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[Captain Kirk]

What is your definition of God and how do imagine he looks like, what do you think he does on a given day and so on?

[jimwalton]

> What is your definition of God?

I define God as a supreme supernatural divine being. He has many attributes (all of which I cannot list here): eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent, intelligent, personal, moral, holy, righteous, creator, love, judge, to name a few.

> How do you imagine he looks like?

God certainly doesn't look like a person. He doesn't have any form, let alone a human form. We have three particular images in the Bible of people who got to see God's throne (Isaiah 6; Ezekiel 1; Revelation 4). They use similar terms: bright light, colors, glory, brilliance, beauty, surrounded by other spirit (not divine) beings, some palpable sense of power, majesty, splendor, holiness. It's about all we have to go by.

> What does God DO on any given day?

* He sustains all of creation (Heb. 1.3)
* He holds all of creation together (Col. 1.17)
* He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free (Ps. 146.7)
* He is continually working to reconcile all things to Himself (2 Cor. 5.19)
* He is continually working to draw all people towards Him (John 12.32)
* He is reconciling people to Himself (2 Cor. 5.18)
* He gives appropriate spiritual gifts to people (1 Cor. 12-14)
* He indwells His people and His Church (Eph. 2.22)
* He listens to and answers prayers (many, many many references)
* He is seeing His plan of salvation through to its conclusion.
* He is revealing Himself through His creation and to His creation.

I would say He's pretty busy. After all, the universe is still of unknown dimension, and there are 7.6 billion people on the planet.

[Captain Kirk]

Source?

[jimwalton]

The definition of God is my own. I read various ones, but settled on my own definition, which I obviously like, or I wouldn't have settled on it. The list of His attributes are what the Bible says about Him. Since you were asking your question of a Christian, I presume you were expecting a biblical answer. Even if you weren't, it's the only answer I have. It is my position that the portrayal of God in the Bible is the accurate one, revealed to us by God Himself.

[Captain Kirk]

No, I wasn't looking for a biblical answer. I was just curious how did you arrive to conlusion that god exhibits these attributes. All-powerful and all-knowing. Based on the world we live in, I have no idea how did you made that conclusion. Same goes for most of the others - love, moral and so on. That is why I wanted to know.

[jimwalton]

God has a plan in history that he is sovereignly executing, the goal of which is for Him to be in relationship with the people whom He has created. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for people to enter into a relationship with a God whom they do not know. If His nature were concealed, obscured, or distorted, an honest relationship would be out of the question. In order to clear the way for this relationship, then, God has undertaken as a primary objective a program of self-revelation. He lets us know what He is like. He wants people to know Him. That's what the Bible is: God's revelation of Himself to us, so we can enter into relationship with Him. This is how we know what God is like. He has told us what His attributes are. The truth of God's attributes are not discerned by looking at the world we live in, which has been mangled almost beyond recognition but us humans, but by reading God's revelation of Himself to us (which is also honest about the mess we have made of things).

[Shema]

> He ... He ... He ... He... Etc.

Not a trinitarian?

[jimwalton]

I sure am. We Christians, as I'm sure you know, are trinitarian monotheists.

[Shema]

I happen to know for a fact you aren't. But why did you refer to God as "he"? There are three "he" in the trinity, so which of the three are you referring to?

[jimwalton]

> I happen to know for a fact you aren't.

Then you are mistaken, my good sir or madam.

> But why did you refer to God as "he"

I refer to God as "he" because both the Tanakh and the New Testament do so. God is always referred to in the singular masculine. And when he is referred to as Elohim (a plural), a singular verb is used to denote HIs singularity.

> There are three "he" in the trinity, so which of the three are you referring to?

In the Bible, the Trinity distinguishes between the *principle* of divine action and the *subject* of divine action. The principle of all divine action is the one undivided divine essence, but the subject of divine action is either Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. The Father can send the Son according to his power, and the Son can be incarnated according to his nature without dividing the divine essence.

If God is not the triune Lord revealed in Jesus Christ, then the doctrine of creation is rendered impossible, and man is part of a cosmic chain of being. This is because a monadic conception of God as some kind of singularity leaves us with the emptiness and void of non-personality as ultimate reality. If there is no plurality within God’s being, then there is no subject-object relationship, no particularity, but instead only a blank unity. In such a view of God there can be no foundation for knowledge, love, morality, or ethics. Indeed, without an absolute personality, there is no diversity or distinction basic to reality at all; ultimate reality is a bare unity about which nothing may be said. This is why the Trinity is so important in tackling the philosophical problem of the one and the many. Moreover, because a denial of the Trinity leads to a denial of an absolute personality, we cannot speak coherently of the will of God. Only persons have a will. But if God has no will, then creation is not the free act of an absolute, personal God. Rather, the universe is the emanation of divine being, and what we call the universe is merely the extension of god, or, as some pagans would say, it is the body of god.

In other words, trinitarian monotheism is essential to creation, to relationship, and to will, all of which are necessary attributes of God.