- Identify the center of biblical thought on a topic and
- Recognize that there may be "unclear" passages we need to let lie.
This is different from the current culture, which seems to accentuate difficult verses in the drive to take every verse into account. So what might a chapter on the GCD of God in Scripture look like?
God is God
The biblical authors did not need someone to tell them what a god was. A god was a being of fearsome power who never died. For Christians, God is more than any god of Greek mythology. For us, God is all-powerful. For us, God was never born and is truly eternal. The eternity of God is a unanimous report from Scripture, and while there may be verses that sound as if God does not have all power, the GCD of Scripture for a Christian is that God is omnipotent.
Again, there are verses that sound like God does not have all knowledge, but the GCD takes these as exceptional verses. Explain them how you will--progressive revelation or simply misinterpreted. But most Christians believe that God has all knowledge of both the past, present, and future.
There are a few other GCD attributes of God. God's Spirit is everywhere present in the world. God is self-sufficient--he does not need the world.
Ultimately, to say God is God is to say that God is holy. Holiness is, at its very root, God-ness. Yes, God is pure, without sin, and so forth. But these are simply other ways of saying God is love. At its root, to say God is holy is simply to say that God is God.
God is Love
The central events of Scripture are God sending Jesus to earth, Jesus dying to reconcile the world to God, and Jesus rising to be enthroned as cosmic king. John 3:16 indicates that love was God's motivation. God's primary attitude toward the world is love. He did not create the world just to give him glory, although that is its primary obligation. He also created it to be an embodiment of his glory in itself. The creation is also glorious because God created it.
God's primary desire for the creation is its redemption, reconciliation, and benefit. In the light of the NT, approaches that focus on God's justice as the ultimate value are out of focus at best. At worst, they use a desiccated version of God's love and make it a cold, perfectionistic standard. God's love provides the ultimate definition of justice--actions and attitudes that are harmful to others constitute wrongdoing that must be curbed.
God's discipline is 1) redemptive, 2) protective, and 3) abandonment, in ultimate cases. What we call justice is simply God's standard of love for the universe written large. Again, minority reports in Scripture must either be considered misinterpretations or instances of progressive revelation. Christ is the final answer as to God's ultimate nature, the ultimate embodiment of who God is.
Some thoughts on what might go into a GCD book on God in Scripture...
God is God
The biblical authors did not need someone to tell them what a god was. A god was a being of fearsome power who never died. For Christians, God is more than any god of Greek mythology. For us, God is all-powerful. For us, God was never born and is truly eternal. The eternity of God is a unanimous report from Scripture, and while there may be verses that sound as if God does not have all power, the GCD of Scripture for a Christian is that God is omnipotent.
Again, there are verses that sound like God does not have all knowledge, but the GCD takes these as exceptional verses. Explain them how you will--progressive revelation or simply misinterpreted. But most Christians believe that God has all knowledge of both the past, present, and future.
There are a few other GCD attributes of God. God's Spirit is everywhere present in the world. God is self-sufficient--he does not need the world.
Ultimately, to say God is God is to say that God is holy. Holiness is, at its very root, God-ness. Yes, God is pure, without sin, and so forth. But these are simply other ways of saying God is love. At its root, to say God is holy is simply to say that God is God.
God is Love
The central events of Scripture are God sending Jesus to earth, Jesus dying to reconcile the world to God, and Jesus rising to be enthroned as cosmic king. John 3:16 indicates that love was God's motivation. God's primary attitude toward the world is love. He did not create the world just to give him glory, although that is its primary obligation. He also created it to be an embodiment of his glory in itself. The creation is also glorious because God created it.
God's primary desire for the creation is its redemption, reconciliation, and benefit. In the light of the NT, approaches that focus on God's justice as the ultimate value are out of focus at best. At worst, they use a desiccated version of God's love and make it a cold, perfectionistic standard. God's love provides the ultimate definition of justice--actions and attitudes that are harmful to others constitute wrongdoing that must be curbed.
God's discipline is 1) redemptive, 2) protective, and 3) abandonment, in ultimate cases. What we call justice is simply God's standard of love for the universe written large. Again, minority reports in Scripture must either be considered misinterpretations or instances of progressive revelation. Christ is the final answer as to God's ultimate nature, the ultimate embodiment of who God is.
Some thoughts on what might go into a GCD book on God in Scripture...
