Some of God’s qualities are explicitly defined in the Bible, and can only be true, without room for philosophical speculation.
- That doesn’t mean we can’t take guesses at many other components of God, but it does mean there are certain constants.
Even without the Bible, we can still logically conclude God’s existence through induction.
- Kalam argument: Everything started with something, so God is that something that started everything.
- Liebniz argument: Everything has an explanation for it, so God explains the universe’s existence.
- Fine-Tuning argument: The universe is highly ordered and necessary for life to exist, so something must have fine-tuned it, and it’s absurd to presume it came from pure randomness.
- Moral argument: morality requires God to exist, and morals do exist, so God exists.
- Ontological argument: There’s something that’s the “greatest” to compare everything to, and that’s God.
God is a mystery
God is unlike any other being in our experience (Psalm 113: 5–6, Isaiah 55:8–9, Isaiah 57:15, John 8:23).
We understand God through theology (i.e., “knowledge of God”).
- God has an eternal and infinite nature, so we need a decent capacity for philosophy to understand His viewpoint.
- We can partially understand God, but won’t be able to fully understand Him in this life (1 Corinthians 13:9–12).
- Thankfully, there are no intellectual barriers to loving people, meaning everyone can act in awareness of God.
God is forever the same
God has a few frequently used names:
- Elohim
- “El” means “strength” or “strong one”, and “ohim” comes from “Alah”, meaning to bind oneself by an oath.
- Altogether, it most clearly relates to “reverence”.
- YHWH or Yahweh
- The Jews felt God’s name was too sacred to pronounce with vowels, so we don’t know how it would sound (e.g., “Yehwah”, “Ayohuweho”).
- Adonai, which means “lord, master, or husband”.
God is self-existing (Exodus 3:14, Psalm 90:2, John 1:1–5, John 5:26, Colossians 1:15–17).
God is eternal (Psalm 102:12, Hebrews 13:8).
- While we can understand infinity as a concept of time, eternity is entirely removed from time.
God doesn’t change, even from outside influences (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17), which is tricky with the person of Jesus (see below).
God is love
God’s attributes literally define love (Deuteronomy 7:7–8, John 14:31, Romans 5:5-8, Romans 8:35–39, 1 John 4:8–16).
God is good (Exodus 34:6-7, Psalm 25:8, James 1:17).
God is gracious (Psalm 145:17, Romans 3:24, Romans 5:15, Romans 5:20, Ephesians 4:7, Hebrews 4:16).
God is nearby and actively involved (Jeremiah 23:23–24, Acts 17:27–28, Haggai 2:5).
Only God has the right and ability to deliver judgment
God is holy, which means perfectly pure (Exodus 3:5–6, 1 Samuel 2:2, Psalm 99:2-3, Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8).
God is righteous, which is holiness applied to action (Genesis 18:25, Psalm 19:7-9, Psalm 145:17, Jeremiah 9:24).
God knows everything (Ezekiel 11:5, Psalm 147:5, Acts 15:18, Romans 2:6, Romans 11:33, Hebrews 4:13, 1 John 3:20).
God is fair and just (Genesis 18:25, Exodus 34:6-7, Nehemiah 9:32–33, Psalm 99:4, Romans 1:32, Romans 9:14–33, 1 Peter 1:17).
God is merciful (Psalm 6:4, Romans 9:23–24, Ephesians 2:4, Titus 3:5, Hebrews 4:16, 1 Peter 1:3).
God is all-powerful (Psalm 115:3, Jeremiah 32:17, Matthew 19:26, Mark 14:36, Romans 11:36, Ephesians 1:11, Hebrews 1:3).
God is all-present (1 Kings 8:27, Job 11:7–9, Psalm 90:1-2, Psalm 139:7-10, Jeremiah 23:23–24).
- God isn’t necessarily in everything, but He certainly can be anywhere He wants.
God’s characteristics and actions are not the same
God can certainly be wrathful, but only as a response to evil.
Relative to us, He has many roles:
- King of kings and Lord of lords (Deuteronomy 10:17, 1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 19:16).
- The Great Physician (Psalm 103:3, Matthew 14:14, James 5:16).
- The Great Lawyer (Isaiah 40:8, Matthew 5:18, Luke 16:17).
- The Great Teacher (Job 35:11, 1 Corinthians 1:27).
- The Great Artist (Job 37:14–16, Psalm 96:11–12, Ecclesiastes 3:11).
- The Great Recordkeeper (2 Samuel 14:11, Luke 21:28).
- A Consuming Fire (Hebrews 12:29, Deuteronomy 4:24).
Jesus is God
Jesus consistently claimed to be equal with God using a slightly cryptic tone (John 8:58, Mark 2:1–12, Mark 2:28, Mark 14:60–64).
Jesus is also, however, fully man (Matthew 16:3, Matthew 20:28).
Like the Trinity, it’s difficult for us to understand how Jesus is 100% man and 100% equal with God.
- He couldn’t have risen from the dead or done miracles if He didn’t have God’s power.
- He couldn’t have legitimately died if He wasn’t a man.
- We’re obviously not God, so it requires more philosophical analysis.
Jesus’ entire message requires people to take His divine humanity as a literal concept, so Christians in this life will always be stuck with a paradox of understanding.
There is no direct significance about the name “Jesus” or “Jesus Christ”.
- The modern styling would be “Josh the Savior”.
- Many Jewish people were called Jesus up to the second century AD, and it should more accurately be phrased “Yeshua”, borrowed from “Joshua”.
- The word “Joshua” was contracted from “Jehoshua”, which meant “Jehovah the Savior”.
- “Christ” simply means “Messiah” or “Savior”, which describes His role.
- Calling Him “Lord” is a far more pronounced reality, since the power dynamic is extremely discrepant.
- He goes by many other names, and here are a few examples:
- Branch (Isaiah 11:1)
- Banner for People (Isaiah 11:10)
- Desire of All Nations (Haggai 2:7)
- Peacemaker (Shiloh) (Genesis 49:10)
- Prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15)
- Redeemer (Psalm 19:14)
- Savior (Acts 5:3)
- While calling on His name has significance (Romans 10:13, Joel 2:32), the meaning behind calling on it is far more significant than the name itself.
God is a Trinity of three persons
God is a Father, a Son, and a Spirit (Matthew 12:31, John 16:3, John 16:8, Acts 5:3, Acts 7:51, Acts 8:39, Acts 10:19–20, Romans 8:26–27, 1 Corinthians 2:10–11, 1 Corinthians 12:11, Ephesians 4:30, Hebrews 10:29).
At least two persons of God (the Father and Son) are distinctly male.
- Some metaphors express female attributes, but very rarely (Matthew 23:37, Luke 15).
God is One, but also three unique people who are all the same God (Matthew 28:19, Luke 1:35, John 14:16–17, John 14:23).
- The Trinity involves three highly interconnected relationships that closely resemble a family, but more intimately than we’re capable of imagining.
- Love always requires a giver and receiver, and the Trinity makes Him the only being that can love as both essence and action.
One of our most difficult challenges is understanding the Trinity
The Bible clearly shows separate divine relationships:
- Jesus is distinctly different from God (John 1:1, John 1:14, John 4:25–26, John 8:24, John 10:30, 1 John 5:7).
- At the same time, Jesus is the same as God (Isaiah 7:14, Luke 2:21, Colossians 2:9–10, Hebrews 1:8, 1 Timothy 3:16).
- Jesus and the Holy Spirit are distinctly different (Matthew 1:20, Romans 8:9).
- The Father and the Holy Spirit are distinctly different (John 14:26, John 15:26, 1 Corinthians 2:10).
We don’t have any decent comparisons to the Trinity:
- Water (solid, liquid, and gas) or light (primary colors that add to make white) fail in their analogy because external conditions define their form.
- Our body, soul, and spirit can somewhat compare, but our essence is still all contained entirely within the same being.
With God being a Trinity, by deduction each Person will have a different perspective, each with at least a slightly different understanding of something (Matthew 24:36, John 6:38).
The presence of a Trinity is the only logical way many things can happen within Christianity.
- Jesus can’t pray to the Father in any meaningful way without having some degree of difference from the Father.
- We can’t live to be like Jesus if Jesus isn’t human.
- The Father can’t deliver judgment fairly if He’s a finite human.
- The arguments for the existence of God can prove the Father’s existence, but they don’t necessarily prove anything about Jesus.
- Without the Son possessing at least some scarcity of information while also being God, then God wouldn’t need to respond to human changes.
- Without changes, there is effectively no free will because God is simply acting out a predetermined script.
- There is no legitimate relationship with God whatsoever without a God who can respond to us in some capacity.
- Jesus has been described as the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15), and the Trinity makes it possible for God to always exist while also deciding to change for the sake of His creation.
We can’t know everything about God
God created us in His image, but we aren’t God (Genesis 1:27).
Our finite nature means we can’t fully understand Him (Psalm 103:15–16).
What we know about God means He can’t be a few things
God isn’t “tame” or weak.
God isn’t self-contradicting, petty, or fickle.
God isn’t conventional or predictable.
God isn’t simply a cosmic energy or “in all of us”.
Further Reading
God’s Names
In-depth