Man, in his understanding and worship of God, is offended by the dual facts that God is both personal and also that He is transcendant. By His being personal, an individual cannot analyze Him like a thing or object. Instead, He must be experienced in a personal way. By His being transcendant, a person cannot relate to Him as to any other god, but rather must recognize Him in His power and splendor and also as the One to Whom all are answerable. People have a natural tendancy to argue and pick apart. Modern man would like for God to be presented in a way that would allow for the construction of such opposition-type arguments. But God does not show Himself in this way in the Old Testament. In Genesis 1, He is presented without argument or apology as the living God. He is revealed as the Creator God Who simply spoke everything into existence. In that sense, He is the transcendant One Who is over and above all, but He is also seen as the exclusive, one and only true God. God is the one and only true God, transcendant, over and above all. Yet, He is also the personal God, too.
God revealed Himself to and entered into a personal relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To them, He was much more than just the Deistic idea of a faraway, impersonal Being. He was very much upclose and personal. In Genesis 12:1, God spoke to Abraham and led him out of Ur. Later, in Verse Three of that chapter, He promised a blessing to Abraham and his family, plus to all of those who blessed them. To Isaac, in Genesis 26:24, God appeared as the God of Abraham and promised a similar blessing. Then, in Genesis 28:12-15, God appeared to Jacob in a dream and promised a continual blessing to that specific line of Abraham. Thus, modern man is upset by these personal and transcendant qualities of the Lord. But no one who truly knows Him, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and many others can already attest, need to feel this way.
Tom of Spotswood "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
Lesson 7 - The Three-Fold Character Of God's Self-Revelation
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