Pantheism maintains that this universe in its ever changing conditions
is but the manifestation of the one ever changing universal substance
which is God; thus all, everything is God, and God is everything;
God is all, all is God. Thus God is identified with nature and not
held to be independent of and separate from it. God is, therefore,
a necessary but an unconscious force working in the world.
The Bearing of the Personality of God on the Idea of Religion.
True religion may be defined as the communion between two persons:
God and man. religion is a personal relationship between God in
heaven, and man on the earth. If God were not a person there could
be no communion; if both God and man were one there could be no
communion, and, consequently, no religion. An independent personal
relationship on both sides is absolutely necessary to communion.
Man can have no communion with an influence, a force, an impersonal
something; nor can an influence have any moving or affection towards
man. It is absolutely necessary to the true definition of religion
that both God and man be persons. God is person, not force or
influence.
a) Definition of Personality.
Personality exists where there is intelligence, mind, will,
reason, individuality, self-consciousness, and self-determination.
There must be not mere consciousness--for the beast has that--but
_self_-consciousness. Nor is personality determination--for the
beast has this, too, even though this determination be the result
of influences from without--but _self_-determination, the power
by which man from an act of his own free will determines his acts
from within.
Neither corporeity nor substance, as we understand these words,
are necessarily, if at all, involved in personality. There may be
true personality without either or both of these.
b) Scripture Teaching on the Personality of God.
(In this connection it will Be well to refer to the Ontological
Argument for the Existence of God, for which see p. 17.)
(1) Exod 3:14;--"I AM THAT I AM."
This name is wonderfully significant. Its central idea is that of
existence and personality. The words signify "I AM, I WAS, I SHALL
BE," so suggestively corresponding with the New Testament statement
concerning God: "Who wast, and art, and art to come."
All the names given to God in the Scripture denote personality.
Here are some of them:
Jehovah--Jireh: The Lord will provide (Gen. 22:13, 14).
Jehovah-Rapha: The Lord that healeth (Exod. 15:26).
Jehovah-Nissi: The Lord our Banner (Exod. 17:8-15).
Jehovah-Shalom: The Lord our Peace (Judges 6:24).
Jehovah-Ra-ah: The Lord my Shepherd (Psa. 23:1).
Jehovah-Tsidkenu: The Lord our Righteousness (Jer. 23:6).
Jehovah-Shammah: The Lord is present (Ezek. 48:35).
Moreover, the personal pronouns ascribed to God prove personality:
John 17:3, et al. "To know thee"--we cannot know an influence in
the sense in which the word know is here used. _Statement:_
All through the Scriptures names and personal pronouns are ascribed
to God which undeniably prove that God is a Person.
(2) A sharp distinction is drawn in the Scriptures between the gods
of heathen and the Lord God of Israel (See Jer. 10:10-16).
Note the context: vv. 3-9: Idols are things, not persons; they
cannot walk, speak, do good or evil. God is wiser than the men who
made these idols; if the idol-makers are persons, much more is God.
See the sharp contrast drawn between dead idols and the living,
personal, true and only God: Acts 14:15; 1 Thess. 1:9; Psa. 94:9,
10.
_Statement:_ God is to be clearly distinguished from things
which have no life; he is a living Person.
(3) Attributes of personality are ascribed to God in the Scriptures.
God repents (Gen. 6:6}; grieves {Gen 6:6}; is angry {1 Kings 11:9);
is jealous (Deut. 6:15); loves (Rev. 3:19); hates (Prov. 6:16).
_Statement_: God possesses the attributes of personality, and
therefore is a Person.
(4) The relation which God bears to the Universe and to Men, as set
forth in the Scriptures, can be explained only on the basis that
God is a Person.
Deism maintains that God, while the Creator of the world, yet sustains
no further relations to it. He made it just as the clock-maker makes
a self-winding clock: makes it and then leaves it to run itself
without any interference on His part. Such teaching as this finds
no sanction in the Bible. What are God's relations to the universe
and to men?
_aa) He is the Creator of the Universe and Man._
Gen. 1:1, 26; John. 1:1-3. These verses contain vital truths. The
universe did not exist from eternity, nor was it made from existing
matter. It did not proceed as an emanation from the infinite, but
was summoned into being by the decree of God. Science, by disclosing
to us the marvellous power and accuracy of natural law, compels
us to believe in a superintending intelligence who is infinite.
Tyndall said: "I have noticed that it is not during the hours of my
clearness and vigor that the doctrine of material atheism commends
itself to my mind."
(In this connection the Arguments from Cause and Design, pp. 16
and 17, may be properly considered.)
_Statement_: The Creation of the Universe and Man proves the
Personality of the Creator--God.
_bb) God sustains certain relations to the Universe and Man which
He has made._
Heb 1:3--"Uphold all things." Col. 1:15-17--"By him all things hold
together." Psa. 104:27-30--All creatures wait upon Him for "their
meat in due season." Psa. 75:6, 7--"Promotion" among men, the
putting down of one man and the setting up of another, is from the
hand of God.
What do we learn from these scriptures regarding the relation of
God to this universe, to man, and to all God's creatures?
_First_. That all things are held together by Him; if not, this
old world would go to pieces quickly. The uniformity and accuracy
of natural law compels us to believe in a personal God who
intelligently guides and governs the universe. Disbelief in this
fact would mean utter confusion. Not blind chance, but a personal
God is at the helm.
_Second._ That the physical supplies for all God's creatures
are in His hand: He feeds them all. What God gives we gather. If
He withholds provision we die.
_Third._ That God has His hand in history, guiding and shaping
the affairs of nations. Victor Hugo said: "Waterloo was God."
_Fourth._ Consider with what detail God's care is described:
The sparrows, the lilies, the hairs of the head, the tears of His
children, etc. See how these facts are clearly portrayed in the
following scriptures: Matt. 6:28-30; 10:29, 30; Gen. 39:21, with
50:20; Dan. 1:9; Job 1:12.
_Statement:_ The personality of God is shown by His active,
interest and participation all things, even the smallest things,
in the universe, the experience of man, and in the life of all His
creatures.
THE UNITY OF GOD: (Vs. Polytheism).
There are three monotheistic religions in the world: Judaism,
Christianity, and Mahommedanism. The second is a development of
the first; the third is an outgrowth of both.
The doctrine of the Unity of God is held in contradistinction
to _Polytheism_, which is belief in a multiplicity of gods;
_Tri-theism_, which teaches that there are three Gods--that
is, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are, specifically,
three distinct Gods; and to _Dualism_, which teaches that
there are two independent divine beings or eternal principles, the
one good, and the other evil, as set forth especially in Gnostic
systems, such as Parseeism.
a) The Scriptures Assert the Unity of God.
Deut. 6:4--"Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord"; or, "The
Lord our God, the Lord is one." Isa. 44:6-8--"First.... last....
beside me there is no God." Isa. 45:5--"There is none else,
there is no God beside me." 1 Tim. 2:5 "There is one God." 1 Cor.
8:4--"There is none other God but one."
That God is one, that there is no other, that He has no equal is
the forceful testimony of above fifty passages in the Scriptures.
The fundamental duty of life, namely, the devotion of the entire
being to the Lord, is based upon the Unity of God: "The Lord....is
one .... therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God with _all_
thy heart," etc.
No other truth of the Scripture, particularly of the Old Testament,
receives more prominence than that of the Unity of God. This
truth is clearly pronounced also in the material universe; it is
the introduction and conclusion of all scientific researches. Any
other representation contradicts both creation and revelation. Its
denial is a proper object for the ridicule of every thinking man,
and of the disbelief of every orthodox Christian. Let this, then,
be our first and necessary conclusion--that Deity, whether creating,
inspiring, or otherwise manifesting itself, is one God; one, and
no more.--_Cerdo._
A multiplication of Gods is a contradiction; there can be but one
God. There can be but one absolutely perfect, supreme, and almighty
Being. Such a Being cannot be multiplied, nor pluralized. There
can be but one ultimate, but one all-inclusive, but one God.
Monotheism, then, not Tri-theism, is the doctrine set forth in the
Scriptures. "If the thought that wishes to be orthodox had less
tendency to become tri-theistic, the thought that claims to be free
would be less Unitarian."--_Moberly._
b) The Nature of the Divine Unity.
The doctrine of the Unity of God does not exclude the idea of
a plurality of persons in the Godhead. Not that there are three
persons in each person of the Godhead, if we use in both cases
the term _person_ in one and the same sense. We believe,
therefore, that there are three persons in the Godhead, but one
God. Anti-trinitarians represent the evangelical church as believing
in three Gods, but this is not true; it believes in one God, but
three persons in the Godhead.
(1) The Scriptural use of the word "One."
Gen. 2:24--"And they two (husband and wife) shall be one flesh."
Gen. 11:6--"The people is one." I Cor. 3:6-8--"He that planteth
and he that watereth are one." 12:13--"All baptized into one body."
John 17:22, 23--"That they may be one, even as we are one ... that
they may be made perfect in one."
The word "one" in these scriptures is used in a collective sense;
the unity here spoken of is a compound one, like unto that used in
such expressions as "a cluster of grapes," or "all the people rose
as one man." The unity of the Godhead is not simple but compound.
The Hebrew word for "one" (yacheed) in the absolute sense, and which
is used in such expressions as "the only one," is _never_ used
to express the unity of the Godhead. On the contrary, the Hebrew
word "echad," meaning "one" in the sense of a compound unity,
as seen in the above quoted scriptures, is the one used always to
describe the divine unity.
(2) The Divine Name "God" is a plural word; plural pronouns are
used of God.
The Hebrew word for God (Elohim) is used most frequently in the
plural form. God often uses plural pronouns in speaking of Himself,
e. g., Gen. 1:26--"Let _us_ make man." Isa. 6:8-"Who will go for
_us_?" Gen. 3:22--Behold, man is become as "one of _us_."
Some would say that the "us" in Gen. 1:26--"Let us make man," refers
to God's consultation with the angels with whom He takes counsel
before He does anything of importance; but Isa. 40:14--"But of
whom took he counsel," shows that such is not the case; and Gen.
1:27 contradicts this idea, for it repeats the statement "in the
image of God," not in the image of angels; also that "GOD created
man in HIS OWN image, in the image of God (not angels) created he
him." The "us" of Gen. 1:26, therefore, is properly understood of
plural majesty, as indicating the dignity and majesty of the speaker.
The proper translation of this verse should be not "let us make,"
but "we will make," indicating the language of resolve rather than
that of consultation.