The Nature of God
Statement: Greek philosophy accepted a one, perfect god (contrary to the then Greek theology); so did the Jews, Jesus, and the evangelists, and that is what they also preached.
Response: The "one, perfect god" of Greek philosophy is an unknowable abstract being who exists in a timeless, static, ideal, impassible state-of-being so removed from humans that it is argued by some that he is not even aware of our existence, or of the existence of the physical creation. This necessitates the existence of a certain intermediate being (or beings) that is the actual agent of the creation. One version has that intermediate being known as "the Logos."
The Jews on the other hand, as well as Jesus and the apostles, taught that God DIRECTLY created the heavens, the earth, and everything in them and that he did it ALONE. They teach that God is intimately related to humans and the creation; that God is knowable, that God desires us to know him, indeed commands us to know him.
If God commands us to know Him, and calls us fools when we do not, it would certainly follow that knowing Him is possible, and that He desires us to know him.
The one god of the Greeks is not knowable. Nor does he desire to be known. He is impassible, he has no desire. We cannot relate to him. He is knowable only through intermediaries, if at all. The one god of the Hebrews is knowable, desires to be known, and commands us to know him - personally and directly. Yes, the one god of the Hebrews is invisible, dwells in unapproachable light, and ALONE possesses inherent immortality. These characteristics, however, do not prevent us from knowing him. The characteristics of the abstract one god of the Greeks, on the other hand, DO prevent us from knowing him.
When Paul was in Athens, he did not proclaim to them the one god of Greek philosophy. He proclaimed the god that they worshipped as "unknown." He said,
"What you therefore worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything."
This is the Hebraic conception. God DIRECTLY and ALONE made the world and everything in it. This is incompatible with the one god of Greek philosophy. The God of the Jews was "unknown" to the Greeks, according to Paul. But that isn't all.
"And he made from one [that would be Adam] every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, THAT THEY SHOULD SEEK GOD, IN THE HOPE THAT THEY MIGHT FEEL AFTER HIM AND FIND HIM. YET HE IS NOT FAR FROM EACH ONE OF US..."
The one god of Greek philosophy IS far from us, unlike the one god of the Hebrews.
Paul's subsequent quote of Aratus is NOT a general affirmation of Greek philosophy. I will not go into it here. That would be another paper and would be beside the point I am making here. My point here is that Paul proclaimed, both to uneducated common Greeks, as well as Greek philosophers, that the God that he (Paul) was speaking of was UNKNOWN to them. He told them that they had lived in "times of ignorance". He expounded the classic Jewish conception of Yahweh, alone the maker of heaven and earth, and informed them of the resurrection of the MAN that God had appointed by which he (God) would judge the world. This is very un-Greek-like.
Just because Greek philosophers and Jews both believed in "one god" does not mean their concepts were the same or even similar. In fact, they are diametrically opposed. If scriptures like, "My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts..." occur to you (and they should) please read the context and see that this is speaking to evil men only and not humanity in general. Remember that God revealed himself to Moses and showed his ways to Israel. Consider God's behavior in relation to Israel, how he strives, pleads, cajoles, and goes through emotional cycles with them, like a father with a rebellious child. This is NOT the abstract, ideal, static, timeless, impassible god of Greek philosophy. The two concepts of God are not compatible.
The following is from an article titled, The Influence of Paganism on Post-Apostolic Christianity by George T. Purves. It was originally published in Presbyterian Review 36, October, 1888. The entire article can be found here.
But if the means for the combination of philosophy and Christianity had thus been prepared, the comparison of Justin's [Justin Martyr-150AD] writings with those of the New Testament reveals also the effects of the combination on Christian thought. Its first effect was to impair the Christian doctrine of God's nearness and personal relationship to believers in this world, and to remove Him in thought to a great distance, as merely the First Cause of all existence. In other words, the immanence of God was forgotten in the emphasis laid on His transcendence. Such was the aspect in which the current philosophy, especially in its Platonic forms, regarded Him. It made Him the abstract Existence, who could only affect the material world through the agency of intermediate beings. The unity of God had been established on the ruins of the popular mythologies; but the Divine Being had been reduced in thought to an unknowable Abyss from which energy proceeds. Now, the very doctrine of Christ as Mediator between God and man provided a point of connection by which this abstract conception of God was likely, if not prevented by careful attention to New Testament teaching, to enter the theology of the Church. The effect, at any rate, was to destroy the fine sense of the Father's nearness, which Christ had taught, and to break the delicately adjusted balance between divine immanence and transcendence which is found throughout the New Testament. Justin, for example, speaks of God in terms of philosophy rather than of Christianity. He declares that the terms Father, God, Creator, Lord, and Master tell nothing about God's nature, but are mere appellations to describe His manifested activities. God "remains ever in the super celestial places, visible to none and never holding intercourse directly with any." (Dial. 56.)...Furthermore, the influence of philosophy led to the representation of Christ as the incarnate Reason of God. The Johannine doctrine of the Logos was thus rationalized, and the consequences were many and injurious. It was this, in fact, which led to the undue emphasis on the divine transcendence to which we have just referred. Christ the Mediator, being the incarnate Reason, filled the space between the creature and the Creator, and removed the latter to an unapproachable distance. But the Logos, while in a sense divine, appeared inferior to the Supreme Father, a sort of intermediate Being between God and man. Hence, Justin represented Him as the product of the Father's will and, while of His essence, subordinate to Him in both person and dignity.
Greek Philosophy said, "[God] remains ever in the super celestial places, visible to none and never holding intercourse directly with any." But Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3)
God is knowable, and Jesus is knowable. Furthermore, Jesus here defines Yahweh, his father, as "the only true God." Strange talk from one who is supposedly God himself - yet described himself as, "a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God" (John 8:40).
God's Place in Time and Eternity
(The following is taken and edited from personal correspondence
on the subject of James White's book, The
Forgotten Trinity.)
Chapter 3
God: A Brief Introduction
I have very little to criticize in the first 4 sections of this chapter. God is one and only one. He is unique. He alone is the Creator of all that is. At least as far as this goes here, James and I are in agreement. And, again, this is why I say that "God" and "man" are mutually exclusive categories.
The main area of disagreement begins on page 41 with the section, BEYOND THE REALM OF TIME. This title is James' concept of "eternal." My position is that "BEYOND the realm of time" is an oxymoronic concept, derived from Greek philosophy, and is not scriptural. He gives 3 scriptures:
Psalm 90:2: Before the mountains were born or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
There is nothing here that communicates, "beyond time." As a matter of fact, it communicates the opposite. Ever-lasting. Lasting forever. Forever = time without end. FROM time without end TO time without end. From everlasting to everlasting. Stating it as an oxymoron: There has never been a time when there was no time. From everlasting to everlasting. Both directions. Everlasting goes back (from) that way forever, and everlasting goes forward (to) that way forever.
Isaiah 57:15: For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy...
In order to live forever, one has to be in Time. "Forever" is a time-derived word. Without time there is no forever.
Psalm 102:25-27: Of old you founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. Even they will perish, but you endure; and all of them will wear out like a garment; like clothing you will change them and they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will not come to an end.
The earth was founded "of old." "Old" means there is time. And if God is "beyond" time, then it is downright erroneous to speak of His "years". Yes, God has years. And his years will never end. That means that time will never end.
Do the research, and you will find that the ancient Jews, including the writers of the New Testament, did not have the paradigm of "outside of time". Their concept of eternity was, "not subject to death." Outside of time, or beyond time, is a pagan concept.
James says, "We struggle with God's eternity. We cannot grasp it. Our lives are conditioned by the passing of time. Our language itself is based upon tenses; past, present, future. We are creatures and as such, we have been created to exist temporally, that is, within the realm of time. Rather than thinking of eternity as a long, long time think of it here as a way of existence that does not involve a progression of events and moments. That is how God lives. He defies our categories and our feeble efforts to comprehend Him. If He didn't, He wouldn't be God."
Notice his definition of eternity: a way of existence that does not involve a progression of events and moments. Sounds exactly like Plato's World of Forms. This definition is straight out of Greek philosophy and there is NONE of this in the 3 scriptures that James gave, nor is it to be found anywhere else in the Bible. James is overlaying the Greek categories onto Hebraic documents.
Concerning eternity, the Bible speaks of God as existing in time in much the same way we do, except that He is immortal - He is eternal, that is, he is not subject to death - and He most certainly still is God. James says, "Our lives are conditioned by the passing of time." It would be more accurate to say that our lives are conditioned by our subjection to death. If we never died, but lived forever, time would not be an issue. Even though we lived in eternity - i.e. not subject to death - we would still put one foot in front of the other, we would still cook and eat a fish if we wanted, and the earth would still revolve around the sun, day and night, summer and winter - just like Jesus, who is now immortal, but even in his resurrection body, he put one foot in front of the other on the road to Emmaus, he ate, he talked, he walked, but he was in eternity. Eternity as defined by the Bible, not Greek Philosophy. In eternity there IS STILL process, there is STILL a progression of events and moments. There is no such thing as a place or state of being where there is no progression of events and moments. There is only that part of our brain (the right hemisphere) that does not perceive the passing of time, of process. Read the scriptures concerning the new Earth. There is still a progression of events and moments, isn't there? But those who live there (at least some of them) are not subject to death. That's eternity.
"He defies our categories and feeble efforts to comprehend Him. If He didn't, He wouldn't be God." This is, in my opinion, a paganized view of what it is that makes God God. It flies in the face of the entire Biblical record of God entreating and striving with men that they would know Him. This is an a priori statement that has nothing to do with anything, other than the Greek Philosophical definition of a remote, incomprehensible God, which is what Plato teaches and James apparently assumes.
"And he made from one [that would be Adam] every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, THAT THEY SHOULD SEEK GOD, IN THE HOPE THAT THEY MIGHT FEEL AFTER HIM AND FIND HIM. YET HE IS NOT FAR FROM EACH ONE OF US..."
...AND FIND HIM... The one God of Greek philosophy IS far from us, and defies our feeble efforts - unlike the one God of the Hebrews who entreats us to find him and know him.
When the Greek paradigm is overlaid onto the Bible, the result is a conflict between the scriptures that now seem to say that God is eternal (in the Greek sense - beyond time) and the message of the WHOLE Bible that God is knowable, he wants us to know him, to know him is possible and that the whole point of the Bible is the story - the timeline - of God and man's relationship. God is near, he is close, we can seek and FIND him. And when the perfect comes (which I take to be the resurrection) we will KNOW AS WE ARE KNOWN. How is this possible if God "defies our categories and feeble efforts to comprehend him"?
"He defies our categories and feeble efforts to comprehend Him." - Where is the scripture for this? James doesn't give any scripture to support this statement because there aren't any! The WHOLE BIBLE tells us God is earnestly seeking after us, He desires relationship with us, He reveals Himself to us, He loves us so much He sent His only Son to redeem us, the curtain of the Holiest of Holies has been ripped from top to bottom, the way to God is open and on and on and on.
Indulge me for a moment, I'm going to rant for a minute. I'm giving you fair warning. If you don't like the emoting then skip the following paragraph.
I HATE the Greek influence! God doesn't defy us! God doesn't defy our feeble efforts! These kinds of statements are the result of the co-opting of Christian theology by Greek philosophy. This mindset removes God from us. I'm not talking about "making God like us" even though we ARE made in his image. I'm talking about God AS HE IS revealed in the Bible. And AS HE IS does NOT involve a "beyond time", unchanging, timeless, space-less, incomprehensible existence in some kind of idealized romanticized mode of being a la Plato's World of Forms. God is NEAR. God is CLOSE. God is KNOWABLE. God is EMOTIONALLY INVOLVED. "That you may KNOW HIM and Jesus Christ whom He has sent." KNOW HIM!!!!
End of rant.
James has quoted Isaiah 55:8-9 (My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways...) to support his thesis. He has taken the verse out of context. Read the context and you will see that God is saying this to specific wicked and unrighteous men, not to mankind in general.
James continues: "And if we struggle mightily to even begin to envision the eternity of God, which is part of the most basic truth He has revealed about himself, how can we expect to probe all the recesses of his highest revelation, His Triune nature?"
I don't struggle very much at all, much less mightily, to envision the eternity of God. It's very comprehendible, and I think the Bible is pretty clear about it. God lives forever and he always has. He is not subject to death. You have to go to Plato et al to get the concept of BEYOND time. THAT is a mighty struggle indeed to comprehend. Why? Because it's NOT TRUE! It's NOT REAL! What I have struggled mightily with is the divestiture of Greek Thought from my thinking. It's insidious and it's ubiquitous in our culture and has been for centuries upon centuries. It constitutes our most basic and unconscious presuppositions about the nature of God, the nature of man, and our reality-construct in general which we overlay onto the Biblical texts. Those texts are COMPLETELY Hebraic - including the New Testament - and have NOTHING of Greek thought in them.