God

• Monotheism

  The belief that there is one God
• Monotheism is the belief held by all Christians that there is only one God
• In the earliest centuries of history, the Jews believed that other gods existed, but should not be worshipped
• It is clear that Israel's God, the Lord, alone should be worshipped
• The development of monotheism can be seen in the Old Testament writings of the prophets
• The Shema

  The classic statement of monotheism found in the Jewish statement of faith in Deuteronomy 6:4
• Ethical monotheism

  Monotheism that applies to life and includes following moral codes linked to belief in one God, e.g. the Ten Commandments
• The Ten Commandments list the obligations of the Sinai covenant between God and Israel
• Ethical monotheism, as seen throughout the New Testament, ties in with Christian beliefs about salvation
• Monotheism refers to the belief that there is one God
• The Sinai covenant refers to the agreement made through Moses between God and Israel; in return for their absolute commitment to God, Israel was to be God's chosen people
• Ethical monotheism means that belief in one God includes also following the moral codes linked to that belief, e.g. the Ten Commandments
• Creation ex nihilo

  The belief that God created the universe out of nothing
• Theological determinism


  The view that God's absolute control of everything means he causes all that happens
• Spatio-temporal language

  Language related to space and time, e.g. 'fore-knowing'
• Aseity


  The belief in God's self-existence; it is his nature to exist
• The doctrine of the Trinity is the Christian belief that God is three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - in one nature
• In the early centuries of the Church's existence, Church leaders considered the implications of biblical texts, their conviction that Jesus was uniquely the Son of God, and their experience of the power of the Holy Spirit guiding the lives of individual Christians and the life of the Church as a whole
• A number of heresies drove them to set out formally the doctrine of the Trinity that is held by most Christian denominations
• There is one God in three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each Person possesses fully all the attributes of the Godhead - eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, etc.
• The diversity together with unity within creation reflects the diversity within the unity of the Godhead
• The doctrine of the Trinity explains the otherwise paradoxical claim that God is both transcendent and immanent
• Transcendent


  Referring to the belief that God is without limits and is beyond the world of space and time
• Immanent

  Referring to the belief that God pervades and sustains the universe and that humans are able to have a personal relationship with God
• For Christians who believe that Jesus is the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus' authority is God's authority
• There are two possible ways of understanding the word 'one' in John 10:30: unity of essence or unity of purpose
• Biblical support can be claimed for both these ways of understanding 'one'
• Jesus himself spoke Aramaic, so what he said might have been distorted in the translation into Greek
• John's Gospel was written probably over 60 years after the crucifixion, which gives another possible reason for distortion
• Many scholars think John's Gospel was an interpretation of the life and teaching of Jesus as recorded in earlier traditions and Gospels
• One of the reasons for John's Gospel was the need to combat heresy, so this might have 'slanted' the text
• There is no way of giving an absolutely definite answer on what is meant by this and other New Testament texts about the status of Jesus
• It took the Church several centuries of debate to get its thinking clear on this and perhaps such texts represent early steps in that process of thought
• Omnipotent

  Two ways of explaining what is meant by omnipotent
• Transcendent


  What Christians mean when they refer to God as transcendent
• One in John 10:20

  Two ways of understanding 'one'
• 1 Corinthians 8:6: 'yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live, and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live'
• God as Personal


  Belief that God has a personal relationship with humans and is involved in the world
• God as Father


  Biblical concept of God as a father figure who is responsible for, respected by and has control over his people
• Jesus' relationship with God

  Seen in his prayer in Gethsemane, where he uses Abba, the intimate Aramaic term for Father