The Doctrine of God

Peter Martyr Vermigli (Definition of Miracle)

"A miracle is a difficult and unusual work of divine power, surpassing every capacity of created nature, made public in order to fill those who perceive it with wonder, and to confirm faith in the words of God. Therefore, the mater of miracles is works; the form is their being difficult and unusual; the efficient cause the power God, which surpasses created nature; and their end is both admiration and confirmation of faith"

The Inexcusability of Rejecting Revelation

"For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

Miracle According to Westminster Confession

"God, in ordinary providence making use of means, yet is free to work without, above, 618or against them at pleasure."

What is our "telos"?

"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." ― Westminster Shorter Catechism

Example of Arianism

"Sun/Heat"

Divine Preservation According to Louis Berkhoff

"The doctrine of preservation proceeds on the assumption that all created substances, whether they be spiritual or material, possess real and permanent existence, distinct from the existence of God, and have only such active and passive properties as they have derived from God; and that their active powers have a real, and not merely an apparent, efficiency as second causes, so that they are able to produce the effects proper to them. Thus it guards against Pantheism, with its idea of a continued creation, which virtually, if not always expressly, denies the distinct existence of the world, and makes God the sole agent in the universe. But it does not regard these created substances as self-existent, since self-existence is the exclusive property of God, and all creatures have the ground of their continued existence in Him and not in themselves. From this it follows that they continue to exist, not in virtue of a merely negative act of God, but in virtue of a positive and continued exercise of divine power. The power of God put forth in upholding all things is just as positive as that exercised in creation. The precise nature of His work in sustaining all things in being and action is a mystery, though it may be said that, in His providential operations, He accommodates Himself to the nature of His creatures."

Example of Partialism

"Three Leaf Clover"

Example of Modalism

"Water, Steam, Ice"

How does Bavink say Humankind can Know God?

"We do not see God as he is in himself. We behold him in his works. We name him according to the manner in which he has revealed himself in his works. To see God face to face is for us impossible, at least here on earth. If nevertheless, God wills that we should know him, he must needs descend to the level of the creature. He must needs accommodate himself to our limited, finite, human consciousness. He must speak to us in human language." Although this language about God is limited and finite, it is real and true. "To say that our knowledge of God is inadequate, finite, limited, and nevertheless, to maintain that it is real, pure, sufficient is not at all illogical or contradictory."

The Adequacy of Revelation

"[God's] essence, indeed, is incomprehensible, utterly transcending all human thought; but on each of his works his glory is engraven in characters so bright, so distinct, and so illustrious, that none, however dull and illiterate, can plead ignorance as their excuse" (Institutes1.5.1). John Calvin

Miracle According to A.A. Hodge

"an event, in the external world, brought about by the immediate efficiency, or simple volition of God."

Miracle According to Louis Berkhof

"the distinctive thing in the miraculous deed is that it results from the exercise of the supernatural power of God. And this means, of course, that it is not brought about by secondary causes that operate according to the laws of nature.

finitum non capax infinitum.

"the finite cannot grasp the infinite" The finite is limited to the realm of the 'phenomenal' realm of the senses and our knowledge comes only by what we can hear, see, smell, taste, and touch.

Dabney on Providence

"the unceasing activity of the Creator whereby, in overflowing bounty and goodwill, He upholds His creatures in ordered existence, guides and governs all events, circumstances, and free acts of angels and men, and directs everything to its appointed goal, for His own glory."

Francis Junius

(1545-1602) was an influential pastor and professor during the developmental years of Reformed orthodoxy. He was the first to articulate a distinction between archetypal and ectypal theology. It is an analogical distinction that Junius lays out in several of his theses. Archetypal theology is divine wisdom about divine matters. It is God's knowledge about himself. The capacity to know God to an infinite degree is only achieved by God. Such an epistemological capacity and knowledge is uncreated and essential to the Trinity. Archetypal theology, meaning archetypal knowledge about God, is thus an incommunicable attribute. Alternatively, ectypal theology is fashioned from the archetype but is communicated "proportionally to the creatures' capacity" (104). It is true theology and true revelation but is finite and formed for humanity to receive. Perhaps the most accessible line of explanation by Junius is, "divine truth exists in two modalities--infinitely, by virtue of its being essential in God, and finitely, by virtue of the fact that God has communicated it with creatures" (185).

Some scriptures that Affirm Election to Salvation

(Acts 13:48; Eph.1:4; 1Thes. 1:4-5; 2Thes. 2:13-14; 2Tim. 1:9; 1Pet. 1:1-2). In 1 Corinthians 1

Census Divinitatis - Semen Religionis

(Calvin's sense of the divine - seed of religion. He maintains that God implanted all humans with a sense of the divine and never allows the seed of religion to be eradicated. People cannot open their eyes without seeing God. No place in the universe does not show forth something of God's glory.

Providence of God

(Lat. providentia). Providence concerns God's support, care, and supervision of all creation, from the moment of the first creation to all the future into eternity. Jesus Christ said, "My Father is working still, and I am working" (John 5:17). Providence is God's activity through His unlimited power and knowledge to fulfill His purpose for the whole creation, including man. "God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness and mercy" (Westminster Confession of Faith. V. i).

Erroneous Conceptions of Divine Preservation

(a) That it is purely negative. According to Deism divine preservation consists in this, that God does not destroy the work of His hands. By virtue of creation God endowed matter with certain properties, placed it under invariable laws, and then left it to shift for itself, independently of all support or direction from without. (b) That it is a continuous creation. Pantheism represents preservation as a continuous creation, so that the creatures or second causes are conceived as having no real or continuous existence, but as emanating in every successive moment out of that mysterious Absolute which is the hidden ground of all things.

Apophatic Theology

(also known as negative theology) is an attempt to describe God by what cannot be said of Him. Many of the terms used to describe God's attributes have within them an apophatic quality. For example, when we say God is infinite, we also say that God is not finite (i.e., not limited). Another example would be describing God as a spirit being, which is another way of saying that God is not a physical being.

El-The Mighty One

(used also "generically" of other gods).

Shaddai, or El Shaddai- The All-Sufficient One

- The All-Sufficient One

Some Verses in Support of the Deity of Christ

1 John 5:20-21 Revelation 1:8 and 1:17 Revelation 21:6 Revelation 22:13

Scripture Indicating Christ to be an Object of Worship and Prayer

1. (John 1:1-18, Heb. 1:3f, Col. 1:15-20, Phil. 2:5-11, 2Tim. 2:11-13). (2Pet. 3:18, Rev. 1:5b-6, Rom. 9:5, 2Tim. 4:18).18 2. Prayer is also offered to Christ. Stephen calls out to the Lord Jesus as he is being stoned to death (Acts 7:59-60), his cry parallels Jesus' own words (Luke 23:46). 2. Paul prays to the risen Christ that his thorn in the flesh be removed (2Cor. 12:8-9). 3. He refers to a common cry "Maranatha" (1Cor. 16:22, cf., Rev. 22:20; see also 1Thess. 3:11-12, Acts 9:14, 21, 22:16). 4. Salvation consists in confessing Jesus Christ as kurios (Rom. 10:9-13, 1Cor. 12:1-3, Phil. 2:9-11).

The Proper Way to do Theology

1. Acknowledge mystery 2. Come to the knowledge of God via analogy 3. Do it on your knees 4. Be aware that the study of theology proper must always lead to doxology (praise)

What does Bavink mean by our Theology is Ectypal or Anlogical?

1. All our knowledge is out of and through God, and rests upon his revelation, i.e., on objective reason. 2. In order to impart knowledge concerning himself to his creatures, God must accommodate himself to their consciousness. 3. The possibility of this "condescension" cannot be denied as it is implied in the very fact of creation and in the existence of any finite being. 4. For this very reason, our knowledge concerning God must remain analogical in character, having for its object not God himself according to his unknowable essence, but God in his revelation to us, in the "the relations which his nature sustains to us," in his disposition toward his creatures, that this knowledge is, accordingly, merely a vague image or likeness of that perfect knowledge which God has of himself. 5. Notwithstanding, all that has been said, our knowledge concerning God is real, pure, and dependable, because God's self-consciousness is its archetype, and his self-revelation in the cosmos its foundation.

The Way of Remotion

1. Asks, don't our intellects often make mistakes? 2. 2. Does God make mistakes? 3. Isn't there pain, suffering, and evil in the world? 4. Does God suffer pain? Is God evil? 5. Isn't creation constrained by time and space? 6. Does God exist in time and space? 7. How can a spiritual First Cause create a material being? 8. How can that which lacks matter cause matter to exist? 9. The answer to these questions is to remove from God any negation, imperfection, limitation, non-being, or evil found in the creature. 10. While God is needed to cause perfection, 11. lack of perfection need not be attributed to God. 12. Thus, being, goodness, and intelligence are of God, 13. while finitude, evil, and mistakes are not. 14. Creatures are constrained by time and space; God is not.

Four Functions of Suffering in the Lives of God's People with Scripture

1. Chasteing Proverbs 3:52; Psalm 119:67-71 2. Character Building Psalm 73:13-20 3. Mark of Union with Christ Philippians 1 4. God's Vindication of Himself

Synoptic Gospel Testimony to the Deity of Christ

1. Claims to Judge Mankind: the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 13, Matthew 16:2,7 Matthew 24 and 25 2. Claims Ability to Forgive Sins: Luke 7 3. Claims to Bestow Eternal Life: Rich Young Ruler and Beatitudes 4. Claims to be in the Presence of God: Matthew 12 5. Claims Human's Eternal Destiny Depends on their Response to Him: Matthew 7 6. Equates Actions Toward Him with Actions Toward God 7. Taught the Truth on His own Authority: Matthew 24:35 8. performed miracles on His own authority. 9. Receives Obeisance 10. Assumes that His Life is a Pattern for Ours. 11. Applies Old Testament Descriptions of God to Himself Psalm 8, Isaiah 40 12. Puts Himself Repeatedly in His Parables as the Divine Figure

Ferguson's Definition of Miracle

1. Divine Power 2. Takes Place in the External World 3. Ordinarily Performed through Human Mediation 4. In which God Accomplishes the Following: a) He demonstrates his lordship over all things by the manner in which he operates in one thing. b) He demonstrates the greatness of his mercy and compassion to the needy. c) He defends, establishes, and advances his kingdom against the powers of darkness. d) He confirms and authenticates the divinely ordained authority of his messengers. e) He provides a proleptic image of his final kingdom and the consummate eschatological renewal by the return of the lord Jesus Christ.

What does Reformed theology affirm about humankind's ability to know God?

1. God infinitely surpasses mankind's understanding and imagination. 2. There is tension between mankind's view of God as personal and absolute. 3. Humankind is limited to sense perception. 4. God is beyond man's full comprehension. 5. Humankind does have the knowledge of God. 6. Humankind's knowledge of God is analogical, arising from the gift of revelation and from the ways in which he works and relates to his creatures.

Divine Simplicity, Essence , and Attributes

1. God is "simple." 2. He is not made up of parts. 3. He is One. 4. He is identical with each of his attributes. 5. His attributes are his essence. 6. God is pure being and absolute reality 7. Human attempts to separate God's being from God's attributes lead to heresy. 8. God does not 'have' his attributes. God 'is' his attributes. (God is love, infinity, power, majesty, etc.)

The Names of God

1. God's names refer to the appellations, titles, and metaphors by which God reveals himself in his relationship to people. 2. God's names appear as the LORD discloses himself to Israel; this revelation culminates in the gospel that is for all people as God's name unfolds to include Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 3. Scriptural names of God are always concrete. We never highlight one attribute of God over another. 4. The names of God designate and praise his excellencies. 5. Most heresies arise because men give greater weight to one name of God over another. 6. Christianity avoids one-sidedness by naming God's aseity as the primary attribute of YHWH and knows that all speaking of God must begin with the revelation of God, not with the speculation of the creature.

Two Key Facts About the Providence of God

1. God's providence is universal. 2. God's providence is moral.

Divine Transcendence

1. God's transcendence is seen in that he is exalted in his royal dignity and exercises both control and authority in his creation. 2. Divine transcendence does not mean that he is so far from and other than his creation that we are not able to understand his self-revelation in the Scripture or relate to him in any way. 3. God's control and authority are such that he is present, immanent in all of his creation. 4. God's immanence is not some opposite to God's transcendence, some paradoxical negation of transcendence. 5. Rather it is a necessary implication of his transcendence. 6. God's transcendence refers to his lordship over the world, but lordship does not confine God to a sphere beyond our knowledge. 7. Indeed, it often refers to the way he rules the world of our history and experience. 8. He controls the events of nature and history, including the course of our salvation from sin. 9. And he expresses his authority by proclaiming to us his commands.

Deity of Christ

1. In addition to the messianic prophecies in Isaiah, we have a number of messianic Psalms (i.e., 8, 89, 110), in which the Father speaks of the Son as highly exalted and equal in majesty and glory. 2. We also have a passage such as Proverbs 8:22-31, which depicts "wisdom" personified (when seen through the lens of New Testament fulfillment, this is clearly a reference to the eternal Son, who is wisdom from God), 3. and Micah 5:2, where the prophet speaks of the one to be born in Bethlehem (Jesus) as eternal. The coming Messiah is repeatedly identified as the almighty God and eternal father, the wisdom of God, righteous, highly exalted, yet to be born of a lowly virgin. These prophetic verses can only be speaking of one person: Israel's coming Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who is the God of Abraham (cf. John 8:58). 4. In the New Testament, Jesus is said to be eternal and preexistent. In John 1:1 we read, "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Jesus is described by both John and Paul as the creator and sustainer of all things. "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3) and 5. in Colossians 1:16-17, Paul says of Jesus, "by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." 6. Jesus is identified as "God" throughout the pages of the New Testament. In John 20:28, Thomas falls before Jesus and confesses of Jesus, "My Lord and my God!" In Titus 2:13, 7. Paul speaks of Jesus' second coming as "the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." The author of Hebrews writes of Jesus, "but of the Son he says, `Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom'" (Hebrews 1:8). 8. Then there are those attributes predicated of Jesus which can only apply to God. Jesus is the object of worship (Matthew 28:16-17), he has the power to raise the dead (John 5:21; 11:25), and he is the final judge of humanity (Matthew 25:31-32). Jesus has universal power and authority (Matthew 28:18), as well as the power to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-7). He not only identifies himself as God (John 14:8-9), but calls himself the Alpha and Omega, "the first and the last" - a divine self-designation (Revelation 22:13). Throughout the Bible Jesus is revealed to us as the true and eternal God, the almighty, the second person of the Godhead, the creator of all things, and that one whom we must worship and serve. In fact, whatever we can say of God, we can say of Jesus.

Scriptures in which Jesus Equates and Identifies Himself or is Equated and Identified with God

1. Jesus asserts his equality and identity with God in the face of blasphemy charges by the Jewish leaders. He is charged with making himself equal with God (John 5:16-47) and later for identifying himself with God (John 10:25-39). His accusers threaten the penalty for blasphemy. In both cases, Jesus denies the charge on the grounds that he is speaking the truth, citing in support the plurality of witnesses required by Jewish law. 2. In John 14:1 Jesus co-ordinates himself with God as the object of faith - "Believe in God; believe also in me." 3. Similarly, like frames around a picture, John refers to him as "God" in John 1:18 at the start of his Gospel and has Thomas confessing him as "my Lord and my God" in John 20:28 at the end. 4. Paul's characteristic name for Jesus Christ is "Lord" (kurios), the Greek word commonly used for YHWH (יהוה), the covenant name of God in the Old Testament. By this pervasive use Paul shows he regards Jesus as having the status of God, without abridgement. 5. In Romans 9:5 it is likely that Paul expressly designates Jesus Christ as theos (God). Witherington writes of John that he "is willing to predicate of Jesus what he predicates of the Lord God, because he sees them as on the same level."9 6. The author of Hebrews, too, in his argument for Christ's supremacy, cites Psalm 45 to support the incarnate Son as possessing the status of God (Heb. 1:8-9). The Son is the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of his being. All angels are to worship him (Heb. 1:1-14). 7. Furthermore, Jesus' resurrection discloses that he is Lord, the deity of Christ becoming "the supreme truth of the Gospel ... the central point of reference consistent with the whole sequence of events leading up to and beyond the crucifixion." 8. At the center of the New Testament message is the unbroken relation between the Son and the Father.13

Scriptures that Attribute to Jesus Christ Works God Alone can Do

1. John declares that Jesus Christ is the eternal Word who made all things, who is with God and who is God (John 1:1-18). Not one thing came into existence apart from that Word. The Word who is "in the beginning" is "with God," directed toward God and is God. This entails pre-existence. He is the only-begotten God (v.18). 2. Paul echoes this (Col. 1:15-20). Hebrews 1:1-4 says the same, for the Son made the world and directs it towards his intended goal. 3. In 1 Corinthians 8:6, Paul couples God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in their respective work in creation. 4. This throws light on incidents in the Gospels (Matt. 14:22-36, cf. Psa. 77:19, Job 9:8, Job 26:11-14, Psa. 89:9, 107:23-30) where Jesus displays the functions of deity, in sovereign charge of the elements. While presented as signs of the kingdom of God they point to his lordship over the world as its king. 5. In John 5:22-30 Jesus describes himself as the judge of the world; this can only be God. 6. In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus as the Son of man will judge the nations with righteousness (cf. Mark 8:38, Dan. 7:14). 7. Paul is emphatic (1Thess. 3:13, 5:23, 2Thess. 1:7-10); we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2Cor. 5:10). 8. The Old Testament stresses that deliverance could only come from Yahweh, not man (Psa. 146:3-6).14 9. The name Jesus, required by the angel, means "savior." He was to save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). 10. His healings demonstrate him to be the lord of life. Beyond that, he delivers from sin and death. Since salvation is a work of God, Paul's persistent description of Jesus as savior is an implicit attribution of deity (Titus 2:11-13, 1:4, 3:6, Phil. 3:20, 2Tim. 1:10; 2 Pet. 1:11).

God's Righteousness

1. Maintains himself against every violation 2. Shows he is, in every respect, holy

The Way of Causality (cataphatic)

1. Says, any perfection we find in a creature must preexist in God. 2. If a creature lives is intelligent, displays goodness, and is a person, 3. then God must be alive, intelligent, good, and a person.

Provide Biblical support for deity and personhood of Holy Spirit

1. The Bible describes the Holy Spirit as a person who has been present with the Father and the Son since before time began. 2. The Spirit is integral to all of the things that God is described as doing in the Bible. 3. The Spirit of God was present at and involved in creation (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 33:6). 4. The Holy Spirit moved the prophets of God with the words of God (2 Peter 1:21). 5. The bodies of those in Christ are described as temples of God because the Holy Spirit is in us (1 Corinthians 6:19). 6. Jesus was clear that to be "born again," to become a Christian, one must be born "of the Spirit" (John 3:5). 7. One of the most convincing statements in the Bible about the Holy Spirit being God is found in Acts 5. When Ananias lied about the price of a piece of property, Peter said that Satan had filled Ananias's heart to "lie to the Holy Spirit" (Acts 5:3) and concluded by saying that Ananias had "lied to God" (verse 4). Peter reveals that the Holy Spirit is God. Lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God. 8. Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit, the Helper, was different from Himself. The Father would send the Helper, the Spirit of truth after Christ departed. The Spirit would speak through the disciples about Jesus (John 14:25-26; 15:26-27; 16:7-15). All three Persons Jesus mentions—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are God while being distinct from each other within the Trinity. 9. The three members of the Trinity show up, together yet distinct, at Jesus' baptism. As Jesus comes up from the water, the Spirit descends on Him like a dove while the voice of the Father is heard from heaven saying that He is pleased with His beloved Son (Mark 1:10-11). 10. Finally, the Bible describes the Holy Spirit as a person, not a mere force. He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). He has a will (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). He uses His mind to search the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). And He has fellowship with believers (2 Corinthians 13:14). Clearly, the Spirit is a person, just as the Father and the Son are persons.

Naming God: Accommodation and Anthropomorphism

1. The creature does not name God. 2. God names himself. 3. God accommodates us by using human words and taking human form. 4. Scripture accommodates to our human language and condition. 5. Stooping to our weakness, Scripture speaks anthropomorphically of God as possessing human faculties, body parts, emotions, sensations, and actions. 6. While our knowledge of God is ectypal and derived from Scripture, God's knowledge of himself is underived and archetypal. 7. Though our knowledge is incomplete, it is true and sufficient. 8. All our knowledge of God is from and through God, grounded in his revelation. 9. God accommodates himself to his creature's powers of comprehension. 10. We know God analogically. God knows himself perfectly. Though incomplete we may know God's revelation to us is true. 11. As Calvin writes, "God is wont in measure to lisp to us..."

In What Way do the Angels Provide a Better Story than the Prodigal Son?

1. The family branch of the sons who have sinned and are restored admires the family branch of angels that God has created. 2. The family branch of the angels learns by observation of the family branch of sons what it means to have been in the far country. 3. The two family branches have been separated but will be brought together in the new heavens and the new earth. 4. Then (at the eschaton) Christ will be worshipped and glorified by the whole family of angels and redeemed sinners This is the fullest vision of the future.

Four Truths about the Nature of General Revelation

1. The perspicuity of revelation 2. The adequacy of revelation 3. The universality of revelation 4. The inexcusability of rejecting revelation

Calvin on Miracles

1. They are divinely ordained seals of the gospel and true doctrine (ICR, "Prefatory Letter sec. 3). 2. They facilitate the knowledge of God by testifying to those who mediated the Word of God 3. In the ministry of Moses, God used miracles to commend his servant as an "undoubted prophet" through whom he established the divine law (ICR 1.8.5, 4.12.20). 4. As the incarnate Word of God, Christ bore a self-referential testimony of his divinity through miracles (ICR J.l3.13); 5. In Christ and his resurrection, the purpose of miracles found their fulfillment. 6. The miraculous activity of the apostles was a "temporal gift," which confirmed their role in establishing the church and affirmed the teachings of Christ (ICR 4.19.19). 7. Calvin believed that the miraculous still occurred in his day but not in the same form as found with the apostles.

The Problem With Atheism

1. Though the knowledge of God in revelation cannot be fully comprehended, it is known through revelation. 2. Therefore, there can be no atheists. 3. Rather, there is only an argument about God's nature. 4. Belief in God is spontaneous, universal, and a normal human attribute. 5. Unbelief requires resistance to natural human impulse and the revelation of God present in all of creation. In Summary: The world is never without God. In this sense, mankind is immersed and marinated in the revelation of God, making true atheism essentially impossible.

Characteristics of Angels

1. Two categories 2. Vast numbers 3. Variety of orders serving different functions 4. Appear to be ranked 5. Belong to the elect community of Jesus Christ. 6. Recognize that the Son of God is their Lord, Creator, Sustainer, and the one through whom all worship is directed to the Triune God 7. Christ's servants throughout his incarnation 8. Rejoice when sinful men repent 9. Long to understand salvation 10. God's servants in establishing God's will 11. Agents of destruction 12. Agents of deliverance 13. Their ministry is manifested in redemptive history at very strategic points: creation, fall, establishing of God's covenant with his people

What do we mean when we say the Biblical Knowledge of God is a Personal Knowledge?

1. We may know God in a person-to-person way 2. We Know Him and we know him as the one who knows us. (The immutable related to the mutable)

The Christian View of Arguments for God

1. While proofs may augment, strengthen, and clarify faith, Christianity recognizes that they can never serve as its grounds. 2. Mankind's knowledge of God is grounded upon God's will to be known. 3. Man is created in the image of God. 4. God graciously communicates himself through general and special revelation: creation, providence, and Scripture applied by the Holy Spirit. 5. Scripture assumes humans know and acknowledge God.

David Hume's Argument Against Miracles

1. a wise man considers which side is supported by the most evidence. (There's more evidence that people cannot walk on water, than that one time, Jesus did.) 2. the simplest explanation is usually the correct one (Is it more or less likely that Jesus was resurrected?) 3. with all claims of miracles made, there is inadequate witness testimony. (Many, if not all, claims of miracles in current sources are inadequate and should be dismissed.) 4.miracles often come from "ignorant and barbarous nations", making accounts of miracles unreliable. (Many of the claims of miracles within the bible are made by poor, uneducated fishermen and peasants, which are not adequate sources.) 5. miracles in other religions cancel each other out. (Miracles from Hinduism or Buddhism, cancel out those from Christianity or Islam. Instead of picking just one to believe in, we should deny them all.)

Four Ways in which God Works in Creation

1. creation, by which God made all things from nothing, and imparted natural properties to the things he has made; 2. preservation and concurrence, by which God keeps his creatures in being and confirms the interaction of their properties; 3. government, by which God orders all things in his world according to his purposes; and supernatural occurrences, in which the outcome goes beyond the natural properties of the components involved; these are "miracles" in the proper sense.

The Way of Eminence

1. speaks of God as that Supreme Being whose essence and existence are identical. 2. Whatever perfection is found in creatures is preeminently contained in God. 3. We say that while man has intelligence or goodness, God is intelligence or goodness. 4. Christianity knows that all speaking about God must begin with the revelation of God, 5. not the creature 6. and seeks to avoid one-sidedness by naming God's aseity (independence) as his primary attribute.

Three Types of Miracles as Noted by Augustine and Aquinas

1. supra naturam (beyond nature), these events require a complete suspension of the laws of nature, events that could never occur naturally, 2. contra naturam (against nature), these events occur in situations where they would not happen without outside agency (the resurrection of a dead man) 3. proeter naturam (besides nature) these events occur outside of the ordinary course of nature (a sick man is cured without medicine)

Four Reasons God Reveals to us His Extraterrestrial Creation

1. to give us an indication of the greatness and glory of the creator 2. to give us a glimpse of what true obedience in worship is like, spurring us on to want to worship truly and obediently 3. to give us a great sense of security 4. to give us a look at the way these creatures who serve us in matters of redemption long to look into what it means to be redeemed sinners saved by grace, spurring us on to explore the privileges that are ours as redeemed through the work of Jesus Christ

Properly Basic Fact

A belief that requires no justification

Supralapsarianism

A divine foreknowledge of all possibilities precedes every decree, a "knowledge of simple intelligence." 1) A decree determining the purpose for which God would create and govern all things, namely, the revelation of his virtues (mercy and justice). Respectively, in the eternal salvation of a definite number of man conceived as yet only as possibles, "creatable and fallible," and in the eternal punishment of another definite number. 2) A second decree determining the existence of human beings who would be so wretched and pitiable that they would be fit objects of God's mercy and justice. The actual existence of such human beings necessitated. 3) A third decree to create a man adorned with the image of God to be the head of humanity and "by an efficacious permission" to allow him to fall so that he would involve his entire posterity in that fall. 4) Finally, a decree to manifest God's mercy in the elect by providing a Mediator for them and by granting them the gifts of faith and perseverance, and to show God's justice in the reprobate by withholding saving grace from them and by giving them up unto sin. The churches always objected to this view and not one Reformed confession contains this representation.

Doctrine

A systematic consideration and presentation of Biblical truths.

Basic Principles to Construction our Doctrine of Creation in a Truly Biblical Way

A. God is the creator of ALL reality without exception B. God the Trinity is the creator C. The end for which God created the world is glory of God D. Creatio Ex Nihilo - God brough all out of nothing E. Creation is neither an eternal nor necessary act of God. F. Creation is not a continual act of God G. Both the style and function of biblical teaching on creation is theological and polemical, apologetical and doxological

Special/Redemptive Revelation

A. Restores us to the knowledge of God B. Positive law given to Adam C. Culminates in the person of Jesus Christ D. Undo and Redo the Disaster of the Fall B. The guilt of sin C. The noetic effect of sin D. Existential Dimension of sin

What is the Sphere of General Revelation?

A. The entire universe is created by God and, therefore a revelation of God. B. General revelation is open to all.

What can be said of the Persons of the Trinity?

A. There is only one God B. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equally divine C. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are to be seen as distinct, permanent, and personal D. God is equally one and three. E. God the Son is Jesus of Nazareth F. These three divine persons/subsistences mutually indwell one another G. God as Triune is brought to light in Jesus Christ

The Deistic Conception of Divine Providence

According to Deism God's concern with the world is not universal, special and perpetual, but only of a general nature. At the time of creation He imparted to all His creatures certain inalienable properties, placed them under invariable laws, and left them to work out their destiny by their own inherent powers. Meanwhile He merely exercises a general oversight, not of the specific agents that appear on the scene, but of the general laws which He has established. The world is simply a machine which God has put in motion, and not at all a vessel which He pilots from day to day. This deistic conception of providence is characteristic of Pelagianism, was adopted by several Roman Catholic theologians, was sponsored by Socinianism, and was only one of the fundamental errors of Arminianism. It was clothed in a philosophic garb by the Deists of the eighteenth century, and appeared in a new form in the nineteenth century, under the influence of the theory of evolution and of natural science, with its strong emphasis on the uniformity of nature as controlled by an inflexible system of iron-clad laws.

Dynamic Monarchianism (Adoptionism)

Adoptionism, Christ is inferior to God/superior to us

What does it mean that Divine Concurrence is also a simultaneous concurrence?

After the activity of the creature is begun, the efficacious will of God must accompany it at every moment, if it is to continue. There is not a single moment that the creature works independently of the will and the power of God. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being, Acts 17:28. This divine activity accompanies the action of man at every point, but without robbing man in any way of his freedom.

Contra peccatum et malum contra regnum et tenebras.

Against sin and it effects and against evil and the kingdom of darkness.

Amryaldism

Amyraldism is the belief that God decreed Christ's atonement, prior to his decree of election, for all alike if they believe, but he then elected those whom he will bring to faith in Christ, seeing that none would believe on their own, and thereby preserving the Calvinist doctrine of unconditional election.

Attribute

An inherent characteristic or quality that distinctly identifies a person or object

The Doctrine of the Incarnation (J. I. Packer)

And what the doctrine of the Incarnation says is that the Triune God loves sinners, and therefore in unity with God the Father and God the Spirit God the Son has come to us where we are and identified wholly with the human condition in order to save us.

Archetypal Theology

Archetypal Theology confesses that God's infinity and depth are beyond all description. So when it comes to doing theology (i.e., knowing God), we have to confess that God himself goes beyond our ability to describe fully. But God knows himself. In fact, his eternally subsistent Wisdom knows its own depths—he fully and completely knows himself. This kind of theology, God's own knowledge of himself, may be called archetypal theology. We cannot know God as he knows himself. (But thanks be to God, he loves to illumine all people with his luminous goodness.)

Miraculous Events

Are signs of the kingdom, compassion, and authenticity of message and messenger

Incommunicable Attributes of God

Aseity/Independence, Immutability, Omnipresence, Unity, (Unity of Singularity, Unity of Simplicity)

Summary of the Proofs for the Existence of God

Bavinck beings with a summary of "proofs" for the existence of God: (1) Two are based upon the nature of the universe: (a) Cosmological, (b) Teleological; deduce God's existence from order and purpose respectively. (2) Two are based upon the nature of the human soul; based upon the rational nature of man (a) Ontological, (b) Moral; (3) Two are based upon history: (a) The argument from universal consent, (b)Historico- Theological.

What is Reprobation? Is it a Biblical Doctrine?

Bavinck's outline: 1) Scripture teaches reprobation, especially as this decree becomes evident in the facts of history. 2) According to Scripture, reprobation is both negative (God' purpose to pass by some men in the bestowment of regenerating grace), and positive (his purpose to ordain them to eternal punishment for their sins), cf. Acts 14:16 (negative) with Rom. 11:8(positive). 3) The facts of history point back to reprobation as well as election and are inexplicable upon any other basis. 4) On the other hand, with a view to God's sovereignty and to the all-comprehensive character of his decrees, reprobation (as well as election) is fully included in the counsel of predestination. 5) Nevertheless, reprobation is not in the same sense a part of God's decree and an object of his will; for a) while faith is not the meriting cause of the salvation of the elect, sin is indeed the meriting cause of the eternal perdition of the reprobate; b) God takes delight in that which he accomplishes according to the degree of election, but that which he effects according to the decree of reprobation (eternal punishment and suffering) is not in and by itself an object of his rejoicing.

God' Decretive Will

By the decretive will God has determined what he will do. Even according to the decretive will God does not delight in sin. Not only the preceptive will but also the decretive will is holy and wise and good. Those who deny God's decretive will come in conflict with God's omnipotence, wisdom, and sovereignty.

God's Preceptive Will

By the preceptive will he reveals what we must do. Even according to the preceptive will, he does not will the salvation of every man individually. The preceptive will, instead of being opposed to the decretive, is the means whereby the latter is carried out. Not only the preceptive will but also the decretive will is holy and wise and good. Those who reject God's preceptive will do injustice to God's holiness.

Concurrence

Concurrence may be defined as the co-operation of the divine power with all subordinate powers, according to the pre-established laws of their operation, causing them to act and to act precisely as they do. It should be noted at the outset that this doctrine implies two things: (1) That the powers of nature do not work by themselves, that is, simply by their own inherent power, but that God is immediately operative in every act of the creature. This must be maintained in opposition to the deistic position. (2) That second causes are real, and not to be regarded simply as the operative power of God. It is only on condition that second causes are real, that we can properly speak of a concurrence or co-operation of the First Cause with secondary causes. This should be stressed over against the pantheistic idea that God is the only agent working in the world.

The Perspicuity of Revelation

Created man may see clearly what is revealed clearly even if he cannot see exhaustively.

Elyon

Designates God as the High and Exalted One. These names signify God's transcendence.

Divine Immanence

Divine immanence is the description of God's kingly control and authority; because he rules over creation, he is present throughout the whole creation, especially to his people, in a personal and covenantal way. Rather than describing God in an impersonal way, the doctrines of transcendence and immanence describe the royal dignity and presence of the God who came to be among his people in Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us.

Monarchialism

Emphasizes the "oneness" of God to the exclusion of the Trinity AKA adoptionism, God the Father is the true God, and the Son is merely adopted, but not divine. Founder of this notion in the early Nicene debates was Paul of Samosata. Proof text: Psalm 2:7

Some Verses Regarding the Providence of God

Ephesians 1:1; James 4:15; Job 1

Scriptural Epochs of Miracles

Epochs in which God is establishing and defending his kingdom in a historically significant way: Moses, Elisha, Elijah, Christ, and Apostles.

Equivocal Statements

Equivocal statements mean we say one thing but another thing is true. For example, we might say a proposition like "God is good" but this statement does not have to mean anything like what we assume it means. It could mean that "God is bad." But God has spoken truly, and Scripture seems to assume we can know true things about God. Besides, God united to humanity in Christ. And Christ has explained God to us through his humanity. While we cannot make univocal statements about God, we do not have to fall into the trap of equivocation, of saying nothing true.

Exegesis vs. Eisegesis

Exegesis and eisegesis are two conflicting approaches in Bible study: 1. Exegesis is the exposition or explanation of a text based on careful, objective analysis. The word exegesis literally means "to lead out of." That means that the interpreter is led to his conclusions by following the text. 2. Eisegesis, which is the interpretation of a passage based on a subjective, non-analytical reading. The word eisegesis literally means "to lead into," which means the interpreter injects his own ideas into the text, making it mean whatever he wants.

Some Scriptures Regarding Epochs

Exodus 4:1 Acts 2:22 Acts 2:43 14:3 Romans 15:18-20 2 Cor. 2:12 Hebrews 2:3-4

What are Two Categories of Angels?

Faithful Angels and Fallen Angels

Sabellianism

Followers of Sabellius (third century A.D.), who taught that God is one Person who revealed Himself in three forms, modes, or manifestations, in succession.

The Doctrine of the Trinity ( J. I. Packer)

For what the doctrine of the Trinity says is that the relationship of Jesus the Son to the Father and the Spirit, which the gospels depict and the epistles affirm, is a revelation of that endless fellowship of mutual love and honour which is the final, definitive description of God's eternal reality.

Trinity

From the Latin trinus, meaning "threefold," referring to the central mystery of the Christian faith that God exists as a communion of three distinct and interrelated Divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to human reason alone and is known through Divine Revelation only.

Some Scripture Verses Regarding Divine Concurrence

Gen. 45:5; Ex.4:11,12; Jos. 11:6 ;Proverbs 21:1; Ezra 6:22; Deut 8:18; II Sam. 16:11; Isa. 10:5; I Kings 22:20-23.

Some Scriptures Concerning the Angelic Activity at Strategic Points in Redemptive History

Genesis 19:22 Genesis 32 Hosea 12:4 Exodus Acts 7:53 Gal 3:19 Heb 2:2 1 Kings 19 2 Kings 1 Daniel 2 Thess 1:7

Wise

God acts in light of all the facts and in light of correct values; knowing all things, God knows what is good

God is Righteous

God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final authority of what is right

Asceity or Simplicity of God

God as absolutely ultimate and perfect being completely free from all composite parts. All the attributes of God do not become added together to form God; rather, God's attributes are identical with God's essence and constitute God's oneness.

Omnipresence of God

God as an infinite spirit being everywhere present in the cosmos.

Righteous

God consistently acts in accord with his character; consistently Godly; God sets the standards

Loving

God did not withhold even His own Son, but sacrificed Him as a means of restoring us to fellowship with Him. This word of action includes terms such as grace, mercy, patience and kindness.

Cosmic Orphanism

God does not exist and we are alone in the universe, we are the accidental by product of nature, a result of matter plus time plus chance, this view leads to depression and suicide, "God is dead. We have killed him, who will comfort us?

God is Omnipresent

God does not have sides or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being

God is independent from His Creation

God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation glorify him and bring him joy

Merciful

God does not treat us as we deserve

God is Spiritual

God exists as a being that is not made of matter

God is Omniscient

God fully knows himself and all things actual and possible

God is Eternal

God has no beginning, end or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally, yet God sees event in time and acts in time

Some Scriptures Illustrating Anthropomorphic Language about God

God has s soul (Lev. 26:11; Mt.12:28); and a Spirit (Gen.1:2). In Christ God assumed a real body (John 1:14; Col. 2:17); mention is made of his countenance (Ex. 33:20; Is. 63:9); his eyes, eyelids, the apple of his eye, his ears, nose, mouth, lips, hand, right hand, finger, etc. Human emotion is described of God: Joy (Is. 62:5); rejoicing (Is. 65:19); love in all its variations, such as compassion, mercy, grace, longsuffering, etc. Bavinck writes: "Anthropomorphism seems to be unlimited. In order to give us an idea of the majesty and exalted character of God names are derived from every kind of creature, living and lifeless, organic and inorganic."

True

God has veracity, truth, reality, acts according to facts, total honesty, sincerity. God cannot lie; it is in opposition to His nature

God is Wrathful

God intensely hates all sin

God is Omnipotent

God is able to do whatever he wills

Holy

God is infinitely above and beyond His creation. God is perfect and complete. God is sinless. There is nothing morally impure, defiling, evil or wrong in God's nature. God must act in judgment and retribution against all that opposes His innate nature of righteousness (holiness)

God is Holy

God is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own praise

The Doctrine of Divine Aseity/Independence

God is sufficient unto himself. He depends on nothing; he needs nothing. This term comes from the Latin and signifies, simply, "from himself." The aseity of God is the teaching that God is self-existent. He exists eternally, yes, but he exists eternally from himself. He is uncaused and independent. He depends on nothing — and no one — for anything. Just as the divine fire requires no fuel to sustain it, God exists entirely independent of anything or anyone. He is self-sufficient, self-perpetuating, existing only of himself. And so when God names himself "I AM WHO I AM," he reveals something about himself. He is a God like no other, perfect in his own being.

What does it mean that God's Providence is Universal?

God is, without exception, Sovereignly active at all times in all things.

Middle Knowledge

God knows all counterfactuals, the idea that God knows all possible outcomes of all possible scenarios, even those that do not come to fruition.

God is Jealous

God seeks to protect his own honor/glory

Holiness of God

God separates from all creation as well as the divine purity and goodness in God's being and willing.

What is anthropomorphic language and can it be legitimately used in relation to God? If so, why? (pp. 90-98)

God uses human language to reveal himself to us. Calvin says in his Institutes that God lisps to us as a Father speaking "baby talk" to a child. Bavinck writes: "It follows that Scripture does not merely contain a few anthropomorphisms; on the contrary, all Scripture is anthropomorphic. From beginning to end Scripture testifies a condescending approach of God to man...If God were to speak to us in divine language, no one would be able to understand him; but ever since creation, he, in condescending grace, speaks to us and manifests himself to us in condescending fashion." Scripture uses many anthropomorphism to reveal God to his people: human organs, sensations, affections, are applied to God.

Good

God works to benefit His creation. He is benevolent and bountiful. He both cares and provides for our needs.

Omnipotence of God

God's ability to do all things that do not conflict with the divine will or knowledge.

The Doctrine of God's Eternality

God's eternality is his aseity with respect to time and therefore his lordship over time. Because he is the creator of time, he stands above it, but enters it freely to do his will. He transcends time in that (1) he has no beginning or end, (2) he does not change, (3) he is equally conscious of past, present, and future, and (4) he is not limited by the passing of time in what he can accomplish.

Special Revelation

God's manifestation of himself to particular persons at definite times and places; limited revelation

Natural Revelation

God's revealing of Himself in all things that are made.

Homoousios

Greek for "of the same nature"

Self Existent

Having life within Himself, Being; infinite eternal procession of God's essence, nature and personality; the meaning of I AM WHO I AM; self-sustaining, dependent on no one and nothing, autonomous, independent, free

Identical Essence

Heb. 1:3 one ousia three hypostases

Three Ways of Obtaining the Names of God

Historically speaking, theologians speak of three ways of obtaining the names of God. The Way of Causality (cataphatic), The Way of Remotion, 3. The Way of Eminence

Historical - Theological Argument for the Existence of God

History's unfolding points to a wise and omnipotent World Ruler. This World Ruler is argued to be God.

Analogical Statements

If we want to say something true about God, we must say it about him according to ectypal theology. And we cannot say things exactly as they are, that is, univocally; yet this does not mean we cannot say anything true, that is, equivocally. So we are left with analogical knowledge. Analogical knowledge means that we can say true things about God by analogy. For example, we have minds and are created in God's image. So when Scripture speaks of God thinking, he must, too, have a mind. But we do not say that they are exactly or univocally. Nor do we say they are nothing, or equivocally, alike. We say there is a connection by analogy. In John's Gospel, he uses the analogies of Logos and mind (John 1). In the beginning, was the Logos, and the Logos was with God and was God. How? John uses human language to speak of the divine, and the analogy he uses is this: as we think and have thoughts (Logos), we can discern how these thoughts are us but not exactly us. In God, we can understand his personal properties analogously to our lived experience. The Logos of God relates to God by being the reason of God. This analogy does not perfectly describe an infinite and simple being. But it might just be the closest analogy we can use—it is, after all, authored by the Holy Spirit, whose purpose is to make the Father known by making the Son known.

What does it mean that Divine Concurrence is, finally, an immediate concurrence.

In His government of the world God employs all kinds of means for the realization of His ends; but He does not so work in the divine concurrence. When He destroys the cities of the plain by fire, this is an act of divine government in which He employs means. But at the same time it is His immediate concurrence by which He enables the fire to fall, to burn, and to destroy. So God also works in man in endowing him with power, in the determination of his actions, and in sustaining his activities all along the line.

Matthew 11:25-27

In Matthew, Jesus claims mutual knowledge and sovereignty with the Father. H.R. Mackintosh described this passage as "the most important for Christology in the New Testament," speaking as it does of "the unqualified correlation of the Father and the Son."

What do we mean when we say Our Knowledge of God is Derivative?

In all eternity our knowledge of God will be derivative. We will never be as God. God has Archetypal theology - the infinite knowledge of God known only to God himself and the pattern for all true theology. Our knowledge is Analogical, subordinate, derived, dependent, ectypal.

What does it mean that God's Providence is Moral?

In all things, without exception, God acts in holy fashion.

Pauline Testimony to the Deity of Christ

In the epistles of Paul, we find the most full and convincing testimony as to the Lord. In Romans He is of the seed of David according to the flesh, but declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness and the resurrection from the dead (1:4). In Romans 9 the apostle uses even stronger language in speaking of Him, "Of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all,God blessed forever" (9:5). In First Corinthians, He is associated with the Father in a way that suggests His humanity, Lordship and Deity: "There is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we by Him"(8:6). "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich" (2 Cor. 8:9). The riches which He had were those of divine glory; the poverty into which He came was that of His humiliation, even unto death. The passage strongly resembles the one in Philippians 2, the classic, we might say, of the humiliation. Here from "the form of God," our blessed Lord, in seven downward steps of self-emptying, reaches the death of the Cross, and by the glory of God, is elevated into the place of supremacy, in seven stages, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth." Who is He who thus commands the adoration of the entire universe? In Galatians our Lord is spoken of as the Son of God, revealed in Paul (1:16), sent forth by the Father, and yet "made of a woman" (4:4). Ephesians shows Him as the center of all God's purposes: "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth"(1:10). In resurrection, He has been set over all things as Head to His Church, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (1:23). "That He might fill all things" (4:10) - an amazing combination of human sufferings, divine power and omnipresence. The epistle to the Colossians is in the preeminence given to the person of Christ. He is "the image of the invisible God" (1:15), the expression of absolute deity; He is also"the Firstborn of every creature" (1:15), or of all creation, the Chief and Head over all that which He has brought into being. Notice the cluster of glories suggested by the various prepositions used here. "By(literally "in") Him were all things created"; "by", "for", "before";"By Him all things consist" (1:16,17). He is also the Firstborn from the dead and the Head of the Church (1:18). No wonder "all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him" (1:19); no wonder also that the divine value and efficacy belongs to the work of reconciliation which He has accomplished (1:20,21). What words could be stronger than those used in the second chapter: "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (2:9). We will refer to but one passage from Paul's pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy 3:16. The whole connection is striking and interesting. The apostle had been speaking of the order which becomes the house of God and how Timothy should conduct himself in that which is the Church of the living God. God has an established order for His Church, the place where His honor dwelleth. Never more than today has there been the need to know the importance of that order. The Church is "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim.3:15), not surely the teacher of the truth in the sense of origin, but the maintainer and exhibitor of that truth. The figure seems to remind us of the House of God of old, the tabernacle, where the "ground" or foundation upon which the boards and pillars of God's habitation rested was the silver sockets of the redemption paid by the children of Israel. The four pillars which separated the Holiest from the Holy place supported the veil (Ex.26:31,32). It is of this veil the verse in Timothy seems to speak."Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." The one manifest in the flesh exhibits the glories that belong to the house of God. The glories of Christ are the special theme of the epistle to the Hebrews. Christ is above angels, above Moses, the leader and law-giver, above Aaron, the high priest, above all the sacrifices, covenant and sanctuary of the law. Chapter one describes the glory of His person in a seven-fold series: Heir of all things; Creator; Effulgence of God's glory; the very Image of His being; the Upholder of all things; the Purger of our sins; now seated at the right hand of God. In this same chapter, we have a seven-fold series of scripture quotations in testimony of this glory. If the first chapter speaks of His glories, the second tells of His humiliation, made a little lower than the angels, taking hold of the seed of Abraham, suffering under temptation, enduring the pains of death, making priestly propitiation by the sacrifice of Himself and associating with Himself in the family of God the "many sons" whom He is bringing to glory. As risen from the dead, He has been manifested as Priest in the power of an unending life, after the order of Melchizedek, the absence of whose genealogy and death makes Him a fitting type of the Son of God - "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever" (13:8). "A body Thou hast prepared Me" (10:5) reminds us that He, in whom all these glories centered, was also Man,with a bodily life which He could offer up in sacrifice to God.

B.B. Warfield on Providence

In the infinite wisdom of the Lord of all the earth, each event falls with exact precision into its proper place in the unfolding of His divine plan. Nothing, however small, however strange, occurs without His ordering, or without its particular fitness for its place in the working out of His purpose; and the end of all shall be the manifestation of His glory, and the accumulation of His praise.

Prolegomena

In the study of systematic theology, prolegomena refers to the study of preliminary matters that are necessary to "set up" the formal theological study. These issues might include how the theological study will be conducted, how we acquire knowledge and arrive at truth, the theological system or tradition that will govern the study, and the sources that will be considered authoritative."Prolegomena" is a Greek word that comes from the Greek verb "prolego." "Prolego" is a compound word that means "to say first" or "to speak first." It literally means "those things which are said first." In systematic theology, prolegomena are one of the classic "loci," or core categories of systematic theology. They have to do with the very firsts of theology and answer the questions of the first things.They ask how we know what we know about God and deal with the doctrine of the Word of God and the doctrine of revelation. Prolegomena are crucial to your theological system.

Dualism

In theology, the concept of dualism assumes that there are two separate entities—good and evil—which are equally powerful. In the false teaching of "Christian" dualism, God represents the good entity and Satan represents the evil entity.

Arianism Teaches That

Jesus was first and best creation of the Father but not God

Scriptures in which Jesus Claims Equality with God

Jesus' repeatedly designated God as his Father, with the entailment that he is God's Son, was unprecedented and startling. .1 Jesus used "Father" as a personal name rather than a metaphor or a description of what God is like. 2 God's revelation as the Father does not refer to a general fatherhood of all his creatures but to mutual relations within the being of God. 3. Jesus speaks of the temple as "my Father's house" (Luke 2:49, John 2:16). 4. At Jesus's baptism, the Father declares him to be his Son (Matt. 3:17). 5. Jesus asserts that he was sent by the Father (John 5:30, 36, 6:38-40, 8:16-18, 26, 29), 6. shares with the Father in raising the dead (John 5:24-29), and in judging the world (John 5:27). 7. All will honor him just as they honor the Father (John 5:23). 8. The Father gives him his disciples and draws them to him (John 6:37-65). 9. The Father knows him and loves him, while he fulfills the Father's charge (John 10:15-18). 10. In turn, Jesus prays to the Father (Matt. 6:9, John 17:1-26). "Abba" is his normal way of addressing God (Matt. 16:17, Mark 13:32, Luke 22:29-30), a familiar Aramaic word for father. 11. (3) In Gethsemane and on the cross Jesus calls on the Father, in extremis (Matt. 26:39-42 et. al., Luke 23:34). 12. Jesus speaks of the glory he shared with the Father before creation, anticipating its renewal (John 17:5, 22-24), 13. having completed the work the Father gave him (v.4). He reflects on his union and mutual indwelling with the Father (vv. 20ff). 14. Earlier, he defended his equality and identity with the Father (John 10:30, 14:6-11, 20), an indivisible union, so that his own word will be the criterion the Father uses in judgment (John 5:22-24, 12:44-50). 15. He tells Mary Magdalene he will ascend to his Father (John 20:17, cf. 16:10, 17, 28, 14:1-3). 16. Conversely, Jesus also says that he is less than the Father (John 14:28), but this refers to his incarnate state in which he took human nature into union and restricted himself to human limitations. Thereby he does nothing other than he sees the Father doing (John 5:19). 17. As the Father raises the dead, so the Son gives life to whoever he wills (John 5:21). 18. As the Father has life in himself so he has given to the Son to have life in himself and to exercise judgment (John 5:26-29). 19. To Thomas he says that to know him is to know the Father, 20. and to Philip he says "he who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:6-9). 21. Behind this is the fact that he and the Father are one (John 10:30), and that he is, with the Father, the object of the disciples' faith (John 14:1). No one can come to the Father except through Jesus. 22. Throughout John 14-16 Jesus refers to himself in relation both to the Father and the Holy Spirit. He mentions the mutual indwelling of the three. 23. The Father will send the Spirit in response to Jesus's own request (John 14:16ff, 26, 15:26). 24. The disciples' prayer to the Father is to be made in the name of Jesus (John 15:16).

Johnine Testimony to the Deity of Christ

John asserts that Jesus is the Word become flesh (John 1:14). He says that this Word is eternal, has always been "with" God (pro ston theon) and indeed shares the very being of God (John 1:1). John describes Jesus as the unique God (monogenes theos) in John 1:18. He portrays Jesus saying that He is the way, the truth, and the life - that man's very life and salvation is dependent upon his relationship with Him (a claim nothing short of blasphemy for a mere created being!), Jesus asserts preexistence John 8:24: John 8:58: John 13:19: John 18:5-6 the Gospel climaxes in Thomas' confession of Jesus as his "Lord and God".

Pros ton Theon

John's phrase "pros ton theon" ("with the God") conveys the idea of intimate love and fellowship between he who is "the Word" and he who is "the God (Father)."

Proofs for God's Existence

Kant, Darwin: cosmological and teleological arguments; Anselm, Descartes: ontological and moral arguments; Plato, later Mill: argument from consensus and the historical-theological argument.

Filioque

Latin term meaning "and from the Son"

Hypostasis

Literally substance. Trinitarian conversations: Caused a lot of confusion, describes God as, "Three persons in one substance." Played a role in Christological controversies:

Filiation

Literally, being a son. Refers to the eternal relationship between the father and son of the Trinity. "Eternally begotten" the source of the son's being is the father, and yet the Son had no beginning.

Dualistic Theory on the Origin of Things

Matter is regarded as negative and imperfect substance which is subordinate to God and is made the instrument of his will (Plato, Aristotle, the Gnostics, the Manichaeans).

Strengths and Weaknesses of Speaking of God having Communicable and Incommunicable Attributes

No attribute of God is completely communicable, and no attribute of God is completely incommunicable. We can be wise, but we can never be as wise as God. We can express and experience love, but we will never be infinitely loving like God. Really, we should say that "communicable" attributes are the ones that are somewhat shared with us.

The Pantheistic View of Divine Providence

Pantheism does not recognize the distinction between God and the world. It either idealistically absorbs the world in God, or materialistically absorbs God in the world. In either case it leaves no room for creation and also eliminates providence in the proper sense of the word. It is true that Pantheists speak of providence, but their so-called providence is simply identical with the course of nature, and this is nothing but the self-revelation of God, a self-revelation that leaves no room for the independent operation of second causes in any sense of the word. From this point of view the supernatural is impossible, or, rather, the natural and the supernatural are identical, the consciousness of free personal self-determination in man is a delusion, moral responsibility is a figment of the imagination, and prayer and religious worship are superstition. Theology has always been quite careful to ward off the dangers of Pantheism, but during the last century this error succeeded in entrenching itself in a great deal of modern liberal theology under the guise of the doctrine of the immanence of God.

What are the Elements in Providence? with Scripture Texts

Preservation (Dt. 33:12, 25-28; Mt. 10:89;Acts 17:28). Divine Concurrence (Gen. 45:5; Ex. 4:11,12; 1 Kings 22:20-23). Government (Mt. 11:25; Acts 17:24; I Tim. 1:17; Rev. 19:6).

The Universality of Revelation

Psalm 119 emphasizes the universality of natural revelation. There is no place on the planet where God's natural revelation does not proclaim that He is and that He has made all things."There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!" ―Abraham Kuyper

Argument from Universal Consent for the Existence of God

Religion is not a particular things which exists in one or two individuals, but something universal spreading over all mankind. A religious inclination (or seed of religion is in every man). We travel all over the world and see man's need to have religion and worship. Although with revelation men are blinded, the seed is choked as Calvin says, they are worshipful creatures because they are made as worshipers of the True God and they exchange the truth of the True God for a lie. Man because he is created in God's image has a natural inclination to worship and to practice a religion of some kind.

God's Response to Man's Suppression of Truth in Revelation

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Some Verses for the Existence of God

Romans 1:21 Psalm 14:1, 53:1 Ecclesiastes 3:11

Modalistic Monarchianism

Sabellianism, Sees Father/Son/Spirit as different modes of the same person

The Moral Argument for the Existence of God

Since all people recognize some moral code, right and wrong imply a higher standard or law, and the law requires a lawgiver. Because the Moral Law transcends humanity, this universal law requires a universal lawgiver. This lawgiver is said to be God.

The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God

Since the concept of God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived," to think of such a being as existing only in thought and not also, in reality, involves a contradiction since a being that lacks actual existence is not a being than which none greater can be conceived. A yet greater being would be one with the further attribute of existence. The unsurpassably perfect being must exist; otherwise, it would not be unsurpassably perfect. This unsurpassably perfect being is said to be God.

The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God

Since the universe is an effect, something or someone must have caused it. That cause is said to be God

The Teleological Argument for the Existence of God

Since there is the appearance of design and purpose in nature there must be a designer. That designer is said to be God. The teleological argument deduces and intelligent cause from the order and beauty, the harmony and purpose evident in the universe as a whole and also in individual creatures. Kant argued that this leads us to "World-Architect" rather than "World-Creator". Scripture speaks to us in many places about purpose and order in creation. This points us to a purposeful Creator, however we could not know this Creator without revelation of himself, although we do know enough to be without excuse in that which is ordered and purposeful.

Some Interpretations of Genesis 1:1,2

Some believe in a young earth, Some believe because of the geological record, in an old earth and that the Hebrew word for day: yom is to be understood as ages of creation by God Dabney and Hodge think the literal 24- hour day is doubtful in Genesis. Kuyper and Bavinck believe the first three days of creation could have been ages, but the other three days are literal 24-hour days. The creation account is in seven days: 1) The creation of light; 2) Creation of the expanse and separation of waters; 3) Separation of waters and dry land, and preparation of the earth as a habitation for man and beast; 4) The creation of light-bearers; 5) Creation of fowls of the air and fish of the sea; 6) Creation of the beasts of the field, the cattle, all creeping things, and man.

Evolution

Sometimes spoken as if it is a substitute for creation. It presupposes something that evolves, and this must in the last resort be either eternal or created, so that, after all, the evolutionist must choose between the theory of eternity of matter and the doctrine of creation.

Communicable Attributes of God

Spirituality, Invisibility, Omniscience, Wisdom, Truthfulness, Faithfulness, Goodness, Love, Mercy, Grace, Patience, Holiness, Peace, Order, Righteousness, Justice, Jealous, Wrath, Will, Freedom, Omnipotence (or power and sovereignty), Perfection, Blessedness, Beauty, Glory

Sovereign

Supreme authority and power to rule all aspects of nature and life; sustained control and direction of the creation; having ability to accomplish God's divine Will

Telos

Telos (/ˈtɛ.lɒs/; Greek: τέλος, translit. télos, lit. "end, 'purpose', or goal

Vocabulary of Miracle

Terras (Wonder) An event distinctive from the works of ordinary providence, causing us to wonder at the mighty power of God. Dunamis (Power) An observable work of Divine Power. Semeion (Sign) A work that points beyond itself in a significatory way Compassion

Shaddai, or El Shaddai

The All-Sufficient One God reveals himself to Abraham when he makes him a father of a multitude of nations and institutes the sacrament of circumcision as a seal of the covenant (Gen. 17:1). It occurs again and again in the time of the patriarchs. The NT equivalent is pantokrator (2 Cor.6:18; Rev. 4:8). This name makes God known to us as the One who possesses all power, and is able to overcome all opposition and to make everything subservient to his will. Bavinck writes: "The name Elohim designates God as Creator and Preserver of all things; El- Shaddai represents him as the Mighty One, who makes nature subservient to grace; Jehovah describes him as the One whose faithfulness endure forever; Jehovah Sabaoth characterized him as the King in the fulness of his glory, surrounded by organized host of angels, governing the entire universe as the Omnipotent One, and in his temple receiving the honor and adoration of all his creatures."

The Doctrine of Creation and the Theory of Evolution

The Doctrine of Creation and the Theory of Evolution: 1) The theory of evolution cannot take the place of the doctrine of creation. 2) The theory of naturalistic evolution is not in harmony with the narrative of creation. 3) The theory of naturalistic evolution is not well established and fails to account for the facts. 4) Theistic evolution is not tenable in the light of Scripture.

El-Shaddai

The Powerful One.

The Godhead and the Cry of Dereliction (J. I. Packer)

The Son became human at the command of the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the joy of loving union with both; and that when in His cry of dereliction on the cross Jesus testified to godforsakenness at a conscious level, at a deeper level the togetherness of the Godhead remained intact. That Jesus knew this, even if for those three dark hours He could not feel it, is surely clear from His first and last words on the cross: 'Father, forgive them,' and 'Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit' (Luke 23:34, 46)."

Monogenes Theos

The Unique God

Kurios

The ascription to Jesus of the term kurios (term of Respect), but in the New Testament when it is used of Christ, it cannot be divorced from the fact that in the Septuagint, kurios is the translation for the Tetragrammaton. 99% of the occurrences of Kurios are references to Yahweh. It would be very difficult to imagine Paul would use Kurios for Jesus if he did not mean to apply Yahweh (I am that I am) to Jesus.

Argument from Consensus for the Existence of God

The common consent or belief among humans that God exists, justifies believing that God does truly exist.

What is the connection between God and his names?

The connection between God and his name is that his name is his own revelation to man. Names can be given to men to distinguish them from others and to describe personalities, etc. But with God, he reveals his own name, his attributes, divine power, and salvation all being revealed with his great and holy name. In the OT God first reveals his name and his faithfulness to Israel, in the NT Jesus, the Son of God comes down from heaven and becomes flesh that all might know God and his name. The richest revelation of the name of God will be in the New Jerusalem. God's name is not his being, as God exists in himself, but his revelation and relation to the creature. His name reveals who God is. God's names are all derived from His revelation; there is not one name that is expressive of the being of God "in itself." The "revealed name" is the basis of all the "names by which we address God."

What is the Decree of God?

The decree of God is his eternal purpose, whereby he foreordains everything that comes to pass; so as to not to do any harm to the will of the creature, nor is he the author of evil. This is the realization of God's thought and will brought forth. Bavinck writes, "Apart from God's knowledge and will nothing could ever come to pass. Thought would be absent from creation if it were not for the fact that God in wisdom created all things." The will and decrees of God are above time; they are eternal. They did not merely occur from man's perspective "back a long time ago." Eternity is above time and should not be remembered as the past, but in a analogical way as always existing in God's eternity and essence which is one and unchanging. However, with regards to man, we perceive God's will and decree as it unfolds in time and place (e.g. in his revelation in Scripture), so that man perceives his decree in the plural although in the mind of God it is singular.

Inseparable Operations and the Trinity (Opera ad extra Trinitatus Indivisa sunt)

The doctrine states that the external works of the triune God are undivided. In other words, since God is one, simple being—one in essence, knowledge, will, and act—all his actions within the created world are not divided among the three divine persons such that they are viewed as distinct and separable agents. Again, no one person within the Godhead can act in the world alone, for the three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are the one God and act as efficient cause of all that comes into existence.Inseparable operations and the Trinity (Opera ad extra Trinitatis indivisa sunt)

Loci

The main branches or "groups" of theology: Prologomena Theology proper - The study of the character of God (Theological) anthropology - The study of the nature of humanity. Angelology - The study of angels Christology - The study of Christ Pneumatology - The study of the Holy Spirit Soteriology - The study of salvation Hamartiology - The study of sin Ecclesiology - The study of the church Eschatology - The study of the end times Within each of the loci there are "smaller" component doctrines. So, for example, within the loci of Soteriology you'll find the doctrine of election, the doctrine of justification, and so forth.

Economic Trinity

The name usually given to the notion that the distinction within the Trinity have to do with God's activity in creation and are not intrinsic to the Godhead. The trinity is a matter of God's outward management of creation, and not of God's very essence.

The Providence of God

The providence of God is the working of God's sovereignty to continually uphold, guide, and care for his creation.

Theology

The study of God and related beliefs that form the doctrine of the church

Teleological Argument

The study of the design and final purpose for all created things as an argument for the existence of God.

Cosmological Argument

The study of the natural world as arguments for the existence of God. This includes conclusions about the Supreme Being responsible for such power, order and beauty. It also includes the concept of God as the First Cause. This is presented in different forms. Aristotle: A "first self-moving power" from motion. John of Damascus: The unchangeable, from the changeable. Boethius-Anselm: The absolutely perfect, from the relatively perfect. Thomas Aquinas: A "first efficient cause" from the "series of causes" which cannot be infinite. In all these forms, the Cosmological proof deduces a cause from an effect. The argument assumes not only that the individual objects existing in the universe are contingent, finite, relative, imperfect; but it also assumes the same in regard to the entire universe; it assumes that an "infinite chain of causes" is inconceivable; and that the law of causality should also be applied to the universe as a whole. Even if we grant the impossibility of an infinite number of regressions, we do not come to a personal God revealed in Scripture, we merely come to an impersonal , first cause, absolute, but it tells us nothing of this being (if indeed it is a being which we could speak intelligibly concerning).

Ontological Argument

The study of the presence of an inner sense of God's existence within man as an argument for the existence of God Presented in three forms: (1) From the general ideas and norms present in the human mind, such as absolute truth, goodness, beauty, i.e. God (Plato, Augustine,Boethius, Anselm). (2) The real existence of the highest, absolute idea (i.e. of God) from the necessary presence of that idea in thought; as otherwise it would not be the highest idea, the absolute idea, inasmuch as an idea which has real existence is greater and higher than one not having real existence (Anselm,Prologium). (3) It proves God's existence from the innate character of the idea of God (Descartes). The value of the argument lies in this: that it indicates the fact that man necessarily has an idea of God, and thinks of him as actually existing, and hence: that it places man before the choice of either trusting this necessary testimony or else despairing of his own consciousness.

Eschaton

The term (from the Greek, eschaton, "last") denotes the end of history when God will act decisively to establish the divine rule of justice and peace throughout the created order. Jesus refers to the eschaton as "the Kingdom of God," which he proclaimed to have "come near" (Mk 1:15). In Christian understanding, the resurrection of Jesus was the anticipation of the eschaton. The resurrection signals a preliminary victory over sin and death and points to the final victory.

Modalism/Sabellianism

The trinitarian heresy that does not view Father, Son, and Spirit as three particular "persons in relation," but merely as three modes or manifestations of the one divine person of God. Thus God comes in salvation history as Father to create and give the law, as Son to redeem and as Spirit to impart grace.

Anthropomorphism

The word anthropomorphism comes from two Greek words, anthropos, meaning "man," and morphe, meaning "form." In theological terms, anthropomorphism is making God in some way into the form of man. Mostly, it is the process of assigning human characteristics to God. Human traits and actions such as talking, holding, reaching, feeling, hearing, and the like, all of which are chronicled throughout both the Old and New Testaments, are ascribed to the Creator. We read of God's actions, emotions, and appearance in human terms, or at least in words we normally accept and associate with humans. Anthropomorphisms can be helpful in enabling us to at least partially comprehend the incomprehensible, know the unknowable, and fathom the unfathomable. But God is God, and we are not, and all of our human expressions are intrinsically inadequate in explaining fully and properly the divine. But human words, emotions, features, and knowledge are all that our Creator provided us, so these are all that we can understand in this earthly world at this time. Yet anthropomorphisms can be dangerous if we see them as sufficient to portray God in limited human traits and terms, which could unintentionally serve to diminish in our minds His incomparable and incomprehensible power, love, and mercy. Christians are advised to read God's Word with the realization that He offers a small glimpse of His glory through the only means we can absorb. As much as anthropomorphisms help us picture our loving God, He reminds us in Isaiah 55:8-9: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Perichoresis

The word perichoresis comes from two Greek words, peri, which means "around," and chorein, which means "to give way" or "to make room." It could be translated "rotation" or "a going around." Perichoresis is not found in the Greek New Testament but is a theological term used in three different contexts. In the first, perichoresis refers to the two natures of Christ in perfect union within the same Person. In the second context, perichoresis refers to the omnipresence of God as He "intersects" with all creation (see Acts 17:28). In the third context, it refers to the mutual intersecting or "interpenetration" of the three Persons of the Godhead and may help clarify the concept of the Trinity. It is a term that expresses intimacy and reciprocity among the Persons of the Godhead. A synonym for perichoresis is circumincession.

Emanation Theory of the Origin of Things

The world is a necessary emanation out of the divine being. Pantheism teaches this theory. It makes God responsible for all that happens in the world, for the evil, as well as the good.

Tritheism Teaches That

There are three separate gods.

What does it mean that Divine Concurrence is Previous and Pre-Determining, not in a Temporal but in a Logical Sense?

There is no absolute principle of self-activity in the creature, to which God simply joins His activity. In every instance the impulse to action and movement proceeds from God. There must be an influence of divine energy before the creature can work.

What are angels and what do they do?

They are created beings brought into being by Jesus Christ, creator of all that is heaven and earth. (Col. 1:16) They are alive but non-human. They are spirits but capable of spatial and temporal extension. They are characteristically invisible. While not humans, they are extra-terrestrial persons. They are rational, volitional, and angelo-emotional beings. They act, obey, speak, and direct the people of God. They praise and worship God. They show interest in earthly activity. They express joy when sinners repent.

Irreducible complexity

This idea applies to any system of interacting parts in which the removal of any one part destroys the function of the entire system. An irreducibly complex system, then, requires each and every component to be in place before it functions.

Historico-Theological Proof for the Existence of God

This points to man's study of history. All history whether religious, the arts, etc. have a goal,a telos, an end in view as history progresses (by that very term we see inherent this argument: the term "progress", why not "digress"?). This argument is weak because although man is progressing intellectually and thus culturally, what do we measure this with? How do we know that he is progressing correctly and in a true religious and ethical way. We may have microwaves, but we also have mass-murderers. Is this progress? It seems as much as men try to deny it, there is no doubt that there is not a hand of Providence guiding our world to its appointed destiny.

Univocal Statements

Univocal Statements Since we cannot know God as he knows himself (archetypal theology), we must admit that univocal knowledge of God is impossible. Univocal statements refer to exact knowledge about something. When we say God is infinite, we cannot understand the infinity of God because we are finite. So we cannot make univocal statements. To illustrate the point further, Scripture says God has two hands. But since he is Spirit and since these two hands signal a metaphor, we do not have exact knowledge of God but metaphorical knowledge of God. But God knows himself truly, for God understands fully what it means to be spirit or infinite. He has archetypal theology. He knows himself perfectly through his subsisting Wisdom. We do not. So already, we might suppose that Christ's obedience in history certainly cannot give us univocal knowledge of God's archetypal theology, the self-knowledge of his essence. As Junius explains, this knowledge of God cannot be explained. He writes of archetypal theology, "we should not seek to trace it out but rather stand in awe" (A Treatise on True Theology, Loc. 2823).

Moral Argument for the Existence of God

We all have such things as conscience, responsibility, grief, reward and punishment, virtue and happiness, fear of death and of judgment, the triumph of goodness, etc. The power of this argument is in the fact that the moral order within our conscious does not necessarily point to the self-attesting God of Scripture, however it gives evidence, that for some reason our thoughts and will are determined by a moral nature within all men.

The Doctrine of Divine Omnipresence

When applied to space God's immutability is called Omnipresence: Infinity in the sense of not being confined. Neither Heaven nor earth can contain God.

The Doctrine of Divine Infinity

When applied to time, God's immutability (or infinity) is called eternity.

The Doctrine of Divine Immutability and Corollary Impassability

While everything changes, God is and remains the same. Immutability means God does not change in any way. Impassibility, a corollary to immutability, means that God does not experience emotional change in any way; he does not suffer. God does not merely choose to be impassible; he is impassible by nature. Impassibility is intrinsic to his very being. Impassibility does not mean God is apathetic, nor does it undermine divine love. God is maximally alive; he is his attributes in infinite measure. Therefore, impassibility guarantees that God's love could not be more infinite in its loveliness. Finally, impassibility provides great hope, for only a God who is not vulnerable to suffering in his divinity is capable of rescuing a world drowning in suffering.

Spirit

Without body, incorporeal; a supernatural being or essence; unbounded by human flesh; quality that gives life and vitality

What is God's eternal counsel or decree by which he has foreordained whatever comes to pass?

a) God's secret will; b) the will of God's good pleasure; c) God's decretive will.

The Two Parts to the Doctrine of Divine Unity

a) The Unity of Singularity: God is absolutely, exclusively, numerically, quantitatively, and qualitatively one. There is one divine being. All other beings exist only from him, through him, and to him. b) The Unity of Simplicity: God is not only truthful, righteous, loving, and wise, but he is the only truth, is the only righteousness, is the only wisdom. Every attribute of God is identical to his essence.

What is God's precept for our conduct.

a)God's preceptive will; b) God's revealed will, c) God's expressed or signified will

Characteristics of Divine Concurrence

a. It is previous and pre-determining, not in a temporal but in a logical sense. b. It is also a simultaneous concurrence. c. It is, finally, an immediate concurrence

Common Errors Regarding Divine Concurrence

a. That it consists merely in a general communication of power, without determining the specific action in any way. b. That it is of such a nature that man does part of the work and God a part. c. That the work of God and that of the creature in concurrence are co-ordinate.

Natural Theology

affirms that a natural disposition or capacity for knowing God exists in every created human person. 1. The world is God's creation and revelation. 2. Man does not know God directly. 3. Man comes to know God indirectly. 4. Man's knowledge of God is analogical and mediated through senses, speech, symbols, and his community. 5. a natural disposition or capacity for knowing God exists in every created human person.

Open Theism

also known as "openness theology," the "openness of God," and "free will theism," is an attempt to explain the foreknowledge of God in relationship to the free will of man. The argument of open theism is essentially this: human beings are truly free; if God absolutely knew the future, human beings could not truly be free. Therefore, God does not know absolutely everything about the future. Open theism holds that the future is not knowable. Therefore, God knows everything that can be known, but He does not know the future.

Panentheism

asserts that God includes the universe as a part though not the whole of his being.

Intellectual Hypocrisy

atheists wish to affirm purpose, morality, and meaning yet have no intellectual basis for doing so, in other words, atheists believe like atheists but live like theists

Deism

belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind.

At what Strategic Points in Redemptive History do we see Angels Particularly at Work?

creation, fall, establishment of God's covenant with his people, the beginning of the ministry of the Lord Jesus and the apostles, and the return of Christ in glory.

Cataphatic Theology

describes God positively according to what He has revealed of Himself in Scripture and nature. God can be known insofar as he reveals himself in general and special revelation. It is usually discussed as the opposite of Apophatic(or negative) theology, which attempts to describe God only in terms of what He is not.

deus ex machina

god from the machine: an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation

How does God reveal himself to humankind?

history, prophecy, and miracle (by ordinary and by extraordinary means)

Social Nihilism

if God does not exist and everybody will die and enter eternal nothingness. If this is true, sacrifice is foolish and selfishness is prudent, atheism destroys the very possibility of true love

What do we mean when we say Our Knowledge of God is Redemptive Historical & Christologically Conditioned?

knowledge of God in the flow of Redemptive History is mediated to us by the covenant keeping God (Hebrews 1:1) Our knowledge now has a Christic-shape and is the consummation of a pattern that flowed through OT scriptures to NT Scriptures.

a priori knowledge

knowledge that is acquired independently of any particular experience as opposed to a posteriori knowledge, which is derived from experience. The Latin phrases a priori ("from what is before") and a posteriori ("from what is after")

a posteriori knowledge

knowledge, which is derived from experience.

Corum Deo

living before the face of God; living like God is with you at that very moment

Infralapsarianism

maintains that God first decreed the Creation and the Fall, and then considering all men as fallen, mercifully elected some to salvation while the others were passed over or reprobated.

Sensus Divinitatis

mankind has an inner sense of God

Preservation

may be defined as that continuous work of God by which He maintains the things which He created, together with the properties and powers with which He endowed them.

Four Points on the Absurdity of Life Without God

moral relativism, cosmic orphanism, social nihilism, intellectual hypocrisy

Elohim- The Strong and Mighty one

or as the object of fear; full of life and power (the plurality of the name indicates). The name 'Elohim' describes the Divine Being in his original relationship and in his continuous causal relationship to the universe.

Infinity

refers to the fact that God is not subject to any of the limitations of humanity or of creation in general

Ectypal Theology

refers to the kind of theology that we can understand. God accommodates his archetypal knowledge of himself to human speech and signs so that we can understand it. Most prominently, God assumed a human nature in Christ in which God's subsisting knowledge exists side-by-side with our subsisting knowledge in one person: Christ (John 1:1, 14, 18). We see how ectypal theology works in Christ's union of divinity and humanity. In him, God communicates himself to creatures like us. The person of Christ, with his two subsisting natures, enables us to do theology with the deepest and truest knowledge of God (John 1:18). Yet Christ, according to his divinity, nevertheless knows himself archetypically. But as creatures, we know God in Christ and through the Spirit according to ectypal theology—by seeing Christ in Scripture and experiencing him by the Spirit.

Moral Attribute

shared, those characteristics of God that God wants to reproduce in us; characteristics that man can emulate on a limited basis

Moral Relativism

since God does not exist, no action can be truly considered wrong

Gregory of Nazianzus

stated that to start theology we have to admit that we cannot name God. He did not mean we cannot give names to God! The Bible names God. His point was that we cannot define God fully, perfectly. God is so unlike us that we cannot fully understand him in his infinity.

Why does God reveal himself to humankind?

that they may know him and receive eternal life

Divine Concurrence

the co-operation of the divine power with all subordinate powers, according to the pre-established laws of their operation, causing them to act and to act precisely as they do. This doctrine implies two things: (1) That the powers of nature do not work by themselves, that is, simply by their own inherent power, but that God is immediately operative in every act of the creature. This must be maintained in opposition to the deistic position. (2) That second causes are real, and not to be regarded simply as the operative power of God. It is only on condition that second causes are real, that we can properly speak of a concurrence or co-operation of the First Cause with secondary causes. This should be stressed over against the pantheistic idea that God is the only agent working in the world.

Pantheism

the doctrine that the universe conceived of as a whole is God and, conversely, that there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe

Partialism Teaches That

the father, son, and spirit are all one third God

Anakephalaiosis (recapitulation)

the final repetition of a sequence that sums up and clarifies the meaning of all earlier parts of the sequence. Christ is the recapitulation of the old covenant.

Dualism (Descartes)

the presumption that mind and body are two distinct entities that interact

Prolepsis (anticipation)

the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished

Revelation

the self disclosure of God and truths about God and his relationship with people in the world, which could not be known any other way

General Revelation

the self disclosure of God which all men can perceive by contemplating evidences of his existence and his nature in the world of nature, history, and human life in general; unlimited revelation

Immutability

the unchangeableness of God in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises

Modalism Teaches That

there is one God who operates in three different ways but never all at the same time

Natural Attribute

unshared, those characteristics which only God can possess

John Calvin (on man's awareness of God)

who said "there is within the human mind and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity"?

WRT

with respect to