Biblical Studies/Christianity/God the father
God is
[edit | edit source]God is the higher power, worshiped by the majority of people in the world. The Christian God is an infinite and absolute being; a perfect spirit—eternal, immutable, omniscient, omnipotent and perfectly good, the true and righteous Almighty Creator God the Father. Fully addressed as Father in the sense of the doctrine of the Trinity which declares the union of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as Three Persons and One God. The term persons is not applied in Scripture to the Trinity, but something analogous to the conception of personality seems to be implied in the apostolic statements of the New Testament epistles.
The arguments for the existence of God have been divided into the ontological, the psychological, the cosmological, the teleological and the moral. The ontological argument starts from the idea of God itself and professes to demonstrate the existence of God as a necessary consequence from that idea. The manner in which it was stated by Anselm, in the eleventh century, is this: "God must be thought of as that being than whom none can be thought greater; but this being, the highest and most perfect that we can conceive, may be thought as existing in actuality as well as in thought—that is to say, may be thought as something still greater; therefore God, or what is thought as greatest, must exist not only in thought but in fact." This argument has been presented in other forms. Descartes, while refuting Anselm’s form of the ontological argument, revived it himself in another form. Applying the test of truth which he derived from his celebrated formula—"I think, therefore I am"—that whatever we clearly and distinctly perceive to belong to the true and unalterable nature of a thing may be predicated of it, he found on investigating God that existence belongs to his true and unalterable nature and therefore may legitimately be affirmed of God because he is the living one.
Another argument, called the psychological, was adduced by Descartes to prove the existence of God, which, although not the same as the ontological argument, appears to resemble it. It starts from the idea of a supreme and perfect being, but it does not assert the objective existence of that being as implied in its idea, but infers such objective existence on the ground that we could have acquired the idea only from the being which corresponds to it.
The cosmological argument starts not from an idea, but from a contingent existence, and infers from it an absolutely necessary being as its cause. The argument is: Every new thing and every change in a previously existing thing must have a cause sufficient and pre-existing. The universe consists of a system of changes. Therefore the universe must have a cause outside of and before itself.
The argument called teleological is that which is commonly known as the argument from design and has been fully illustrated by Paley in his Natural Theology. It is simply this, that in nature there are unmistakable evidences of the adaptation of means to ends, which lead us inevitably to the idea of some intelligence that planned this adaptation, that is, of God.
The moral argument is derived from the constitution and history of man and his relations to the universe, being based on such considerations as our recognition of good and evil, right and wrong, the cautions received of conscience and the fact that a moral government of the world may be observed. Another argument is based on the alleged fact that a belief in the existence of a supreme being is everywhere found to be implanted in the human breast. This argument is used by Cicero among others, and many thinkers are inclined to give a good deal of weight to it; still it is pronounced by others to be at best only a probable argument, if it may be accepted as valid to prove anything at all. Others argue the existence of God from the manifestations which he has made of himself to mankind, but these, as well as miracles, it is admitted even by Christian theists, may only be accepted as real by such as previously believed in the divine existence, still, the facts of religious history speak of just such divine providence in human affairs as to define the very God in question.
Epistemology: How we know God
[edit | edit source]- The Names of God
| GOD IN 51 LANGUAGES | ||
|---|---|---|
| Elohim or Eloah Hebrew | Dios Spanish | Bung Polacca |
| Elah Chaldean | Deos Portuguese | Jubinal Lapp |
| Ellah Assyrian | Diyos Tagalog | Jumala Finnish |
| Alah Syriac and Turkish | Diet Old German | As Runic |
| Alla Malay | Dio Italian | Istu Pannonian |
| Allah Arabic | Diou Provençal | Fetizo Zemblian |
| Orsi Language of the Magi | Doue Low Breton | Rain Hindostanee |
| Teut Old Egyptian | Die Irish | Brama Coromandel |
| Teuti Armorian | Gott German and Swiss | Magatal Tartar |
| Tenn Modern Egyptian | Goed Flemish | Sire Persian |
| Theos Greek | Godt Dutch | Pussa Chinese |
| Thios Cretan | God English and Old Saxon | Goezur Japanese |
| Ilos Æolian and Doric | Goth Teutonic | Hananim Korean |
| Deus Latin | Gut Danish and Swedish | Ginoó Visayan |
| Diex Low Latin | Gud Norwegian | Zannar Madagascar |
| Diu Celtic and Old Gallic | Bog Polish | Chihowa Choctaw |
| Dieu French | Buch Slavic | Puchocamæ Peruvian |
God − The Son − The Holy Spirit
Return to Christianity contents page