of them (limiting to one per post) and describe them individually in relation to God?
Lord Bless,
LT
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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I'm sure the error is with me. I think what I do is, when I read verses like Exodus 20:5 "for I the LORD your God am a jealous God" that state God saying something that God is, or other people stating something that God is, like Ephesians 2:14 "For He Himself is our peace" then I see that something as an attribute. Really, the bible is very descriptive of God. I understand jealousy and anger and other emotions on the human level, which often lead into sin, but God's anger and jealousy are never sinful. That jealousy or anger can be godly is hard to imagine but still true. I can only know God as God makes Himself known to me. Others will say, well, OK, but God has made Himself known to you through creation, scriptures, and Jesus. Still, I need enlightenment about all of it, and God is light, which I always thought was another attribute. Light. I am still in a lot of darkness :'(
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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I can only know God as God makes Himself known to me.
Absolutely true, especially when we are talking about knowing God and not just knowing about Him.
Others will say, well, OK, but God has made Himself known to you through creation, scriptures, and Jesus.
These are true, yet are only snap shots of the true and whole nature of God. The true and whole nature of God are beyond our ability to comprehend. We can only describe using terms we know and things we understand. Thus, to describe God, to truly describe Him, is beyond our ability. Our best attempts are pitiful at best, even when well meaning.
I need enlightenment about all of it,
We all do, and will as long as this life exists. What we will fully be and fully now is yet still a mystery to us, though we again have some snap shot examples, but the whole of our eternal existence is beyond our ability to comprehend.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Taken from:
The Knowledge of the Holy - By A.W. Tozer
First part of Chapter 15, The Faithfulness of God
As emphasized earlier, God’s attributes are not isolated traits of His character but facets of His unitary being. They are not things-in-themselves; they are, rather, thoughts by which we think of God aspects of a perfect whole, names given to whatever we know to be true of the Godhead.
To have a correct understanding of the attributes it is necessary that we see them all as one. We can think of them separately but they cannot be separated. "All attributes assigned to God cannot differ in reality, by reason of the perfect simplicity of God, although we in divers ways use of God divers words," says Nicholas of Cusa. "Whence, although we attribute to God sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, sense, reason and intellect, and so forth, according to the divers significations of each word, yet in Him sight is not other than hearing, or tasting, or smelling, or touching, or feeling, or understanding. And so all theology is said to be stablished in a circle, because any one of His attributes is affirmed of another."
In studying any attribute, the essential oneness of all the attributes soon becomes apparent. We see, for instance, that if God is self-existent He must be also self-sufficient; and if He has power He, being infinite, must have all power. If He possesses knowledge, His infinitude assures us that He possesses all knowledge. Similarly, His immutability presuppose His faithfulness. If He is unchanging, it follows that He could not be unfaithful, since that would require Him to change.
Any failure within the divine character would argue imperfection and, since God is perfect, it could not occur. Thus the attributes explain each other and prove that they are but glimpes the mind enjoys of the absolutely perfect Godhead.
All of God’s acts are consistent with all of His attributes. No attribute contradicts the other, but all harmonize and blend into each other in the infinite abyss of the Godhead. All that God does agrees with all that God is and being and doing are one in Him.
The familiar picture of God as often torn between His justice and His mercy is altogether false to the facts. To think of God as inclining first toward one and then toward another of His attributes is to imagine a God who is unsure of Himself, frustrated and emotionally unstable, which of course is to say that the one of whom we are thinking is not the true God at all but a weak, mental reflection of Him badly out of focus.God being who He is, cannot cease to be what He is, and being what He is, He cannot act out of character with Himself. He is at once faithful and immutable, so all His words and acts must be and remain faithful. Men become unfaithful out of desire, fear, weakness, loss of interest, or because of some strong influence from without. Obviously none of these forces can affect God in any way. He is His own reason for all He is and does. He cannot be compelled from without, but ever speaks and acts from within Himself by His own sovereign will as it pleases Him.
I think it might be demonstrated that almost every heresy that has afflicted the church through the years has arisen from believing about God things that are not true, or from overemphasizing certain true things so as to obscure other things equally true. To magnify any attribute to the exclusion of another is to head straight for one of the dismal swamps of theology; and yet we are all constantly tempted to do just that.
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I guess God wants us to know Him but only to a certain extent and perhaps that's for own good as well as it is for own good to know Him at least just enough to be able to worship Him in truth. As this article states:
"To say that it is important for us to try to understand what God is like is a huge understatement. Failure to do so can cause us to set up, chase after, and worship false gods contrary to His will (Exodus 20:3-5)."
Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/attributes-God.html#ixzz2tMIfgEPn
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I think it is as well said, or better stated, that even if God wanted us to know Him fully that the finite cannot and will not every fully know or understand the infinite one. He is beyond our comprehension, especially now as we live on the earth and in this flesh.
1Co_13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
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My limited human intellect can't even fully comprehend all things that are human -- like Real Analysis Measure Theory. Some teach that the more we want to know God, the more God will broaden our minds to know Him better. Then, there's that "go to" verse that I've gotten really frustrated with hearing -- with God all things are possible. All things concerning what? The context of the verse is salvation but the principle appears universal, or is applied universally, anyway. Jesus said if you've seen Him, you've seen the Father. Also, Job's friends gave counsel that discouraged Job from wanting to know more about God (e.g., Job 36:26; Job 11:7. Job 37:23). Many say we can have the same relationship with the Father as Jesus had when Jesus was on earth in human form. It was a spiritual union. Many say after Jesus died, believers are able to have relationships with God now that are very deep. I really don't know anymore. Does God desire us to encourage each other to know God better, or to discourage it?
Certainly, our understanding is darkened. Just as certainly, God has revealed Himself more deeply to some than to others. It seems to be all about God's good pleasure -- whatever God wants. So, we definitely won't ever know more than what God wills for us to know.
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There must be a hunger to know God to the fullest (within our limited ability in the flesh). Though we will never fully know Him as in knowing all there is to know about Him we must still aspire to know more as He enables and enlightens us. It is a journey and we will be given more light, again as He deems appropriate for each of us.
Regarding the "go to verse." The most common error is in the simple reading of the verse. It states that "with God all things are possible." The word "with" here is not to be understood that if we are with God then all things are possible (though an argument could be made in that direction for another reason and not based on this verse) to us and all we have to do is believe and it will happen for us. The word "with" intimates that all things are possible for God. As you stated the verse is directed at salvation and in context according to the earlier verse that it is impossible for man to be saved, if not but for God. Man will always be limited and constrained for we are the created. We have liberty, but our liberty goes but only so far.
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It's taught that Jesus broke down the barriers between God and man. I suppose those barriers just mean the separation of sin and being able to enter into God's presence again. It's confusing for me to hear the conflicting arguments that we need to know God and think rightly about God so that we won't be worshipping a false god, but we can't really know God anyway. I'm frustrated with it, and have decided to stop talking about it now. As I said in one of my discussions, I hear the verse a lot that we walk by faith, not by sight, and the verse to trust in Him and not lean on one's own understanding, and the verse about seeing in a mirror dimly, and the verse about His thoughts not being our thoughts, and I know we can't understand everything, but it often feels like I'm pushed to not seek to understand God much at all but other verses say God reveals His truth and gives understanding and wisdom and makes Himself known to us and wants us to know Him and His ways. In fact, God became very angry with Israel because they didn't want to know Him or His ways. I see what you're saying about God giving more light as deemed appropriate by Him, but God still gives light even when it's rejected. So why withhold it? The reason can't be because people can't or won't walk in it because that has already happened many times and God still continued giving them more light. Perhaps it's because of the few who did walk in it and now no one walks in it. So why give it? I don't know.
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You can know Him, but will not know Him completely. The created thing cannot fully know the depth and breadth of the Creator.
He does reveal truth and reveals Himself, just we cannot comprehend all of the truth or all of Him even if He revealed it all.
What you see as withholding is not Him withholding, but Him giving us what we need and can handle.
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Do you mean we can't fully know in this life, before we are glorified?
1Co_13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
In the new heaven and earth, we will still be the created thing. Yet, isn't Paul saying that then we will know fully?
Why isn't it taught that fully knowing Him is the goal -- Jesus is the goal -- and that we must aspire for it even now? When I read 1 Cor 13 that's what I see. I see Paul as looking forward to fully knowing God, and, for sure, Paul's relationship with God went very deep even in this life. Yes, Paul knew more was waiting up ahead but the fact that it would come to him later never dissuaded him from wanting and seeking to know Him in this life, almost as if it is a process that is increasing and God wants us to increase in knowledge of Him. But I don't know. Thanks for the dialogue.
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I have stated that we are to aspire to know Him to the max in our current situation (earthly life), recognizing that our max is not a complete knowledge of God. Whether we will know all there is to know about God when we translate from here to there I do not know, but doubt that we will ever fully perceive God.
The question that would have to be answered, that I am not capable of answering, is what is meant by fully. Is it to know Him fully in the context of relationship unhindered by the tainted flesh or is it a knowledge of God that exposes to us all that He is. I doubt that it can be the second because the depth and breadth of God cannot be measured, but that is an opinion.
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It doesn't seem to be a metaphor -- "then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." If taken literally, Paul says he will know fully, even as he has been fully known. The question is, what will he know as well as he has been known? The chapter is about love. If it's just a simile, then he will know in a similar way, but not exactly.
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