The Great Doctrines of the Bible | Page 2

by George
Knapp; "Jesus and the Gospel," and "The Death of Christ," by Prof.
James Denny; "The Person and Work of Jesus," by Nathan E. Wood, D.
D.
There are doubtless others to whom credit is due of whom the author is
not at this time conscious, for, after all, we are "part of all that we have
seen, and met, and read." To those unknown authors, therefore, our
indebtedness is hereby acknowledged.

Chicago. WILLIAM EVANS.

THE DOCTRINE OF GOD

I. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: (Vs. Atheism).
1. ASSUMED BY THE SCRIPTURES. 2. PROOFS OF THE
EXISTENCE OF GOD. a) Universal belief in the Existence of God. b)
Cosmological:--Argument from Cause. c) Teleological:--Argument
from Design. d) Ontological:--Argument from Being. e)
Anthropological:--Moral Argument. f) Argument from Congruity. g)
Argument from Scripture.
II. THE NATURE OF GOD: (Vs. Agnosticism)
1. THE SPIRITUALITY OF GOD: (Vs. Materialism). 2. THE
PERSONALITY OF GOD: (Vs. Pantheism). 3. THE UNITY OF GOD:
(Vs. Polytheism). 4. THE TRINITY: (Vs. Unitarianism).
III. THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.
1. THE NATURAL ATTRIBUTES: a) Omniscience. b) Omnipotence.
c) Omnipresence. d) Eternity.
2. THE MORAL ATTRIBUTES: a) Holiness. b) Righteousness. c)
Faithfulness. d) Mercy and Loving-kindness. e) Love.

I. HIS EXISTENCE.
1. TAKEN FOR GRANTED BY THE SCRIPTURE WRITERS:
It does not seem to have occurred to any of the writers of either the Old
or the New Testaments to attempt to prove or to argue for the existence
of God. Everywhere and at all times it is a fact taken for granted. "A

God capable of proof would be no God at all" (Jacobi). He is the
self-existent One (Exod. 3:14) and the Source of all life (John 5:26).
The sublime opening of the Scriptures announces the fact of God and
His existence: "In the beginning God" (Gen. 1:1). Nor is the rise or
dawn of the idea of God in the mind of man depicted. Psa. 14:1: "The
fool hath said in his heart. There is no God," indicates not a disbelief in
the existence, but rather in the active interest of God in the affairs of
men--He seemed to hide Himself from the affairs of men (See Job
22:12-14).
The Scriptures further recognize that men not only know of the
existence of God, but have also a certain circle of ideas as to who and
what He is (Rom. 1:18-19).
No one but a "fool" will deny the fact of God. "What! no God? A watch,
and no key for it? A watch with a main-spring broken, and no jeweler
to fix it? A watch, and no repair shop? A time-card and a train, and
nobody to run it? A star lit, and nobody to pour oil in to keep the wick
burning? A garden, and no gardener? Flowers, and no florist?
Conditions, and no conditioner?" He that sitteth in the heavens shall
laugh at such absurd atheism.
2. THE ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
[Footnote: A fuller and complete presentation of these arguments for
the Existence of God may be found in the works of Dr. Augustus H.
Strong and Dr. Francis L. Patten, to whom the author is here indebted.]
These arguments may not prove conclusively that God is, but they do
show that in order to the existence of any knowledge, thought, reason,
conscience in man, we must assume that God is (Strong). It is said of
the beautiful, "It may be shown, but not proved." So we say of the
existence of God. These arguments are probable, not demonstrative.
For this reason they supplement each other, and constitute a series of
evidences which is cumulative in its nature. Though taken singly, none
of them can be considered absolutely decisive, they together furnish a
corroboration of our primitive conviction of God's existence, which is

of great practical value, and is in itself sufficient to bind the moral
actions of men. A bundle of rods may not be broken even though each
one separately may; the strength of the bundle is the strength of the
whole. If in practical affairs we were to hesitate to act until we have
absolute and demonstrable certainty, we should never begin to move at
all.
Instead of doubting everything that can be doubted, let us rather doubt
nothing until we are compelled to doubt.
Dr. Orr, of Glasgow, says: What we mean by the proof of God's
existence is simply that there are necessary acts of thought by which we
rise from the finite to the infinite, from the caused to the uncaused,
from the contingent to the necessary, from the reason involved in the
structure of the universe to a universal and eternal reason, which is the
ground of all, from morality in conscience to a moral Lawgiver and
Judge. In this connection the theoretical proofs constitute an
inseparable