1. The Doctrine of God
Text Chapter Four

2. Agenda
Romans 1:18-32
Preliminary thoughts on “Moralistic Therapeutic Deisim”
Entrance Exam Questions
“What happened in 325 AD?”
“What does AD mean?”
The Doctrine of God

3. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
Two sociologists have given us the category “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” which, they say, largely dominates the religious life of American young people from a wide variety of religious affiliations. I suspect that MTD, as it is called, captures a much wider span of ages than youth alone. The five tenets of MTD are: (1) A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth. (2) God wants people to be good, nice, fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. (3) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. (4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem. (5) Good people go to heaven when they die. D. A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012), 114.

4. Explanation and Scriptural Basis
The Existence of God
Humanity’s inner sense of God
Believing the Evidence in Scripture and nature
Traditional “proofs” for the existence of God
Only God Can Overcome Our Sin and Enable Us to Be Persuaded of His Existence 
The Knowability of God
We can never fully understand God
Yet we can know God Truly
Introduction to the Study of God’s Character: God’s Attributes
Classifying God’s Attributes
Names of God in Scripture
Balanced Definitions of God’s Incommunicable Attributes

5. The Incommunicable Attributes of God Independence Unchangeableness
Evidence in Scripture
Does God sometimes change His mind?
The question of God’s impassibility
The challenge of Process Theology
God is both infinite and personal
The importance of God’s unchangeableness
Eternity
God is timeless in His own being
God sees all time equally vividly
God sees events in time and acts in time.
We will always exist in time
Omnipresence
God is present everywhere
God does not have spatial dimensions
God can be present to punish, to sustain, or to bless
Unity

6. The character of God: Simplicity
Unity is not a Collection of Attributes

7. The Character of God: Simplicity
Unity is not a series of Additions to God

8. The Character of Jesus
God’s Love and Justice

9. The Character of God in Christ
God’s Love, Justice, Holiness and Wisdom

10. The Communicable Attributes of God
Explanation and Scriptural Basis
Attributes describing God’s Being
Spirituality
Invisibility
Mental Attributes
Knowledge (or Omniscience)
Wisdom
Truthfulness (including Faithfulness)

11. The Communicable Attributes of God
Moral Attributes
Goodness (including Mercy, Grace)
Love
Mercy (Grace, Patience)
Holiness
Peace (or order)
Righteousness (or Justice)
Jealousy
Wrath

12. The Communicable Attributes of God
Attributes of Purpose
Will (including Freedom)
Freedom
Omnipotence (or Power, including Sovereignty)
“Summary” Attributes
Perfection
Blessedness
Beauty
Glory

13. The Trinity: Council of Nicea: 325 and 381
For extra reading, see Nicea, Council of, in Elwell
Also, see article by Bojidar Marinov, The Filioque Cause: Why the West is West and the East is East.
The Threat of Arianism
Filioque Controversy

14. The Trinity: The Nicene Creed
I believe in one God the Father Almighty; Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spake by the Prophets. And one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

15. Trinity Explanation and Scriptural Basis
The Doctrine of the Trinity is Progressively Revealed in Scripture.
Partial Revelation in the Old Testament
More Complete Revelation of the Trinity in the New Testament
Three Statements Summarise the Biblical Teaching
God is Three Persons
Each Person is Fully God
There is One God
Simplistic Solutions Must All Deny One Strand of Biblical Teaching
All Analogies have Shortcomings
God Eternally and Necessarily Exists as the Trinity

16. Trinity
Errors Have Come By Denying Any of the Three Statements Summarizing the Biblical Teaching
Modalism Claims That There Is One Person Who Appears to Us in Three Different Forms (or “Modes”)
Arianism Denies the Full Deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Arian Controversy
Subordinationism
Adoptionism
The Filioque Clause

17. The Filioque Controversy
Issues: Subordinationism, spirit-nature dualism. “Latin” church is the Western Church.

18. Trinity Tritheism Denies that there is only One God
The Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity

19. Trinity
What are the Distinctions Between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
The Persons of the Trinity have Different Primary Functions in Relating to the World
The Persons of the Trinity Existed Eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
What is the Relationship between the Three Persons and the Being of God?

20. Erroneous Understandings of the Trinity

21. A Helpful Illustration

22. God & Creation

23. God, Creation, and Us