BY DR. JOHN SULLIVAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-TREASURER
FLORIDA BAPTIST CONVENTION

DOCTRINE OF GOD
(First in a series)

The central idea in religion is God. Before we can understand doctrine and theology, we must seek a definition of God. God has spoken to us by nature, revelation, fellowship and ransom.

God is a person described in terms of human life and experience. The nature of His personality includes: (1)intelligence; (2) purpose; and (3) moral consciousness.

We believe in God as a person because of the necessity to account for our own personality and the religious life of man.

God is a spirit. He does not have a human body. He transcends all human force. We approach God wholly on a spiritual and personal plane.

God is absolute. He is not dependent on the world, the world depends on him. In God there is a self-existence and unity. He is present in the world order. He has a constant and consistent knowledge of what is taking place in His world. He is not limited by time, space or man.

God does not do that which is inconsistent with His nature. To be all powerful does not mean He can do anything He wants to do, but to do anything that ought to be done.

God’s moral nature is holiness, righteousness and love. Love is not something accidental with God, it belongs to His nature. The idea of His love is best expressed in the redemptive act of the cross.

God chooses to limit Himself through His media of work. Jesus became the fulfillment of the Old Testament and the reality of the New Testament as the incarnate son of God. Jesus imported to man a “new” consciousness of God because of His abiding consciousness of the Father. The life of Jesus gives validity to the message he proclaims about God. He claims a unique relation to the Heavenly Father as the sole mediator for man. The saving of man is the central mission of Jesus’ ministry.

God seeks to educate us through experience rather than take us into His hand and control us like puppets. He will and can take things into His hand at the proper time. He even uses the madness of this world to reveal His great love toward us. He used the crucifixion of His own son to accomplish His wonderful love.

Man cannot explain the full purposes of God. We simply seek Him in this deranged world through the cross.

GOD AS CREATOR

To define God, we must first see him as creator (Read Genesis 1). Charles Spurgeon, the prolific English preacher, put it this way: “This great universe lay in the mind of God like an unborn forest in the acorn cup.” We cannot go further than “In the beginning God.”

Some conclusions must be drawn about God as creator:

1. The doctrine of God as creator comes from God’s revelation. It is not spun from men’s mind. God created the heaven and earth (ex nilo) out of nothing. This is not a conclusion of man’s reason it is God’s revelation. If the human reason was left without biblical revelation, it would not come to this understanding but rather pantheism, materialism, dualism or evolutionism.

Hebrews 11:3 reminds us that through faith we understand the worlds were formed by the word of God.

2. The Christian doctrine of God as creator is surer of God than it is of the world. The Christian doctrine of God as creator assures the reality of the world.

3. Understanding the doctrine of God must be done in a way that always magnifies God. The doctrine should stress the sustaining relationship He has with His creation. We are not primarily concerned with the creation but with the creator.

4. The doctrine of God as creator allows the Christian to consider this world as God’s gift. That’s why it is good.

5. The doctrine of God as creator for the Christian is approached through Christ our redeemer who also is creator.

Psalm 147:3-4 praises God for power and creation. God is creator. He numbers the stars. He holds them in place but He also builds up the broken.

This is the first in a series of studies defining the doctrine of God. Future installments will examine the omnipotence and omnipresent of God, the holy righteousness and the love of God; the wrath of God; and the Trinity.

(Go to second article in series.)

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You may contact Dr. John Sullivan at
1-800-226-8584, ext. 8102, or by email.