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Blog Category: The Nature of God (1 posts)


Luke J. Wilson | 21st April 2014 | Theology
Or do we retroactively place our current theology of God on God? Consider the Garden of Eden: '[T]he Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”'  (Gen. 3:8-10) Now today we make it into a rhetorical question, but was this always so? In this story, God is spoken of almost in a physical-bodily sense as walking in the garden, since "they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden" as he moved about, and then tried to hide themselves from his view! Next think of the tower of Babel - "The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built" (Gen 11:5) - Did he not just know already? Also this story makes it appear like God is worried about the potential of man (Gen 11:6)! Then this idea is reinforced some more in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, when God needs to go and check out their sin to see if the outcry he's heard is accurate! Genesis 18:20-21 Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.” This next one may be a stretch, but it comes to mind anyhow: "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth" (2 Chron 16:9). Other translations say God's eyes "roam" or "run to and fro" throughout the earth. Maybe it's just a poetic way of saying "God sees all", but does it mean he sees all simultaneously — as an all-knowing God should/would? Or is this in keeping with the earlier ideas of God having to come down to a location to inspect it fully, that he goes about the whole earth checking out things and people? "The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all humankind." — Psalm 33:13 Maybe this where Angels play their role; as in, they are all over the Earth reporting back to the Lord about what they see and hear, so that he can act on situations — as messengers not onl...

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