Challenging Common Preconceptions About God's Nature and Attributes
Challenging Common Preconceptions About God's Nature and Attributes
The biblical concept of God is often misunderstood, with many assuming that human reasoning can fully comprehend the divine nature. However, scripture emphasizes the limitations of human understanding when it comes to God's attributes and essence. The book of Job poses a rhetorical question, "Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?" [2], highlighting the impossibility of fully grasping God's nature.
The Bible reveals that God's existence is taken for granted, with no formal argument presented for it [1]. Instead, scripture focuses on the character and attributes of God. The Apostle Paul, in Acts 17:29, cautions against anthropomorphizing God, stating that the divine nature is not comparable to human creations like gold, silver, or stone [3].
The limitations of human understanding are further emphasized in Job 9:2, where it is acknowledged that while humans may know certain truths about God, they cannot fully comprehend God's justice or righteousness [4]. Commenting on Job 11:7, John Gill notes that God's nature and perfections are beyond human discovery, and that even the most inquiring minds cannot fully grasp God's being [5]. Similarly, Matthew Henry observes that God's greatness and glory are beyond human comprehension, and that our finite understandings cannot form adequate conceptions of God's nature and attributes [6].
The New Testament reinforces this idea, with Adam Clarke commenting on Colossians 3:10 that Christianity reveals God himself, providing a knowledge that surpasses human understanding [7]. The Baptist/Reformed tradition, as represented by John Gill, emphasizes the unity of God's nature, citing the perfections of deity as evidence that there can be only one God [8].
In challenging common preconceptions about God's nature and attributes, it becomes clear that scripture presents a God who is both knowable and unknowable. While humans can grasp certain aspects of God's character, the divine essence remains beyond human comprehension. As John Gill notes on 2 Corinthians 10:5, the preaching of the word casts down human imaginations and reasonings against God, highlighting the need to submit to God's revelation rather than relying solely on human understanding [9].
The biblical account of God's nature and attributes is not a philosophical treatise but a revelation of God's character and will. As such, it challenges human preconceptions and invites a response of faith and worship. In the words of John Gill on Romans 1:19, there are certain things that can be known about God through natural revelation, but the fullness of God's nature remains a mystery that is only fully revealed through scripture [10].
Sources
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: God — (A.S. and Dutch God; Dan. Gud; Ger. Gott), the name of the Divine Being. It is the rendering (1) of the Hebrew 'El, from a word meaning to be strong; (2) of 'Eloah_, plural _'Elohim. The singular form, Eloah, is used only in poetry. The plural form is more commonly used in all parts of the Bible, The Hebrew word Jehovah (q.v.), the only other word generally employed to denote the Supreme Being, is uniformly rendered in the Authorized Version by "LORD," printed in small capitals. The existence of God is taken for granted in the Bible. There is nowhere any argume”
- Job ““Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty? -- Job 11:7”
- Acts “Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man. -- Acts 17:29”
- Job “Job 9:2 (LEB) — “Truly I know that it is so, but how can a human being be just before God?”
- Job (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Job 11:7: Canst thou by searching find out God?.... God is not to be found out by human search; that there is a God may be found out by inquiring into the book of nature, by considering the creatures that are made, who all proclaim some first cause or maker of them, who is God; but then it cannot be found out what God is, his nature, being, and perfections: an Heathen philosopher (i), being asked by a certain king what God was, required a day to give in his answer; when that was up he desired a second, and still went on asking more; and being demanded the reason of his dilatorines”
- Job (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Job 11:7: Zophar here speaks very good things concerning God and his greatness and glory, concerning man and his vanity and folly: these two compared together, and duly considered, will have a powerful influence upon our submission to all the dispensations of the divine Providence. I. See here what God is, and let him be adored. 1. He is an incomprehensible Being, infinite and immense, whose nature and perfections our finite understandings cannot possibly form any adequate conceptions of, and whose counsels and actings we cannot therefore, without the greatest presumption, pas”
- Colossians (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Colossians 3:10: And have put on the new man - See on Rom 12:1-2 (note). Is renewed in knowledge - Ignorance was the grand characteristic of the heathen state; Knowledge, of the Christian. The utmost to which heathenism could pretend was a certain knowledge of nature. How far this went, and how much it fell short of the truth, may be seen in the writings of Aristotle and Pliny. Christianity reveals God himself, the author of nature; or, rather, God has revealed himself, in the Christian system with which he has blessed mankind. Christianity teaches a man the true knowledge both ”
- Ephesians (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Ephesians 4:6: One God and Father of all,.... That there is but one God is the voice of nature and of revelation; and may be concluded from the perfections of deity, for there can be but one eternal, infinite, immense, omnipotent, all-sufficient, perfect, and independent Being; and from one first cause of all things, and the relations he stands in to his creatures: there is but one God, who is truly, and really, and properly God, in opposition to all nominal and figurative deities, and which are not gods by nature, and to the fictitious deities and idols of the nations; and there ”
- 2 Corinthians (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on 2 Corinthians 10:5: Casting down imaginations,.... Or "reasonings"; the carnal reasonings of the minds of natural men against God, his providences and purposes, against Christ, and the methods of salvation, and every truth of the Gospel; which are all disproved, silenced, and confounded, by the preaching of the word, which though reckoned the foolishness and weakness of God, appears to be wiser and stronger than men; and whereby the wisdom of the wise is destroyed, and the understanding of the prudent brought to nothing: and every high thing that exalteth itself against the know”
- Romans (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Romans 1:19: Because that which may be known of God,.... There are some things which could not be known of God by the light of nature; as a trinity of persons in the Godhead; the knowledge of God in Christ as Mediator; the God-man and Mediator Jesus Christ; his incarnation, sufferings, death, and resurrection; the will of God to save sinners by a crucified Jesus; the several peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, particularly the resurrection of the dead, and the manner of worshipping of God with acceptance: but then there are some things which may be known of God, without a revelation”