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God Is Love

There are things that we will never understand about God. They remain a mystery to the human mind. Even our language that is based on familiar things to us cannot begin to describe or understand these mysteries. We can however describe some important “attributes” of God that help us to shed a small bit of light on God’s Nature.

God Exists Absolutely
God is the “source” of being or existence. There is no difference between “what “he is and “that” he is. There is no cause that caused him. God must be identical to the fullness of being. That is what God exists absolutely means.

God is Infinite 

God must be infinite, utterly limitless. By infinite we do not mean immense size or endless duration. We mean that we must deny God’s limitations (like age or size). There’s no other thing that limits God.  If God is the very source of being, he must be without limit. There for he is infinite.

God is One

If God is infinite, can there be another God? Obviously not.

God is Spiritual

God is not a material being.  Bodies are limited by something. God must be immaterial, that is spiritual.

God is Eternal

God is not bound by the kind of changing being which times measure. God is eternal (non-temporal). Because God is not temporal, he can become temporal.

God is Transcendental and Immanent

God cannot be part of the universe. If he were, he would be limited by it. God is the creator of all things. God must be other than his creation.  This is what we mean by transcendence.
God is the creator, the giver of the total being to all things. As such he must be active in giving the need to be and to act. If he was not actively communicating being to all things, then they would cease to exist. In him, we live and move and have our being.  In other words, God is imminent.

God is Intelligent 

God is the creator and sustainer of all things.  We know that Chemicals and living organisms are intelligible structures. (DNA) A system in which things act and react to each other in a certain specific way determined by the system.  This we refer to as a plan or act of intelligence.  His intelligence is not like ours.  His intelligence must be infinitely greater. Although this is a mystery to us, we call God intelligent.

God is Good

God is the source of all that we recognize as good. God is the source of all being. Therefore God cannot be evil in any way.  Evil is what should be there and is not. Something is good of its kind if it succeeds in being that kind of thing to the fullest. It is bad if it fails. God is of the fullest, therefore there can not be a question of failure on the part of the Creator.  God is one with a perfect being. God is perfectly good.

So, if you believe God Exists and He is one all-powerful God, then click here to learn about God’s revealed plan.

Source: Some excerpts from handbook of Christian Apologetics Peter Kreeft & Ronald Tracelli

“A God merciful and gracious”

210 After Israel’s sin, when the people had turned away from God to worship the golden calf, God hears Moses’ prayer of intercession and agrees to walk in the midst of an unfaithful people, thus demonstrating his love.18 When Moses asks to see his glory, God responds “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name ‘the LORD’ [YHWH].”19 Then the LORD passes before Moses and proclaims, “YHWH, YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”; Moses then confesses that the LORD is a forgiving God.20

211 The divine name, “I Am” or “He Is”, expresses God’s faithfulness: despite the faithlessness of men’s sin and the punishment it deserves, he keeps “steadfast love for thousands”.21 By going so far as to give up his own Son for us, God reveals that he is “rich in mercy”.22 By giving his life to free us from sin, Jesus reveals that he himself bears the divine name: “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will realize that “I AM”.”23

God alone IS

212 Over the centuries, Israel’s faith was able to manifest and deepen the realization of the riches contained in the revelation of the divine name. God is unique; there are no other gods besides him.24 He transcends the world and history. He made heaven and earth: “They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. . . .but you are the same, and your years have no end.”25 In God “there is no variation or shadow due to change.”26 God is “HE WHO IS”, from everlasting to everlasting, and as such remains ever faithful to himself and to his promises.

213 The revelation of the ineffable name “I AM WHO AM” contains then the truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and following it the Church’s Tradition, understood the divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have from him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is.

III. GOD, “HE WHO IS”, IS TRUTH AND LOVE

214 God, “HE WHO IS”, revealed himself to Israel as the one “abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”.27 These two terms express summarily the riches of the divine name. In all his works God displays, not only his kindness, goodness, grace and steadfast love, but also his trustworthiness, constancy, faithfulness, and truth. “I give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness.”28 He is the Truth, for “God is light and in him, there is no darkness”; “God is love”, as the apostle John teaches.29

God is Truth

215 “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever.”30 “And now, O LORD God, you are God, and your words are true”;31 therefore God’s promises always come true.32 God is Truth itself, whose words cannot deceive. Therefore, one can abandon oneself in full trust to the truth and faithfulness of his word in all things. The beginning of sin and of man’s fall was due to a lie of the tempter who induced doubt of God’s word, kindness, and faithfulness.

216 God’s truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created order and governs the world.33 God, who alone made heaven and earth, can alone impart true knowledge of every created thing in relation to himself.34

217 God is also truthful when he reveals himself – the teaching that comes from God is “true instruction”.35 When he sends his Son into the world it will be “to bear witness to the truth”:36 “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true.”37

God is Love

218 In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God had only one reason to reveal himself to them, a single motive for choosing them from among all peoples as his special possession: his sheer gratuitous love.38 And thanks to the prophets Israel understood that it was again out of love that God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and sins.39

219 God’s love for Israel is compared to a father’s love for his son. His love for his people is stronger than a mother’s love for her children. God loves his people more than a bridegroom his beloved; his love will be victorious over even the worst infidelities and will extend to his most precious gift: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”40

220 God’s love is “everlasting”:41 “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you.”42 Through Jeremiah, God declares to his people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.”43

221 But St. John goes even further when he affirms that “God is love”:44 God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret:45 God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.