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What Does the Bible Teach?

Hi. The aim of these Bible Studies is to enable you to search the Scriptures rather than just telling you what to believe. The idea is that you fill in the blank spaces by looking up the quotation given, and build up your own study. But it is not a quiz with which to pass an idle hour. It is a serious study. If you wish to gain the most from the study you should look at it prayerfully, and think about each quotation in its context. That way it will be a greater blessing to you. May God richly bless you as you do so.

What Does The Bible Tell Us About God?

1). God is the Everlasting Creator

The Bible tells us that God is ‘_________________________________________’ (Psalm 90.2; 106.48). That means that He has ___________ existed. Beyond time and space, there was God. The Lord will ______________________, and His memory to ___________________ (Psalm 102.12). He is the One who ‘inhabits ______________ (Isaiah 57.15). The first act of God that we know about was that He ____________________________ (Genesis 1.1). He accomplished this with His powerful _____________ (Psalm 33.6). So He is the ______________ Lord, the _____________ of the ends of the earth (Isaiah 40.28). He is the ______________ God Who made ____________________________________________ (Acts 14.15). Thus He is the eternal Creator and Controller of all things, and we are reminded that the ideal is to ‘remember now __________________ in the days of your youth’ (Ecclesiastes 12.1).

But the Bible also tells us that His creative Word was in some sense personal. The Word already existed in __________________ (John 1.1). Indeed He was ______ (John 1.1 third clause). But He humbled Himself and became _________ (John 1.14) and __________ among us. John the Apostle says ‘we ________ His glory (John 1.14) and he refers to John the Baptiser as having __________________ to Him (John 1.15). Who then was this living and eternal Word? There was only One to whom John the Baptiser bore witness and that was __________ (John 1.32-34). As Paul could say, ‘for by Him ___________________________ in the heavens and upon the earth’ (Colossians 1.16), and ‘all things are created _______________________’ (Colossians 1.16).

Indeed the writer to the Hebrews tells us that through Him God _________________ (Hebrews 1.2) and that He _______________________ by His powerful word (Hebrew 1.3). And in Colossians Paul tells us that He is ___________ all things and that through Him all things ______________ (Colossians 1.17).

2). God is One

The people of Israel were taught to say ‘the Lord our God, the Lord is ______’ (Deuteronomy 6.4), and Solomon declared, ‘that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord, He is God, and _______________ (1 Kings 8.60). Paul agrees when he says, ‘there is ______________ , and one mediator between God and men’ (1 Timothy 2.5), and James says, ‘You believe ______________________. You do well’ (James 2.19). One day all the world will acknowledge this, for Zechariah tells us ‘and the Lord shall be __________________ _______, and in that day shall the Lord be ________, and His name ________ (Zechariah 14.9). These declarations were a denial of polygamy, of numerous individual gods who acted totally separately from each other.

The Bible teaches that God is One, but that within God is a threeness which involves interpersonal relations, interpersonal communication and love, defined as the ____________, the ________ and the ____________ (Matthew 28.19), which is always One, and, be it noted, has one Name (Matthew 28.19). A threeness working in full unity of aim and action, and yet with some degree of separateness. Thus the Father speaks to the Son (e.g Luke 3.22; John 8.26; 12.28), the Son prays to the Father (e.g. Luke 22.42; John 12.28; John 17.1),and both act through the Spirit. That is why Jesus can say ‘ ___ will pray __________ and He will give you ____________ Comforter’ (John 14.16) (that is another apart from Jesus), ----- ‘even the _______________’ (John 14.17). Yet each enjoys the whole fulness and essence of the Godhead. Thus ‘in Him dwells all the ________________________ in a bodily form’ (Colossians 2.9 compare 1.19).

3). In Himself God is Great and Unknowable

The Psalmist declares ‘___________ is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, His __________ is _________________’ (Psalm 145.3). He ‘does great things and _______________’ (Job 5.9) which are ______________, yes ________________________ without _____________ (Job 9.10). And Paul can say ‘ how ______________________ are His judgments, and His ways ___ ______________________ (Romans 11.33). And he adds ‘for who has ____________________ of the Lord, and who has been His _____________’ (Romans 11.34). For the _______________ belong to the Lord our God (Deuteronomy 29.29).

When Solomon built the Temple he declared ‘even the Heaven of Heavens _____________ __________, how much less this house that I have built’ (1 Kings 8.27). So God could say ‘____ _____ is my throne, and earth is ______________’ (Isaiah 66.1). And adds ‘all these things __________________, and so all these things ________________’ (Isaiah 66.2) - compare Acts 7.48-49. So that in Jeremiah God can say ‘Do I not _______ Heaven and earth’ (Jeremiah 23.24).

4). God is Unseeable and Unapproachable

The Bible tells us that God is _____________ (Colossians 1.15). So that no man has ________ at any time (John 1.18). Indeed He is the One whom no man _________________ (1 Timothy 6.16). He dwells in light _______________ (1 Timothy 6.16). There have been ways in which God has partially revealed Himself. When Abraham was in ____________ so that a ___________________ fell on him (Genesis 15.12) God revealed Himself in a ______________ and a _________________ (Genesis 15.17). Again He revealed Himself to Moses as a _________ _________________ and was not consumed (Exodus 3.2). A similar vision was granted Israel when God descended on Mount Sinai in _________ (Exodus 19.18), so that God revealed Himself as _________________ (Exodus 24.17). Notice how similar this was to Abraham’s experience. But these revelations, although awe-inspiring, were only partial, for when Moses asked to be shown God’s glory, God replied ‘you cannot _________ __________ for a man shall not _____________’ (Exodus 33.20). Two men who were granted visions of God were Isaiah and Ezekiel. Isaiah said ‘I saw ________________________________ (Isaiah 6.1) and the effect of this was that he cried out ________________________________ (Isaiah 6.5), but his view was distant for the Lord was _________________ (Isaiah 6.1). And when Ezekiel was granted his visions he described God as, as it were, the _____________________ (Ezekiel 1.27), so that he could say ‘this was the appearance of the likeness of _______________________ (Ezekiel 1.28). The description of fire and glory were used many times to describe appearances of God both on the tabernacle (e.g. Numbers 9.15-16) and on the Temple (e.g. 2 Chronicles 7.1; Ezekiel 10.4). But in all this God was using physical phenomena to reveals something of His glory.

God has also revealed Himself to man through the ______________________ of Him since the creation of the world which are perceived through ______________________ which reveal His ___________________________ (Romans 1.20). For the heavens _____________________ and the firmament _______________________ (Psalm 19.1)

However, His greatest revelation of Himself was in Jesus Christ. John could say ‘we beheld _________________, the _____________ as of the ____________________________’ (John 1.14). And he is the One who as _______________________ made Him known (John 1.18). This revelation was partly through His life and teaching, for He could say ‘he who has seen me ______________________________ John 14.9), and partly through that unique moment when He was _____________________________ (Mark 9.2) so that even His clothes became __ __________________________ (Mark 9.3). But in all these revelations it is made clear that in the reality of His being God is the one whom no man ___________________________ (1 Timothy 6.16). As He said to Moses, ‘ man shall not ___________________________’ (Exodus 33.20).

We notice that all the visions were impersonal. What was revealed was not the essential being of God, but manifestations which gave some impression of His glory, for God Himself is the invisible God, and His essence is beyond the scope of man’s ability to see and comprehend. Any attempts to depict Him in statues and images merely degrade and misrepresent Him, which is why they were and are forbidden.

5). God is Spirit and not Physical

The Bible tells us that God is not only the invisible God, but that he is also the King ______________ and the ______________ and ___________ God (1 Timothy 1.17). Indeed one reason why all images of God were condemned was because He is the _____________________ (Romans 1.23). Indeed by His very nature He is so for ‘God is ____________’ (John 4.24), so that men must worship Him, not in a visible form, but in ____________________ (John 4.24). That is why the tabernacle contained an empty throne, the ark of the covenant, for the One Whose throne it was could not be seen.

6). God is All-Knowing

The Bible tells us that God is also a God of _______________ by Whom __________ are weighed (1 Samuel 2.3). With Him is ________________________ and He has __________ __________________ (Job 12.13). Though men say ‘my way _______________________’ (Isaiah 40.27) there is no searching of _________________ (Isaiah 40.28). For He is the One who is ____________________ (Job 37.16). Indeed it reaches into man’s inner being for ‘man looks at ___________________ but God looks at ________________ (1 Samuel 16.7). There is nothing hidden from Him, ‘for the Lord searches _______________ and ________________ all the imaginations of the hearts’ (1 Chronicles 28.9). So David can say ‘you are acquainted with __ ________________ (Psalm 139.3). Indeed He is the One Who ___________ the heart and _____ ___________________ (Jeremiah 17.10). And God says ‘Can anyone _____________________ ______________ so that I will not see him?’ (Jeremiah 23.24). So that ‘all things are ________ _________________________________________’ (Hebrews 4.13).

Yet this is also be a comfort for ‘He knows __________________________ so that when He has tried me I will _______________________’ (Job 23.10). So He has given us to be in _____________, and ___________ are upon our ways (Job 24.23). He is the One who has _____ all our ways and ______________ all our steps (Job 31.4), and He knows the _______________ _______ Psalm 1.6). So that __________________ are before Him (Psalm 119.168) and He ___ ________ all their works (Psalm 33.15).

So ‘the Lord looks from Heaven, He ___________ all the sons of men, from the place of His habitation he looks forth upon ____________________________’ (Psalm 33.13-14). Even our times are in His hands for He knows ____________________ and their inheritance __________ _____________ (Psalm 37.18).