The next thing that the Bible teaches about God is that _God is a
person_. That is to say He is a being who knows, feels, loves, hears
prayer, speaks, acts, a being who acts intelligently upon us and upon
whom we can act.
While God is in all things, He is a personality distinct from the
persons and things in which He is, which He has created. The Bible,
both in the Old and New Testaments is full of this vital conception
of "a _living_ God" as distinguished from the mere cold abstraction
of "The Absolute," or "The Infinite," or "The Supreme Being," or "The
Great First Cause" of which "Modern Philosophy" loves to prate. For
example, we read in Jer. 10:10-16: +"But Jehovah is the true God;
he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth
trembleth, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation. (11)
Thus shall ye say unto them, the gods that have not made the heaven
and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the
heavens. (12) He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established
the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding hath he stretched
out the heavens. (13) When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult
of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from
the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth
forth the wind out of his treasuries. (14) Every man is become brutish
and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven
image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in
them. (15) They are vanity, a work of delusion; in the time of their
visitation they shall perish. (16) The portion of Jacob is not like
these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of
his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name."+ In this passage God
is distinguished from idols which are things and not persons, things
which "speak not" "cannot act," "cannot do good neither is it in them
to do evil"; and we are told that Jehovah is _wiser_ than "all the wise
men." Is "the living God," "an everlasting King," a being who hath
"wrath and indignation," separate from His creatures—"at His wrath the
earth trembleth and the nations are not able to abide His indignation."
In Acts 14:15 we read: +"Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are
men of like passions with you, and bring you good tidings, that ye
should turn from these things unto the living God, who made heaven and
earth and sea, and all that in them is."+ Here also we have the
representation of _God as a personal being distinct from His created
work_, and also to be clearly distinguished from the idols which are
not living gods. In 1 Thess. 1:9, the converts at Thessalonica are
represented as turning from dead gods, "idols, to serve the _living_
and true God."
In 2 Chron. 16:9 we are told that +"The eyes of Jehovah run to and
fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf
of them whose heart is perfect toward him,"+ and in Ps. 94:9, 10 we
read: +"He that planteth the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed
the eye, shall he not see? He that punisheth nations, shall not he
correct? Even he that teacheth men knowledge?"+ This is clearly
the representation of a personal God and not a mere abstraction like
"The Absolute," or "The Infinite," or "The Supreme Being." The clear
distinction between God, who is immanent in all things, and dwells in
believers, and the beings and persons in whom He dwells, is brought
out very clearly by our Lord Himself in John 14:10: +"Believest thou
not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say
unto you I speak not from myself: But the Father abiding in me doeth
his work."+ And again in the 24th verse of the same chapter where
our Lord Jesus distinguishes between His own personality and that of
the Father, who dwelt in Him, in these words: +"He that loveth me not
keepeth not my words: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the
Father's who sent me."+ This conception of God pervades the entire
Bible. The view of God presented in the Bible is utterly different
from the conception of Pantheism and Buddhism and Theosophy and
Christian Science. This conception is found in the opening words of the
Bible, Gen. 1:1: +"In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth."+ Here the God of the Bible is clearly differentiated from
the so-called God of Pantheism, and the God of Christian Science. And
this same conception of God is found in the last chapter of the Bible,
and it is found in every chapter of the Bible between the first and the
last. The God of the Bible is a Personal Being Who, while He created
all things and is in all things, is a distinct personality separate
from the persons and things He has created.