The Nature of God

As creator of the universe, it's obviously worthwhile to have knowledge of what God is like. The knowledge of God is a core component to greater understanding of what is written in the Bible and our relationship to our creator. God seeks relationship with every individual person, and the beginning of any relationship is getting to know your partner.

Biblical Attributes of God:

• Infinite & Timeless - Has no beginning or end. (Rev 1:8)
• Unique - One of a kind in essence, nature, and existence without equal or comparison. (Isaiah 46:9)
• Immortal - Exists eternally, not subject to decay, death, or end. (1 Timothy 6:16)
• Self-Existing & Source of Life - Life is sustained by Him; He is not subject to death. (John 1:4, John 5:26)
• Immutable - God does not change (Malachi 3:6)
• Benevolent / Righteous - Good in every way. (Psalm 145:9, Romans 8:28, James 1:17, 1 John 1:5)
• Omnipotent - All-powerful, without contradiction. (Matthew 19:26)
• Omnipresent - Aware of and active in all space and time. (Ephesians 4:6)
• Omniscient - Knows all past, present, and future. (Matthew 10:29-30, Isaiah 46:9-10, 1 John 3:20, Psalm 139:4)
• Sovereign - Holds absolute authority in all things. He is able to override all other powers and authorities. (Ephesians 1:11, Isaiah 46:10)
• Creator - God created all things and in Him all things exist (Psalm 33:6)

This last statement is exactly what God has done. He created the world and everything in it with the intent from the outset to ultimately create good beings that have the free will to choose goodness and therefore relationship with Him. Because choice is involved, there are beings that have also been created that do not choose to align with goodness and therefore reject good relationships with God. God has provided the information and the time for every individual who has had the opportunity to choose goodness or evil to make. Because God is good and therefore just, we can trust that any individual who has truly not been afforded a “fair” opportunity will be — as we know some seem to die before they’ve had the opportunity to consciously make this choice as a result of the evil and death in this world. When God has finished enacting grace and justice upon all of His creation, the final state will be achieved - eternal life in good relationship with Him for all who choose it. This is God’s intention from the start.

God has done all of this:

• He created an initially evil-less world with free will and initially a single potential choice for evil — to eat of the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
• From the start every human at some point has chosen evil over good and are therefore guilty of evil — this is commonly called "sinful" which simply means something that is short of the perfectly good nature of God and justly deserving of God's divine judgement.
• God's good nature requires justice and therefore to not just intervene but destroy evil at its source. So, God would be just to destroy all of creation because of the evil therein.
• However, also because of his good nature, He has delayed judgment to allow a grace period for reconciliation.
• That reconciliation was provided through Jesus's sacrificial death.
• Jesus was God made flesh and in so was the perfect man who never chose evil. Sinless, He willingly accepted the penalty for the evil the rest of mankind had chosen or will choose.
• Through the historical account of the Bible we know that Jesus taught forgiveness of sins through His death is available to anyone who understands these tenets, believes them, and repents of their contributions to evil trusting that His death will satisfy the just requirement of our perfect God's judgement on any source of evil.
• God has communicated through his prophets and the Bible that there are established times for all things, including the end of the grace period for sin.