THE CORNERSTONE SEMINARY

CREDO: I BELIEVE

by

Matthew Hauck

ST 502 Theology Proper

March 24, 2009

Vallejo, California
 I believe in one God who is spirit, eternally existing in Three, neither dividing the one

essence, nor confounding three Persons, uncompromisingly perfect in his character and

consistent with the same in all his deeds, unfathomably great and beyond what the human mind

can comprehend, yet unexpectedly near and able to be known not fully yet truly, who governs

every detail of the world he has made to fulfill the purpose for which he made it, in order that he

might receive all the glory and all the praise for all of eternity.

It is taken as fact that God has revealed himself in the sixty-six books of the Old and New

Testaments. Though some things are generally knowable about God through what he has made,

seeing his fingerprints as it were, the Scriptures are still the only sure rule for faith and practice,

being the only inspired revelation from God recorded for this very purpose. The Scriptures are

themselves without error in their original autographs, and to the degree that the copies we have

today are accurate transmissions of the originals, to that same degree, the Bibles we hold in our

hands are likewise without flaw. This being the case, the Scriptures are the only sure rule for the

present issue at hand: what I believe about God. This is not a matter of speculation, but of

revelation. Let it be clear that this is the standard by which this answer is being made. What I

believe about God will be grouped under five headings: 1) That God Is, 2) What God Is, 3) Who

God Is, 4) What God Does, 5) Why God Does It.

That God Is

I believe in God

This is the most axiomatic truth of the Bible. This is the starting point of all starting

points. It is assumed in the very first words of the Bible when it says, ―In the beginning God

created the heavens and the earth.‖ Before there was anything else, there was God. He is the

perpetual presupposition throughout the sacred Book from beginning to end, whether referred to
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specifically or implied by his actions; he is always there, he is the eternal ―I AM‖ (Ex 3:14). He

has always existed and he will forever exist, he is the very ground of existence. God is the

ultimate reality, the foundation of all reality, and without him there could be nothing else.

I believe I can know God

I also believe that it is an intelligible statement to say, ―I know God.‖ It is neither

intellectual suicide nor fraught with philosophical problems. Admitting I am a finite creature,

and he is the infinite Creator, nonetheless, I believe that I can not only know about him, but that I

can know him. Because of who God is, this knowledge is incomplete, but it is true. I can know

him truly, though not fully.

God is knowable, and Romans 1:19-20 says that there are things about God which are, in

fact, evident, and clearly seen, through what has been made, ―for God made it evident to them.‖

On a different subject, Peter comments that God has granted to us all things pertaining to life and

godliness, ―through the true knowledge of Him [i.e. God/Christ] who called us‖ (2Pe 1:3). This

is seen in the early chapters of Genesis, as Adam related with God in the garden. This is the most

important ability—and duty—of mankind: to know and love God. There is a common thread of

promises that run throughout the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, of God’s promise to

dwell with his people, and that his people would have a special relationship with him, that ―I will

dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God.‖ (Ex 29:45-46; cf. Gen 17:8, Ex 6:7, Deu

4:20, Jer 31:33, 24:7, Rev 21:3) Finally, God himself clearly says that if anyone is to boast, the

one thing that any should regard as worthy of boasting about, that is to say, the one thing that is

really worth any value, is that one understands and knows God. (Jer 9:23-24)

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 What God Is

I believe God is spirit

―God is spirit,‖ Jesus said in John 4:24 as proof of the fact that a day was coming when it

didn't matter where you worshiped, because God is not confined to a location. He is spirit. This

is speaking of his substance, his essence, his makeup. If it can be said, he is a spiritual

―substance.‖ This means that God does not have a physical body, but exists as spirit. He is not an

impersonal force; he is a living, self-conscious, personal, active, intelligent spirit.

I believe God in his spirit is simple. He is not a composite being. He is not essence plus

attributes, he is essence in attributes. His attributes, and anything else true about him, are not

some addition to his essence. I believe God is one (Deu 6:4). This is to say that there is only one

God, and that God's essence is not only not compounded, it is also not divisible. It cannot be

divided. It is a coherent comprehensive unity. It cannot be split up into parts and said, ―This part

is his love,‖ or ―That part is his justice,‖ but all that is true of him exists in comprehensive unity.

I believe one God exists in Three

This is equally a part of the ―who‖ of God as it is a part of the ―what‖ of God. It is, in fact,

the link between the ―what‖ and the ―who‖ of God. The fact of God's Three-in-oneness tells us

that within God, there is a multiplicity of person even though there is no division or

multiplication of essence. I believe one God eternally exists in Three, neither dividing the one

essence, nor confounding the three Persons. There are three Persons, one called Father, one

called Son, one called Spirit, who are all equally God and all co-eternal, each of whom fully

possesses the entire divine essence, and despite this oneness, they are not confounded with one

another: the Spirit is not the Father nor is he the Son, and the Son is not the Father nor is he the

Spirit, etc. God is one in essence and three in person, and thus his three-ness and one-ness being
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not in the same respect, are therefore not a contradiction, but rather a conundrum. I believe in the

unity of God, the deity of the Three, and the eternality of the Three. There was not a time when

the Son was not, nor was there a time when the Spirit was not. Father, Son, and Spirit eternally

have been. God has eternally existed in trinity, and the Trinity in unity, from everlasting to

everlasting.

This is seen directly in the pages of Scripture as biblical history unravels. It is not an

understatement to say that the doctrine of the Trinity is embedded into the very fabric of the New

Testament. The Old Testament has throughout a strong emphasis on the unity of God. God

makes such statements as, ―For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one

like Me‖ (Is 46:9), and again, ―I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to

another‖ (Is 42:8).

Yet, as we come to the New Testament, we find that there is not only the Father who is

called God, but there is another (ἄλλος not ἕτερος), Jesus, who is also called God, and also the

Spirit who is called God. Old Testament passages that originally referred directly to YHWH are

said to refer to Jesus (cf. Phi 2:10; Rom 10:13). One of the most exalted Old Testament visions

of God is Isaiah 6, when the angels sing, ―Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole

earth is full of His glory‖ (Is 6:3). Not only is this referred to Jesus, but the apostle John actually

says that what Isaiah saw that day was Jesus' glory (John 12:41)! In addition, worship is given to

Jesus (Luk 24:52), and he is even called ―God‖ (ὁ θεός; cf. Joh 20:28; Heb 1:8), and he is even

said to be the very radiance of God's glory, which glory God shares with nobody (Heb 1:3; Is

42:8). The Spirit, who receives relatively less attention by nature of his particular ministry and

function within the Godhead, is also said to be God in a directly parallel statement (Acts 5:3-4).

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 Beyond this there are myriads of passages which place all three Persons in direct

connection with one another as working side by side, each having their own part in the same

work (e.g. salvation: Eph 1:3-14, 4:4-6; gifting: 1Co 12:4-6; prayer: Eph 2:18; etc.). Such lists

could be multiplied manyfold. Not to be forgotten is the statement of Matthew 28:19, when Jesus

tells his disciples to baptize ―in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.‖ This

text is particularly significant because of the singular number of the word ―name‖, and also

because of the significance of the word ―name.‖ The word ―name‖, especially in the Old

Testament, stands for the very person. God's ―Name‖ has to do with his character, his person,

indeed, all that he is (cf. Is 42:8, Ex 33:19, 34:5-7). Thus for God's ―Name‖ to be connected to

Jesus and the Spirit is a direct affirmation of their deity along with the Father.

Who God Is

I believe God is uncompromisingly perfect in his character and consistent with the same

in all his deeds, unfathomably great and beyond what the human mind can comprehend, yet

unexpectedly near and able to be known not fully yet truly. We will treat these in reverse order.

I believe God is great

I believe God is unfathomably great and beyond what the human mind can comprehend,

yet unexpectedly near and able to be known not fully yet truly. There are certain aspects of God's

attributes which separate him from us and demonstrate his uniqueness, his other-ness.

I believe God is self-existent (John 5:26). He is the only Being with necessary existence.

He not only is forever living, but life is in him. It is impossible for God to not exist. He will

always have life and he is the only Giver of life. God's self-existence sets him apart as great and

awesome, completely different from everything else we know and see in this world. We are all

dependent, and all life on this planet is dependent; only God's life is independent.
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 I believe God is immense. He cannot be measured, nor can he be contained within any

area; he is nowhere. Yet, he is also everywhere, in that his full essence is fully present at all

places. The God who cannot be contained by heaven and earth also fills heaven and earth (Jer

23:24). It is not that God is so big that he fills the whole place, a part of him here, a part of him

there; but that he is fully present at every location. This is the meaning of God's omnipresence.

This does not preclude him from specially manifesting his personal presence at different

locations at different times. Yet this is not dependent upon the location, but upon the God who

wants to make himself particularly known to a particular people, like on the top of Mount Sinai

in Exodus 19ff., or in the tabernacle in Leviticus 9, etc. Under this heading might also fall God's

being infinite. God, possesses all his attributes to the fullest amount, and to an infinite degree. He

is infinitely strong, infinitely wise, infinitely great, infinitely good.

I believe God is omnipotent. God is all-powerful and able to do all things he sets out to

do. God is neither hindered nor propelled by any external force outside himself. He cannot be

thwarted in what he does, at any stage of the process. This is not to say God can do all things, for

there are some things God cannot do – he cannot deny himself (2Ti 2:13), he cannot lie (Titus

1:3), he cannot approve of evil (Hab 1:13), etc. God cannot do things inconsistent with his

character. He also cannot do things that are nonsensical, like make a triangle with four sides,

since a triangle by definition has three sides. God is unlimited in his power, demonstrated in

creation and redemption, and can do something much harder than making a rock too big for him

to lift—he can soften a hardened heart. Under this category also we can include God's being

sovereign and free. He does all that he pleases and acts without restraint (Ps 115:3).

I believe God is omniscient. God knows all things, past, present and future. He knows the

past with perfect recollection, and with no fading of memory. He knows all things happening in
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at places in the present, he knows all things truly and he knows them extensively. He knows also

all future events, and all possible events. In every situation, he knows all the possibilities as well

as everything that would result from each of those possibilities, and he also knows which

possibility will actually come into fruition. His knowledge of the future is tied to his decree; he

knows it because he has planned it. His knowledge of the future is not a plain knowledge, but a

foreordaining knowledge, for at that moment, if God knows it is going to happen and God's

knowledge is never wrong, that event is determined to take place. Hebrews 4:12-13 speaks of the

searching power of God's word and says nothing is hidden from God's sight; all things are naked

and laid bare before him. He sees and knows everything. God says that what makes him unique

and separate from idols is that he ―declares the end from the beginning‖ (Is 46:10).

I believe God is eternal. There was never a time that he was not; there was never a time

he came into being. He has always been and will always be. He lives outside of the passage of

time as we know it, such that he can see the past, present and future with absolute clarity, and

this is not merely a feature of his omniscience, it also has to do with his being outside of time. I

also believe that God works within time. The God who is unfathomably great and beyond us has

also made himself unexpectedly near and knowable. He converses with and relates with men in

time, he intervenes and acts in our world in time.

I believe God is immutable. He does not change in his nature, that is, in his essence or

attributes. He neither changes quantitatively nor does he change qualitatively. He can neither

increase nor decrease, neither improve nor regress, for he is perfect as he is and he says, ―I, the

Lord, do not change‖ (Mal 3:6). Again, the Scripture says, ―Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday

and today and forever‖ (Heb 13:8). God does not only remain constant in his nature, but also in

his intentions and plans (Num 23:19). After making a decision, he does not change his mind. His
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plan and his will remain the same. Again, this does not mean that he does not genuinely relate to

men, which he does. When he decided to not destroy Ninevah in the book of Jonah, it was not

because he changed his mind, but in response to their repentance; God does not destroy the

penitent. God does change his course of action based on changes in people.

I believe God is good

I believe God is uncompromisingly perfect in his character and consistent with the same

in all his deeds. The goodness of God could itself be considered an attribute; it is that internal

wholeness and completion of God whereby he is perfectly happy, as well as his inclination to

promote the happiness of others. He is not only perfect in his character, but he is consistent with

his character in his personal deeds, and also in relation to others. These three aspects apply to

each aspect of his goodness.

These attributes are qualities which we understand in the world we live in (though not to

the degree God has them), and thus most have a pretty good understanding of what they are

already. While his goodness does not require as many words to describe and are not very

perplexing in their nature, it has many more direct implications for how we are to live, and can

be even more perplexing in their extent. While God's love does not baffle me as to its

inexplicableness as the Trinity does, God's love does baffle me in its extent. With God's

goodness, it is not so much a question of perplexity about how it could be so, but of amazement

that it could be so; it stretches not our minds as much as it stretches our hearts.

I believe that God is morally pure. It is tempting to say ―righteous‖ or ―holy‖, but these

are subcategories of his moral purity. His internal moral purity is called holiness. He is separate

from all evil, is not tempted by evil nor does he not tempt any to do evil. (Jam 1:13) This is all

summed up well by John's categorical statement that ―God is Light, and in Him there is no
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darkness at all‖ (1Jo 1:5). This internal holiness manifests itself outward in righteousness in his

deeds and justice in his governing. He himself acts with righteousness. He acts in perfect

consistency with his holiness; he does what is right in all his deeds. He also requires this same

righteousness of others and will require it of them with perfect righteousness, which we call his

justice. He will punish and reward rightly (Ps 9:8).

I believe that God is truthful. In his internal character, God is true, he is genuine, he is

real. Everything about him is genuine and true. He is the true God (John 17:3). He is the very

ground of truth, the ultimate reality. In his dealings with others, this internal veritableness

transfers into veracity: He speaks the truth and never lies or deceives or propagates lies. This

quickly transfers into his relation to other beings as faithfulness. He not only speaks the truth, but

he carries out the truth. When he makes a promise, he is telling the truth about making the

promise, and then he is faithful to that promise to actually bring it to pass.

I believe that God is loving. He is internally disposed toward benevolence; seeking the

good of others, seeking the benefit of others. This at times comes at a cost, and he is willing to

pay the cost to seek the enjoyment of others. We can imagine that God, in eternity past, enjoyed

love within the Trinity, perfectly loving and being loved. This does seem to be the case, as in

John 17, particularly verse 26. God's love, extending outward in action becomes grace and mercy.

Grace pictures the object loved as sinful, guilty and condemned, dealing with them not according

to their desert. Mercy pictures the object loved as pitiful, miserable, and needy, dealing with

them in tenderhearted, loving compassion. There is no more frank a statement of God's love than

1 John 4:8, 16, ―God is love.‖ There is no more vivid a statement of this than John 3:16, ―For

God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall

not perish, but have eternal life.‖

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 What God Does

I believe God has created. ―In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the

sea and all that is in them‖ (Ex 20:11, repeated in Neh 9:6, Ps 146:6, Acts 4:24, 14:15). He made

the world by divine fiat. He created all that exists ex nihilo, out of nothing, not using any

materials or processes, but rather calling into existence by his very will the things he desired to

exist (Joh 1:3; Rom 4:17). God did not use evolution to carry out his process of creation, nor did

he create at successive points over the ages, for the text repeatedly says ―six days‖, and ―day 1‖,

―day 2‖, etc., by which cannot be meant ―age 1‖, ―age 2‖, etc. The length of time argues against

both views, the method of God's creating argues against evolution, and the interdependence of

the creation argues against progressive creationism, unless we would toss aside Genesis 1-2.

I believe God governs. Not only did God originally create the world, but he now

continues working in it to govern. This is God's providence. God has an eternal all-encompassing

plan for his creation, and he works continually in his creation to fulfill this end, and he will do so

without fail (Eph 1:11; Rom 8:28; Is 14:24, 27; Acts 2:23). The breadth of Scripture on this topic

is enormous. All we have said thus far has relevance here. God exercises absolute control over

every detail of the universe, and he does so with perfect wisdom and complete power.

I believe God redeems. God is rich in mercy and delights in saving (Ex 34:6-7). He does

not take pleasure in the punishment of the wicked as such, though he does delight in his justice

that is magnified through such punishment, but does delight in salvation in itself (Eze 18:23, 32;

2Pe 3:9; Rom 9:22; Eph 2:4-5; Mic 7:18). He has accomplished this redemption through Christ

and while it is indeed a past reality for the believer, so also it is a future hope which will reach its

final consummation at the end of the ages when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead,

and we enter in to the eternal state (Rom 3:24-25; Eph 1:7; Col 2:13-14; Rom 5:9; 1Pe 1:3-4).
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 Why God Does It

What is that end toward which God governs the universe? His glory and our good (Rom

8:28). ―For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.

Amen‖ (Rom 11:36). ―To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations

forever and ever. Amen‖ (Eph 3:21). ―To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen‖ (Jud 25).

―Blessed be the LORD forever!‖ (Ps 89:52, 41:13, 72:19) Amen and Amen!

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