How can finite man ever hope to be able to fully comprehend the One who called all things into existence from nothing with but a word?  Can we comprehend such a Person?

     All men, even Christians, have blasphemously portrayed God at one time or another.  We represent God as corruptible in our idols.  When you represent God in the form of material substance, you "imply" that God is as corruptible as that which you portray Him by.  We often choose the idol that we have made over the Word of God and fellowship with God.

     In Las Vegas men gamble their lives and fortunes away while trusting on Lady Luck.  In reality, no Lady has anything to do with the fall of the dice.  God controls this thing we call "luck":

Proverbs 16:33 "The lot is cast into the lap;  but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD."

     In America we believe that men are elected to govern our country according to popular vote.  And this is true, we do freely vote for or against our leaders.  Yet an unseen Hand works behind the scenes, controlling the vote and tides of power.  Leaders may be elected, yet the government is ultimately controlled by the Infinite, totally within the Plan of God.

Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will."

     All over the world men have a fear of death.  Scientists diligently study so that, one day, we might defeat this archenemy of mankind.  "Let's freeze the body.  One day we can resurrect him, and return him to life".  Yet it is written:

Job 14:5 "Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.."

Then again there is the atheist who scornfully rejects God.  To him God says:

Psalms 2:4 "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh:  the Lord shall have them in derision."

     How can mortal man understand the Father of all creation?  By carefully studying the characteristics of God found in Scripture we may come to know our God.  We may not reach a "full" understanding of the Infinite in this life, yet we can understand Him "in relationship" to His creation.

The Base or Simple Names of God

     By means of Special Revelation God has defined Himself to mortal man by different names.  In early Hebrew and Greek cultures the name of an individual explained something about the person.  God uses three base names for Himself in the Bible:

EL or ELOHIYM:
     This name stresses the "power of God.  It defines Him as all powerful, all seeing, all knowing, all encompassing.  There is not anything that our Creator cannot do.

YHWH:
     This name has its roots in the name that God gave Moses in Exodus 3:14, I AM.  YHWH describe the eternality of the one True God, the fact that He has existed without Creator from eternity past and will exist forever.  To the Jews this name of God was so sacred that, even to speak it, was to bring death to the speaker:

Leviticus 24:16 "And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him:  as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death."

ADONAI:
     This name shows the Mastery that God has over His people.  It also shows that, in relationship to God, we are His servants.

The Compound Names of God

     The above three base names for God are used extensively throughout the Scripture, and each name explains some characteristic inherent to our Maker.  But God also describes Himself to His creation through the use of "compound names".  There are the compound names that are coupled with the "power" name of God, EL:

EL SHADDAI:

     This name is used to show the sovereignty of our Creator, His uniqueness among all within the universe.  The name designates God as "Almighty Almighty One".
     SHADDAI is derived from the Hebrew SHADDAD, which means "to destroy".  The name is often used in Scripture when God disposes of the heathen while protecting His people.

EL ELOINE:

     This name defines the power of possession that the Creator alone has.  Literally translated "The Most High God", it is used in instances when God is described as the true Owner of Heaven and Earth.

EL OLAM:

     This name stresses the eternity or infinity of God.  Literally translated, it means "The Everlasting God".

A second set of compound names are coupled with YHWH or (as we translate it) LORD:

LORD JEHOVAH:

     This name is used to highlight God's immutable or unchangeable nature.  When used in conjunction with a covenant, it carries a "guarantee" that God will keep the promise He made.

Genesis 2:15-17 "And the LORD God (LORD Jehovah) took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.  And the LORD God (LORD Jehovah) commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:  for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

     Adam should have paid attention, for by using this name God was warning that He would not break His promise to man if man disobeyed Him.

LORD OF HOSTS:

     This name is used to show that God alone commands all the angelic host.  It is also used to convey the idea that God will rescue His children in times of trouble, using all the means He has at His disposal.

     In the New Testament the use of the titles "God" and "Lord" are equivalent to their parallels in the Old Testament, yet in the New Testament the other compound and basic names of God are rarely used. Usually the title "Father" is used to symbolize the special relationship that the believer has with his Creator because of the atonement of Jesus Christ.

     Jesus Himself usually referred to the head of the Godhead as "Father".   As a matter of fact, only once Jesus refers to the Father as "God", and that was when He hung on the Cross of Calvary.  When He hung on the Cross He did not do so as the Son of God, but as a "judicial sacrifice" to pay the penalty for our sins.

Classifying the Attributes of God

     The attributes or characteristics that God possesses are a part of His nature.  They are "not" something which He created, nor something that He grew or evolved into.  The attributes of God are both "communicable and incommunicable"

     The communicable attributes are those which pertain to God's essence in relation to creation.  God "shared" these attributes with His creation.  An example of the communicable attributes are mercy, justice, and love.  Though creation shares these attributes with God to a lesser degree (because He is infinite and we are finite), they are attributes which both God and His people possess.

     Communicable attributes are those which, to put it more simply, are shared by both God and, to a lesser degree, His creation.

John 4:24 "God is a Spirit:  and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

I Thessalonians 5:23 "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly;  and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

     God is a Spirit, ethereal yet real, without body as we know it.  Regenerated man possesses within himself a human spirit, recreated in us at the point of salvation.  It is this part of us that is "born again", as Jesus so wisely put it.  The Spirit of God is a shared asset with man, and to this degree is a Communicable attribute.

Romans 11:33-34 "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord?  or who hath been his counselor?"

     God possesses intelligence, and His creation possesses intelligence.  Though God's intelligence is "much higher" than that which man possesses, this attribute is still inherent in both God and man.  This is a Communicable Attribute of God.

     The first two Attributes we have just discussed, the spirit and intelligence of man, are a part of the "imagery of all mankind".  Man was created in the image of God:

Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:  and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

     And these are parts of that imagery.  God is holy and just.  His goodness is a pure, untainted goodness.  His creation possesses these attributes to a more finite degree, riddled with sinful impulses, yet good in the sense that we are "moral" beings with a conscience.  After regeneration we share this Attribute of God closer, to a greater degree, for sin is dampened in the new Believer:

1 John 2:29 "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him."

The incommunicable attributes are those which God and "God alone" possesses.  These are:

SELF EXISTENCE:

     God needs no one to survive.  He is the first cause of everything, yet He Himself is caused by nothing.

Exodus 3:13-15 "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you;  and they shall say to me, What is his name?  what shall I say unto them?  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM:  and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.  And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you:  this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations."

     Because God alone is self existent, no one, save God, has total freewill.  Men are dependent on their appetites and these appetites often lead to sin.  Even Christians are dependent on God for their survival.  God is not bound by dependency.

IMMUTABILITY:

Malachi 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I change not;  therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."

Hebrews 1:10-12 "And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth;  and the heavens are the works of thine hands:  They shall perish; but thou remainest;  and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;  And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed:  but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail."

     All things change and grow old.  Yet God will never change in His infinity to the smallest degree.  God is unchangeable and immutable.

INFINITY:

     When we speak about God's "infinity" we are talking about His immensity, "omnipotence" (all powerfulness), "omniscience" (all knowing), and "omnipresence" (He is everywhere).

Psalms 139:12-13 "Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee;  but the night shineth as the day:  the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.  For thou hast possessed my reins:  thou hast covered me in my mother's womb."

2 Peter 3:8-9 "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness;  but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

SIMPLICITY:

     When we speak of the simplicity of God we are referring to His uniqueness:  there is no God but Our God.

I Corinthians 8:6 "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him;  and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him."

Our unique God is One, yet in Three Persons.  He is Father:

John 6:27 "Labour not for the meat which perisheth,  but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you:  for him hath God the Father sealed."

He is Son:

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

And He is the Holy Spirit:

Acts 5:3-4 "But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?  Whiles it remained, was it not thine own?  and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?  why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?  thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God."

     As we will discuss the Trinity of God in a later lesson, this is all we will cover on the Trinity at this time.

The Will Of The Sovereign God
The Implication It Has on Man's Free Will

Isaiah 14:24-27 "The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass;  and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:  That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot:  then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.  This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth:  and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.  For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?  and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?"

     How much power than does the Father hold over creation?  Does the Bible recognize human freewill as a part of God's Plan of the Ages?  Many state that the Creator did not build a society of robots.  The often heard slogan, "God helps those who help themselves":  how much truth does this slogan hold?

     The Westminister Confession (Shorter Catechism) states:  "The decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the council of His will whereby for his own glory, He hath foreordained whatsoever things come to pass."

     God is a self sufficient being, needing no one to sustain His life.  He created men for "His own glory".  We often forget that, in the arrogance of our humanity.

Revelation 4:11 "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power:  for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

     He chose to pardon man through the medium of the Cross because He "desired to", not because He had to.  As Romans states:

Romans 11:36 "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things:  to whom be glory for ever. Amen."

     God is the ultimate source of all life, the only Agent that creates life.  The ultimate aim of creation is to glorify its Maker.

James 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

Isaiah 46:9-11 "Remember the former things of old:  for I am God, and there is none else;  I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:  Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country:  yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass;  I have purposed it, I will also do it."

     When a man changes his plans, it is usually because of lack of wisdom or knowledge.  Yet God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.  When the Plan of the Ages was made from eternity past, they were established in certainty because our Father knows the end just as completely as the beginning.  Nothing is left to chance.

Isaiah 40:13-15 "Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?  With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?  Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance:  behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing."

     God's decrees and plans are made from the "only" completely free will in the universe.  His are rational decisions based on sufficient reason.  God never acts out of necessity, nor are God's degrees conditioned on any inability on His part:  He is sovereign.  God's decrees are carried out as He states them, regardless as to our desires.  There are no boundaries that the Father cannot overcome:  whether of the free will of man, or the course of nature, God can sway it.  God is omnipotent over His creation.

     When we look through the Scriptures we see many instances where man is disobedient to the Will of God.  How can man be obedient to his own will and ignore the Will of the Sovereign God?  How can the truth of the Supreme Being be reconciled with the truth of human free will?

The Decreetive and Directive Wills of God

     Theologians recognize that there are "two categories" of God's Will, the "Directive" and the "Decreetive" Will of God.  Both work hand in hand to achieve God's Plan of the Ages.

     The Directive Will is that which is God's "best" plan for us.  The Directive Will can be obeyed or disobeyed by man, based on his free will.  The Directive will is a command much like a Father author gives a son, a parent to a child.  It is in the child's best interest to obey this direction though he can ignore the injunctions, to his detriment.

     Within the Directive Will God tells us not to lie, steal, or cheat, do murder, and so on.  He tells his children to pray, to have fellowship with Him.  If the child obeys he will be rewarded.  If the child disobeys he is punished.  C. S. Lewis said:

"God gave us the choice of being able to contribute to the course of His events in two different ways:  (1) He made the universe in such a way that we can, in those limits, do things to it and,  (2) He made his own plan or plot of history such that it admits a certain amount of free play, and can be modified in response to our prayers."

     The Directive Will is that which God would have man to do for our "higher good".  Man has the power of prayer.  If we pray we will bring about our higher good regardless as to whether the prayer is answered negatively or positively.  Why doesn't God always answer "yes" to our prayers?

(Satires, Book 4, Satire 10, Line 3) "God has left Himself a discretionary power.  Had He not done so, prayer would have been an activity too dangerous for man, and we should have the awful state of things envisioned by Juvinal 'enormous prayers' which Heaven in anger grants."

     Though man is directed to pray unceasingly, man does not always pray for the "right things", the "right reasons", or in the "right way".  God alone understands all things, and, knowing that all things work together for good, the only way the Father guarantees this is by leaving Himself a "discretionary power" in all things, even prayer.

There are two texts which cause new Christians problems.  They are:

Matthew 18:18-19 "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:  and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."

Matthew 16:19 "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

     These verses seem to imply that the Church of Christ is dominant over God in prayer.  How does the Greek texts support these verses?  A more correct translation of these verses would be:

Matthew 18:18-19 "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever you may bind  [DESETE, Aorist Active Subjunctive]  on earth shall have been bound  [ESTAI DEDEMENA, Periphrastic Future Perfect Passive]  in heaven:  and whatsoever ye may loose  [LUSETE, Aorist Active Subjunctive]  on earth shall have been loosed  [ESTAI LELUMENA, Periphrastic Future Perfect Passive]  in heaven.  Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."

Matthew 16:19 "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:  and whatsoever you may bind  [DESETE, Aorist Active Subjunctive]  on earth shall have been bound  [ESTAI DEDEMENA, Periphrastic Future Perfect Passive] in heaven:  and whatsoever you may loose  [LUSETE, Aorist Active Subjunctive]  on earth shall have been loosed  [ESTAI LELUMENA, Periphrastic Future Perfect Passive]  in heaven."

     With these passages correctly translated we can see that there is "NO" New Testament concept of man controlling God as if we were gods ourselves.  These two texts in question were first incorrectly rendered by Jerome in the Latin Vulgate, 400 A.D.  Yet many within Christianity feel that they can "force" God's hand by prayer, or by "Tithing - If I give my ten percent then God must return this money to me fourfold!"  God is omnipotent, not forced into any method of operation by His own creation.  You see this best illustrated when we study the "Decreetive" Will of God.

     God's Decreetive Will "cannot" be refused.  In the Decreetive Will the Father  persuades man to obey according to His wishes.  God may sway the freewill of the person in question.  God may sway the freewill of the "persons surrounding" the person in question.  God may change the laws of nature or environment around the person in question.  God may manipulate or change the environment so that man will carry out His Will according to His purpose.

     The healing of a physical or emotional wound is within the Decreetive Will of God:

     "Doctors themselves do not take the view that medicine heals the body.  The magic is not in the medicine, but in the body.  What the doctor does is to stimulate nature's functions in the body, and to try to remove the hindrances.  A cut heals itself, for no dressing shall heal a cut on a corpse." - C.S. Lewis

     Death is within the Decreetive Will of God.  There is "appointed unto man a time once to die, and after this the Judgment".  Miracles may be within the Directive or the Decreetive Will of God, depending on the circumstance.  The greatest objection to the Decreetive Will of God is our jealously guarded idea of human free will.  We shall study human free will in detail shortly.  For now, though, it is sufficient to say that God "may persuade" man to do of his own will what He, God, wants man to do.  God is "not controlled" by his creation.

     If God did not plan all things, if He does not have a Plan of the Ages, then God cannot be God.  If God did not decree what was necessary to insure the end was as He wants it, then there had to be a time when He "did not know" everything.  If there was ever a time that God did not know everything, then He gains in knowledge every time something happens that He did not know would happened.  What we have, if this is true, is a changing God.  Yet we have seen that it is written, "I am the Lord thy God, I do not change".  God doesn't change, therefore God "must control" certain aspects of His creation in order to insure His Plan will we carried out as He desires.

     This in turn answers the question, "Why can't man have a totally free will?"  Because man would be responsible for the "education" of God.  If man had total free will then he would have, and any given time, a 50-50 chance of choosing either one fork in the road of God's Plan or another.  God did not base His Plan on the frailty of human will.  His Plan is based on His unvarying Will;  for this reason the Plan will be carried out exactly as He decrees.  Man does "not" educate God!

     Is the concept of foreordination under God's Decreetive Will "only fatalism" in another wrapper?  "Absolutely not"!  Fatalism has no goal, no joy, and only a series of laws with no soul or spirit.  Foreordination brings with it the assurance that it is motivated by a good and righteous goal, accomplished by our loving Creator.  The Father "will bring about" the highest good for His children through His Decreetive Will.

     Does foreordination disregard all motive of purpose?  Please remember that God not only foreordains the "ends" to meet His goal, but also foreordains the "means" as well.  Foreordination is a Doctrine that should drive the believer to achieve more for God in this life, for we have the assurance that He truly loves and watches over us.  Our Father wants us to succeed, and in His Will will help guarantee our success.  The greater the hope of success, the greater should be our motivation to service.