Theology ProperThe study of God

I. Does God exist

• a. Bible—Gen. 1:1; John 1:1, Rom. 1:19-21• b. Proofs—– 1. Inner witness—Rom. 8:14-16

– 2. Scripture—Presupposes the existence of God

Rational proofs

• 1. Cosmological—God is the first cause

2. Teleological—order in the universe

http://www.reasons.org/fine-tuning-life-universe--Hugh Ross• FOR PHYSICAL LIFE TO BE POSSIBLE IN THE UNIVERSE, SEVERAL CHARACTERISTICS MUST TAKE ON SPECIFIC VALUES, AND THESE ARE LISTED BELOW.1 IN THE CASE OF SEVERAL OF

THESE CHARACTERISTICS, AND GIVEN THE INTRICACY OF THEIR INTERRELATIONSHIPS, THE INDICATION OF DIVINE "FINE TUNING" SEEMS INCONTROVERTIBLE.---106 CHARACTERISTICS

• STRONG NUCLEAR FORCE CONSTANT • WEAK NUCLEAR FORCE CONSTANT • GRAVITATIONAL FORCE CONSTANT • ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE CONSTANT • RATIO OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE CONSTANT TO GRAVITATIONAL FORCE CONSTANT • RATIO OF PROTON TO ELECTRON MASS • RATIO OF NUMBER OF PROTONS TO NUMBER OF ELECTRONS • RATIO OF PROTON TO ELECTRON CHARGE • EXPANSION RATE OF THE UNIVERSE • MASS DENSITY OF THE UNIVERSE • BARYON (PROTON AND NEUTRON) DENSITY OF THE UNIVERSE • SPACE ENERGY OR DARK ENERGY DENSITY OF THE UNIVERSE • RATIO OF SPACE ENERGY DENSITY TO MASS DENSITY • ENTROPY LEVEL OF THE UNIVERSE • VELOCITY OF LIGHT • AGE OF THE UNIVERSE • UNIFORMITY OF RADIATION • HOMOGENEITY OF THE UNIVERSE • AVERAGE DISTANCE BETWEEN GALAXIES • AVERAGE DISTANCE BETWEEN GALAXY CLUSTERS • AVERAGE DISTANCE BETWEEN STARS • AVERAGE SIZE AND DISTRIBUTION OF GALAXY CLUSTERS • NUMBERS, SIZES, AND LOCATIONS OF COSMIC VOIDS • ELECTROMAGNETIC FINE STRUCTURE CONSTANT • GRAVITATIONAL FINE-STRUCTURE CONSTANT • DECAY RATE OF PROTONS • GROUND STATE ENERGY LEVEL FOR HELIUM-4 • CARBON-12 TO OXYGEN-16 NUCLEAR ENERGY LEVEL RATIO • DECAY RATE FOR BERYLLIUM-8 • RATIO OF NEUTRON MASS TO PROTON MASS • INITIAL EXCESS OF NUCLEONS OVER ANTINUCLEONS • POLARITY OF THE WATER MOLECULE • EPOCH FOR HYPERNOVA ERUPTIONS • NUMBER AND TYPE OF HYPERNOVA ERUPTIONS • EPOCH FOR SUPERNOVA ERUPTIONS

• NUMBER AND TYPES OF SUPERNOVA ERUPTIONS • EPOCH FOR WHITE DWARF BINARIES • DENSITY OF WHITE DWARF BINARIES • RATIO OF EXOTIC MATTER TO ORDINARY MATTER • NUMBER OF EFFECTIVE DIMENSIONS IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE • NUMBER OF EFFECTIVE DIMENSIONS IN THE PRESENT UNIVERSE • MASS VALUES FOR THE ACTIVE NEUTRINOS • NUMBER OF DIFFERENT SPECIES OF ACTIVE NEUTRINOS • NUMBER OF ACTIVE NEUTRINOS IN THE UNIVERSE • MASS VALUE FOR THE STERILE NEUTRINO • NUMBER OF STERILE NEUTRINOS IN THE UNIVERSE • DECAY RATES OF EXOTIC MASS PARTICLES • MAGNITUDE OF THE TEMPERATURE RIPPLES IN COSMIC BACKGROUND RADIATION • SIZE OF THE RELATIVISTIC DILATION FACTOR • MAGNITUDE OF THE HEISENBERG UNCERTAINTY • QUANTITY OF GAS DEPOSITED INTO THE DEEP INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM BY THE FIRST SUPERNOVAE • POSITIVE NATURE OF COSMIC PRESSURES • POSITIVE NATURE OF COSMIC ENERGY DENSITIES • DENSITY OF QUASARS • DECAY RATE OF COLD DARK MATTER PARTICLES • RELATIVE ABUNDANCES OF DIFFERENT EXOTIC MASS PARTICLES • DEGREE TO WHICH EXOTIC MATTER SELF INTERACTS • EPOCH AT WHICH THE FIRST STARS (METAL-FREE POP III STARS) BEGIN TO FORM • EPOCH AT WHICH THE FIRST STARS (METAL-FREE POP III STARS CEASE TO FORM • NUMBER DENSITY OF METAL-FREE POP III STARS • AVERAGE MASS OF METAL-FREE POP III STARS • EPOCH FOR THE FORMATION OF THE FIRST GALAXIES • EPOCH FOR THE FORMATION OF THE FIRST QUASARS • AMOUNT, RATE, AND EPOCH OF DECAY OF EMBEDDED DEFECTS • RATIO OF WARM EXOTIC MATTER DENSITY TO COLD EXOTIC MATTER DENSITY • RATIO OF HOT EXOTIC MATTER DENSITY TO COLD EXOTIC MATTER DENSITY • LEVEL OF QUANTIZATION OF THE COSMIC SPACETIME FABRIC • FLATNESS OF UNIVERSE'S GEOMETRY • AVERAGE RATE OF INCREASE IN GALAXY SIZES • CHANGE IN AVERAGE RATE OF INCREASE IN GALAXY SIZES THROUGHOUT COSMIC HISTORY • CONSTANCY OF DARK ENERGY FACTORS • EPOCH FOR STAR FORMATION PEAK • LOCATION OF EXOTIC MATTER RELATIVE TO ORDINARY MATTER • STRENGTH OF PRIMORDIAL COSMIC MAGNETIC FIELD • LEVEL OF PRIMORDIAL MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC TURBULENCE • LEVEL OF CHARGE-PARITY VIOLATION • NUMBER OF GALAXIES IN THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE • POLARIZATION LEVEL OF THE COSMIC BACKGROUND RADIATION • DATE FOR COMPLETION OF SECOND REIONIZATION EVENT OF THE UNIVERSE • DATE OF SUBSIDENCE OF GAMMA-RAY BURST PRODUCTION • RELATIVE DENSITY OF INTERMEDIATE MASS STARS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE • WATER'S TEMPERATURE OF MAXIMUM DENSITY

• WATER'S HEAT OF FUSION • WATER'S HEAT OF VAPORIZATION • NUMBER DENSITY OF CLUMPUSCULES (DENSE CLOUDS OF COLD

MOLECULAR HYDROGEN GAS) IN THE UNIVERSE • AVERAGE MASS OF CLUMPUSCULES IN THE UNIVERSE • LOCATION OF CLUMPUSCULES IN THE UNIVERSE • DIOXYGEN'S KINETIC OXIDATION RATE OF ORGANIC MOLECULES • LEVEL OF PARAMAGNETIC BEHAVIOR IN DIOXYGEN • DENSITY OF ULTRA-DWARF GALAXIES (OR SUPERMASSIVE GLOBULAR

CLUSTERS) IN THE MIDDLE-AGED UNIVERSE • DEGREE OF SPACE-TIME WARPING AND TWISTING BY GENERAL

RELATIVISTIC FACTORS • PERCENTAGE OF THE INITIAL MASS FUNCTION OF THE UNIVERSE MADE

UP OF INTERMEDIATE MASS STARS • STRENGTH OF THE COSMIC PRIMORDIAL MAGNETIC FIELD

3—Moral—for one to know good or bad—must be a example of good

II. Can God Be Known?

• Incomprehensible BUT knowable

• 2 Timothy 1:12 (English Standard Version)• 12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not

ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

• 1 Corinthians 1:21 (English Standard Version)• 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world

did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

III. What is God like?

• Incommunicable attributes (transcendent)

GOD

Humans

He is different than any of his creation--HOLY

1. Independence• Self-existence—Acts 17:24-25The God who made the world and everything in it,

being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

2 Unchangeableness—immutableHeb. 13:8—not immobile

Bruce Ware and impassibility

3. Eternality—Ps. 90

Bray, The Doctrine of God

4. Omnipresence 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!9If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,10even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.11If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,"12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

5. Unity/ simplicity—Ex. 34:6-76The LORD passed before him and proclaimed,

"The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation."

IV. What is God like? Communicable attributes--shared

a. Mental attributes1. Knowledge-omniscience

2. Wisdom of GodRom. 11:33

33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

3. Truthfulness-faithfulnessJn. 14:6

• 6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

b. Moral attributes1. Goodness—Ps. 106:1

• 1Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD,

for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

2. Love—Jn. 3:16

• 16"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

3. Mercy, grace, patience—Ex. 34:6

• 6The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

4. Holiness—Is. 6:1-7• 1In the year that King Uzziah died , saw the Lord sitting upon a

throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one called to another and said:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

• 6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."

5. Peace—I Cor. 14:33

• 33For God is not a God of confusion but of peace

6. Righteousness, justiceDeut. 43:4

• 4 "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

7. Jealous—Ex. 20:5

• 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

8. Wrath—Ex. 32:9-10

• 9And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you."

c. Attributes of purpose1. Will

Definition: “God approves and determines to bring about every

action necessary for the existence and activity of himself and all creation

Aspects of will:Secret—Decree, election, etc.—Rom.

11:33Revealed—Moral will—2 Pet 3:9

2. Freedom—Ps. 115:3 3 Our God is in the heavens;

he does all that he pleases.

3. Omnipotent

• Jer. 32:717'Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the

heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.