One of the most hotly contested and most prognosticated subjects of our time is about the nature of God. Even among varying Christian religions the view of God and His nature changes quite a bit. Some religions rely on legalistic interpretation of God and His promise of justice and of dealing with those who transgress His laws. Others lean more toward the view of God as merciful and gracious, loving of all no matter what circumstance. In the end, both are correct. God is a God of justice and He is also a God of peace and forgiveness. Part of being an apologist for Christianity is being able to correctly articulate what God is, and more importantly, what God is not. We will take a very brief look at the nature of God in this paper. It is partially based on Chapter 4 titled The Nature of God in Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli.

God is the source of all existence. He is alone in that He is the sole creator of all things. All things work to the Glory of God. God is the source of His own existence. You and I in our finite bodies need to be created to come into this world. We need a mother and a father to come together as one and create us. God is not temporally limited in that manner. He draws on himself for His own existence. If God was dependent on something or someone else for his existence he would not be the Almighty God. He would be the product of something else, and that something else would be greater than Him, and therefore more worthy of our adoration, praise and worship. It would also beg the question “If there is a being that created God, who created the being that created God?” It is an endless loop of guessing and not ever knowing.

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God is not limited to material being. By that I mean that God is not limited to being in a body or any other created thing at any time. If God were to choose to do so He would be in constant change. If God choose to dwell in a body as we know it, He would have to choose to live in a body that is mortal and is prone to aging and dying. This is a byproduct of our sinful nature. God may choose to use such things to bring about His will (Jesus Christ died in the flesh is an example), or He may choose to use things such as circumstances, time, other people and so on in order to bring about His will, but it is by His choosing.

God is a transcendent God. He created the universe, but he is not a part of the universe. If he was part of the universe it would mean that He was once again limited to the physical laws of the universe. If He was part of the universe and merely decided to break the rules of the universe once in awhile so that He could be a part of it, He would be breaking His own order of nature and He would not be a true God. If He were to say “this is the rule of the land…but I might break it once in awhile” would to be calling God a hypocrite and a liar.

Being the creator of the universe means that God also created something we all have to deal with everyday… the notion of time. In St. Augustine’s book The Confessions in book 13 Chapter 36 he says “Thou seest not in time, thou movest not in time, thou restest not in time. And yet thou makest all those things which are seen in time—indeed the very time themselves—and everything that proceeds in and from time” If God were limited by time, we again would see God being held to a purely earthly notion. God created time, and therefore He is transcendent of all time.

God is intelligent. He created the heavens and the earth; he created all the parts of the earth, the heavens, and all that is in it. Jeremiah the prophet tells us “…the heavens declare the beauty of God.” God is not learning as we are constantly learning. For some to say that God is learning about us and sitting and watching us and growing along side of us is preposterous. God knows us intimately. The Psalmist reminds us that God knew us in the womb. Again he says that God knows the very hairs on our head (mine seems to be getting easier to know day by day). God is the author and the finisher of our being. He knows us so intimately that He knows us better than we know us.

Finally, God is good. God is a just God who sees to it that in the end, justice is done. It might not happen when we think it should, but we are jaded in the fact that we are conditioned by our own nature. God knows when to deal with a person, and He will in His time and at the best moment. God is the source of all of our being; therefore He can not be evil. If God was evil, than He would not be able to sit in judgment and ensure that justice is done to those who do evil. He would not be able to send his Son to save us from ourselves because He would still be evil.

The greatest mystery of all is how God can be all these things and more for all people, of all times, and in all places. It is very comforting to know that on that day that I cross over to heaven and leave my mortal body behind that I to shall know all these things. As an apologist for the faith we must be constantly on the look out. We must look for heresy and root it out, we must be ready to give an account for our faith at any time, and we must be willing to do what the Lord of the heavens asks us to do. When we step out and do what we are asked, in faith, God is perfected in us.

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