The Great Doctrines of the Bible Part 4

The ominiscience of G.o.d is abduced as the proof that He alone is G.o.d, especially as contrasted with the G.o.ds (idols) of the heathen: Isa. 48:5-8--"I have even from the beinning declared it unto thee; before it came to pa.s.s I showed it thee.....I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things," etc. 46:9, 10--"I am G.o.d....declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Here G.o.d is announcing to His prophets things that are to occur in the future which it is impossible for the human understanding to know or reach. There is no past, present, future with G.o.d. Everything is one great living present. We are like a man standing by a river in a low place, and who, consequently, can see that part of the river only that pa.s.ses by him; but he who is aloof in the air may see the whole course of the river, how it rises, and how it runs. Thus is it with G.o.d.

(2) Certain problems in connection with the doctrine of the Omniscienc of G.o.d.

How the divine intelligence can comprehend so vast and mult.i.tudinous and exhaustless a number of things must forever surpa.s.s our comprehension. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of G.o.d! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Rom. 11:33). "There is no searching of his understanding; it is beyond human computation." We must expect, therefore, to stand amazed in the presence of such matchless wisdom, and find problems in connection therewith which must for the time, at least, remain unsolved.

Again, we must not confound the foreknowledge of G.o.d with His foreordination. The two things are, in a sense, distinct. The fact that G.o.d foreknows a thing makes that thing certain but not necessary. His foreordination is based upon His foreknowledge.

Pharaoh was responsible for the hardening of his heart even though that hardening process was foreknown and foretold by G.o.d. The actions of men are considered certain but not necessary by reason of the divine foreknowledge.

b) The Omnipotence of G.o.d.

The Omnipotence of G.o.d is that attribute by which He can bring to pa.s.s everything which He wills. G.o.d's power admits of no bounds or limitations. G.o.d's declaration of His intention is the pledge of the thing intended being carried out. "Hath he said, and shall he not do it?"

(1) Scriptural declarations of the fact; In general:

Job 42:2.(R. V.)--"I know that thou canst do everything (all things), and that no purpose of thine can be restrained." The mighty review of all G.o.d's works as it pa.s.ses before Job (context) brings forth this confession: "There is no resisting thy might, and there is no purpose thou canst not carry out." Gen. 18:14--"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" What had ceased to be possible by natural means comes to pa.s.s by supernatural means.

(2) Scriptural declaration of the fact; In detail:

_aa) In the world of nature:_

Gen. 1:1-3--"G.o.d created the heaven and the earth. And G.o.d said, Let there be light, and there was light." Thus "he spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast." He does not need even to give His hand to the work; His word is sufficient. Psa. 107:25-29--"He raiseth the stormy wind ... he maketh the storm calm." "Even the winds and the sea obey him." G.o.d's slightest word, once uttered, is a standing law to which all nature must absolutely conform. Nahum 1:5, 6--"The mountains quake at him ... the hills melt ... the earth is burned at his presence ... the rocks are thrown down by him." If such is His power how shall a.s.syria withstand it? This is G.o.d's comforting message to Israel. Everything in the sky, in sea, on earth is absolutely subject to His control.

_bb) In the experience of mankind:_

How wonderfully this is ill.u.s.trated in the experience of Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. 4; and in the conversion of Saul, Acts 9; as well as in the case of Pharaoh, Exod. 4:11. James 4:12-15--" ... For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that." All human actions, whether present or future, are dependent upon the will and power of G.o.d. These things are in G.o.d's, not in man's, power. See also the parable of the Rich Fool, Luke 12:16-21.

_cc) The heavenly inhabitants are subject to His will and word:_

Dan. 4:35 (R. V.)--"He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven." Heb. 1:14--"Are they (angels) not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"

It has been said that angels are beings created by the power of G.o.d for some specific act of service, and that after that act of service is rendered they pa.s.s out of existence.

_dd) Even Satan is under the control of G.o.d_

Satan has no power over any of G.o.d's children saving as G.o.d permits him to have. This fact is clearly established in the case of Job (1:12 and 2:6). and Peter (Luke 22:31,32), in which we are told that Satan had pet.i.tioned G.o.d that he might sift the self-righteous patriarch and the impulsive apostle. Finally Satan is to be forever bound with a great chain (Rev. 20:2). G.o.d can set a bar to the malignity of Satan just as he can set a bar to the waves of the sea.

c) The Omnipresence of G.o.d.

By the Omnipresence of G.o.d is meant that G.o.d is everywhere present. This attribute is closely connected with the omniscience and omnipotence of G.o.d, for if G.o.d is everywhere present He is everywhere active and possesses full knowledge of all that transpires in every place.

This does not mean that G.o.d is everywhere present in a bodily sense, nor even in the same sense; for there is a sense in which He may be in heaven, His dwelling place, in which He cannot be said to be elsewhere. We must guard against the pantheistic idea which claims that G.o.d _is_ everything, while maintaining the Scriptural doctrine that He is everywhere present in all things. Pantheism emphasizes the omnipresent activity of G.o.d, but denies His personality. Those holding the doctrine of pantheism make loud claims to philosophic ability and high intellectual training, but is it not remarkable that it is in connection with this very phase of the doctrine of G.o.d that the Apostle Paul says "they became fools"? (Rom. 1.) G.o.d is everywhere and in every place; His center is everywhere; His circ.u.mference nowhere. But this presence is a spiritual and not a material presence; yet it is a real presence.

(1) Scriptural statement of the fact.

Jer. 23:23, 24-"Am I a G.o.d at hand, saith the Lord, and not a G.o.d afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." Did the false prophets think that they could hide their secret crimes from G.o.d? Or that He could not pursue them into foreign countries? Or that He knew what was transpiring in heaven only and not upon the earth, and even in its most distant corners?

It was false for them to thus delude themselves--their sins would be detected and punished (Psa. 10:1-14).

Psa. 139:7-12--"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence," etc. How wondrously the attributes of G.o.d are grouped in this psalm. In vv. 1-6 the psalmist speaks of the omniscience of G.o.d: G.o.d knows him through and through. In vv.

13-19 it is the omnipotence of G.o.d which overwhelms the psalmist.

The omnipresence of G.o.d is set forth in vv. 7-12. The psalmist realizes that he is never out of the sight of G.o.d any more than he is outside of the range of His knowledge and power. G.o.d is in heaven; "h.e.l.l is naked before Him"; souls in the intermediate state are fully known to Him (cf. Job 26:2; Jonah 2:2); the darkness is as the light to Him. Job 22:12-14--"Is not G.o.d in the height of heaven? . . . . Can he judge through the dark cloud? Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not," etc. All agreed that G.o.d displayed His presence in the heaven, but Job had inferred from this that G.o.d could not know and did not take notice of such actions of men as were hidden behind the intervening clouds. Not that Job was atheistic; no, but probably denied to G.o.d the attribute of omnipresence and omniscience. Acts 17:24-28--"For in him we live, and move, and have our being." Without His upholding hand we must perish; G.o.d is our nearest environment. From these and many other scriptures we are clearly taught that G.o.d is everywhere present and acting; there is no place where G.o.d is not.

This does not mean that G.o.d is everywhere present in the same sense.

For we are told that He is in heaven, His dwelling-place (1 Kings 8:30); that Christ is at His right hand in heaven (Eph. 1:20); that G.o.d's throne is in heaven (Rev. 21:2; Isa. 66:1).

We may summarize the doctrine of the Trinity thus: G.o.d the Father is specially manifested in heaven; G.o.d the Son has been specially manifested on the earth; G.o.d the Spirit is manifested everywhere.

Just as the soul is present in every part of the body so G.o.d is present in every part of the world.

(2) Some practical inferences from this doctrine.

First, _of Comfort:_ The nearness of G.o.d to the believer.

"Speak to Him then for He listens. And spirit with spirit can meet; Closer is He than breathing, And nearer than hands or feet."

"G.o.d is never so far off, As even to be near; He is within. Our spirit is the home He holds most dear. To think of Him as by our side is almost as untrue, As to remove His shrine beyond those skies of starry blue."--_Faber._ The omnipresence is not only a detective truth--it is protective also. After dwelling on this great and awful attribute in Psalm 139, the psalmist, in vv. 17, 18, exclaims: "How precious are thy thoughts to me..... When I awake I am still with thee." By this is meant that G.o.d stands by our side to help, and as One who loves and understands us (Matt.

28:20).

Second, _of Warning:_ "As in the Roman empire the whole world was one great prison to a malefactor, and in his flight to the most distant lands the emperor could track him, so under the government of G.o.d no sinner can escape the eye of the judge." Thus the omnipresence of G.o.d is detective as well as protective. "Thou G.o.d seest me," should serve as warning to keep us from sin.

d) The Eternity and Immutability of G.o.d.

The word _eternal_ is used in two senses in the Bible: figuratively, as denoting existence which may have a beginning, but will have no end, e. g., angels, the human soul; literally, denoting an existence which has neither beginning nor ending, like that of G.o.d. Time has past, present, future; eternity has not. Eternity is infinite duration without any beginning, end, or limit--an ever abiding present. We can conceive of it only as duration indefinitely extended from the present moment in two directions--as to the past and as to the future. "One of the deaf and dumb pupils in the inst.i.tution of Paris, being desired to express his idea of the eternity of the Deity, replied: 'It is duration, without beginning or end; existence, without bounds or dimension; present, without past or future. His eternity is youth, without infancy or old age; life, without birth or death; today, without yesterday or tomorrow.'"

By the Immutability of G.o.d is meant that G.o.d's nature is absolute|y unchangeable. It is not possible that He should possess one attribute at one time that He does not possess at another. Nor can there be any change in the Deity for better or for worse. G.o.d remains forever the same. He is without beginning and without end; the self-existent "I am"; He remains forever the same, and unchangeable.

(1) Scriptural statement of the fact: The Eternity of G.o.d

Hab. 1:12--"Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my G.o.d, mine Holy One?" Chaldea had threatened to annihilate Israel. The prophet cannot believe it possible, for has not G.o.d _eternal_ purposes for Israel? Is He not holy? How, then, can evil triumph? Psa.

90:2--"Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art G.o.d." Short and transitory is the life of man; with G.o.d it is otherwise. The perishable nature of man is here compared with the imperishable nature of G.o.d. Psa. 102:24-27--"I said, O my G.o.d, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.

But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." With the perishable nature of the whole material creation the psalmist contrasts the imperishable nature of G.o.d. Exod. 3:14--"And G.o.d said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM." The past, present and future lies in these words for the name of Jehovah. Rev. 1:8--"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."

(2) Scriptural statement of the Immutability of G.o.d:

Mal 3:6--"1 am the Lord, I change not." Man's hope lies in that fact, as the context here shows Man had changed in his life and purpose toward G.o.d, and if G.o.d, like man, had changed, man would have been destroyed. James 1:17--"The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." There is no change--in the sense of the degree or intensity of light such as is manifested in the heavenly bodies. Such lights are constantly varying and changing; not so with G.o.d. There is no inherent, indwelling, possible change in G.o.d. 1 Sam. 15:29.--"And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent." From these scriptures we a.s.sert that G.o.d, in His nature and character, is absolutely without change.

Does G.o.d Repent?

What, then, shall we say with regard to such scriptures as Jonah 3:10 and Gen. 6:6--"And G.o.d repented of the evil, that he said he would do unto them." "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." In reply we may say that G.o.d does not change, but threatens that men may change.

"The repentent att.i.tude in G.o.d does not involve any real change in the character and purposes of G.o.d. He ever hates the sin and ever pities and loves the sinner; that is so both before and after the sinner's repentance. Divine repentance is therefore the same principle acting differently in altered circ.u.mstances. If the prospect of punishment answers the same purpose as that intended by the punishment itself, then there is no inconsistency in its remission, for punishment is not an end, it is only a means to goodness, to the reign of the law of righteousness." When G.o.d appears to be displeased with anything, or orders it differently from what we expected, we say, after the manner of men, that He repents. G.o.d's att.i.tude towards the Ninevites had not changed, but they had changed; and because they had changed from sin unto righteousness, G.o.d's att.i.tude towards them and His intended dealings with them as sinners must of necessity change, while, of course, G.o.d's character had in no wise changed with respect to these people, although His dealings with them had. So that we may say that G.o.d's _character_ never changes, but His _dealings_ with men change as they change from unG.o.dliness to G.o.dliness and from disobedience unto obedience. "G.o.d's immutability is not that of the stone, that has no internal experience, but rather that of the column of mercury that rises and falls with every change in the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. When a man bicycling against the wind turns about and goes with the wind instead of going against it, the wind seems to change, although it is blowing just as it was before." --_Strong_.

2. THE MORAL ATTRIBUTES.

a) The Holiness of G.o.d.

If there is any difference in importance in the attributes of G.o.d, that of His Holiness seems to occupy the first place. It is, to say the least, the one attribute which G.o.d would have His people remember Him by more than any other. In the visions of Himself which G.o.d granted men in the Scriptures the thing that stood out most prominent was the divine holiness. This is clearly seen by referring to the visions of Moses, Job, and Isaiah. Some thirty times does the Prophet Isaiah speak of Jehovah as "the Holy One,"

thus indicating what feature of those beatific visions had most impressed him.

The holiness of G.o.d is the message of the entire Old Testament.

To the prophets G.o.d was the absolutely Holy One; the One with eyes too pure to behold evil; the One swift to punish iniquity. In taking a photograph, the part of the body which we desire most to see is not the hands or feet, but the face. So is it with our vision of G.o.d. He desires us to see not His hand and finger, denoting His power and skill, nor even His throne as indicating His majesty.

It is His holiness by which He desires to be remembered as that is the attribute which most glorifies Him. Let us bear this fact in mind as we study this attribute of the divine nature. It is just this vision of G.o.d that we need today when the tendency to deny the reality or the awfulness of sin is so prevalent. Our view of the necessity of the atonement will depend very largely upon our view of the holiness of G.o.d. Light views of G.o.d and His holiness will produce light views of sin and the atonement.