“. . . a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.”  Most of us recognize that piece of the Christmas story.  We can locate Augustus historically as the ruler of imperial Rome and we all know about taxation and governmental decrees.

We may not think very much about the decree behind the decree.  God had told the prophets that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.  But Mary, God’s choice for the Messiah’s mother, did not live in Bethlehem and had no reason to go there, especially not being pregnant.  Obviously, in order to predict the future, God must know ahead of time what will happen.  There must have been something in the plan that would put Mary in Bethlehem when the time came for the Messiah to be born.  Caesar’s decree was in fact preceded by another decree, an overarching plan for history designed by God himself.

One need not think along these lines very far to arrive at some serious questions, and theologians have not been slow to ask them.  Preeminent among them is how our choices can have any meaning if the whole story is already written.  Could Caesar not have issued his decree?  Did God predict Bethlehem on the basis of knowing what Caesar was going to do or did He in some way arrange the events?  To use a different example, Christ was crucified according to the “predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23).  How then were Judas and the Jewish leadership held guilty for what they did?  Is human life more than a stage play?  Are the choices we make more than illusion?

These questions admit of no easy answers.  As applied to the problem of evil, they challenge the very goodness of God.  They are the source of some significant divisions within the Christian church.  However one qualifies God’s decree or tries to relate it to meaningful human choice, the bottom line is that God does in fact have a plan that He is working out.  That fact ought to encourage us greatly.  The end of history is not in doubt.  The ultimate winner is already known.  A sovereign God is only a threat to those who will not obey Him.

Every person has a name, and every name describes a person. Our 16^th President’s name was Abraham Lincoln, however that same name today symbolizes character, perseverance, and resolve.  In like manner our Creator has a name; in fact He has several names.  Each name reflects a certain aspect of His character.

One of God’s names is Elohim, which means strong one. When connected to other names, various aspects of His strength are revealed.  For example El Shaddai means God Almighty (Genesis 17:1), and El Elyon is The Most High God (Psalm 9:2).

Another name for God is the word Yahweh that means to exist or be. Some combinations of this name include Yahweh Jireh or The Lord will provide (Genesis 22:14), and Yahweh Nissi that means The Lord is my Banner (Exodus 17:15).

One of the most common names for God in the New Testament is the name Father.  Jesus used this name several times to talk about God.  Immediately after His resurrection He told Mary Magdalene do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.  Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God (John 20:17). Though well acquainted with the Old Testament names for God, the disciples were brought into a completely new relationship with Him when they understood God was now their Father.

The Bible has several other names and titles for God, each describing His strength, wisdom, love, kindness, wrath, power, or some other divine characteristic.  Because God is beyond our comprehension, part of eternity will undoubtedly be spent learning more about each of His wonderful names and how each of them magnifies His glory.

Want to learn more about God’s names? Try checking some of the reference books in our church library, or typing the phrase the names of God into an internet search engine. Then be prepared to be amazed as you spend a few moments thinking about the various names of God.

If someone says “John is nice” or “Susan is good” they are communicating something more than the fact that John does nice things, or Susan performs good acts. To possess “niceness” and “goodness” is to be defined by those characteristics. They are part of who we are.

When thinking of the attributes of God, theologians compile lists such as God is holy, loving, good, wise, all knowing, etc. Each of these represents something about God’s character.  It is not enough to say “God is holy” or “God is loving”, for He does not just possess holiness or love. Holiness and love are essential aspects of His being. Take away any of His characteristics and God ceases to be God.

It’s dangerous to think of God in terms of His attributes, for to do so is to risk creating an idol. A.W. Tozer wrote “when we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that which is not God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God” (Knowledge of the Holy page 16).

How then should we think of God?  We must think of Him in terms with which we are familiar, but we must not limit Him by those terms. God is righteous, and all of us have an idea of what makes up “righteousness.” However, none of us adequately understand all the intricacies of that or any other attribute.  At best, we are men looking at a mountain range through a telescope.  We can see some of its splendor but we’re not close enough to it to really appreciate its majesty. Tozer also wrote “man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.  Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God” (page 9).

To know, and correctly appreciate the attributes of God is to better understand who and what God is like.  It is also an essential way for our worship of God to become purer.

A triangle has three angles; a tricycle has three cycles or wheels, and the Trinity has three . . . nities??

Well, not exactly.

The Trinity refers to a belief about God, expressing the fact that the unity of His being exists (or subsists, to use the theological word) as three persons-Father, Son, and Spirit.  It is one of the most fruitful conceptions of Christian theology.

Autobiographies were unknown in the Greco-Roman world.  A theologian who plumbed the depths of the trinitarian nature of God and the meaning of person wrote the first autobiography.  In considering the personal nature of God, Augustine essentially developed the understanding of personhood that was the Western tradition until modern times.  His discovery of personality was new and provided one of the distinguishing marks of the Christian civilization that replaced the Greco-Roman civilization.

The Trinity has often been distorted or misunderstood by Christians, and denied by rationalists and sometimes by biblicists across the centuries.  The word “Trinity” is not found in the Bible and the doctrine was first formally expressed in the fourth century, but its content is biblical.  A triadic conception of God is visible in several places in Scripture, among them the statement of the Great Commission in Matthew 28 and the baptism of Jesus in Luke 3.

From a practical point of view, something like the Trinity is necessary to explain how God is not a supreme egotist or a schizophrenic prior to the creation.  How was His love expressed when He was all there was?  With whom did He communicate?  A multiplicity within Himself-a divine society, so to speak-explains whom He loved and how communication could occur.  A solitary, undifferentiated monad does not.

From a philosophical point of view, Christians are not stuck with the classical problem of the one and the many (or unity and diversity).  God is both one (in essence) and multiple (in person).  There is unity and diversity as far back in the Christian system of thought as it is possible to go.

Perhaps at the beginning of any theological study, there should be a course on knowing God.  What does it mean to “know” God?  Or what are the answers to the simple questions of, is God knowable, and if so, why should I worry about this knowledge?

Knowledge comes in many forms.  We can know about something’s existence, but is that adequate where God is concerned.  James Boice in his book The Foundations of Christian Faith describes another level of knowledge. He talks about the ability to know about a city…its streets, its neighborhoods, and its parks.  One could come to this knowledge by living there or by studying maps. This can be related to knowing God; we can know theology in many ways. It can be accomplished by knowing people who know God or by studying the intellectual concepts that the Bible entails. But is this truly knowing God?

In Romans 1, it says that God has made the knowledge of Himself plain to all and that man is without excuse.  So, where does that leave us because it is very obvious that much of mankind does not know God even though it ‘is plain to them’?

The “knowability” of God is something that is beyond the human intellect.  Knowing God involves ideas of faith and grace, ideas of a newness of life and being born again.  There is a knowledge that is not human by any means but is bestowed upon us by an out-pouring of the Holy Spirit that results in Him revealing Himself to us.

Knowing God is not like knowing an idea or philosophy and we should not expect it to be. Boice says that the knowledge of God is not so much that we search after him, because we won’t, but that He reveals Himself through Christ and the Scriptures; as well as through piety and worship.

There are many reasons to know God, our creator and the sustainer of life. But the greatest reason might simply be, what else is truly worth knowing?  Paul prayed that his loved ones would know God in a greater way, and encouraged them to grapple with the difficult concepts of our Savior. I would like to follow Paul’s example by encouraging us to drink deeply from scripture daily as well as from those like James Boice who have been enabled by the gift of a great mind and spiritual insight to stretch our thinking and expand our knowledge.

Knowledge opens the door to life, and any theological study should include a discourse on the knowability of God near its beginning. But what does it mean to “know God?” Is God even knowable?

Knowledge comes in many forms. We can know facts, some thing’s existence, or even how to accomplish a task, but is that what it means to know God? In the Old Testament God was largely seen as “transcendent.” He was exalted, high, and beyond creation. In the New Testament Jesus called God “Father”, and by that brought him close or “imminent” to creation. For a long time the concept of God being “above” and yet “close” were balanced. Both his imminence and transcendence were “central” to Christian thinking. God was the hub from which all knowledge and truth proceeded. We knew we existed because God said, “let us make man in our own image.”

René Descartes (1596-1695) is considered to be the first of the rationalist philosophers. He believed nothing could be known unless its existence was proven rationally. He asked the question, “How do I know I exist?” His answer was, “I think, therefore I am.” Because he couldn’t doubt the fact he himself “thought”, he knew he existed. From man’s own existence Descartes believed all knowledge and truth could be understood. With him began the movement, which placed man at the center and God on the peripheral. Later, movements pushed God even further from the center until one day in the mid 1800’s Friedrich Nietzche said, “God is dead.” Long before, philosophers and theologians said we couldn’t know God, or that he had created the world but had left it to run on it’s own.

To such ignorance 1 John 4:7 says, “…love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” The world never has, nor ever will know God. However, those who are in Christ know him, and will know him even better throughout eternity. Their knowledge of God may begin with the words, “In the beginning God”, and will most definitely include the word, “Father”- but where will it end? By taking God at his word and eternally following him, we will undoubtedly look back at our present knowledge of God much as a grade school child recalls Kindergarten. It was a fun experience, which opened the doors to life.

“Oh, the hand of Providence is reaching out to help us on our way. ” These words from a popular Christian song from a few years ago seem to sum up many people’s understanding of the Providence of God. We look at situations that seem to help us out and gladly give Providence its just glory.

Often we hear of stories about near misses or occasions that might be interpreted as coincidence and immediately we taut the Providence of God in gratitude of this brush with a miracle. Lost keys delay a trip and a person misses an accident or plane crash. Situations like car trouble occurring just as you pull into a gas station instead of on the interstate or finding out about a job opening, that you eventually get, as you casually surf the net are just a few examples people might give for proof that the hand of Providence is our ever present help.

But perhaps there is more to consider as we selectively praise God for things that seem to get us out of jams. God’s first and foremost purpose is to bring glory to Himself. There can be nothing He loves more then Himself, His purposes and His own plan. We say He is sovereign and that nothing escapes the understanding of our God. If this is true then it is also the hand of providence that leaves us with heartache. It is the hand of providence that takes a boy’s father before he is even old enough to know him. It causes or allows wars and rumors of wars. Sickness, death and tragedy are all parts of the hand of providence. It is a hard truth that is sometimes ignored in favor of shading the negative as an attack of the enemy. But even the demons are the unwitting servants of the Almighty.

“For all things work together for good….” Looking at things through an understanding that God does things for His best interest gives hope in all situations, and we know that hope does not disappoint. It is this trust in God’s understanding of what is best that allows the hymn writer to say ‘it is well with my soul.’

Non-academics frequently criticize academics for using fifty-cent words when ten-cent ones will do. In some cases that criticism is just; sometimes academics are just showing off. In other cases fifty-cent words carry a lot of freight and eliminate the need for distracting explanations.

The term ex nihilo is not only a fifty-cent word, it is also Latin, which compounds the offense. However, it is a term used by theologians to carry a good deal of meaning regarding the doctrine of creation all by itself.

Its literal meaning is “out of nothing” and it tries to give substance to the biblical statement that God spoke the physical universe into existence. It was not made out of preexisting stuff (nothing is not nothingness, as if it were something), nor, more importantly, did God make the universe out of himself. Rather, there was nothing; and then at God’s command there was something.

In using the term ex nihilo, one intent seems to be to magnify the power of God. A kid who makes a castle out of sand on the beach is not the equal of the kid who first creates sand and then makes a castle. So a God who does not require preexisting stuff to make a universe must be a powerful God indeed.

A second intent is to maintain a separation between God and the creation. There is a relationship between God and his creation; but unlike in pantheistic systems, God is not identified with the creation. God is eternal; the creation is temporal. God is self-sufficient; the creation is dependent. God is a necessary being; the creation is contingent. If God had created out of himself, none of these things would be necessarily true.

Perhaps it is also correct to say that this term implies that creation is a free decision of God. There was no necessity, either internal or external, acting upon God to create. He was complete in himself and could have been so through all eternity without a creation. But he chose not to be. In a way that makes us small indeed. But it isn’t the end of the story. Stay tuned.