Condensed Theology

A Primer in Systematic Theology

 Theology Proper:
The Doctrine of God
What does the Bible teach about
God?
 Where We’re Going
• Ten lectures covering four subjects:
– The existence of God
– The attributes of God
– God as Trinity
– God’s works of creation & providence
Introduction to Theology
Proper
 Introduction
• “God is not simply a great sight, the object of speculative
curiosity. The revelation of His glory and the whole
theological process which legitimately follows from it is
holy ground. We cannot stand as superiors over God or
His Word. We may not coldly and detachedly analyse
[sic.] and collate the great self-revealing deeds and
utterances of Jehovah. We may not theologise [sic.]
without emotion and commitment. The doctrine must
thrill and exhilarate. It must humble and cast
down….Theology has lost its way, and, indeed its very
soul, if it cannot say with John, ‘I fell at his feet as dead’
(Rev. 1:17).”1
1 Donald Macleod, Behold Your God (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian
Focus, 1990), 39.
 Introduction
• There is only one true and living God
• Deut 6:4: Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our
God, the LORD is one!
• Isa 45:5a: I am the LORD, and there is no
other; Besides Me there is no God.
• Mark 12:29: Jesus answered, “The
foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE
LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD…’”
 Introduction: Only One God
• Rom 3:30: …since indeed God who will justify
the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised
through faith is one.
• 1 Cor 8:4: Therefore concerning the eating of
things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is
no such thing as an idol in the world, and that
there is no God but one.
• 1 Tim 2:5: For there is one God, and one
mediator also between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus…
• Jas 2:19: You believe that God is one. You do
well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
 Introduction
• As we move through our study of theology
proper, it is this one God that is our
subject—the one true and living God
• And particularly, as we begin addressing
the existence of God, it is this one God
whose existence we affirm
• With reference to other so-called gods, we
are confirmed athiests
 The Existence of God

How do we know that God exists?

 The Existence of God
• The existence of the one God is assumed
in Scripture
• The existence of God is attested by
creation
• The existence of God is apparent to man
 The Existence of God:
Assumed in Scripture
• Gen 1:1: In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.
– The first verse of the Bible does not set out to prove
the existence of this one God; it merely asserts it
– The assertion is made against the backdrop of
polytheism
– Everyone in Ancient Near Eastern culture believed in
a god—it was what the Hebrews predicated of their
God that made their God so remarkable
– The issue was never the existence
– It would have been absurd to suggest that there were
no gods at all
 The Existence of God:
Assumed in Scripture
• Ps 14:1: The fool has said in his heart, “There is
no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed
abominable deeds; There is no one who does
good.
• Ps 10:3-4: For the wicked boasts of his heart's
desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns
the LORD. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his
countenance, does not seek Him. All his
thoughts are, “There is no God.”
• This may be from a person who outwardly
professes a connection to God
 The Existence of God:
Assumed in Scripture
• This may be from a • In the case of the
person who openly former, the atheist is
asserts that God does foolish because he
not exist—a knows better (it is
professing atheist… apparent to man)
• Or it may be from a • In the case of the
person who openly latter, the theist is
asserts that God foolish because he
exists—a professing lives as if there were
theist… no God.
 The Existence of God:
Assumed in Scripture
• What makes those who either actively (the
atheist) or passively (the theist) declare
that there is no God foolish is clarified by
our next two points:
– The existence of God is attested by creation
and
– The existence of God is apparent to man
 The Existence of God:
Attested by Creation
• By the creation itself…
– Ps 19:1: The heavens are telling of the glory
of God; And their expanse is declaring the
work of His hands.
– Ps 8:1: O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is
Your name in all the earth, Who have
displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
 The Existence of God:
Attested by Creation
• By the creation itself…
– Isa 40:25-26: “To whom then will you liken
Me That I would be his equal?” says the
Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high And see
who has created these stars, The One who
leads forth their host by number, He calls
them all by name; Because of the greatness
of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing.
 The Existence of God:
Attested by Creation
• By the creation itself…
– Rom 1:20: For since the creation of the world
His invisible attributes, His eternal power and
divine nature, have been clearly seen, being
understood through what has been made…
 The Existence of God:
Attested by Creation
• By the creation itself…
– Since God’s crowning creative achievement is
humanity, exclusively made in his image (Gen
1:26-27), men and women, boys and girls, as
creatures made in God’s image, clearly testify
by their very existence to the existence of
their creator
– Since humanity is itself creative, the products
of human ingenuity also clearly testify to the
existence of God
 The Existence of God:
Attested by Creation
• By what the creation does…
– Acts 14:16-17: In the generations gone by He
permitted all the nations to go their own ways;
and yet He did not leave Himself without
witness, in that He did good and gave you
rains from heaven and fruitful seasons,
satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.
 The Existence of God:
Apparent to Man
• Rom 1:18-23: For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
because that which is known about God is evident within
them; for God made it evident to them. For since the
creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being
understood through what has been made, so that they
are without excuse. For even though they knew God,
they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they
became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart
was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an
image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and
four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
 The Existence of God:
Apparent to Man
• Rom 1:25: For they exchanged the truth
of God for a lie, and worshiped and served
the creature rather than the Creator, who
is blessed forever. Amen.
• Rom 1:28: And just as they did not see fit
to acknowledge God any longer, God gave
them over to a depraved mind, to do those
things which are not proper.
 The Existence of God:
Apparent to Man
• Rom 1:29: Being filled with all unrighteousness,
wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant,
boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to
parents, without understanding, untrustworthy,
unloving, unmerciful; and although they know
the ordinance of God, that those who practice
such things are worthy of death, they not only do
the same, but also give hearty approval to those
who practice them.
 The Existence of God:
Apparent to Man
• Rom 2:14-15: For when Gentiles who do
not have the Law do instinctively the
things of the Law, these, not having the
Law, are a law to themselves, in that they
show the work of the Law written in their
hearts, their conscience bearing witness
and their thoughts alternately accusing or
else defending them.
 The Existence of God: Review
• The existence of the one God is assumed
in Scripture
• The existence of God is attested by
creation
• The existence of God is apparent to man
The Existence of God

Which god?
 The Existence of God:
Which Deity?
• Often, Romans 1 is used to assert
something less than what it actually
communicates
• The Apostle Paul is not teaching that men
and women have a nebulous sense that
there is a deity that governs our existence
and commands our obedience and
punishes our wickedness
 The Existence of God:
Which Deity?
• Paul has a specific God in mind
– Rom 1:1-4: Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus,
called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
which He promised beforehand through His prophets
in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was
born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,
who was declared the Son of God with power by the
resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of
holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.
– Paul’s God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ
 The Existence of God:
Which Deity?
• Paul has a specific God in mind
– Rom 1:7: …to all who are beloved of God in
Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
– Rom 1:8-9: First, I thank my God through Jesus
Christ for you all, because your faith is being
proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God,
whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the
gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how
unceasingly I make mention of you.
 The Existence of God:
Which Deity?
• Paul has a specific God in mind
– Rom 1:16-19: For I am not ashamed of the
gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also
to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is
revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But
the righteous man shall live by faith.” For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because
that which is known about God is evident within
them; for God made it evident to them.
 The Existence of God:
Which Deity?
• The God whose existence is assumed in
Scripture, and attested by creation, and
apparent to man is the true and living God,
the Triune God, the God and Father of Our
Lord Jesus Christ
• This is the God whom everyone knows but
whom in their sin (foolishness) they deny
by their words and deeds
 The Existence of God:
Which Deity?
• From here there seems to be a necessary
implication, an inescapable inference;
namely…
• That it is unnecessary to prove the
existence of the true God to the
unbeliever—the unbeliever already knows
that he exists, that he created him or her,
and that he justly punishes evildoers…
 The Existence of God:
Which Deity?
• We may ask then why it is that if the
Triune God’s existence is so obvious, so
clear, so apparent, that the unbelieving do
not respond to the evidence all around
them with unceasing devotion and
profound gratitude.
• The answer is that we do not evaluate the
evidence neutrally…
The Existence of God

Evaluating the evidence

 Evaluating the Evidence for the
Existence of God
• We do not evaluate, in fact, we cannot
evaluate the evidence neutrally
– Rom 1:18: For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the
truth in unrighteousness.
– Rom 1:21: For even though they knew God,
they did not honor Him as God or give thanks,
but they became futile in their speculations,
and their foolish heart was darkened.
 Evaluating the Evidence for the
Existence of God
• We do not evaluate, in fact, we cannot
evaluate the evidence neutrally
– 1 Cor 2:14: But a natural man does not
accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him; and he cannot
understand them, because they are spiritually
appraised.
 Evaluating the Evidence for the
Existence of God
• We evaluate the evidence from an adversarial,
rebellious posture…
– Rom 5:10: For if while we were enemies we were
reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much
more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by
His life.
– Eph 4:18: …being darkened in their understanding,
excluded from the life of God because of the
ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of
their heart.
– Col 1:21: And although you were formerly alienated
and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,
 Evaluating the Evidence for the
Existence of God
• So, although there is overwhelming
evidence for the existence of God, both in
Scripture and in creation, men and women
cannot properly evaluate it.
• If they could, they would certainly reason
that the true and living God is there
• But because of sin, they are unable to
draw the obvious inference
 The Place for Traditional
Proofs for God’s Existence
Is the use of proofs for God’s
existence legitimate?
 The Traditional Proofs
• The ontological argument
• The cosmological argument
• The teleological argument
• The moral argument
 The Traditional Proofs:
The Ontological Argument
• Anselm (1033-1109 AD)
– God is “the being than which nothing greater
can be conceived.”
– This conception exists in our understanding.
– If God is the greatest conceivable thing, he is
greater than our understanding.
– Therefore, he exists outside of our
understanding.
 The Traditional Proofs:
The Cosmological Argument
• Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD)
– The cosmos is always in motion
– There must be an “unmoved mover”
responsible for the effect
– That “unmoved mover” must be God
 The Traditional Proofs:
The Teleological Argument
• Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD)
– Subcategory of the cosmological argument
– The harmony and order of the universe
suggests a designer, an intelligent purpose, a
telos (end or goal) for existence
– The designer must be God
 The Traditional Proofs:
The Moral Argument
• Man has an innate sense of right and wrong
and the need for justice to be served
• This sense transcends time and culture and
is often appealed to by those addressing
moral wrongs espoused by their time and
culture
• Therefore there must be a God who has
given this sense of morality and who will one
day render judgment
 The Traditional Proofs:
The Moral Argument
• Though I am not sure of the originator
of this argument, its most popular
exponent has been C S Lewis
• The following slides have been
excerpted from Mere Christianity
 The Traditional Proofs:
The Moral Argument
• “Everyone has heard people quarrelling. Sometimes it
sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely
unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can
learn something very important from listening to the kind
of things they say. They say things like this: ‘How'd you
like it if anyone did the same to you?’ – ‘That's my seat, I
was there first’ – ‘Leave him alone, he isn’t doing you
any harm’ – ‘Why should you shove in first?’ – ‘Give me
a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine’ – ‘Come
on, you promised.’ People say things like that every day,
educated people as well as uneducated, and children as
well as grown-ups.
 The Traditional Proofs:
The Moral Argument
• “Now what interests me about all these remarks is that
the man who makes them is not merely saying that the
other man’s behaviour [sic.] does not happen to please
him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of
behaviour [sic.] which he expects the other man to know
about. And the other man very seldom replies: ‘To hell
with your standard.’ Nearly always he tries to make out
that what he has been doing does not really go against
the standard, or that if it does there is some special
excuse. He pretends there is some special reason in this
particular case why the person who took the seat first
should not keep it, or that things were quite different
when he was given the bit of orange, or that something
has turned up which lets him off keeping his promise.
 The Traditional Proofs:
The Moral Argument
• “It looks, in fact, very much as if both parties had in
mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent
behaviour [sic.] or morality or whatever you like to call
it, about which they really agreed. And they have. If
they had not, they might, of course, fight like animals,
but they could not quarrel in the human sense of the
word. Quarrelling means trying to show that the other
man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in
trying to do that unless you and he had some sort of
agreement as to what Right and Wrong are.”
• I think you can see where Lewis is going with this.
 The Traditional Proofs: Review
• The ontological argument
• The cosmological argument
• The teleological argument
• The moral argument
 The Place of Traditional
Proofs for God’s Existence
The limitations of the proofs
 The Limitations of the Proofs
1. The proofs are put before a hostile
audience
2. The proofs are not logically air-tight
3. The proofs cannot bring a person to
saving faith
 The Limitations of the Proofs:
A Hostile Audience
• Rom 5:10: For if while we were enemies we were
reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much
more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His
life
• Eph 4:18: …being darkened in their understanding,
excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance
that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart
• Col 1:21: And although you were formerly alienated and
hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.
• Assuming for a moment that the proofs are logically
valid, assuming that the facts they assert are true, no
one would be able to view them from a “neutral” vantage
point.
 Limitations to the Proofs:
Less than Air-tight Argumentation
• More than one writer has demonstrated
that these arguments are not logically valid
or otherwise persuasive
• At most, they suggest the probability that
there is a god (in the nebulous sense of
the term)
• J I Packer is right when he says…
 Limitations to the Proofs:
Less than Air-tight Argumentation
• “All arguments for God’s existence…and all
attempts to show the naturalness of theism, are
logically loose. They state no more than
possibilities…and can all be argued against
indefinitely. They cannot be made watertight, and if
offered as such they can be shown not to be
watertight by anyone who knows any logic. This will
damage the credit of any theology that appears to
be building and relying on these arguments.”

– J I Packer, “Theism for Our Time,” in God Who Is Rich in Mercy

(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1986), 13.
The Limitations of the Proofs: They
Cannot Bring a Person to Faith
• 1 Cor 1:18-25: For the word of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is
the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom
of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever i will set aside.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the
debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of
the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through
its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased
through the foolishness of the message preached to save
those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks
search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a
stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who
are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of
God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than
men.
The Limitations of the Proofs: They
Cannot Bring a Person to Faith
• “Ratiocination, without…spiritual light, never will give
one such an advantage to see things in their true
relations and respects to other things, and to things
in general….A man that sets himself to reason
without divine light is like a man that goes in the
dark into a garden full of the most beautiful plants,
and most artfully ordered, and compares things
together by going from one thing to another to feel
of them all, to perceive their beauty.”

– Jonathan Edwards, “Miscellanies #408” in Works (Carlisle,

PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974 reprint),
 The Limitations of the Proofs
1. The proofs are put before a hostile
audience
2. The proofs are not logically air-tight
3. The proofs cannot bring a person to
saving faith
 The Existence of God: Summary
• The existence of God is assumed in
Scripture
• The existence of God is attested by
creation
• The existence of God is apparent to man
• The “proofs” for the existence of God are
severely limited by the nature of man and
even by the validity of their arguments
 Glossary
• The ontological argument: God is “than which
nothing greater can be conceived.”
• The cosmological argument: God is the
“unmoved mover.”
• The teleological argument: There is purpose or
design in the universe; God is the designer.
• The moral argument: We have a natural sense
of right and wrong that must come from
somewhere outside of time and culture; the
source must be God