The Christian God

`          ````````````````          The Apostle’s Creed begins with, “I believer in God the Father, Almighty.”  When I was a young person growing up in church, we always began worship singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,” or “Come Though Almighty King.”  In fact, traditional hymnals are dominated by emphases on God’s power, might, authority, kingship, control, and sovereignty.  Love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness are relegated to secondary positions.  Perhaps the most common words of Christian assurance and comfort are, “God is in control.”  Is that what is central or basic to the way Christians understand God?  Might, power, sovereignty, complete control?

Certainly the Bible gives ample support to such a view.  God is the creator of all; God can flood the earth and destroy all but a handful of its population; God, by his destructive power brought his people, Israel out of Egyptian bondage; His might allowed the inhabitants of Canaan to be defeated and destroyed in order to provide a place for his covenant community.  In the New Testament, God has the power to enable a virgin to conceive without benefit of human impregnation; the power to raise the dead; and, according to John’s Revelation, the power ultimately to defeat all the powers of evil.  The power of God is evident through the Bible—much of it destructive power.



And yet.



Yet, the Bible explicitly states, twice that God is love.  Jesus says that the greatest of God’s commandments is to love God and neighbor.  On another occasion he teaches that his followers are to love even their enemies.  Of the things that are eternal, the Bible says that love is the greatest.



Nowhere does the Bible say, “God is power.”  It does say: “God is Spirit,” “God is Holy,” and, simply, “God Is.”  Those are the only direct statements of who God is.



What are we to make of this?  Are we to understand that the core biblical understanding of God is might, or is it love?  How do we go about deciding which way to cast our vote, which to trust?  It is clear that God is love, but it is clear that God is almighty. 



This is going to require more than can be written at one time.