THE NATURE OF GOD
Most Christian theologians dogmatically accept the Atheist description of God that is given in those old, dusty philosophy books on your shelf: God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. While that is a fair description of the Hindu Brahman, it is not for the Christian God. I will present here my heretical disagreement.
Omnipotent, all powerful, unlimited power.
Why did God create man? Revelations 4:11, ". . .Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." And God asks from man, Hosea 6:6, "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."
Mercy, Strong's Hebrew number 2617, can mean piety, favor, loving-kindness. My pastor translates it "love". It comes from a root (Strong's Hebrew 2616) that means "to bow (the neck only) in courtesy to an equal." So God wants man to love Him as He loves (takes pleasure in) man.
If God could make a creature that loves Him, why go to the trouble to make man, give him Free Will, and wait for him to love? The obvious answer, as my pastor says, is that God can't compel true love.
If God can't compel true love, then He is not, by definition, omnipotent.
A second point to this. God has promised, for example, not to send another Great Flood. This is a limitation on God's power, although self-imposed. Still, with that unbreakable promise, He made Himself non-omnipotent.
Omnipresent, present everywhere at all times.
If you reject God, He will reject you, even to the point of not being with you.
Jeremiah 23:38-40, "But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD; {23:39} Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, [and cast you] out of My presence: {23:40} And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
Proverbs 1:28, "Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me. . ."
If God has cast you out of his presence, and is where you cannot find Him, He is not with you. But if He is not with you, He can not be omnipresent.
It is true He will hear you if you truly repent and call upon Him, but being in hearing distance is not the same as being with or near.
Omniscient, all-knowing at all times.
God is often called the heart-knower. Strong's Hebrew 3820, heart can mean, and usually should be translated, "mind". God is the mind-knower. He can read your thoughts.
However, He can not pre-read your thoughts, can not pre-determine your actions before you've thought to do them. For man to come to God of his Free Will, his actions cannot be pre-determined. Were God to already know the outcome of all men's lives, it would make a farce and mockery of the entire Bible; it would all be for no purpose.
So God can manipulate events by controlling certain individuals (the elect), but He can not know precisely ahead-of-time just how the non-elect will re-act, although He, having created them, understands their ways and therefore reasonably can assume a general outcome, just not specifics.
If he cannot pre-determine everything, God is not Omniscient.
The Christian God is not the Atheist Philosopher's God and should not be portrayed as such.
Most Christian theologians dogmatically accept the Atheist description of God that is given in those old, dusty philosophy books on your shelf: God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. While that is a fair description of the Hindu Brahman, it is not for the Christian God. I will present here my heretical disagreement.
Omnipotent, all powerful, unlimited power.
Why did God create man? Revelations 4:11, ". . .Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." And God asks from man, Hosea 6:6, "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."
Mercy, Strong's Hebrew number 2617, can mean piety, favor, loving-kindness. My pastor translates it "love". It comes from a root (Strong's Hebrew 2616) that means "to bow (the neck only) in courtesy to an equal." So God wants man to love Him as He loves (takes pleasure in) man.
If God could make a creature that loves Him, why go to the trouble to make man, give him Free Will, and wait for him to love? The obvious answer, as my pastor says, is that God can't compel true love.
If God can't compel true love, then He is not, by definition, omnipotent.
A second point to this. God has promised, for example, not to send another Great Flood. This is a limitation on God's power, although self-imposed. Still, with that unbreakable promise, He made Himself non-omnipotent.
Omnipresent, present everywhere at all times.
If you reject God, He will reject you, even to the point of not being with you.
Jeremiah 23:38-40, "But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD; {23:39} Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, [and cast you] out of My presence: {23:40} And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
Proverbs 1:28, "Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me. . ."
If God has cast you out of his presence, and is where you cannot find Him, He is not with you. But if He is not with you, He can not be omnipresent.
It is true He will hear you if you truly repent and call upon Him, but being in hearing distance is not the same as being with or near.
Omniscient, all-knowing at all times.
God is often called the heart-knower. Strong's Hebrew 3820, heart can mean, and usually should be translated, "mind". God is the mind-knower. He can read your thoughts.
However, He can not pre-read your thoughts, can not pre-determine your actions before you've thought to do them. For man to come to God of his Free Will, his actions cannot be pre-determined. Were God to already know the outcome of all men's lives, it would make a farce and mockery of the entire Bible; it would all be for no purpose.
So God can manipulate events by controlling certain individuals (the elect), but He can not know precisely ahead-of-time just how the non-elect will re-act, although He, having created them, understands their ways and therefore reasonably can assume a general outcome, just not specifics.
If he cannot pre-determine everything, God is not Omniscient.
The Christian God is not the Atheist Philosopher's God and should not be portrayed as such.