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God’s Nature

Several arguments are used to show that both God and man are triune in nature. The argument appears to be both sound and logical, until one takes time to consider the argument. The argument favors the similarity of three components for both God and man in these comparisons.  In this traditional example God is found as three persons and man is divided into three components (body, soul and Spirit.) Ultimately one can conclude a common number of three for both sides of the comparison.

If Christians are going to define both God and man as three components they must use the same reason to derive a just and fair opinion. Christians have a right to believe that God is three persons, but one God, and that man is body, soul and spirit. Why isn’t man triune for the same reason God is triune?  The common rule in comparing is to compare apple to apple. The reason that God is triune in nature is that God is a unit of three persons in this particular argument.  For a proper comparison the example should be based on the number of persons in each respective unit or the nature of each respective unit. Isn’t man a unit of two persons?

The church defines God as three united, but co-existing persons with the names of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Frankly, defining God and man as a triune being is easy to do when the rules for defining each sample differ. Christians support their beliefs that man is body, soul and spirit with the following scripture.

Verifying this particular view is not difficult,

However, man can be also described as having additional attributes verified by scriptures.

Correctly handling the word can be frustrating when trying to decide which view is right with all the ways man has been described in the Bible.

Can we answer a question God asked of Job?

No one knows the thoughts God had when he designed and formed man out of the dust of the earth. In addition they were not present to observe what God made men from, all we have is an account that has been given to us. The complexity of man is beyond our comprehension when you consider that man has had a glimmer of the vast wealth of God’s knowledge. What is certain is that God made man a completely assembled and working unit.

The Bible tells man that God’s nature has been clearly seen and understood.

God has given man eyes to see and ears to hear so man can comprehend his greatness, but do we exercise our sensory receptors as God intended them to be used? Everything in creation amplifies and reveals the person who created the environment we live in. The problem is not in what we perceive of the creation, but in how we exercise our minds to express our beliefs. Besides the visual evidence of the creation, God in his infinite wisdom inspired a written account of his creation and gave that account to man. Therefore, men should be able to understand how God presented himself in harmony with the information that eyes and ears perceive.

God gave man two witnesses, a perceivable environment and a written account to corroborate his person and creation. These two witnesses ensure man’s comprehension of a great and awesome God and therefore leave man without an excuse. Corroborated fact leaves no room for doubt especially when man can understand the things God created through his eyes and ears, what he has touched with his hands and the ability to express his thoughts through writing and speech.

Being made in the image and likeness of God tells me that man was designed by God to reflect his glory like the crystal sea that sparkles from the reflected brilliance of God light. In the same way that Cain and Abel were born in the image of and likeness of Adam and Eve using the same language to show that man was formed out of the dust of the earth to resemble God in appearance.

How do the things God created explain God’s nature so that man is without excuse? Why did God create life to function on the basis of bearing seed after its own kind? While life sustains itself through the bearing seed after its own kind, it remains in seed form until it is activated through fertilization. God created plant, animal and human life in the mature state and commanded that they produce seed after their own kind. Intelligent men say the combination of DNA in the egg and fertilization creates a replicate in the generation that follows.

There is no if, and, or buts about creation In the beginning God created the heavens and earth Genesis 1:1. On the sixth day God said let us make man in our image and likeness. Genesis 1:26. When God said let us make man it was a combined effort of what the word - us –means. Then God used the word - our- to reflect that there was more than one person within the group God exists in. By the end of verse 27 God had created the male and female and called the two them man in the sense that they were a unit.

In the second chapter of Genesis God brought and presented Eve to Adam. Adam said,

Then God said,

What is important to remember is that God created Eve from the flesh and bone of Adam, so technicality speaking they were created from the same dust. When they first met and before they knew each other, God stated how the human unit would function in the future. God said, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. This before Adam and eve knew what it meant to be a parent or what family was.

God created two human beings that were from the earth and biological in nature, as a compatible helpmate. He then instructed them that they were to cling to each other and united them in what men call marriage. Jesus added to this by saying

Lets not focus on the gender, but on the image God created in his likeness. That image was of two persons in a committed relationship.

Its not hard to understand that the joining of the male and female has occurred billions of times even in places where the word of God has not been preached. Uniformly throughout the world, the bride drops her maiden name and becomes known by the name of her husband. When she drops her maiden name she is telling the world that she has been united to her husband.

How does God want to be known? Jehovah is one of the best known names for God within the Old Testament and one quarter of the times Lord God is seen the Old Testament is in the second and third chapters of Genesis. Lord God simply means Jehovah Elohiym. Contrary to what one believes Elohiym is always rendered in the singular when the sentence structure is singular. Elohiym is rendered plural when the sentence structure is plural. The pronouns we - our - and - us - are an excellent way to determine if the sentence structure is plural.

Eventually God sent his Son with the good news and his father’s salvation message. Jesus taught that those who believed on him would not perish, but had a right to become the sons of God. With this message Jesus taught a personal God and a personal relationship with their heavenly father. God wanted to be known as the father of mankind.

The book of John is a doctrinal book and included many things, but it is also the book where the unity of God is openly taught and God’s relationship to the Holy Spirit is discussed. Jesus spoke of the Father being in him and he was in the father some eight times in John 10:30, 10:38, 14:10, 14:11, 14:20, & John 17:20-21.

John 10:30 agrees with John 17:21 as a basic statement of oneness. Note that when God speaks of a total unity when he uses the term one.

In John 17:21 Jesus desired that his chosen ones would become one just as you are in me and I am in you. When Jesus spoke of being in the father and the father was in him there is a spiritual joining of the divine nature into a single unit. What this meant was that God desired that man became united with God.

What is the relationship of the Holy Spirit to God the father and Jesus Christ?  Jesus used the pronoun he to describe the Holy Spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit was another person of the male gender, but Christ did not speak of the Holy Spirit as a third person. Instead he spoke of the promised Holy Spirit that he would pour out on all people.

While the Holy Spirit inspired these words, God spoke in the first person singular saying I will pour out my Spirit.  Then again why would Paul describe the Holy Spirit with attributes that are not consistent with a living being?

Are the words –“deposit, guarantee, and seal” words that describe a person? Yet the Holy Spirit is described three times in this manner within the scriptures.

However there are a number of people have tried to explain the nature of God from the things God created. Using illustrations, such as water being two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen and that water can be a fluid, a solid (ice) and a vapor (steam). Regardless of the temperature of the water these states are still identifiable as water. We must also consider that water is seldom seen in a pure state and will deposit minerals in the water on the container in the process of boiling it. At my home well water comes out of the tap clear, but let it set for five minutes and you can actually see the sediments settle to the bottom of the glass and turn to a rust color.

Another illustration of God in three persons is the egg, which is made of a shell, yoke and egg white. However, if you were to boil the egg you would find a tough white membrane between the egg white and the shell while removing the outer shell. This white membrane is the sack that the embryo develops in that may be seen on occasion when the egg is raw. For example crack the egg to fry the egg, then look into the larger more rounded end of the eggshell and you will see the membrane we previously talked about. The illustration would change again by changing its environment. Leave that egg under the hen for 22 days and its contents will unite and form the chick that pecks its way out of the shell.

If all things are triune in nature, why don’t we hear too much about the triune nature of stone, an onion, and the Sun?  Then again, why do Trinitarians stop looking when they have found three points to prove the triune nature of their example?

No matter what we believe about God’s nature, the Bible tells us.

 

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