- Logical thought processes
- Grammar and spelling
- Major doctrinal issues that have been overlooked
So, here's your chance to constructively criticize me. I may or may not take your advice and apply to my thesis, but I will consider it all. (On a side note, this is also a great way to 'backup' my thesis as I go!)
"The purpose of your Thesis is to show, through a scholarly work, that you have a full and complete understanding of the basic doctrines adhered to by both First Bible Baptist Church and the North Star Bible Institute."DOCTRINES OF GOD -
Doctrine 1 / 36: God the Father
"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen" (I Timothy 1:17). This verse, describing God, happens to be the verse on which Jonathan Edwards was meditating when he truly awoke to spiritual things. Included in this verse are a few of the communicable and incommunicable attributes of God. There are characteristics about God that He shares with His creation, and there are characteristics about God in which His creatures are unable to partake. There are many characteristics which can be spoken about God, but this is a great place to start.
Eternal: The Bible teaches that God is outside of the domain of time to which His creatures are subject. Isaiah 57:15 says that God inhabits (present tense) eternity. To God, all of the time in eternity is in front of Him, as the present time is in front of any person at that time. He does not learn things that will happen in the future, as He already knows what the future holds. He is able to write down the events that are coming, as they are constantly before Him. He does not have to guess what will happen, nor does He even need to cause or make them to happen for Him to accurately predict what things will come to pass. As a result of God being eternal, He is also omniscient.
Immortal: Because God is not subject to time, He also is not subject to the law of entropy. God will never die, and His nature will never deteriorate at all. As He is today, He was yesterday and will be for all of eternity. There is nothing that has the power to cause harm or injury to God, and as He is the source and sustainer of all life, no creation could ever remove His life from Him. He is the ultimate power in the universe; He is omnipotent. He is immortal.
Invisible: Unlike God the Son Jesus, God the Father is a spirit. No man has seen the Father at any time (John 1:18). God is not able to be seen by eyes of flesh. However, when mortal bodies are changed in a moment, at the return of Christ, then the Father shall be visible to humans. Because God is invisible, He requires that man looks towards Him through faith. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. In Genesis 1:26-27, God says that He made man in the image of God. A part of this image is that man is a three part being, just as the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Man has a soul, and has his spirit quickened when he goes to God in faith. The invisible world is more real than the visible (2 Corinthians 4:18).
The only wise God: In this phrase is found the omniscience of God. God is infinitely wise and good. His counsel shall stand, and what He determines to be the best course of action is, without doubt, the best course of action. Man shows his exceeding pride when he questions the actions of God and suggests that man's counsel and wisdom is greater than God's. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). He works in ways that man does not understand, sometimes with affliction, sometimes with grace. The best way for man to respond to God's actions towards him is to submit to the infinitely wise counsel of God.
Be honour and glory for ever and ever: God created the universe, and all that is in it, for His own pleasure (Revelation 4:11). Everything that a man does in this life is supposed to be done for His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). He is worthy of man giving all to Him because of His grace, mercy and love that He has shown towards man, even in his sinful state. "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" That is the question that man ought to ask, and when viewed with the right eyes, the result will be to do everything for the glory of God.
When Moses asked God to show him His glory, the ensuing account was God's declaration of Himself. Exodus 34:5-7 says, "And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear [the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth [generation]." These verses contain God's proper name, which in the Hebrews is the tetragrammaton YVHV, and which in the Authorized Version is mostly translated, "The LORD." The English transliteration of God's proper name is Jehovah. That verse contains some of God's qualities: merciful, gracious, longsuffering, good, true, yet righteous. He has demonstrated His grace and mercy towards man through sending His Son Jesus, yet those that despise His Son, are those guilty to whom the Lord will not clear, but will rather visit iniquity on them.
"Be still and know that I am God."
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