The Illiteracy of God’s Nature
This is a series addressing the problem of theological illiteracy using the results of the 2022 State of Theology survey by Ligonier Ministries, available here. For an overview of the results and methodology used, see the first post here.
The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” - Exodus 34:5-7, ESV
Last time, we began to look at the results of Ligonier’s 2022 State of Theology survey by examining the questions specifically related to Scripture. The Bible is the foundation of all sound doctrine, so it is the natural place to start when measuring the state of theology. It is also the only way we can know true doctrine. Nowhere is this more apparent than the nature of God. While there are some things we can know about God from nature—such as the fact that He exists eternally and is divine (Romans 1:19-20)—we can only truly know who He is from Scripture.
Overview of the Nature of God
Clearly, it is impossible in such a short space to do any justice to the nature of God, but there are some attributes that I must establish before we look at the survey results related to God’s nature. A much better explanation can be found in Knowing God by J.I. Packer or in a good systematic theology, such as by Wayne Grudem or Louis Berkhof. Here is a brief summary of the attributes of God most applicable to the questioned posed by Ligonier that I will cover in this and subsequent posts:
Trinity: There is only one God with three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. All the persons of God are equally God and possess all of the attributes of God. [1] (Deuteronomy 6:4, Matthew 28:19)
Holiness: God is utterly distinct from all of creation, both in nature and righteousness. No one is like God. This also means that He cannot stand anything or anyone who is not righteous. [2] (1 Samuel 2:2, Isaiah 6:3 and 46:9, Habakkuk 1:12-13)
Eternality: God has always existed and will always exist.[3] (Psalm 90:2, Revelation 1:8)
Omnipotence: God is all-powerful, meaning that He has the power to do anything and everything that aligns with His nature. As discussed last time, He cannot do anything contrary to His nature, as then He would cease to be God, which cannot happen. Tied to this is God’s sovereignty, which describes how He rules all of creation. [4] (2 Chronicles 20:6, Job 42:2, Psalm 115:3)
Omniscience: God knows everything about everything and everyone, both what is and what could have been had He chosen to orchestrate things differently. Thus, all of His decisions are the best decisions possible. [5] (Isaiah 40:13-14, Romans 11:33-36, 1 John 3:20)
Omnipresence: God is infinite and thus cannot be confined to finite space, so He is present everywhere at all times. [6] (1 Kings 8:27, Psalm 139:7-10, Jeremiah 23:23-24) Part of omnipresence is that God is always near, being intimately involved in running the world and caring deeply for how we live our lives. Why else would He have revealed Scripture to us and worked out His plan of salvation on our behalf? (Psalm 139, Acts 17:27-28)
Perfection: God is perfect in that He is dependent on nothing and needs nothing from anyone. He is also perfect in being without flaw in all of His attributes.[7] (Acts 17:24-25, Romans 11:33-36)
Immutability: Related to perfection is the fact that God is immutable, meaning that He does not (indeed cannot) change. God is as He always has been and will always be as He is.[8] (Numbers 23:19, Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8, James 1:17)
Justice and Wrath: God is perfectly just and therefore must judge all evil. He therefore justly and righteously pours out His wrath on sinners as the deserved punishment for their sin, including both the present judgment of the Curse and the final judgment.[9] (Exodus 34:5-7, Obadiah 15, Romans 1:18-32)
Grace and Mercy: God is gracious (lavishly giving us gifts we do not deserve) and merciful (withholding the awful punishment we do deserve), by patiently allowing us to remain living despite our sin, accomplishing salvation for us, and giving us every undeserved blessing we experience.[10] (Exodus 34:5-7, Ezra 9:13, Romans 8:32)
We are often tempted to emphasize certain attributes of God to the detriment of others, but to understand God we must consider all of His attributes. The survey sought to gauge that understanding. With this foundation, here are the results of the study specifically related to God’s nature:
State of Theology: God’s Attributes
Three questions all deal with the attributes of God, namely His perfection, immutability, omniscience, and immanence.
1. God is a perfect being and cannot make a mistake
4. God learns and adapts to different circumstances.
29. God is unconcerned with my day-to-day decisions.
Question 1 deals with the perfection of God, which had relatively strong results. More than half of the respondents in all categories affirmed the perfection of God, with the lowest being the Northeast at nearly 60% and the highest being regularly attending evangelicals at 94%. Results for question 4 were much more concerning, with the majority of all categories except Midwest evangelicals failing to affirm the immutability and omniscience of God by saying that He can both change and learn. To say that God learns denies His omniscience since a being who knows everything has not need to learn. While Scripture does talk of Jesus learning (Luke 2:52, Hebrews 5:8), that was specific to His humanity rather than divinity, which I will discuss later on in this post. Similarly, to say that God adapts to circumstances denies his immutability. While the term “adapt” implies positive change, it is still change, so if God was to adapt it would mean He was neither perfect nor omniscient. While it is true that some of the narratives of Scripture seem to indicate that God does change (Exodus 32:14, 2 Samuel 24:16, Jonah 3:10), it only seems like change from a human perspective. In truth, the sovereign God only ever does what He has always intended to do. When He threatens judgment then relents, He intended to relent since before the foundation of the world, so He really isn’t changing or adapting to anything. These nuances can account for some but not all of the disparity between the results of this question and orthodoxy. These results indicate that the American church really doesn’t understand God’s nature.
The results for question 29 are more promising, with over half of respondents from all categories affirming that God does care about how we live our lives and the decisions we make. This speaks to the nearness of God. This is opposed to the deistic understanding of God as the absent creator who made the world and set it in motion then left it to its own devices. While that view itself has fallen out of vogue, many people are practical deists in the way they live their lives. The fact that less than two thirds of those in the “overall” categories affirmed this doctrine suggests that practical deism is alive and well in the American church.
State of Theology: The Trinity
Two questions dealt specifically with the Trinity: one being the very definition of the Trinity and another applying that to the nature of the Holy Spirit.
2. There is one true God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
9. The Holy spirit is a force but is not a personal being.
Question 2 is the definition of the Trinity, so it is encouraging that it showed strong results. Even the lowest scoring category (Northeast) had nearly two thirds of people affirming the doctrine of the Trinity, with all other categories at least 70%, nine of which were at least 90%. This isn’t too surprising considering the fact that the liturgy in many churches clearly speaks of the Trinity. Whenever the Apostle’s Creed is recited or songs like “Holy, Holy, Holy” are sung, the doctrine of the Trinity is affirmed. However, when we combine this with the results of other questions, we see that the general understanding of what the doctrine actually means is lacking. This is seen clearly in question 9, which examined the personhood of the Holy Spirit. In all categories, the majority of respondents viewed the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force rather than a person. Only 40% of evangelicals and 22% or Northeasterners affirmed the personhood of the Holy Spirit. This indicates a widespread lack of understanding of the who the Holy Spirit is.
State of Theology: Nature of Jesus Christ
Two questions covered the dual (divine and human) nature of Jesus Christ, which requires a bit of explanation before we dive in. Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus Christ, being the second member of the Trinity, always has been, is now, and always will be fully and truly God. However, in order to accomplish salvation, Jesus added humanity to His divinity by coming to earth as a man. He never ceased being God nor did He merely manifest in man-like form. In addition to His divine attributes, He possessed all of our human attributes except that He was sinless. The specifics of this are a profound mystery, but since Scripture clearly teaches it we must affirm it.[11] (John 1:1-14, Romans 1:1-4, 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 2:5-18 and 4:14-15) Two questions deal with this:
6. Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.
7. Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.
Question 6 is basically a restatement of the ancient Arian heresy that viewed Jesus not as eternally coequal with God the Father but created by Him. The Council of Nicaea was convened to resolve this, so the Nicene Creed clearly refutes it, describing Jesus as “begotten not made”. Thus, the study found that the majority of American Christians are heretics, since only 41% of regularly attending Midwest evangelicals and a mere 24% of regularly attending Northeasterners affirmed the divinity of Christ. What was especially surprising was that in this question, regularly attending respondents actually scored lower than the average for the overall, Northeast, and Midwest categories. Only in the evangelical categories was this trend reversed. Some of this may be chalked up to over-analyzing the question. People may have focused on “first and greatest” rather than “created”, which could have caused confusion. However, that could only account for a small part of the disparity. I fear that this heresy is being implied if not actively taught in many churches, causing people to believe that Jesus Christ is either not God or at least not equal to God the Father. This is extremely concerning considering how much ink (and sometimes blood) were spilled throughout the history of the church fighting this heresy. In fact, legend has it that at the Council of Nicaea, St. Nicholas of Myra actually punched its founder, Arius, in the face because of it. Regardless of whether that actually occurred, it shows how important it is for Christians to affirm the divinity of Christ against such heresies. I am certainly not saying we need to resort to violence in defending this doctrine, but we must take it extremely seriously.
Question 7 states the common view of many non-Christians regarding Jesus. Many people see Jesus as a good moral teacher, but in Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis says that Jesus cannot be merely a good moral teacher since He claimed to be God. The only options Lewis gave are that Jesus was a liar (knowing His claims were not true), a lunatic (not knowing His claims were not true) or the Lord (knowing His claims were true).[12] Results for this question were better than the Arianism of question 6, but still concerning. Only about 60% of regularly attending evangelicals and a mere 33% of Northeasterners affirmed that Jesus is God. I see little room for ambiguity or confusion on this question, so these results point to either inadequate teaching on the divinity of Christ or compromise to the world’s view of Christ. Since Jesus clearly warned that He would deny anyone who denies Him (Matthew 10:33), we should be very worried about these results.
Key Takeaways
Overall, the American Church’s understanding of God’s Nature is lacking. Positive results on the perfection and nearness of God are overshadowed by denial of the immutability and omniscience of God, the personhood of the Holy Spirit and the divinity of Christ, reducing the affirmation of the Trinity to mere parroting without understanding. The majority of the American Church does not know who God is, which means the majority of the American Church is actually practicing idolatry by worshipping a false god distinct from the One True God of Scripture.
To fix this, we need to double down on teaching the truth of who God is from Scripture, emphasizing the real meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity and ensuring adequate coverage of all of God’s attributes. Part of this should be teaching Christians to spot heresies such as Arianism and modalism (one God taking three separate forms) so they will not fall prey to them. Just as with Scripture, many ancient creeds, confessions, and catechisms thoroughly yet succinctly teach the doctrines of the Trinity and dual natures of Christ. After all, the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds were both written for the purpose of combatting these heresies. All Christians should understand the nature of God, which will require intentional and sometimes rigorous instruction, which is first and foremost the responsibility of the family and the local church. While not neglecting to extoll the amazing love of God, we must emphasize His other attributes so that the saints will have a more comprehensive view of God that causes fear and reverence for God that actually magnifies God’s love. Our society’s overemphasis on the love of God at the expense of His other attributes has led to a view of God as a harmless grandfather who accepts us no matter what we do, leading to many American Christians who do not fear God. If the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge (Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10), to not fear God is the ultimate folly—folly which leads straight to hell. Without the fear of God, His grace and mercy are meaningless, so the American church must learn who God is in order to properly fear Him and therefore treasure the Gospel all the more. Just as Moses directed millennia ago, the American church must relearn how to know and fear God:
“Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” -Deuteronomy 31:12-13, ESV
NOTES
[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 226 cf. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion: Translated from the First French Edition of 1541 by Robert White, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2014: 227; T.J. Crawford, The Mysteries of Christianity: Revealed Truths Expounded and Defended, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2016 (orig. 1874): 134.
[2] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 202; Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 61-62; Thomas Watson, The Godly Man’s Picture Drawn with a Scripture Pencil; Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021 (orig: 1666): 31.
[3] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 168-169; Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 48-49.
[4] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 216; Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 68.
[5] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 190; Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 55-57.
[6] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 173; Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 47-49.
[7] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 161-162; Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 46.
[8] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 163-165; Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 46-47.
[9] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 255; John Murray, Redemption—Accomplished and Applied, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 1961: Section 1, Chapter 2.
[10] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 200; Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 58.
[11] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 529; Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 24; John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion: Translated from the First French Edition of 1541 by Robert White, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2014: 241-244.
[12] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, New York, NY: HarperCollins: 2001 (orig. 1952): 52.
