The Attributes of God
Why should we study the attributes of God?
Eventually everyone asks the big questions. Why am I here? Does life have purpose? Is there anything beyond this world?
I believe that looking deeply into who God is begins to answer these and other important questions.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.
Psalm 111:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever.
The first question in the Westminster shorter catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” The answer is, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”
The search for God is inherent in our hearts. We see the truth of this in three ways; first the idea of eternity and the fear of death, secondly the witness of conscience and finally, the imperative to worship.
In nature everything dies. If we are only a part of the natural world where did our fear and loathing of death come from? Doesn’t our natural hatred of death spring from an innate understanding that death is an unnatural interference against the eternity we rightly feel ought to belong to us?
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
There is also the witness of conscience. Animals kill without murder, take without greed and procreate without adultery. It is only men and women, made in the image of God, that find the workings of conscience troubling or encouraging.
Romans 2:14-15 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them
Everyone worships something. Many who will not worship God will find meaning and direction in a god they call ‘science’ or in any of thousands of other things. However the undeniable need to worship indicates the presence of some object to whom worship is proper and beneficial.
Joshua 24:15
Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
The search for God is inherent in our hearts. But is there a God to find? Let’s consider some arguments for the existence of God.
The Cosmological argument, sometimes called the Kalam, posits that everything that begins to exist has a cause. Since the universe began to exist, it has a cause. That first uncaused cause is God.
Evidence of meaning
“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.”
-C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
Evidence of order
The universe is fine tuned for the existence of life. If gravity, acceleration, or mass were but a hairsbreadth different no stars or planets could form and no life could exist. Because there is life in the universe it is reasonable to expect to find someone doing the fine tuning that permits it.
As we have seen there are reasons for our search for God but there is a problem. As finite beings who are in the universe it is barely possible to speculate about what is outside the universe and impossible to discover anything definite about it. Further, man’s rejection of God separates us from the Being that is outside the universe which leaves us in a darkness of ignorance.
Fortunately God himself has not left us in darkness but has revealed himself to all who will seek him. We have first, the Word of God, the most improbable collection of writings in history. The Bible was written over thousands of years in different languages and on different continents, by authors from many different walks of life. And yet it begins at the beginning and with perfect coherence tells the most remarkable story ever told and ends with the end. It stands alone as revelatory above all the books ever written.
Add to that the Spirit of God who inspired the Bible is now, in Christ, alive and speaking in the hearts of all who believe. With these twin guardrails we can safely engage human reason to discover what can be discovered concerning the nature and attributes of God.
Recommendations;
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
Reasonablefaith.org an apologetics site
brotherpayne 