Christian beliefs about the nature of God

How can God be a judge who weighs every wrong, and also a father who runs to welcome home a son who wasted everything? Christians hold both pictures together, often in a single Sunday service. They call God Almighty and pray to God as Father. In the Creed they say Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. The tempting answer is that Christians must lean one way, towards a strict God or a soft one. Christians themselves turn that answer down, and by the end you will see why. It starts with the words Christians use for God's nature.

Christians believe in one God, and they use a set of words for what that God is like. Each word is called a characteristic, meaning one feature of God's nature. A good answer about any characteristic has three links: what it means, a source Christians point to, and what the belief leads Christians to do. The first word is monotheistic, which means believing in one God. One source Christians point to is the first of the Ten Commandments, in Exodus twenty, verse three: "You shall have no other gods before me." That is why Christian worship and prayer are given to God alone. Christians also believe this one God exists as three Persons, and how three can be one is the job of the video on Christian belief in the Trinity. Now a family of words about power and knowledge. Omnipotent means all-powerful, and it is built from omni, the Latin for all, and potent, meaning powerful. A second word keeps omni and swaps the ending for scientia, the Latin for knowledge. What do you think that second word, omniscient, means? It means all-knowing, because Christians believe God knows everything. A third omni word, omnibenevolent, usually shortened to benevolent, means all-loving. Back to omnipotent first. A source many Christians point to is the story of the plagues in Egypt and the crossing of the sea, told in Exodus chapters seven to fourteen. Exodus fourteen, verse twenty-one, says that "the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land." To Christians, that is power no human being could have. Because of this, Christians trust that God is able to act in their own lives. That is why they pray for help when things are hard. For omniscient, Christians point to Jesus' words in Matthew six, verse eight: "your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Nothing is hidden from God, which comforts Christians when they pray and reminds them they answer to God. Now a different kind of check, on a line copied from a classmate's revision. What has gone wrong in this note: omnipotent means God knows everything? The two omni words have been swapped. Knowing everything is omniscient. Omnipotent means all-powerful, like the sea driven back in Exodus. One examiner's report on a question about omnipotent records that very swap. It says some students wrote about omniscience, misreading the word, and those answers could not gain any credit. The fix is to learn the omni words as a set of three: all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving. Then check which one the question names before you write a word. The third word in this family is eternal. Christians believe God has no beginning and no end, because God was never made and will never stop existing. Psalm ninety, verse two, says "from everlasting to everlasting you are God." Now spot the gap in one student's answer. It says: eternal means God has no beginning or end, as Psalm ninety, verse two, puts it. Which of the three links is missing from that answer? What the belief leads Christians to do. Adding that Christians trust God's promises to last for ever, including the promise of eternal life, completes the chain.

The second family is love and justice. Benevolent means all-loving: Christians believe God loves every person and wants what is good for them. Psalm eighty-six, verse fifteen, calls God "compassionate and gracious", "slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness." It pictures a love that is patient and keeps its promises. Christians see that love most clearly in John three, verse sixteen: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son." To Christians, giving his Son is love that costs something. Romans eight adds that nothing in all creation "will be able to separate us from the love of God." Christians take this to mean God's love holds on in every situation, and they try to love others in the same costly way. Now two answers to compare, both explaining what Christians mean by benevolent. The first answer says: it means God is all-loving. The second answer says: it means God is all-loving, shown when God gave his Son in John three, verse sixteen, so Christians try to love others the same way. Which answer is stronger, the first or the second? Hold on to your reason. The second answer is stronger. Both give the meaning, but only the second adds a source and what the belief leads Christians to do. One examiner's report says answers commonly gave benevolence as loving or all-loving, and that to reach the top, students needed to extend that definition with further development. The habit that meets it is to treat all-loving as the first link only. Then add a source like John three and what the belief leads Christians to do. Beside love sits justice. Just means fair: Christians believe God rewards what is good and deals with what is wrong, without favouring anyone. That links to God as judge, because Christians believe every person will one day answer to God for how they have lived. In Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats, in Matthew twenty-five, people are judged on how they treated the hungry, the stranger and the sick. The king says, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." That is why many Christians take God's justice as a call to work for it: feeding the hungry, visiting prisoners and campaigning for fair treatment. Now picture a Christian who gives every Friday night to helping at a shelter for homeless people. Which characteristic of God could lead them there, and which source backs it? God as just and as judge, though love fits too. In Matthew twenty-five, serving the stranger and the hungry is serving Jesus himself. The last word in this family is forgiving. Christians believe God forgives anyone who is truly sorry and turns back to God, which Christians call repenting. Jesus told a parable about it in Luke fifteen. A younger son takes his share of the family money, wastes all of it, and finally heads home to beg for a job. Luke fifteen, verse twenty, says his father "ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." Christians read the father as a picture of God. Now a reason question about that story. Why does it matter to Christians that the son comes home sorry? Because Christians believe God forgives those who repent. The son turning back is the repenting, and the father's welcome stands for God's forgiveness. Now a longer task. Explain why it matters to Christians that God is forgiving, with two developed points. Have a go at this one before I show you. First point. Because God is all-loving, Christians believe God forgives anyone who truly repents, as the father forgives the son in Luke fifteen. This means a Christian who has done wrong can confess and start again, rather than live weighed down by guilt. Second point. Because they believe they have been forgiven, Christians try to forgive others. The Lord's Prayer, in Matthew six, verse twelve, links the two: "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." That shapes how Christians handle quarrels in families and communities, which completes the second developed point. One examiner's report on a question about God as forgiving notes that many students did well. The more successful answers said God forgives sin when people repent, because God is all-loving. If your answer makes that link between repenting and God's love, you are doing what the report praised. Now back to the opening puzzle. How can a fair judge also be a running father? Christians believe God takes wrong seriously enough to judge it, and loves enough to forgive anyone who turns back. For Christians, justice and forgiveness belong to one nature, so the judge and the father are the same God. Belief in a God who is all-powerful and all-loving also raises a hard question about suffering, and the video on Christian responses to the problem of evil and suffering takes that on.

The third family is about whether God is far away or close at hand. Transcendent means beyond and above the universe: Christians believe God is not limited by space or time. Isaiah fifty-five, verse nine, puts it this way: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways." That is why much Christian worship stresses God's greatness, with awe and reverence. Immanent points the other way. It means present and active in the world: Christians believe God is involved in everyday life and still at work now. Their source is Jesus' promise at the end of Matthew's Gospel, in chapter twenty-eight, verse twenty: "surely I am with you always." That is why Christians pray expecting God to hear and to help. Picture two Christians at prayer. The first kneels in silence before the greatness of a holy God. The second asks God for help with a hospital appointment tomorrow. Which prayer leans on God as immanent, the first or the second? It is the second prayer. Asking for help tomorrow expects God to be present and at work in everyday life. The first leans on God as transcendent. Close to immanent is personal. A personal God can be known and prayed to in a relationship, the way you know a friend rather than a force. Jesus taught his followers to call God Father, a word for the closest of relationships, and Christians pray to God in their own words. It can sound as if transcendent and immanent cancel each other out. Christians believe God is both at once: beyond the universe, and present within it. The Lord's Prayer, which Jesus taught, opens with four words: "Our Father in heaven." Now split those four words into two halves. Which half points to a God who is close, and which to a God beyond? "Our Father" is close and personal. "In heaven" points beyond the universe, which is transcendent. Christians pray both halves in one breath.

All Christians use these ten words, but different traditions often stress different ones. This is a difference of emphasis, and no tradition is ranked above another. Orthodox and Catholic worship often stresses God's majesty and transcendence, with ancient words, incense and a sense of awe before a holy God. Many Pentecostal and evangelical Protestants stress a personal, immanent God at work now, met in spontaneous prayer and expected to change people's lives. Many Reformed Protestants, who follow the teaching of John Calvin, stress God's sovereignty, meaning God's power and rule over everything that happens. Quakers, also called the Religious Society of Friends, speak of "that of God" in every person. Now a fresh one. Which word does that Quaker belief stress, transcendent or immanent? Immanent. Placing the divine within each human being means a God present here and now, which is why many Quakers worship in silence and treat everyone as equal. Christians also weigh their sources differently. Catholics read the Bible together with the teaching and tradition of the Church, while many Protestants hold the Bible alone as their final authority.

Now a statement to weigh: of all God's qualities, his power is the one that matters most to Christians. On one side, many Christians say power comes first. Without it, God could not create, keep promises or answer prayer, and Exodus fourteen shows that power saving God's people at the sea. Reformed Protestants in particular stress God's sovereign power over everything. On the other side, many Christians say love matters most. John three, verse sixteen, puts the giving of God's Son at the heart of the faith, and Romans eight says nothing can separate believers from God's love. Many Pentecostal and evangelical Christians stress a personal God they meet in prayer more than raw power. A third line of argument adds that a just God matters too, because Christians believe God judges fairly. Here are two possible conclusions to sort. The first says: power matters most, because God is all-powerful. The second says: power matters only as the power of a loving God, because John three shows love behind every use of that power. Which conclusion is supported, the first or the second? Only the second conclusion is supported. The first repeats the statement as its own reason, while the second gives a source and weighs power against love. A strong answer might conclude that power is not the most important characteristic on its own. For most Christians it matters as the power of a loving God, so the characteristics are held together rather than ranked. One examiner's report on a statement about omnipotence says several answers stood out for comparing belief in God's power with other Christian beliefs. That comparison is the move to copy. Weigh power against love and justice instead of writing about power alone.

Time to test yourself on the ten words, one question at a time.

First, what does omniscient mean, and which word does it get mixed up with? It means God knows everything, and it gets mixed up with omnipotent, which means all-powerful.

Now, which source do Christians use for God's love, and what does it show? John three, verse sixteen, where God gives his one and only Son. Christians see a love that gives something costly.

Now a line you have not heard in this video. An old hymn sung in many churches calls God "immortal, invisible, God only wise." Which two characteristics do "immortal" and "only wise" point to? Immortal points to eternal, with no end. Only wise points to omniscient, which means all-knowing.

Now the final question. How can Christians call God both transcendent and immanent? They believe God is beyond the universe and also present within it, the way the Lord's Prayer holds "Our Father" and "in heaven" together.

Back to that Sunday service. Almighty names an omnipotent God, Father names a personal and benevolent one, and the judge of the living and the dead is a just God. The father running down the road is the forgiving God of Luke fifteen. Christians worship all of these as one God.

If you can now give any of these words a meaning, a source and what it leads to, give the video a thumbs up, so you know there is no need to see this twice. If one or two still wobble, leave it unmarked and come back to it later in the week, and save it if it has not landed yet.

Next in the chapter is Christian belief in the Trinity. Hopefully that's next in your feed, but if not, search for ScholaFly R, S, oh one, oh two.

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