G o d

Different conceptions of God

After the fall of Adam and Eve from grace, the majority of their descendants began to draw farther and farther away from God, become wilder, fall into superstition and indulge in vices. Gradually the development of idolatry began. Nevertheless, the instinctive striving towards God remained in man. The entire history of ancient humanity attests to the fact that man, as distinct from animals, can never confine himself only to the fulfillment of his physical demands. His thoughts subconsciously are drawn upwards, to the other world, to the Creator. A person thirsts to know how and why the world around him arose. Is there a higher reason for his earthly existence and what awaits him beyond the threshold of death? Is there another, more perfect world or worlds? Is there a higher, absolute justice — reward for goodness and punishment for wrongdoing? Observing the greatness, harmony and beauty of the world, a person comes to the conclusion, that there must exist an Organizer of everything. His moral feeling suggests to him that there is also one righteous Lawgiver, Who will grant to each their just deserts. Thus, under the influence of internal and external motives, religious feeling gradually arises in a person — the need to know his Creator and draw nearer to Him.

        For this reason there never existed a people completely devoid of any sense of God. “Look at the face of the earth” — writes Plutarch (1st century AD), — you will find cities without fortifications, without sciences, without leaders, you will see people without permanent homes, without knowledge of the use of money, without the concept of fine arts, but you will not find one human society without faith in a God.”

        In view of the lack of detailed writings about the life and beliefs of the most ancient peoples it is difficult to determine how their religious ideas arose and developed. Nevertheless, a series of scholars in the area of comparative religions maintain that the original religion of many ancient peoples was belief in one God (monotheism); while the deification of natural forces and different gods (polytheism) arose among these peoples later (see the book of Prof. Wilhelm Schmidt, the many-tomed work “Der Ursprung der Gottesidee”). The first chapters of the book of Genesis familiarize us with the way polytheism began to develop among “the sons of man” as a result of their moral coarsening — at the same time that the “sons of God” (the descendants of Seth) retained their faith in one God. It must be explained, by the way, that in polytheistic religions one Great God usually stood out among the other less important deities. For this reason, notwithstanding all the imperfections of the heathen religions, their admission of the existence of a Higher Deity infers that people are religious by nature. Atheism is an unnatural, pathological state of a human soul. It comes from a sinful lifestyle and becomes entrenched with years by way of inculcation of atheistic ideas.

        In Greece, where polytheism began to displace monotheism about 600 years BC, we see a healthy resistance by the thinking people of that time — the philosophers. The first of them, Xenophon (570-466 BC) rose up against those who deified animals and their legendary heroes. He said: “Among gods and people there exists one Most High God, Who does not resemble them either mentally, or externally. He is all sight, all thought, all hearing. He eternally and immovably resides in one place... With His thought He governs all without difficulty.” Heraclitus speaks of the eternal Logos, from Whom everything received its existence. By Logos he means Godly Wisdom. (The teachings about Logos were developed by Philo in the first century AD). Anaxagoras (500-427 BC) calls God the purest Reason, omniscient and omnipotent. This Reason, by being an omnipresent and omnipotent spiritual Essence, brings everything to order. He created the world from original chaos. Socrates (469-399 BC) recognized that there is one God. This God is the moral beginning in the world and “Providence,” i.e. He concerns Himself with the world and with people. Plato (428-347 BC), battling with heathen superstitions, demanded that any trace of imperfection, jealousy or variability from the concept of Deity be barred: “God, and not man, is the highest measure of all.” For Plato God — “Demiurg” — is the builder of all, the Artist of universe. He is the eternal Spirit, changing the appearance of matter in accordance with His thought. There exists an eternal, real world of ideas, which is inherent to true reality, and at the head of this kingdom of ideas soars the Idea of Good, or God, the Builder of the universe (Composition “Timei”). Plato argued that the human soul is eternal. Aristotle (384-322 BC) sees in God a universal moving beginning above the world, “the immovable First Mover,” the source of movement in the universe. He is the eternal all-perfect essence, “thought of thoughts,” free from any materiality, living in the most intensive intellectual activity of self-contemplation. “Reality of thought is life, and God is that reality.” In accordance with Aristotle the whole world yearns toward God, as to a Being, beloved as the result of His perfection. The writer of the 3rd century BC Aratus of Cilicia even rose to the idea of the image of God in man, saying “we are of His lineage” (A similar thought was expressed by his contemporary stoic Cleanth). It can be presumed that under the influence of the philosophers, insisting on the existence of one most wise Being over the world, that the Athenians raised an altar to the “Unknown God,” mentioned by the Apostle Paul at the beginning of his famous sermon in Athens (Acts 17:23).

        In this way, the notions of some philosophers about God were true and profound. The eminent thinkers themselves understood that there could only be one true God. He is all thought and possesses the highest wisdom. He is the eternal, transcendental Absolute, the first Reason of any activity and movement in the world. Some philosophers ascended to the idea of God as the “Demiurg” — the builder of the universe. But they lacked the precise notion about God as the Creator making the world from nothing, which we find in the Bible. The main shortcoming of their philosophical ideas about God, is that their God is “cold,” that is, removed from the earth and as if secluded in His internal self-contemplative life. The reason for such a withdrawn notion of God is due to the philosophers’ lack of personal spiritual practice: they did not experience live association with the all-good God, who comes to a person during focused and warm prayers (nevertheless, many holy fathers highly esteemed the ancient philosophers and even called them “Christians before Christ.” The main contribution of the ancient Greek philosophers is that they worked out religious-moral concepts, created the necessary terminology, which helped the early Christian apologetics and Church fathers set forth and defend Christian truths).

        The views of the philosophers presented here about the Higher Being are interesting also in that they show the limits in the knowledge of God that a person can attain through his own natural efforts (more perfect views about God among the philosophers of the middle ages and the present are borrowed from Christianity).

        We find much purer and complete knowledge of God in the Holy Scriptures. Here we discover that about God which He Himself revealed about Himself to the people seeking Him — the righteous of the Old and New Testaments. Here is not the fruit of abstract reflections, the guesses within one’s power, but direct enlightenment from above, perceived by the saints as active spiritual experience. The saints wrote about God that which the Spirit of God revealed to their spirit. For this reason in the Holy Scriptures, as well as in the works of the Christian saints, there are no conjectures or contradictions, but there is complete agreement.

The attributes of God

The Holy Scriptures give us an elevated and unified portrayal of God. It teaches that God is One. He is the highest, overall and individual Being; God is Spirit — eternal, all-good, omniscient, all-righteous, almighty, omnipresent, invariable, all-satisfied, all-blessed. Not having need of anything, the almighty God in His goodness created the entire visible and invisible world, including us humans, from nothing. Before the creation of the world nothing existed, neither space nor time. The one and the other originated together with the world. God, as a loving Father, concerns Himself with the world as a whole and about each being He created — even the very smallest. Through His mysterious paths He leads each person to eternal salvation, however, without forcing him, but enlightening him and helping him to realize his good intentions.

        Let us now consider more carefully several godly characteristics revealed in the Holy Scriptures and in the Holy Fathers of the Church. God reveals himself to humans as a Being that is completely separate from the physical world, specifically — as a Spirit. “God is a Spirit,” say the Scriptures, — “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (John 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:17). In other words, God is not involved with materiality or corporeality, which is possessed by people and even by angels, revealing in themselves only the “image” of the spirituality of God. God is the highest, purest and most perfect Spirit. God revealed himself to the prophet Moses, as “I Am” (Jehovah) as a pure, spiritual, highest Existence. True, sometimes we find in the Scriptures such places, which symbolically assign to God members, similar to human ones — ears, eyes, arms and other so called “anthropomorphisms” — likening to humans. Such expressions are used for clarity and are found most often in the poetical parts of the Holy Scriptures. By them the Scriptures have in mind the corresponding spiritual properties of God, for example: ears and eyes point to His omniscience, the hand and muscle — to His omnipotence, the heart — to His love.

        No matter how customary it is to the contemporary consciousness to imagine God as a pure Spirit, still the widespread pantheism in our time (“God is everything and everything is God” — the idea, that some unconscious and impersonal deity is spread throughout nature. Buddhism and several eastern religions are based on the idea of pantheism) contradict this truth. For this reason even now in the “Rite of Orthodoxy,” performed in the first Sunday of Great Lent, we hear “To those who say, that God is not Spirit, but body — anathema.”

        God is eternal. The Existence of God is beyond time, for time is simply a form of existence that is final and variable. (Time is regarded as the “fourth” dimension in relativity physics. In accordance to modern cosmology, space and time are not infinite entities. They appeared by the will of God and they may disappear or may become something completely different than what they are now.) For God there is no past, no present, but there is only the present. “Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou are the same, and Thy years shall have no end” (Ps. 102:25-27). Several of the holy Fathers point out the difference between the concepts of “eternity” and “immortality.” Eternity is vitality, having neither beginning nor end. “The concept of eternity can only be applied to the one Godly essence without beginning, in whom everything is always the same and in the same state. The concept of immortality can be applied to that, which is brought to existence and does not die, for instance: angels and human souls...Eternity in the true sense applies only to godly essence” (St. Isidore Pelusiote). In this sense more expressive is “pre-eternal God.”

        God is all-good, that is, He is infinitely kind. The Scriptures witness: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy” (Ps. 103:8). “God is Love” (1 John 4:16). The goodness of God extends not to some limited region of the earth, like the characteristic love of limited beings, but to the whole world with all the beings found therein. He lovingly cares about the lives and needs of each creature, no matter how small or insignificant they may appear to us. “If we were asked,” says St. Gregory the Theologian, “by someone: whom do you honor and to whom do you bow? The answer is ready: We honor love.” God grants His creations as many blessings as each one can accept by their nature and condition, and inasmuch as it corresponds to the general harmony of the earth. God extends His especial goodness to humans. “God is like a mother bird, which, seeing its fledgling fallen from the nest, herself flies out of it, in order to lift it, and when she sees him in danger of being swallowed by some kind of snake, with mournful cries circles it and all the other fledglings, not being capable of being indifferent to the death of one of them” (Clement of Alexandria) “God loves us more than a father, mother or friend, or anyone else, can love, and even more than we can love ourselves, because God cares more about our salvation than even about His own glory, evidence of which serves that He sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world for suffering and death (in human flesh) only for the sake of opening for us the path of salvation and eternal life” (John Chrysostom). If a person often does not understand the full force of the goodness of God, then this occurs because he focuses his own thoughts and desires too much on earthly welfare; but God’s industry combines the gifts of temporary, earthly blessings with the appeal to acquire eternal goods for ourselves, for our souls.

        God is omniscient. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13). “Thine eyes did see my substance,” — wrote King David (Ps. 139:16). The omniscience of God is simultaneously vision and direct knowledge of everything, existing and possible, the present, past and future. The foreseeing of the future itself is in fact spiritual vision, because for God the future is the present. God’s foresight does not encroach upon the free will of his creatures, the same as the freedom of our near ones is not violated by the fact that we see their actions. The foresight of God regarding the evil in the world and the actions of free beings is as though crowned by the foreseen salvation of the world, when “God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).

        The wisdom of God is another facet of His omniscience. “Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite” (Ps. 147:5). The holy fathers of the Church, following the word of God, with deep reverence always pointed to the greatness of the Wisdom of God in the arrangement of the visible world, dedicating to this subject whole works, for example, discussions on the six days, that is on the process of the world’s creation. (Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa). “One herb or one blade of grass is enough to occupy all your thought with the examination of the art, with which it is produced” (Basil the Great).

        God is all-righteous. Righteousness is understood in the word of God and in its usual lingual usage by two meanings: a) as holiness and b) as fairness, or justice. Holiness consists not only in the absence of evil or sin, holiness is the presence of higher spiritual values, united with cleanliness from sin. Holiness is comparable to light, and Godly holiness — as purest light. God is “One Holy” by essence, by His nature. He is the Source of holiness for angels and people. The Justice of God is another side of the all-righteousness of God. “He shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness” (Ps. 9:8). “Who will render to every man according to his deeds, For there is no respect of persons with God” (Rom. 2:6 and 11).

        How can God’s love be coordinated with God’s truth, with strict judgment for sins and punishment of the guilty one? Many of the Church fathers spoke out on this question. They compare the anger of God to the anger of a father, who, in order to bring a disobedient son to his senses, turns to fatherly punitive measures, while at the same time he himself sorrows, grieving about the irrationality of the son, and at the same time feeling compassion for him for the distress he has caused him. For this reason God’s truth is always mercy, and mercy is truth, according to the statement: “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps. 85:10).

        Holiness and God’s truth are closely connected. God calls everyone to eternal life in His Kingdom. But nothing unclean can enter into the Kingdom of God. For this reason the Lord purifies us by punishments, as acts of corrections, because of His love for us. For a trial of fairness awaits us, a fearful trial for us. How can we enter a kingdom of holiness and light — and how would we feel there, being unclean, dark and not having within ourselves holiness and no favorable spiritual or moral value?

        God is omnipotent. “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Ps. 33:9) — so expresses himself the Psalmist about the omnipotence of God. God is the Creator and the Provider of the world. He is the Almighty. “The God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things” (Ps. 72:18). If, then, God tolerates evil and evildoers in the world, it is not because He cannot destroy evil, but because, He granted freedom to spiritual beings and directs them, so that they by their own personal desire would reject evil and turn to goodness. (In regard to casuistic questions regarding what God “cannot” do, one must answer that the omnipotence of God extends to everything that is desirous to His thoughts, His goodness, His will).

        God is omnipresent. “Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me” (Ps. 139:7-10). God is not subject to any limitations of space, but penetrates everything. In addition, God, as a simple Being (indivisible), is present everywhere not only by some part of Himself, or not only with His power, but with His whole being, while at the same time not merging with that, in which He is present. “God penetrates all, not combining with anything, but nothing penetrates Him” (John of Damascus).

        God is unchangeable. “The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). God is perfection, and each change is a sign of imperfection, and therefore is unthinkable in a perfect Being. One cannot say about God that any sort of process of growth, change of appearance, evolution, progress or anything of the kind occurs in Him. But the invariableness of God is not some immobility or withdrawing within Himself. Notwithstanding His invariability, His Being is life, full of power and activity. God Himself in Himself is life, and life is His existence.

        God is self sufficient and all-blessed. These two words have similar meaning. The former cannot be understood as “satisfied with oneself.” Rather, it signifies the fullness of possession, complete blessedness, the fullness of all good things. “As though He needed any thing, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25). In this way, God Himself appears the Source of all life, every blessing; from Him all creatures draw their satisfaction.

        The Apostle Paul twice calls God “blessed” (“According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God” — 1 Tim. 1:11; “Which in His times He shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” — 1 Tim. 6:15). The word “All-blessed” should not be understood that God, having everything within Himself, is indifferent to the sufferings in the world He created; but that all beings draw their bliss from Him and in Him. God does not suffer, but he is merciful. “Christ suffers as a mortal” (Easter Canon) — not in His Divinity, but in His humanity. God the source of bliss, in Him is the fullness of joy, sweetness, gladness for those who love Him, as is said in the psalm: “In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).

        It should be noted that the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers of the Church speak primarily of the attributes of God, not of the actual essence of God. The Holy fathers rarely and only indirectly spoke of the nature of God, explaining, that the essence of God is “one, simple, uncomplicated.” But this simplicity, this lack of complexity, is not an indifferent or empty whole, but it includes within itself the fullness of His attributes. “God is a sea of essence, immeasurable and limitless” (St. Gregory the Theologian). “God is the fullness of all qualities and perfection in its highest and endless form” (St. Basil the Great). “God is simple and uncomplicated. He is all feeling, all spirit, all thought, all mind, all source of all blessings” (Irenaeus of Lyons).

        Speaking of the attributes of God, the Holy Fathers point out that their multitude, in view of the simplicity of the Being, is the result of our inability to find a single way to observe the Divine. In God, one characteristic is the facet of another. God is righteous; this means that He is omniscient, omnipotent, good and blessed. The multiple simplicity of God is similar to the light of the sun, revealing itself in various colors of the rainbow.

        In enumerating the characteristics of God, the Holy Fathers and the prayers of the church services predominantly use expressions compiled grammatically in the negative form, that is, with the particles “not” or the prefix “un-.” One must remember, though, that this negative form points to the “denial of limitations,” for example: not unknowing — means knowing. In this fashion, it contains the confirmation of the limitlessness of His perfections.

        Besides that, our thoughts about God speak 1) either of His contrast to the world (for example: God is Without Beginning, while the world has a beginning; Eternal, while the world exists in time); 2) or of the actions of God in the world and the relationship of the Creator to this creations (Maker, Provider, Merciful, Righteous Judge).

        While pointing out the characteristics of God, we thus do not give a definition to the understanding of God. Such a definition is, in essence, impossible, because in any definition there is an indication of limits, and, therefore, an indication of boundaries, of incompleteness. There are no boundaries to God, and therefore there cannot be a definition of comprehension of God: “For even understanding is a form of limitation” (St. Gregory the Theologian).