God the Father, Mentor's Guide, MG06

/ 1 0 3

G O D T H E F A T H E R

“It Don’t Seem Relevant”

During a series on the attributes of God in the Pastor’s mid-week Bible study, a young, hungry new believer raises her hand and makes a comment about the study. “Pastor,” she says nearly apologetically, “I know that this may be important in a seminary kind of setting, but honestly, I am struggling to see why we ought to be studying all of these funny words and things about God. Why do we have to understand what Christians believed long ago about the nature of God, or use any other words like ousios or homousia or any of the fifty dollar terms. I just want to know about Jesus, really I don’t care much for doctrine anyway. Can you tell me why on earth I, as a new Christian, should be interested in all of this stuff–to me, it just don’t seem to matter much, it just don’t seem relevant to anything I do.” As pastor, how would you respond to the genuine question being raised by this dear sister in Christ? A popular televangelist/preacher has recently come out with a view of the Trinity that has many eyebrows raising in the Christian community. Rather than affirm the traditional Christian view of the Trinity as one God who manifests himself in three distinct persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), this popular teacher believes that there is one God who actually displays himself in three modes depending on the situation. In other words, while he affirms that God is one, he denies that the persons of the Trinity are distinct persons. There is only one God who manifests himself in three different modes. Why is this view unacceptable according to the Word of God? Would you count this view to be heresy? Why or why not? One God, in Three Modes

page 287 6

3

“A Little too Friendly”

So many of the praise and worship songs today highlight the intimacy and personal relationship that the believer now has with God. Many of the songs speak of God as friend, confidant, even as lover, with a strong emphasis on the personal dimension of our relationship with God. Yet, it is clear that with the absence of solid doctrinal teaching in many of our churches, and with hymns being sung less and less in most fellowships, many believers have no orientation to the attributes of the greatness of God the Father Almighty. In a real sense, the God of many churches is only large enough to meet the needs of our hearts, not tackle the problems of the world, let