What is God Like?

Week 2

Building a Theological Model

A good model should:handle scripture accuratelyBe in tune with Christian heritagemake sense to the current culture

Bible Study

Heritage

Culture

In other words…

What does the Bible say?What have people said throughout

church history?What are the current issues in culture

(science, worldview, social, political, etc.) that impact the question itself.

All models must

resonate with scripture

The Triune Nature of God

ONE GOD? THREE GODS?

What is the Biblical Data?

Dynamic Monarchialism

Dynamic Monarchialism Modalism

Dynamic Monarchialism Modalism

Subordinationism

Dynamic Monarchialism Modalism

Subordinationism Orthodox Trinitarianism

F

S HS

LATIN WEST GREEK EAST

Western “Monotheism” perichoresis

The Problem of Gender Language

What is the real meaning of Father and Son?

Discussion

Can we talk about God as “the Divine Mother?” Provide biblical and rational warrants for your position.

How should we understand the term “person” in relation to the trinity? In other words, how is God a person or 3 persons?

BREAK

The Attributes of God

What Does the Bible Say?

Malachi 3:6 (NIV)6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Psalm 102:27 (NIV)27 But you remain the same, and your years will never end.James 1:17 (NIV)17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

What Does the Bible Say?

Exodus 32:9-14 (NIV)9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” 11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

Transcendence vs. Immanence

Comparing different schemes

Handout

Where Do We Begin?

Why does Guthrie say we should start with God’s Immanence? Do you agree?

(pp. 101-104)

God is Love

UniversalUnconditionalInitiatingFaithfulReconcilingSelf-givingRenewing

God’s Loving Justice

The God of Scripture is not a blind judge but one who sees very clearly the difference between people – especially the difference between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, the privileged and the defenseless…

God’s justice gives people not what the deserve but what they need.

God’s Just Love

God condemns and punishes our disobedience in order to call us back from the godless and inhuman ways we have chosen against God,

other people, and our own best interest so that we may find our own true humanity as we are reconciled to God and other people to live in

community with them.

Guthrie p. 110

Understanding the “Omnis”

The Perfection of the Greeks

Omni-potentOmni-scientOmni-presentImmutable

Discussion

Does God change? Or, is God in process?

BREAK

Predestination

God and Time

Different Views

Double Predestination – TULIP Calvinism

UniversalismPelagianismSemi-Pelagianism - ArminianismKarl Barth – Christological

Predestination

Group Discussion

Read Eph. 1:3-14 and Romans 8:28-37. Do these verses teach universalism, double predestination, or Pelagianism?