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Principles of the Kingdom of God. Kenneth B. Alexander BSL, JD, Deacon
Читать онлайн.Название Principles of the Kingdom of God
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781456612177
Автор произведения Kenneth B. Alexander BSL, JD, Deacon
Жанр Религия: прочее
Издательство Ingram
God is OMNIPRESENT meaning “He is present everywhere at the same time” (Dictionary.com). “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me” (Psalm 139:7-10).
God is OMNISCIENT meaning having “infinite awareness, understanding, and insight and possessed of universal or complete knowledge” (Webster’s Dictionary, see Psalm 139). God knows everything that goes on in His creation. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father in heaven. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than sparrows” (Matthew 10:29–31).
God is ETERNAL as having “infinite duration or everlasting, continued without intermission or perpetual, valid or existing at all times” (Dictionary.com). “For thus says the high and exalted One Who dwells in eternity, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place,” (Isaiah 57:15). “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love” (Ephesians 1:4).
God has many names applicable to the circumstance wherein He is being referred.
Names of God In the Old Testament
In the ancient Near East, great significance was attached to personal names, for they revealed character and identity and signified existence. The revelation of a divine name and its continued use were of substantial importance for a people.
Yahweh. The most important name for God in the OT is the tetragrammaton YHWH, which occurs about 6,800 times, usually pronounced ‘Yahweh,’ though the known pronunciation was lost in the postexilic period. Due to the increasing sanctity attached to the name and the consequential desire to avoid misuse YHWH, the pronunciation was prohibited in Jewish culture. The title Adonai (Heb., ‘My Great Lord’) was pronounced in place of the tetragrammaton.
It is believed that God’s name YHWH was given to Moses before he journeyed to Egypt to deliver the Israelites. “Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” “I am that I am” is usually translated as meaning YHWH the “I am” God. “God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations” (Exodus 3:13-15). In written texts the vowels of Adonai were combined with the consonants YHWH to remind readers to pronounce Adonai instead of Yahweh. Ancient Hebrew had no vowels in its alphabet. The incorrect hybrid, ‘Jehovah,’ arose from Christian misunderstanding in the late Middle Ages. The respect for the sanctity of the personal name of God is reflected in modern Judaism. If God has a true name it is this one. It indicates that God is a God of today, right now and is always ready to move to accomplish His will.
Yahweh Sabaoth. This compound name, ‘Lord of Hosts,’ which occurs 279 times in the OT, depicts God as the commander of armies. Originating in holy war, the expression became a polemic against astral cults: Yahweh rules the heavenly armies. The name was eventually understood as a plural of intensity, ‘Lord Almighty,’ thus neutralizing the existence of the celestial gods. The Septuagint (LXX, The Greek Translation of the Old Testament, hereafter LXX) translates this name ‘Lord Almighty.’
Elohim. is associated with “glory”. Occurring about twenty-five hundred times in the OT, Elohim is one of three common generic names for deity in the OT. The term is plural and on occasion means ‘gods’ (e.g., Exod. 20:3), but most often it is a plural of majesty for Israel’s ‘God’ (e.g., Gen. 1:1). However, as we will see below, it is plural for a reason since we find out that God is three persons--Father, Son, Holy Spirit
Eloah. The second generic name for deity in the OT is Eloah (Heb., ‘God’), though it is found only fifty-seven times, the great majority of which occur in Job. The poet of Job may have used this generic word for God to avoid the specific Israelite conceptions of covenant and salvation history associated with the name Yahweh. Job, a part of wisdom literature, prefers to speak of the universal dominion of creation theology.
El. Occurring more than two hundred times in the OT (including compounds), El (Heb., ‘God’) is the common Semitic name for deity in ancient Near Eastern cultures. Every divine being was properly designated by this generic name.
El Shaddai. (Exod. 6:3), El Shaddai (Heb., ‘God, the One of the Mountain[s]’) was worshiped by the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The LXX translated Shaddai ‘Almighty.’ Thus many English Bibles translate El Shaddai as ‘God Almighty.’
El Elyon. (Heb., ‘God Most High’), originally a compound for the high god El, was worshiped in Jerusalem before David’s conquest (ca. 1000 B.C.). In Genesis 14, Melchizedek is the priest-king of Jerusalem who blesses Abraham in the name of ‘God Most High, Maker of Heaven and Earth,’ the ‘God who gave Abraham’s enemies into his power. After the Israelite takeover of Jerusalem, the El Elyon tradition is associated with Yahweh (Ps. 47:2-3).
El Olam. (Heb., ‘God of Eternity’) After this religious center was incorporated into Israelite religion, the title came to designate Yahweh (Gen. 21:33).
El Berith. (Heb., ‘God of the Covenant’). In Joshua 24 the Deuteronomic historians placed the covenant renewal ceremony at Shechem following the conquest of Canaan. The covenant, known as the Old Covenant, was an agreement between God and His people before Jesus Christ.
El Roi. (Heb., ‘The God of Seeing/Divination’) was a localized deity of a sacred spring (Beer-la-hai-roi) whose water sustained Hagar in the desert and inspired her to see a divine vision (Gen. 16:13-14). Hagar was the mother of Ishmael, Abraham’s first son borne by his wife’s servant. Some scholars equate this story this story with Yahweh, who promises Hagar a son (Ishmael) who will have many descendants.
¯Adonai. (Heb., ‘My Great Lord’) is a plural of majesty derived from the singular Adon (Heb., ‘lord’), a title of respect used to address a social superior (e.g., king, husband, slave owner).
Names of God In the New Testament.
The names used by NT authors to refer to God reflect the fact that the NT was written in a Greek-speaking culture primarily on the basis of a tradition and terminology inherited from the OT and Judaism as mediated by the Septuagint (LXX). This tradition was significantly modified both by the early church’s understanding of the teaching of Jesus and by its understanding of the person of Jesus as the definitive expression of God.
God: The most common word for God in the NT (1,318 times) is the Greek word theos (‘god’), used often by the LXX (more than 4,000 times) primarily as the translation of the usual Hebrew word for God, elohim. This word was also used by the LXX for the pagan gods, just as it was the standard