My hope is that this series will offer my readers a chance to consider the names, characteristics and descriptions of our God in the Word.
The remaining Names of God in this series might be considered descriptors, or characteristics of the Lord. We have reviewed the three primary Names of God, along with nineteen compound Names of God in our previous posts. As we venture through these descriptors of our God, I hope we will recognize all the many characteristics of our God that we tend to take for granted.
The Word is truly rich with descriptions of the Living God, and this effort of searching in the Word was quite illuminating. He truly is the ultimate subject of the Word, and His revelation of self-descriptions, or the accolades offered Him by His priests, prophets, kings apostles and faithful truly is a blessing.
May the Name of the Lord be praised, and by thinking on His name, may you have a blessed day.
| 106 |
| DIVINE BEING |
| Acts 17:29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. |
| Paul is addressing the men of Athens, having arrived there directly from Berea, an area where Paul was challenged with every teaching he provided by his audience checking the Word, to see if his teaching aligned with their authorities. Arriving in Athens, his audience is not of the Jewish flavor, but of the Athenian philosophy bent, an audience that was not steeped in Jewish law but in human reasoning and philosophy. He doesn’t have a foundation of Old Testament understanding in the audience to teach from, so he uses what connection he can find with these men, and builds his message from there. There is wisdom in this approach for our use! He speaks of his travels within the city, and refers to idols that have been constructed, especially an idol to the unknown god, and he latches onto this to begin his teaching. Note that he does not condemn these people for idolatry. Something to remember as we share the gospel with those in our world! Foundational logic, the language of the philosopher, was being used for the sake of communicating to the audience, speaking of the creator God as necessary for their worldview, and then their own philosophy to leverage the audiences thoughts to a personal God. “In him we live and move and have our being” is likely a portion of a poem by the Cretan poet Epimenides, and “For we are indeed his offspring.” is taken from a poet by the name of Aratus. Both of these authorities would have been well known to the audience and made a connection for them with Paul’s thoughts. Logically speaking, if these poets message, generally accepted by the audience, the outcome would be there is a God out there that is not created as an idol is, but is a being. There would be similarities to human beings, but this God would of course be divine. as an extension of this argument, based on their very own accepted teaching, a greater being than us has to be present, has to exist. Paul uses “divine” to introduce this God to the audience, for he is trying to build a logical connection for the audience of a personal God that exists. For the Greek philosopher, to refer to a divine being is similar to our cultural understanding of the same. Generally a very nebulous descriptor other than being greater than us. Paul does not let the audience think “generally” about this god for long, for immediately, after laying a foundation of connection for the Greek audience of a living God, he introduces judgement on their ignorance (not idolatry) and a call to repent. And the basis of this judgment and call to repentance is a Man who has risen from the dead. Paul presents a lot of specific doctrine to the audience after establishing the existence of the Divine Being! The Divine Being is a patient God, overlooking ignorance, a God who expects repentance upon information provided, a God who is righteous, a God who will judge the world properly, a God that supplies facts, for He has not only appointed a specific Man to perform the judgement, but has provided a series of eye witness historical occurrences backing up the claim of the resurrection of this Judge. He has given assurance of the Judge’s identity by the resurrection! Upon the resurrection news, the audience split. A Divine Being who raises a man from the dead was unheard of, and this teaching cannot be the result of simple logic or reasoning. To go from a Divine Being to a Judge (Jesus Christ) raised from the dead requires repentance and FAITH, not simply logical reasoning only. Some in the audience were not ready to explore this line of reasoning! But the true Divine Being has raised Jesus from the dead. The audiences response is like that of today. Open to hearing more, or mockery. Are you open to hearing more? |
I would love to hear of your favorite name, characteristic or description of the Living God. Please leave me a comment, and I will include it in the list!
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One response to “Names of God – DIVINE BEING – 106”
For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
Acts 17:23
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