What is the image of God? Part 2 (for part 1 see website) Image as Occupation In the ancient world there were images and idols of gods everywhere. Idols were designed to express the attributes of the god there represented and the gods were supposedly present through them. To see the idol was to see what the god was like; to serve…
'God’s Character' Tagged Posts
What is the Image of God? Part 1 by Matthew Payne In Genesis 1:27 we read that ‘God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them’. However, the passage doesn’t define what “Image of God” means. Consequently “Image of God” has been interpreted in a vast number of ways throughout church history. Does it refer to…
Last week we considered domestic violence and the belief of some that domestic violence is sanctioned by passages concerning male headship in the Bible. In the ABC’s recent online article about domestic violence and the Christian church, Sydney Archbishop Glenn Davies speaks to the contrary: “Submission is never coercive, it’s always voluntary, so the wife offers herself in that relationship. It becomes…
A Good Reason for Evil – Part 1 This is a transcript of a commentary from the radio show “Stand to Reason,” with Gregory Koukl. It is made available to you at no charge through the faithful giving of those who support Stand to Reason. Reproduction permitted for non-commercial use only. ©1997 Gregory Koukl What is evil? Could it have a purpose?…
We have come to the end of our series on God’s incommunicable attributes where we have explored some of the characteristics of God that we don’t share with him. The aim of this series has not just been to teach you some new words to throw around at parties(!), we have done it because knowing God is a crucial aspect of having…
As the fireworks exploded in a flash of light and colour to mark the opening of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the word Eternity appeared in beautiful copperplate on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a salute to the iconic ‘graffitiest’ Arthur Stace who, having accepted Jesus into his life, began to proclaim to Sydney that he was in Christ for eternity, by…
This week we explore the most controversial of God’s incommunicable attributes (characteristics of God that we don’t share) and the most commonly misunderstood: his impassibility. Impassibility is really the natural outworking of three attributes we’ve already considered – simplicity, aseity and immutability. It refers to God’s immunity to suffering, or to put it another way, God’s incapacity for being overwhelmed by suffering.…
God’s immutability is a third characteristic that we don’t share with him (his third incommunicable attribute) and it refers to his unchangeability. God is already complete and perfect, he has no potential that has not been fully realised. In comparison, we are constantly changing, a truth we can see everywhere – in our children, in our spouse, in our parents. For God…
The second of God’s incommunicable attributes (attributes we do not share with God) in our series, is his Aseity, or self-existence. While the term ‘Aseity’ sounds difficult, the concept is relatively straightforward. It is the idea that God is entirely independent of the world and relies on no-one for his existence. In Acts 17:24-25 Paul illustrates this idea by contrasting God with…
The first of God’s incommunicable attributes (attributes that we do not share with God) that we will explore is his Simplicity: that God’s existence is identical with his attributes, or to put it another way, that He is not the sum total of his attributes but is simultaneously everything that all of his attributes reveal. One good way of understanding this is…