Introduction to the Doctrine of God

Preface

In keeping with the purpose of this ministry this teaching is intended for seekers, new believers, and those who wish to reestablish their connection to the faith. It is an introduction to the doctrine of God which can be quite complex, but it can also be understood at a basic level necessary for salvation. In my experience in teaching the doctrine and in the experience of believers as they encounter God, I felt it would be beneficial to divide the teaching into two parts; Knowing God and Understanding God. While these two issues are different, they are deeply connected to each other with one progressing into the other.  A believer begins to know God as he first encounters Him. To know God is to be in relationship to Him. To understand God is to grow in the relationship with Him and to seek knowledge about Him. In this way the believer becomes closer to the object of his worship. As a student moves through the Doctrine of God the knowledge gained will bring maturity in the faith, spiritual growth, and greater transformation toward the likeness of Christ.

The Importance of The Doctrine of God

People may ask, “Why is the Doctrine of God so important?” My answer would be, “because all you have to do is look around to see the decline of a society that no longer knows God or seeks Him.” Darkness and evil are growing everywhere like an unstoppable cancer. God’s power of restraint has been loosened because mankind has abandoned His teachings and commandments. The world has been turned upside down, good is now evil and evil is now good. Violence, immorality, corruption, and paganism are rapidly increasing while society is moving toward moral collapse. So, if God is real, if He truly exists, then knowing Him, loving Him, and entering into a relationship with Him is the most important thing in life that a person can do. God is sovereign over all things, and He offers protection and salvation to those that are His. Only He has the power to restrain evil and restore peace.

Unfortunately, people are turning away from God and the Church in growing numbers. The knowledge of God, even among Christians, is at an all-time low. The source of their knowledge of God is not from the Bible, but from the popular media. For example, the idea that all religions worship the same God is quite popular, but it is a false teaching which contradicts biblical truth. God’s glory has been trampled and His image has been tarnished by these false beliefs. A.W. Tozer identified this situation masterfully decades ago in his book, “Fiery Faith.” Here are some of his quotes from the book:

“I don’t suppose there is ever a time in the history of the world when we needed a restored knowledge of God more than we need it now. We’ve suffered the loss of that high concept of God, and the concept of God handled by the average gospel church now is so low as to be unworthy of God and a disgrace to the church. Christianity has lost its dignity. And we’ll never get it back unless we know the dignified Holy God. But because the church has lost her lofty concept of God and no longer knows what God is like, her religion is thin and anemic, frivolous and worldly and cheap. This is the day of the common man–and we have not only all become common, but we’ve dragged God down to our mediocre level. If we can restore again knowledge of God to men, we can help to bring about a reformation that will restore God again to man.”

“Fiery Faith,” A.W. Tozer

Knowing God

The doctrine of God is in my opinion the most important doctrine of the Christian faith. I believe that unlike most other religious faiths, the God of Christianity is a personal God. He expresses His love for believers and desires their love. From the moment a person accepts Christ and becomes a Christian, he enters into a special relationship with God. His life will be transformed and directed by this relationship with the almighty God.

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”

John 14:23

The Christian life is a progressive transformation from a spiritual infant to a mature believer. The believer will be in relationship with all the persons of the Godhead as he grows in the faith. He will be in union with Christ as he strives to become Christlike. He be led and filled by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will lead him toward a life of holiness as he obeys the commandments of God, and his will becomes united with the Father’s will. The believer will be filled with the Spirit as he denies the desires of the flesh and instead seeks the desires of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit in the believer is the submission to the power of the Spirit to guide him toward actual holy, righteous, and godly conduct.  This is the sanctification process for every Christian and the relationship between God and the believer is the foundation of this process. Every Christian experiences hardships and difficulties in life, and God is always present with them as they pass through them. The believer must learn to rely on his relationship with God as he navigates through life’s peaks and valleys. We pray for God’s mighty hand to help us through hard times, and we give thanks to Him when we receive His blessings. All these things are the result of our relationship with God as we experience Him as the Triune Godhead; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the significance of the doctrine of God.

Knowing God Through Relationship: A True Story

The true-life story of Nicky Cruz is an example of how the doctrine of God unfolds in the life of the believer. Cruz was a violent leader of a New York street gang during the 1950’s. His path happened to cross the path a young pastor named David Wilkerson who introduced Cruz to Christ. Cruz resisted the pastor’s plea to accept Christ, but Christ prevailed, and Cruz accepted Christ as his savior. Cruz would abandon the gang life and become a street preacher. He would also write a few books detailing his experiences and promoting the Christian faith. The story of the encounter between Cruz and Wilkerson was written into a book by Wilkerson called The Cross and the Switchblade, and it was made into a Hollywood movie.

Cruz describes his conversion experience where he had no knowledge of Christian teachings or doctrines but knew only Christ who reached his heart and brought him to saving faith. This was the beginning of his relationship to God and where he began to know God. As the relationship grew so did his knowledge of God. To become closer to God he studied and learned the doctrines of God which included the Trinity, Christology, and the work of the Holy Spirit. This story is representative of how the believer progresses through his sanctification process. It begins by meeting God and develops into a relationship. This relationship is sufficient for saving faith, unfortunately many believers do not progress any further. So, this is where their spiritual life stalls. However, the sanctification process requires that the believer grow in wisdom and knowledge of the faith through the reading of Scripture and through teaching from church leaders and teachers. For those who continue to grow, understanding God is the next step in spiritual growth. In a relationship the more you know about a person the closer you become. The same goes for the relationship with God. As the believer’s bond with God becomes stronger so does the desire to learn more and to try to understand Him in His great majesty and glory. As the believer learns more about God and His attributes, the greater they see Him in His true Divinity—-and in turn the greater their worship and humbleness will be.

Knowing God is to be in Relationship with Him

*(note-the next block of instruction contains theological and philosophical terms which may not be familiar to many, so a glossary is included at the end for reference.)

Understanding God

Now that you have established your relationship with God then you will begin to understand that you are in a relationship with the Creator, the Saviour, and the Sanctifier. You will learn that your relationship extends to all three members of the Godhead; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three members will be involved in your sanctification process where you will be “transformed by the renewing of your mind,” (Rom. 12:2). You will be led to expand your knowledge through the reading of scripture and the study of the doctrines of the faith. As you grow and mature so does your understanding of God. You will acquire knowledge as if it were a set of building blocks, and then build a foundation upon which other blocks of knowledge will be placed to form your understanding of God. In the same way, learning the doctrines of God requires a foundation of knowledge before moving on to the more difficult doctrines. For example, in Christology a student must first learn the basic teachings of the person Christ before they attempt to learn the more difficult doctrines involving complex and abstract ideas. These more difficult doctrines require a great amount of time to learn for those who chose to advance to that level. Only a basic overview of the essential doctrines of God will be provided in this introduction. Hopefully, this teaching can fill the void that currently exists in the lack of teaching that exists in many churches. Lacking knowledge of the doctrine of God limits a believer’s relationship with God and hinders their spiritual growth.

The Incomprehensible God

It has been my experience in teaching students about the doctrine of God that many of them encounter a mental barrier as they move from the world of the natural to the realm of the supernatural. The nature of God, the heavenly realm, and the angels all exist in the supernatural dimension and must be understood from that perspective. Since God is an infinite supernatural being who is unlike humans who are physical in nature, they cannot get past trying to imagine Him in human terms. The Trinity is an example, which is the concept that God is one being existing as three persons. They struggle with this doctrine because their minds cannot get passed the mental barrier where they think only in human terms. God as the only infinite being is uncreated, He has always existed, without beginning or end. Because they cannot understand this, they reject it and here lies the difficulty in teaching the doctrine. Knowing that this barrier exists, the student must train his mind to transition from the natural world to the supernatural as he studies the nature of the being of God.

God exists in a form far above our understanding and we can only grasp at His existence based on what He has revealed to us in Scripture. Humans were created by the infinite God with finite minds able to understand the natural world. While mankind has progressed in knowledge, he/she cannot comprehend the infinite or try to place themselves on the same level of God by thinking that they can possess His same level of knowledge. We must proceed with the words given by the great 17th century Dutch theologian Wilhelmus A’Brakel, “Believers must not, nor do they desire to, proceed with their minds beyond its defined limitations.”

“First, it must be understood that God is incomprehensible in His Essence and existence. It should further be understood that we human beings, to whom God has been pleased to reveal Himself in a manner sufficient to lead us unto salvation, only know in part and are but able to grasp a fragment or the external fringes of the doctrine at hand. Believers must not, nor do they desire to, proceed with their minds beyond its defined limitations.”

_{Wilhelmus A Brakel, “The Christian’s Reasonable Service,” vol.1 pg. 139.}

The things that we can know about God through His revelation include the following:

• God is spirit. His essential nature is immaterial or non physical, (John 4:24).
• God is one. There is only one God whose nature or essence is perfect unity, (Deut. 6:4)
• God exists as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, (Matt. 3:16).
• God is transcendent. Transcendent meaning that He is beyond the universe, and beyond human intelligence and imagination. He exists outside of time and space and is able to enter and exit as desires. He is beyond and outside of the universe and cannot be reached unless He reaches out to us, (Psalm 145:3).
• God is infinite. God has no limits. He is limitless in His abilities and all of His attributes, (1Kings 8:27).
• God is eternal. He has always existed as He has no beginning or end. He existed before the creation and is the creator of all things that exist.
• God is omnipresent. He is present at every place in creation. There is no place that He is not present. As an infinite spirit being He is able to fill the creation with His presence.
• God is omniscient. He knows all things. God is perfect in His knowledge where He fully knows himself and all things actual and possible.
• God is immutable. God does not change. He is complete and perfect in all His attributes which are consistent and unchanged. He remains eternally unchanged as nothing outside of Himself can change Him.

“The above statements are essential teachings of the faith and are believed and taught by all three main branches of Christianity, the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches. These statements are included in their creeds and doctrines of faith. Any teachings that contradict any of these statements are considered false and are therefore heresy.”

The Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity is a perplexing mystery that is incomprehensible for us to fully understand, it can still be grasped by us at a very basic level. The fundamental concept is that the one God exists as three persons, each one fully God and sharing one essence. They have eternally existed in the relationship as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each is an individual person, and they mutually indwell each other as they share the same essence. They are united as one being and cannot be separated. They interact with each other as members of the Godhead. They each have assumed roles in the drama of redemption and in their relationship to the creation. The Father is creator, the Son is redeemer, and the Holy Spirit is sustainer.

The doctrine of the Trinity is an essential teaching of Christianity and any institution or group that denies this doctrine cannot claim to be Christian. There are some denominations and cults who deny this doctrine, but denial of this teaching is considered heresy, and it places a person or group outside of the faith. This doctrine is clearly taught in Scripture in various verses such as the following one where Jesus gives the Great Commission to His disciples; “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matt. 28:19).

Remember the doctrine as the teaching that God is one being existing as three persons. This doctrine can be understood by the believer in its most basic form just as Nicky Cruz did. Cruz described his understanding of the Trinity in the following simple way, “Jesus saved me, the Father forgave me; but the Holy Spirit convicted me, brought me to my knees, and showed me God.” In his conversion experience Cruz met Christ and came into relationship with Him. As he grew in his sanctification, he came into relationship with all three persons of the Godhead where he knew them all as God.

Christology

Christology is the study of Christ and His works. However, His works are also included in the doctrines of salvation and of soteriology(sin). His death on the cross also known as the atonement is the means for salvation for all of mankind, (see Atonement on the Sin drop down window). His life of obedience, perfect righteousness, and sinlessness is the basis for the righteousness given to believers at the time of their justification, (see Justification on the Salvation drop down window). As for the person of Christ, the council of Chalcedon, in 451, established what has been the official teaching of the Christian Church.

“There is one Jesus Christ, but He has two natures, the human and the divine. He is truly God and truly Man, composed of body and rational soul. He is consubstantial with the Father in His deity and consubstantial with man in His humanity, except for sin. In His deity He was begotten of the Father before time, and in His humanity, born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is not split or divided into two persons, He is one person, the Son of God.”

Christ is the second person of the Trinity. He has always existed in relationship to the Father as Son. He is the only begotten Son of the Father, which means that He is unique in His relationship to Father as the only son who is of the same essence as the Father. He is eternally God and is not a created being. Some believe that as the only begotten son He was God’s first created being. This is a false teaching and is refuted by the definition of God, which is that God is eternal in existence and is the creator, not the creature. In His earthly ministry He diminished His deity and took on the nature of man, being born through the virgin. He was fully God and fully man, living a sinless life and dying on the cross as mankind’s substitute to pay the penalty for sin. He was resurrected from the dead and now sits at the right hand of the Father. All authority has been given to Him as He reigns from Heaven. He will return as prophesized and will destroy evil and sin. He will destroy the heavens and the earth which will be replaced by the new heavens and earth. He is the Alpha and Omega; the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

The Holy Spirit

There is a false teaching by some of the cults of Christianity that view the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force. The teaching in Scripture is clear that the Holy Spirit is God as the third person of the Trinity. He is referred to many times in the Bible with the personal pronouns of He, and Him; “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you,” (John 14:17). So, the Spirit is fully God and is equal to the Father and the Son. The Spirit is mentioned in the first paragraph of the Bible where He is involved in the act of creation, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters,” (Gen. 1:2). The Holy Spirit is mentioned in various places in the Old Testament such as when He would come onto Samson as the source of his power, but it is in the New Testament that His ministry of redemption and regeneration are revealed as He is the Comforter promised by Christ after His resurrection.

The mission of the Holy Spirit is best described in The Westminster Confession of Faith.

“The Holy Spirit, whom the Father is ever willing to give to all who ask him, is the only efficient agent in the application of redemption. He regenerates men by his grace, convicts them of sin, moves them to repentance, and persuades and enables them to embrace Jesus Christ by faith. He unites all believers to Christ, dwells in them as their Comforter and Sanctifier, gives to them the Spirit of adoption and prayer, and performs all these gracious offices by which they are sanctified and sealed unto the day of redemption.”

Concluding Remarks

The Doctrine of God which includes the knowledge of God and the believer’s relationship with Him are the foundation on which the Christian life stands. There is no greater achievement in life than to know God and to be loved by Him. In these dark times of great spiritual warfare where the forces of light are in growing conflict with the forces of darkness, and the rise of evil is causing destruction throughout the world; it is essential to draw closer to God and to increase your knowledge of the doctrine of God. You are a servant of God who is expected to help bring those who are in the Kingdom of Darkness, into the Kingdom of Light. For those who are in darkness will descend further into wickedness. Therefore, those who are of the light must stand steadfast in God’s word and truth. May God bless your pursuit of His word and teachings.

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Glossary

• Being– The most basic characteristic or property of all things that exist, their reality.
• Person– A living individual, an existing substance with the ability to reason.
• Spirit– A being that does not have a material substance. Nonphysical being such as God or an angel.
• Essence– Something that is or exists. It is those properties or qualities that make a being or thing precisely what it is, and not something else. It distinguishes the species or class of a thing.
• Godhead– The nature of God as He exists in the form of a triune being; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• Finite– Having measurable or definable limits, not infinite.
• Infinite– Lacking limits or bounds. Extending beyond measure or comprehension, without beginning or end. Endless. In relation to God, infinity is a property that extends to all of His attributes; omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, etc.
• Supernatural– That which is beyond the natural order. Existing or occurring outside the normal experience or knowledge of man. Not explainable by the known forces or laws of nature.

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