The Attributes of God
a Bible study by Pastor Mike Stine
The attributes of God is a broad topic. Different
theologians have tried to pin down what the attributes of God are
and they differ on what to consider an attribute. Not that these
theologians differ on their view of what God is like, but they call
some things attributes and other things characteristics.
The goal of this study is to gain a better
understanding of God, who He is, and what He does. We will look all
over scripture at descriptions of God to find out who He is.
Some list as few as 7 or 9
attributes of God while others have as many as 25. This study
is broken into 14 parts with similar attributes occasionally covered
together. Some of these attributes we as humans made in the
image of God possess (although our attributes are imperfect.)
Other attributes can only be possessed by God alone and are what
define God as God.
As we study, we’ll also find out that God is
unfathomable and immeasurable. He cannot be defined in mere human
terms nor can we even list all of His qualities. This is not a
cop-out to avoid in depth study in some areas, but rather an
acknowledgement that an eternal, all consuming God cannot simply be
fully understood in a lifetime or even a thousand lifetimes.
We will also discover that God’s attributes and
characteristics do not stand alone. There are places where God’s
attributes overlap so to speak and we will need to understand both
sides of God. For instance, God is all powerful, yet He cannot lie
and hence limited. God is loving, but He is also judging. We will
do our best to understand these issues in light of one another.
Finally, there will be some things that are just so
big that we can’t fully grasp because it defies our understanding.
Such an example is the old axiom of “Can God create a rock so big
that He cannot move it?” This goes right along with issues such as
how can Christ be 100% man and 100% God without being 200%? Or “How
can God be three separate persons and yet be one?”
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