NORTH MARION FELLOWSHIP

Statement of Faith
God
James Paul O'Brien 10/18/2011

We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.

Augustine tells of a vision of seeing a little boy at a beach scooping up the ocean thimbleful by thimbleful and emptying it out on the sand. Then he sees an angel who tells him that this boy will have emptied out the entire ocean long before Augustine has exhausted what can be said about God. (Peter Kreeft) What we believe about God is the foundation for everything else because everything else stems from that belief. Whether it is philosophy, biology, psychology, ethics, sociology, law, politics, economics or history, it all starts with our theology and the central part of which revolves around who God is and what He is like. One of the telling signs in the history of humanity as to the existence of God, is that there has always been a belief in God. Wayne Grudem states: All persons everywhere have a deep, inner sense that God exists, that they are his creatures, and that he is their Creator.1 He goes on to discuss Pauls stating how all people knew God but did not honor Him as such (Rom 1: 19-25). Here is what I believe about God: There is one independent triune God that always was, is and will be eternally all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present and unchangeable. He is perfectly holy, just, loving, merciful and gracious. What does it mean that God is Creator and why is it important? Include your view of Creation. I believe that God exists outside of Creation and created all things out of nothing. Colossians 1:16 is probably the best summary verse of this when it says that God created all things, which by necessity would include both the natural and supernatural worlds. In order to do this would mean that He exists outside of Creation and therefore even outside of time. Personally, I believe in a literal account of the Genesis account of creation and its timeline. God created each part of creation for a specific purpose and because of that, it seems logical to believe that He could and did create everything at a functioning state of being. This would include not only the plant, animal and human life, but the planets and universe itself. Whats more is that He created everything for His own glory to be known. Some other key passages are Genesis 1, Psalm 33, John 1 and Rev 4. Explain your understanding of the being of God and the Doctrine of the Trinity, including your understanding of the attributes of God. Grudem defines the Trinity this way: God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.2 This is one of those beliefs that will always be beyond our full understanding yet it is an essential Biblical belief. As Grudem also points out, there are hints of the Trinity in the Old Testament in places such as Genesis where God says Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.3 (Gen. 1:26) There are several other passages showing spate persons of the Godhead: Gen 3:22, 11:7 and Isaiah 6:8 and
1

Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 1994), 141.
2

ibid 226.

many more. Yet in Deut. 6 we also read The Lord our God, the Lord is One. which would be quite an odd statement if there was only one person of the Godhead. In the NT there are also passages that speak to the reality of the Trinity such as: MT 3:16-17, 28:19, 1 Cor 12:4-6, 2 Cor. 13:14, Eph 4:4-6, and 1 Pet 1:2. Peter states it this way: According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood4, which makes for a pretty clear statement of the Triune God. Furthermore, I believe that God is perfectly holy (Ex. 15:11; Isa. 6:3; 57:15), loving (Jn. 3:35; 17:24; 1 Jn. 4:8, 16), eternal & all-present (Ps. 33:11; 102:25-27; 115:3; Jer. 23:23-24; Dan. 4:34-35; Jn. 5:26; Acts 17:24-25), all-knowing (Ps. 139:116; 147:5; Isa. 46:10; Jn. 21:17) and all-powerful (Jer. 32:17; Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:28; 2 Cor. 6:18; Eph. 3:20; Rev. 1:8). I believe that by dying on the cross, He shows that he is also merciful and gracious.5 Why is it necessary, or important, to have a working understanding of the nature and attributes of God? It is necessary because the better we know God, the more we can live in the reality of a relationship with Him and be effective in sharing the through both word and deed, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What does it mean that God has limitless knowledge and sovereign power and what is its significance? It means that there is nothing God does not know or is ever able to not know. He knows everything that will be and everything that could have been. An example would be the Tower of Babel. God knew what was going to happen because He was fully in control (sovereign power), yet he also knew precisely what would happen if He were to choose not to intervene and confuse their languages.

ibid 227.

Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 1994), 231.
5

Evangelical Free Church of America. "EFCA Statement of Faith." June 26, 2008. http://207250-32-155.static.twtelecom.net/files/document/office-of-the-president/sof-with-scripturereferences.pdf (accessed October 18, 2011).