ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE WHO IS GOD?
DON'T FORGET THE BIBLE DISCUSSION ON MATTHEW 11:28-30 IS STILL GOING ON BELOW. MAKE SURE TO ADD SOME INSIGHT TO THE DISCUSSION.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Bible Discussion July 15, 2010
I just wanted to throw out a challenging question and see if we had any takers. My question is who does the Bible say God is? How do we describe the nature and character of God? I think that this one is going to take a lot of research. Lets make sure that we use Biblical proof to back up our answers. Click on the comments link to add your answer and start discussing.
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In Isaiah Chapter 48 vs 16, this to me affirms the Triune God. Then in the next vs, 17 " Thus says" the Lord your Redeemer " I did not realize until it was pointed out to me, that it seems that Jesus is speaking to us. So as I thought of this, the nature of God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament He is stating the Law to prepare us for the Gospel and the coming of Himself as the Son. Is that what is meant by the character?
ReplyDeleteSorry, not going to use bible references but here it is.
ReplyDeleteGod is 3 persons in one being. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He is plural in one. In Hebrew, the word for God is 'Elohim' which is in plural form. The word 'Elohim' includes all parts of the Godhead in it. The singular form to the word 'Elohim' is 'Elohai' (pronounced El-oh-hay) which only represents The Father. When Jesus prayed when He was on earth, He prayed to The Father as 'Elohai'.
In the Hebrew prayer the 'Shema' the prayer reads 'Shema Israel Adonai Elohainu Adonai Ehad', which translates to 'Here oh Israel The Lord our God The Lord is One.' This is tricky though, because 'Ehad' means one, but it is one as in when parts come together to become one. Like in Genesis where a man and woman come together to become one flesh, the same when the 3 different parts of God come together to become 'Ehad' one.
Yes thats what I was getting at. I really like the example you gave
ReplyDelete"Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me"Isaiah 48:16
(It seems to me that this is the some voice that says almost 700 years later "before Abraham was I AM" John 8:58)
Anyways I think we also learn a lot about the triune character of God from the first chapter of Genesis. Just like Kleist2 says in the comment above, Elohim is the the original name used for God in the Hebrew. Elohim is also plural. So with that in mind:
"Then Elohim said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" Genesis 1:26
"Then the Lord Elohim said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us" Genesis 3:22
Its crazy to think that when Genesis was inspired by God and put into words around 1300 B.C.; He was giving us clues about who He was and who was to come.
OK Justin here is my thought on who God is, Although i do have a horrible ability to cite passage; but Ill try.
ReplyDeleteI begin with Exudus 3:14-15, as stated
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
15And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
These verses are the first to correlate to who God is and what his true name is.
The Tetragrammaton occurs 6,828 times in the Hebrew Bible. The term Tetragrammaton (from Greek τετραγράμματον, meaning "[a word] having four letters" [1]) refers to the Hebrew name of the God of Israel YHWH (Hebrew: יהוה) used in the Hebrew Bible. However the True pronunciation is lost to History due the fact that the true name of the LORD is to sacred to be said by the unpure; hence we say LORD (all capitals) for YAHWEH.
In Ancient Greek, Greek translation of Tetragrammaton from Ancient Hebrew, "Ehyeh asher ehyeh," is, in Greek, "ego eimi ho on", meaning, "I am the BEING".
Thus we are starting to get an idea of who god is,the I AM THAT I AM, and/or I am the BEING.
To me, The I AM THAT I AM, denotes that he is the Alpha and the Omega, because God already was, and will continue to be so. Thus this lends itself to being the Triune, The Trinity, The Godhead. If God is the BEING that was and is, Then he would be the Father who created all. He also would be the Holy Spirit that we see and feel when we are near God and feel his essence. God, The I AM THAT I AM, would also be the Son as he fulfills all that he has told us through scripture and prophesy. I feel that the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, Describes who God is in its simplicity and directness. The God that we believe in, Is the Being, the I AM THE I AM, ELOHIM, the Alpha and the Omega.
I also found that when you type out the names of God, it is important to write those names in caps to show the greatness of the name that describes him.