Theology beacon dictionary of theology
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- The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues; Samarin, Tongues of Men and Angels: The Religious Language of Pentecostalism; Synan
- HOLINESS, MAJESTY, ATTRIBUTES (DIVINE).
- For Further Reading: Gundry, A Survey of the New Testament, 37, 57, 307-10, 323, 358-59; Purkiser, ed., Exploring Our Christian Faith
- For Further Reading: Wiley, CT, 1:217-440; Gilkey, Naming the Whirlwind: The Renewal of God Language; Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of God;
- A Handbook of Contemporary Theology
- ISBE
- ETHICS, ETHICAL RELATIVISM, CHRISTIAN ETHICS, HUMANISM, VALUES. EVIL, AXIOLOGY.
- FAITH, WORK (WORKS).
For Further Reading: Wiley, CT, 2:317-21; Purkiser, The Gifts of the Spirit; Koenig, Charismata: God's Gifts for God's People; McRae, The Dynamics of Spiritual Gifts; Wagner, Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow; Kildahl, The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues; Samarin, Tongues of Men and Angels: The Religious Language of Pentecostalism; Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Move- ment in the United States. W. T. PURKISER GLORIFICATION. See resurrection of the body. GLORY. The OT term most commonly translated "glory" is kabod, meaning "weight, importance, radiance." It frequently refers to things which display human glory. For example, there are: man's riches (Ps. 49:16), his good reputation (Job 29:20), and his spiritual status (Ps. 8:5). Generally, however, it designates God's presence and power (Deut. 5:24). Sometimes, it is a synonym for godesh, "holiness," in that the latter often denotes "radiance." Since God has designed through Christ to transmit His own holiness to those who trust and obey Him, every believer should be reflecting in his person and life something of the divine radiance or glory (2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:10). That glory should also be seen in the church, the body of believers, as it meets in corporate worship, for it GNOSTICISM 235
is to reflect and promote the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 8:23). In both Testaments the glory of God is an expression of God's inherent majesty which is to be recognized and acclaimed by His people (Exod. 33:18; Rom. 1:23). The NT Greek term for "glory" (doxa) occurs many times, carrying much the same general meanings as the OT kabod. Paul uses it often in his Epistles. For him glory was something that rightly belonged to God, even though he did use it to express the illumination which comes to human relationships through Christ (Eph. 3:16). In the KJV there is "vain glory" (Gal. 5:26) and "vainglory" (Phil. 2:3). In current parlance these terms are perhaps better rendered "conceit" or "boastful" and "selfish or empty ambition." See NASB and NIV. See HOLINESS, MAJESTY, ATTRIBUTES (DIVINE). For Further Reading: Turner, The Vision Which Transforms, 15-17; IDB, 2:401-3. ARMOR D. PEISKER GNOSTICISM. Gnosticism was a dualistic, hydra-headed heresy which penetrated the church in the first and second centuries. According to Qualben the movement was Jewish in origin, with roots in Philo of Alexandria. Other authorities trace it to India and the East. As its name suggests (gnosis, knowledge), Gnosticism stressed esoteric knowledge as the key to salvation. It thus became a religious philosophy which corrupted the gospel of salvation by simple faith in Christ the Redeemer. Incipient in form soon after Paul established churches in Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia (e.g., the "Colossian Heresy," Col. 1:12-20, 23, 28; 2:8, 11, 16, 18-19; 3:11), Gnosticism was subtle, speculative, and elaborate in its many forms and milieus. Among its many deviations was the denial of Christ's incarnation. Jesus was only quasi-human, not genuinely "bone of our bone" and "flesh of our flesh." But Gnosticism also rejected the true deity of Christ. It maintained that the heavenly Christ who appeared among men was an emanation from the one true God. The notion that Christ belonged among the hierarchy of angels is denounced by Paul in Col. 2:16-19. In the Gnostic system the entire number of intermediary beings emanating from God and linking Him to this world were called the plerdma. Paul countered this idea by stating that Christ was the "plerdma of the Godhead" who suffered in the flesh to reconcile us to the Father (Col. 2:8-10). Near the close of the first century, Cerinthus, the first known Gnostic by name, taught at Ephesus that the heavenly Christ descended upon the human Jesus at His baptism, remained upon Him during His earthly life, and ascended at Jesus' death back to the spiritual world. In effect this made Jesus and Christ two different persons. The apostle John wrote against such ideas in his First Epistle. The Gnostics made it necessary for the Church to present a Christian view of God and the world, and it was quick and decisive in its condemnation of those who deny either the humanity or the deity of Christ. On the positive side, Gnosticism gave indirectly a powerful impetus to the shaping of the NT canon and the earliest creeds of the Church, because the Church in opposing the heresy was compelled to define Christian truth. Gnosticism was also heretical in its doctrine of sin. Matter was essentially evil; only pure spirit was sinless. This partially explains the Gnostic hostility to a true incarnation: A Savior in a material body would necessarily be sinful. The body thus was inherently sinful, while the spirit could never be contaminated. Hence a moral dichotomy was created in which a religious person could maintain his holiness while grovelling in fleshly indulgence. This encouraged libertinism, since what the body did was of no ultimate moral consequence. On the other hand, in some Gnostics the positing of sin in the body drove them to excessive asceticism and masochism. Gnosticism has frequently appeared in the church through its history. The teaching was revived in the 3rd century and again in the Pau-lician heresy of the 12th century. Traces may be seen in the 19th and 20th centuries in any system which refuses to accept the personal, Triune God of orthodox Christianity, or which denies the Virgin Birth, an objective Atonement, the resurrection of Christ, or which denies the possibility of cleansing from sin while in the body. In the late 1940s were found, in a cemetery in Upper Egypt, 43 different Gnostic writings in the Coptic language. The Egyptian government was not altogether cooperative with scholars; but finally, by the early 1970s, all these writings got translated and commented upon. These are the only extant writings of the Gnostics. Until the present time, we had to depend almost entirely upon the attacks upon the Gnostics by the Fathers (e.g., Irenaeus' Against Heresies) to learn what Gnosticism was like. With these many Gnostic writings in hand (The Gospel of Thomas; The Gospel of Truth, etc.) we can see that the Fathers were generally correct in the way they described Gnosticism. 236 GOD—GOD AS SUBJECT See docetism, heresy, knowledge. For Further Reading: Gundry, A Survey of the New Testament, 37, 57, 307-10, 323, 358-59; Purkiser, ed., Exploring Our Christian Faith, 172-73; Rutherford, "Gnosticism," ISBE, 2:1240-48; Qualben, A History of the Christian Church, 74-79. wayne E. caldwell GOD. The concept of God is one of the crucial elements in any theological system. All else is colored by that definition. The word theology in basic derivation means a study of God. The Bible is, in fact, a continuous unfolding of the implications of the concept of God. The opening words of the Bible are: "In the beginning God . . ." The biblical doctrine of God begins with an understanding of God as Creator. The opening pages portray God as the Initiator and Source of all things. His creative activity rules out many other approaches to basic definition. That God is a Person who knows, feels, and acts, is everywhere assumed in the Scriptures. The biblical doctrine, however, does not reflect a God who has abandoned His creation upon its completion; any concept of Deism is ruled out. He is Sustainer and Guide of the whole process from creation to consummation. Paul writes, "Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things" (Rom. 11:36). The God of the Bible is also revealed to man as the God and Lord of history. Again and again the biblical writers acknowledge the sovereignty and Lordship of God over all of the nations of the world. The basic faith that God would work together the exigencies of history and accomplish His goals through a Messiah is a profound expression of the Lordship of God over nations. God's sovereignty is exercised in the election of Israel to special covenantal relationships. Israel understood God in redemptive terms. His covenant love led Him to intervene for His people to redeem and restore and guide them. Again and again He is called the Redeemer of Israel. Israel also understood the essential holiness of the nature of God. The requirements of God's holiness formed the basis for the whole sacrificial system of the people of Israel. This system reflected a basic understanding of God's transcendence, unapproachableness, and utter purity. He is frequently called "The Holy One of Israel." The justice of God and the wrath of God are closely related. The sovereign God of history is not a vindictive tyrant, but One whose reliability and fidelity are unquestioned. Even His love flows from His justice and righteousness. Mercy and grace are dependable precisely because He is just and holy. The NT is harmonious with the OT in its understanding of God. The primary difference is the definitive revelation of the essential nature of God made visible in Christ. Paul affirms that "in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Col. 2:9, nasb), and the writer to the Hebrews maintains that Christ "bears the very stamp of his nature" (Heb. 1:3, rsv). The exclusive nature of God, expressed under the terms of sovereignty in the OT, is in the NT revealed in the exclusive nature of the salvation available through Christ. The redemptive nature of God is underlined by the Cross and the Resurrection. He is the Father-King, who seeks relationship with His created beings through the atonement of Calvary (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19). The Gospels reveal the sovereignty of God through the understanding of the kingdom of God. The Kingdom inaugurated in the person and work of Christ is moving toward the final consummation designed by God. The obedient and responsive citizens who have found salvation through Christ will share in the final victory. The history of Israel and the faith expressed in the Early Church underlines repeatedly the understanding of God's eternality and complete sovereignty. Revelation, the last book of the NT, reaffirms in vivid language the faith that God will accomplish His purpose despite all opposition. Paul's delineation of life after death guaranteed in the power of God operating through the resurrection of Christ is an expression of the same faith. It cannot be overstated that the concept of God is the crucial element in any theological system. Yet when all material about God is gathered, there is still an element of mystery that is unfathomable. The revelation of God to Moses through the title "I AM THAT I AM" (Exod. 3:14) expresses this combination of revelation and mystery. See theism, deism, pantheism, attributes (divine), personality of god, moral attributes of god, trinity (the holy), god as subject.
GODLINESS—GOOD, THE GOOD, GOODNESS 237
maris inquiry (as in natural or philosophical theology), but can be known only as He the Subject reveals himself, and becomes a datum of consciousness in maris own subjectivity. This was the sense of God as Subject implicit in Pascal and explicit in Kierkegaard, Brunner, and Barth. Traditionally, however, theologians have approached God's subjectivity objectively, i.e., by reason and Scripture. Thomas Aquinas held that we can know that God is and that He is His own essence but that we cannot know what His essence is. Thomas went on to assert that God is not body, not material, not compound; that He is perfect, good, intelligent; that He knows things other than himself, including other things that exist; that He is volitional and Creator; and that He is providential. Much earlier, Augustine of Hippo had held that God is both ultimate reality (an idea he derived from his earlier philosophical education) and a personality in contact with human beings (which he derived from his study of earlier Christian writings and from his own conversion experience). Thus God is an "infinite personality." Despite the fact that this concept is very difficult for us to grasp—we have no experience of infinity on the one hand, and personality seems so anthropomorphic on the other—the orthodox church has followed what Augustine taught as the implied teaching of the Scripture. Wiley speaks of the personality of God as possessing "self-consciousness" without "sen-tiency" or "development"; He is ever self-conscious, self-contemplating, self-knowing, and self-communing. In reply to those who contend that personality implies finiteness, Wiley, quoting Lotze, says that finiteness, although implying a limitation of personality, is not an essential quality of personality. Nor is God's personality limited by a created world of existence apart from himself. Since God created the world and gave it the position which it holds, any limitation which it may provide would be at most a self-limitation. With respect to the distinction of powers within the Godhead, Wiley admits that personal powers may correspond to certain objective distinctions in God, but it is His whole being that knows and feels and wills, and this in such a manner that their exercise does not break the absolute unity of His being. See god, revelation (natural. special), natural theology, neoorthodoxy existential (existentialism). For Further Reading: Ramm, A Handbook of Contemporary Theology, 54; Brown, Subject and Object in Modern Theology; Wiley, CT, 1:290-99.
Basically, godliness means "godlikeness," or "toward God," and goes beyond what constitutes formal religion or even Christian morality. Godliness derives from a vital union with the righteous God himself through the indwelling presence and enabling of the Holy Spirit in the Christian's life. Godliness implies a right attitude toward both God and man, with commensurate Christian conduct. In Acts 3:12 eusebeia is usually translated "piety," though the KJV renders it "holiness." The meaning is approximately the same. The objective eusebes is ascribed to Cornelius in Acts 10:2, which answers well to the use of eusebeia in the NT, and incidentally speaks favorably for Cornelius' prior conversion experience. The Greek term theosebeia, "God-righteousness," occurs but once in the NT (1 Tim. 2:10), and forms the basis of the meaning of human godliness, or "righteousness like God" (cf. Matt. 5:48). This is the believer's righteousness relative to God's absolute righteousness. Godliness is the aim of prayer for and thanksgiving for political rulers (1 Tim. 2:2); it is the revealed mystery of God in the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ (3:16); and it is enjoined for the accomplishment of a disciplined life here and now, and the attainment of eternal life hereafter (4:7-8). True godliness is the Christian's greatest security against a professed but false godliness motivated by selfishness that leads to doctrinal and practical corruption of the Christian faith and life (6:3, 5-6, 11). Paul is God's designated apostle for the instruction in godliness of the elect (Titus 1:1). God's power is granted through a true knowledge of himself for everything necessary to a life of godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), while self-control and perseverance lead to godliness (v. 6); and godliness is productive of brotherly kindness and Christian love (v. 7). Finally, holy conduct and godliness are the Christian's security in the final events of biblical eschatology. See christlikeness. holiness, piety. For Further Reading: ISBE, 2:1270; 7DB, I-J:436; Baiter's DT, 248; ZPEB, 2:767.
happiness. Thus in calling anything good, we are making an assertion about its value to some conscious being. The concept belongs to the field of ethics. Whenever we speak of "good" or "goodness," we need to make clear the sense in which we use the terms. Cruden's Concordance lists 14 different ways that good is used in the Bible. The following are illustrative: (a) that which is honest and morally right, "Depart from evil, and do good" (Ps. 34:14); (b) that which is according to the Creator's plan, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31); (c) that which is right and commendable, "The woman ... hath wrought a good work upon me" (Matt. 26:10); (d) that which is lawful to be used, "Every creature of God is good" (1 Tim. 4:4); (e) all that comes from God, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father" (Jas. 1:17). For the humanist these values come from man's own estimates. Something is good if I like it, or if most human beings like it. Christian theology would not stop here. For a Christian, goodness is determined by standards which God has established and made known to us. Christian theology holds that the goodness that God requires of me, made possible throhgh grace, brings happiness to me. Aristotle taught that happiness was "activity in accordance with human nature." In contrast, Christian faith asserts that happiness is activity in accordance with God's good plan for human nature, as redeemed through Christ. Here is the difference between a purely subjective criterion and an objective standard. The Christian believes that following God's plan brings life's greatest happiness—usually now, and certainly in the long run. But even if I doubt this truth, God's will is still good. Goodness thus becomes not just what I want but what I ought to want. The good has objective character. It is praiseworthy and valuable because it conforms to the will of God that is built into the moral order of the universe. Ethicists often speak of intrinsic good and instrumental good. An intrinsic value is something that is good for its own sake, e.g., honesty or health. An instrumental value is good because it enables me to gain some other good, e.g., I value money because it enables me to purchase food and shelter. Jesus recognized this difference between instrumental, earthly values and intrinsic, eternal good when He counselled, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth ... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt" (Matt. 6:19-20). See ETHICS, ETHICAL RELATIVISM, CHRISTIAN ETHICS, HUMANISM, VALUES. EVIL, AXIOLOGY. For Further Reading: ISBE, 2:1277-79; Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 3-4:367-70. A. F. HARPER GOOD WORKS. Biblically, good works are deeds of religious devotion, benevolence, and practical righteousness which are approved by God. That such works are mandatory is clearly taught by both Jesus and Paul (Matt. 5:16; 25:35 ff; Titus 3:8). And James declares that without visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction there is no "pure religion" (Jas. 1:27). Yet Jesus and the apostles equally repudiate good works as a means of earning or meriting salvation (Luke 18:9 ff). "Not of works," writes Paul, "lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:9). He follows at once, however, with the declaration: "created in Christ Jesus unto good works." The NT teaching is, not by good works are we saved, but fo good works. Furthermore, works which relate to repentance are seen, while not as a basis of merit, nevertheless as necessary for the demonstration of sincerity (Luke 3:8-14; 2 Cor. 7:10-11). In this sense they may be said to be conditional to salvation without identifying them as a meritorious means to salvation. It was at this point that Wesley differed sharply with the Moravians when, in developing their "stillness" theology, they denigrated the importance of any works whatsoever as aids to the full assurance of faith, even Communion and reading the Bible. Rather, taught Wesley, good works should be practiced until faith is perfected, then continued as the outflowing of faith. Such works, says Wiley, "are pleasing to God, (1) because they are performed according to His will; (2) because they are wrought through the assistance of divine grace, and (3) because they are done for the glory of God" (Wiley, CT, 2:374). The Scriptures perceive good works as springing from divine love implanted in the believer's soul and as the outworking of that love in service to God and man. Works therefore are an evidence of heart purity (Titus 2:14) and are to be a criterion both in rewards and final judgment (1 Cor. 3:14; Rev. 20:12 ff; 22:12). See FAITH, WORK (WORKS). For Further Reading: The Works of John Fletcher, 1:53-55, 185, et al.; Manschreck, A History of Chris- tianity in the World, 294; Ragsdale, The Theology of John Wesley. RICHARD S. TAYLOR GOSPEL—GOVERNMENTAL THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT 239
GOSPEL. The word "gospel" (Gr. euangelion) is somewhat enigmatic. Literally, of course, it means "Good News." Yet its use among early Christian evangelists is so diverse, so multi-faceted, that one has difficulty describing all that the Good News is. Perhaps the word "gospel" served a more symbolic function for the early Christians who used it: the "gospel" embraced the whole Christian message—in all its many written and preached forms—of what God did for the world through His Son, Jesus from Nazareth. It seems reasonable to suggest that "gospel" was selected for its symbolic task because of what it had come to mean in later Hellenistic Greek and in the Greek OT (Septuagint) which informed early Christianity. Euangelion had come to be attached to various announcements of victory or of success. A "gospel" was the public notification that someone had won a battle or had fulfilled that which had previously been hoped for. Indeed, this meaning lies behind two very important passages in Isaiah which the Church had associated with her Lord Jesus. In Isa. 40:9 and 52:7 (cf. Acts 10:36; Rom. 10:15; 2 Cor. 5:20; Eph. 2:17; 6:15), the prophet promises that God's Messiah would come and announce God's victory over His foes and so His people's liberation from them. This Messianic announcement of God's victory is called by Isaiah, "gospel." Unquestionably, the early Christians read these Isaianic passages in light of what Jesus had done: Jesus was for them the fulfillment and embodiment of Isaiah's promised "gospel." Thus, the gospel is first of all the good news of victory. The gospel announces that sin has been defeated, that death has been conquered, and that the rulers of the world which oppose God's purposes for the world are on the run. The gospel is the good news of God (1 Thess. 2:2, 8-9; Rom. 1:16-17). It is God who is victorious over His foes, and that news is good not only because God is good but because God intends that His victory over sin, death, and the evil powers will usher in His kingdom where all that is good can be found. The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1, 14; 2 Cor. 4:4; 9:13; 10:14). As God's Messiah, Jesus came into the world to announce God's victory. Through His dying and rising, He not only testified to God's love and concern for the world (John 3:16), but He effected the reconciliation of the world to God (2 Cor. 5:11-21). Further, it is through Jesus' obedient death and His exalted resurrection that God actually defeats His foes and establishes His kingdom on earth. In all of its rich diversity, therefore, the Christian gospel proclaims Jesus as Lord as its unifying theme because it is Jesus who has revealed God's gospel to humankind. The gospel is good news for the whole world. The public who hears the Messiah's announcement of God's victory is the whole world. Indeed, God's victory is for the world, because it is through faith in the gospel that the world enters into the eternal goodness of God's kingdom (Mark 1:15). Certainly, the world can freely reject the gospel (1 Peter 4:17); however, to do so is to miss out on all that God desires for the world and promises the world in Christ. To reject the gospel is to miss out on immortality (2 Tim. 1:10), peace (Eph. 6:15), and life itself (John 2—6). The gospel is good news for the Church. The heart of the Church's task in the world is to proclaim the gospel to others (Rom. 15:29; 1 Cor. 9:14-18; 2 Cor. 10:14; 11:7; Gal. 2:2), and she is to risk everything in serving her God in that way so that the gospel can break into the lost world with transforming power (Heb. 4:2). See evangelism, church, kerygma, mission (missions, missiology). Directory: sites -> default -> files -> publications publications -> Table of Content forward introduction publications -> Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Wireless Technologies Georgia Institute of Technology publications -> Housing Counseling Research in Chicago publications -> Communicating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Audiences publications -> New Brunswick Info Sheet on First Nations Child Welfare publications -> Paap’s Electronic Newsletter 14 November 2008 Volume 11 Number 22 towards ‘smart’ subsidies in agriculture: lessons from recent experience in malawi publications -> Information support of pedagogical process for the children experiencing difficulties with acquisition of preschool educational programs publications -> Asus’ ZenFone ar has Google’s augmentted and virtual reality baked in — but not combined publications -> School Readiness and Early Grade Success Consultation Memo Atlanta, ga Download 6.66 Mb. Share with your friends:
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