Knowing God
J I Packer
Class notes – #3,
- Evening Prayer
- Review from last week – Questions, comments and general discussion.
Chapter Eight – The Majesty of God - What do we mean when we describe God’s ‘Majesty’?
- Majesty’s Latin meaning is ‘greatness’.
- When used biblically, the Hebrew word generally carries the meaning of:
i. Power, splendor, great or thundering
- Sovereign Power. Close and yet limitless; personal and yet ruler of the cosmos. All powerful and yet constant, good and dependable
i. Who is the most powerful human we can think of? Think of his/her personality and ruler-ship traits. Does he/she exhibit these traits?
- God is pure spirit (
John 4:24 - God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth).
i. Key consequence – God does not have limitations of a physical body – particular the limitation of geographic or spatial particularity.
- How do we understand those parts of scripture that imply God has body parts, other physical features or human-like limitations?
i. Anthropomorphisms – expressing God’s truth through human analogies
ii. Theophanies – temporary manifestations of God.
- God’s spiritual nature means it is impossible to create images to worship. It denies idolatry (contra Mormonism)
- Three closely related relational attributes for God’s Majesty:
- Omnipresence – God’s ubiquitous presence in the world
i. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt 10:29-30)
ii. pp 83/84 – God is “personal yet majestic”
iii. pp 84 – “the God who sees me” and “God hears”.
iv. Acts 17:28
v. Jeremiah 23:24
To deny omnipresence is to say that there is a place where God is not.
- Omniscience – God’s complete knowledge of the world without limitation or qualification.
i. Psalm 139
ii. God knows all that has, is or will happen
1. Isaiah 46:9-10
To deny omniscience while maintaining omnipresence leads to pantheism – God would be the same as creation but his knowledge would be limited to the experience within creation.
iii. God knows what will happen; however his foreknowledge does not change free will, by which we decide our own acts. God foreknowing does not negate our freedom to choose. God also knows all other possibilities had we chosen differently.
iv. Christians reject a fatalistic reading of God’s omniscience. A silly argument, denied by Origen, as made by a Sophist: “If it is decreed that you should recover from your disease, you will recover whether you call in a physician or not; but if it is decreed that you should not recover, you will not recover whether you call in a physician or not. But it is certainly decreed either that you should recover, or that you should not recover; and therefore it is in vain that you call in a physician”.
Origen’s response: “It is foolish to say that with whatever God foreknows there is no freedom; for it is precisely the acts of the free will that God foreknows”.
To deny omniscience is to make God unreliable since He would not know if He could keep his promises in the future.
- Omnipotence – God’s almighty power; all-powerful and all-empowering.
i. “God’s influence upon the world is unlike any other mode of influence – unlimited in capacity”.
1. God may do all things consistent with His divine character.
ii. “Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” (Genesis 18:14)
iii. Are there limitations to God’s power?
1. God would not do that which is inconsistent with His intelligence or repugnant to His goodness or not in accord with other qualities of God’s character (Chrysostom).
2. God cannot lie (inconsistent with his goodness) or deceive himself (counter to his integrity and omniscience).
3. God cannot cease to be.
To deny omnipotence would mean that even God was at the mercy of creation.
Read Psalm 139
- How should we respond to God’s Majesty?
- Worship
i. What, according to Packer, is wrong with our worship (pp 83)
- Packer’s three questions from Isaiah (pp 88)
i. Eliminate our wrong thoughts about God
1. We imagine God to be limited in ways that we are.
ii. Eliminate wrong thoughts about ourselves
1. We believe God has abandoned or rejected us
iii. Eliminate our slowness to believe in God’s majesty
1. We ‘remake’ God in our own image – to our impoverishment and sorrow.
- Next week NO CLASS. Wednesday 24th – Chapter 9
Big Question: How is God’s wisdom shown in His dealings with human beings? How can our confidence in God’s wisdom be a comfort to us?
Knowing God – Class #3 Scripture references:
Acts 17:28
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Jeremiah 23:24
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
Psalm 139 Domine, probasti.
[God’s absolute knowledge or omniscience 1-6 and 23, 24]
O LORD, thou hast searched me out, and known me. * Thou knowest my down-sitting, and mine uprising; thou understandest my thoughts long before.
2 Thou art about my path, and about my bed; * and art acquainted with all my ways.
3 For lo, there is not a word in my tongue, * but thou, O Lord, knowest it altogether.
4 Thou hast beset me behind and before, * and laid thine hand upon me.
5 Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me; * I cannot attain unto it.
6 Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit? * or whither shall I go then from thy presence?
[God’s presence or Omnipresence 7-12]
7 If I climb up into heaven, thou art there; * if I go down to hell, thou art there also.
8 If I take the wings of the morning, * and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea;
9 Even there also shall thy hand lead me, * and thy right hand shall hold me.
10 If I say, Peradventure the darkness shall cover me;*then shall my night be turned to day.
11 Yea, the darkness is no darkness with thee, but the night is as clear as the day; * the darkness and light to thee are both alike.
12 For my reins are thine; * thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
[God’s unlimited power or omnipotence vs 13-22]
13 I will give thanks unto thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: * marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.
14 My bones are not hid from thee, * though I be made secretly, and fashioned beneath in the earth.
15 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; * and in thy book were all my members written;
16 Which day by day were fashioned, * when as yet there was none of them.
17 How dear are thy counsels unto me, O God; * O how great is the sum of them!
18 If I tell them, they are more in number than the sand: * when I wake up, I am present with thee.
19 Wilt thou not slay the wicked, O God? * Depart from me, ye blood-thirsty men.
20 For they speak unrighteously against thee; * and thine enemies take thy Name in vain.
21 Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? * and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
22 Yea, I hate them right sore; * even as though they were mine enemies.
[Conclusion]
23 Try me, O God, and seek the ground of my heart; * prove me, and examine my thoughts.
24 Look well if there be any way of wickedness in me; * and lead me in the way everlasting.
Isaiah 46:9-10
9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
