{"id":111,"date":"2017-01-19T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T20:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pastorfred.blogsite.org\/?p=111"},"modified":"2019-04-29T09:01:26","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T16:01:26","slug":"teaching-series-4-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/?p=111","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Series #2: God"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Teaching Series #2: God<\/h2>\n
\n\n<\/div>\n
\n

What We Believe<\/h3>\n
\n
    \n
  • We believe in one eternal God.\n
      \n
    • God’s eternity is a matter of quality\n
        \n
      • He does not lose his being or corrupt away the way we do<\/li>\n
      • Eternal quantity is a corollary of this eternal quality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
      • We believe that the one God is relational in his nature.\n
          \n
        • Three “persons” — the Trinity.<\/li>\n
        • Because the three persons are one God, they are united in being.<\/li>\n
        • “God is love” — the persons of the trinity are also “relationally united”.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
        • God expressed his super-abundant love by creating.\n
            \n
          • God is “free” — God did not need to do anything, including creating, to be fully himself and fully satisfied.\n
              \n
            • Thus creation is an act of love and grace.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
            • Creation was an overflow of his love so as to have more and more scope to express it by sharing his goodness with many children (Romans 8:29).<\/li>\n
            • God as creator stands as the “ground of being” for creation.\n
                \n
              • “The Omnis” — Because God is the ground of being for creation, it never escapes him in any way.\n
                  \n
                • God is omnipotent<\/i> (all-powerful) — He can do anything that is not logically impossible.<\/li>\n
                • God is omnipresent<\/i> (everywhere present) — He has access to every point in creation, and he is not confined to any particular place.<\/li>\n
                • God is omniscient<\/i> (all-knowing) — He knows everything that can be known about creation at any point in time.\n
                    \n
                  • This leaves unstated God’s relationship to future events.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                  • God’s character reflects his nature.\n
                      \n
                    • God’s goodness reflects his creativity.\n
                        \n
                      • What God makes is good (Genesis 1:31).<\/li>\n
                      • God affirms the being of everything that exists.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                      • God’s wisdom reflects his knowledge.\n
                          \n
                        • His actions are always based on complete information about a situation.\n
                            \n
                          • This may make his actions non-intuitive to humans with incomplete knowledge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                          • God’s sacrificial character reflects his love.\n
                              \n
                            • He is willing to suffer for others’ sake.<\/li>\n
                            • He humbly takes the initiative to restore broken relationships.\n
                                \n
                              • This trait is called “grace”.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                                \n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

                                \n

                                What We Don’t Believe<\/h3>\n
                                \n
                                  \n
                                • There is not more than one God.\n
                                    \n
                                  • It makes no sense to have more than one ground of being for reality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                                  • The trinity does not consist of three gods.\n
                                      \n
                                    • Human analogies show that this is logically coherent.\n
                                        \n
                                      • Triangle: three sides, one object.<\/li>\n
                                      • Computer running multiple processes: one computer, many programs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                                      • God does not assume the roles of the trinity (sometimes the father, sometimes the son, sometimes the spirit).\n
                                          \n
                                        • God is always Father, Son and Spirit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                                        • God is not subject to corruption (change that causes loss of being).\n
                                            \n
                                          • God doesn’t become worse\n
                                              \n
                                            • Become unfaithful<\/li>\n
                                            • Speak untruth<\/li>\n
                                            • Tempt others to commit evil<\/li>\n
                                            • Act so as to corrupt others<\/li>\n
                                            • Sacrifice means to ends<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                                            • Evil is not the opposite of Good.\n
                                                \n
                                              • Evil is the perversion or corruption of good<\/li>\n
                                              • Evil is “parasitic” on what God has made and depends on good for its expression, while good does not depend on evil.<\/li>\n
                                              • The devil is not the opposite of God.\n
                                                  \n
                                                • The devil is a servant of God who became corrupt by his own choice.<\/li>\n
                                                • He attempts to undo creation out of spite and malice\n
                                                    \n
                                                  • To “unsay” the word of creation by lies<\/li>\n
                                                  • To unmake the form of creation by perversion and murder<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                                                  • God is not overcome by evil\n
                                                      \n
                                                    • He responds to evil — the unmaking of creation — by continuing to create\n
                                                        \n
                                                      • That continued creation is called redemption\n
                                                          \n
                                                        • Redemption is God’s assertion of power over evil by re-creating it according to his purposes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                                                          \n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

                                                          \n

                                                          How This Affects You<\/h3>\n
                                                          \n
                                                            \n
                                                          • We can trust God.\n
                                                              \n
                                                            • He always acts for good: specifically for our individual good and globally for the good of all.\n
                                                                \n
                                                              • In his wisdom God can do both at the same time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                                                              • Because God is relational, he seeks relationship with us.\n
                                                                  \n
                                                                • God makes himself known relationally.<\/li>\n
                                                                • God is involved.\n
                                                                    \n
                                                                  • God, through Jesus, suffers with the sufferings of creation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                                                                  • Love is at the heart of reality.\n
                                                                      \n
                                                                    • By loving we participate in the true meaning of the universe.<\/li>\n
                                                                    • Our deepest feelings and needs are meant to be satisfied.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                                                                    • “All things work together for good to those who love him, who are called according to his purposes.” This is not a pious platitude, but an assertion of God’s creative power in redemption.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                                                      Teaching Series #2: God What We Believe We believe in one eternal God. God’s eternity is a matter of quality…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,4],"tags":[39,36],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching","category-theology","tag-god","tag-teaching-series","has-excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":818,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodnews.homedns.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}