What does it mean for God to be a person?
score:4
If we are strict with our terminology, God is not a person. God is an infinitely-perfect being. But God is a personal being:
When we say that God is a personal being we mean that He is intelligent and free and distinct from the created universe. Personality as such expresses perfection, and if human personality as such connotes imperfection, it must be remembered that, as in the case of similar predicates, this connotation is excluded when we attribute personality to God. It is principally by way of opposition to Pantheism that Divine personality is emphasized by the Theistic philosopher. (source)
Your concern, however, is valid:
Yet sometimes men are led by a natural tendency to think and speak of God as if He were a magnified creature — more especially a magnified man — and this is known as anthropomorphism. Thus God is said to see or hear, as if He had physical organs, or to be angry or sorry, as if subject to human passions: and this perfectly legitimate and more or less unavoidable use of metaphor is often quite unfairly alleged to prove that the strictly Infinite is unthinkable and unknowable, and that it is really a finite anthropomorphic God that men worship.
When we refer to God as a person, we mean that He is personal, not that He is a magnified human.
When speaking of God, we usually try to reserve the term "Person" to one of the three Divine Persons of the Trinity. There is one God, who is a Trinity of three Divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Son is Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man. When speaking of Jesus being a person, we say that He is a Divine Person, not a human Person, and we say that He is God, in perfect unity with the Father and the Holy Sprit.
Upvote:3
That God is referred to as a Person is, first, in contrast to the idea of some that the universe was created by some impersonal force--a force that has no personal being, but just some kind of cosmic energy. Such a creative force would have created something greater than itself--beings with Personhood--so this is not reasonable.
The idea that God is a Person refers to the how He Himself describes Himself in His Word as well. God feels, loves, and relates to His creation. As A.W. Tozer wrote:
God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may.
If God were not a Person, He could not love, as that is something only a Person can do. The doctrine of the Trinity is interesting in this aspect, because God reveals one of His attributes is love. However, if it is an attribute (and not a behavior) of God, it has to exist apart from anything else. As the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father; the Father loves the Spirit, etc. Thus, only as a Trinity can God be love from all eternity.
So, what is meant is that God is the source for the personal attributes that we as His creatures share in--that of loving, feeling, knowing, etc. In this we bear the image of God.
More post
- 📝 What is the earliest use of the phrase "the Lord's law of health" in reference to the LDS Word of Wisdom?
- 📝 Did Peter fully enter the tomb?
- 📝 According to Catholic Church, why did John the Evangelist not mention the Institution of Holy Eucharist?
- 📝 What does the 'will' of St. Paul mean?
- 📝 Does the Jerusalem Bible teach that Adam had a wife before Eve?
- 📝 When Was The Gospel of Luke Written?
- 📝 As a young Jew what would Jesus have been taught about heaven and hell?
- 📝 Does the doctrine of Sola Scriptura prohibit the use of empirical information to understand the bible?
- 📝 What is the difference between a dogma, a doctrine, an infallible statement, an ex cathedra statement, etc.?
- 📝 Prior to the burning bush event - what was Moses's knowledge of God?
- 📝 Did the Community of Christ denounce the Book of Mormon?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support a preference for second-career pastors coming disproportionately from IT?
- 📝 What color was Augustine's skin?
- 📝 Defense of ancient Enoch authorship
- 📝 How does the Catholic Church interpret Matthew 23:9 so as to normalize priests being called Father?
- 📝 Is there any equivalent of the Shivoham experience in Christianity?
- 📝 Can an act of martydom include the taking of another's life?
- 📝 Neurotheology and God
- 📝 Where can I find the source of Augustine's "Disturbers are to be rebuked" quote?
- 📝 Where did Roman Catholicism connect modern heresies with the Reformation?
- 📝 What is the distinction between a sacrament and an ordinance?
- 📝 Whom are the 'least of these' in Matthew 25:45 refering to?
- 📝 Is God of Anger or of Love?
- 📝 Why didn't Jesus write books of his teachings but charge his apostles to spread the Gospel?
- 📝 Is God accountable for all things - good AND bad?
- 📝 Does the New Testament override the Old Testament?
- 📝 When does the Pope speak ex cathedra?
- 📝 Are Followers of Christianity Allowed to Love Whomever They Choose?
- 📝 When Did Israel First Expect Deliverance from Egypt?
- 📝 Why was it so special that John the baptist was not called Zechariah?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What does it mean for God to be a person?
- 📝 What does it mean for a person to be 'Old Testament'?
- 📝 In Catholicism, what does it mean for a priest to bless an object or person?
- 📝 What does being lukewarm mean in contrast with being hot or cold for the church of Laodicea?
- 📝 What does it mean to say "Jesus died for our sins"?
- 📝 What does it mean to be an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ?
- 📝 What does it mean for the Spirit to only speak of what he hears? (trinitarian perspective)
- 📝 What does it mean when God 'hardens' a heart?
- 📝 What does it mean for a society to be moral?
- 📝 According to Calvinists, does God command the non-elect to do what is for them impossible?
- 📝 What does it mean that God is the saviour of all people, especially those who believe?
- 📝 What does it mean for the soul to be "immediately" created by God?
- 📝 What does God mean by 'us' in Genesis?
- 📝 According to Catholic Church, what does it mean to worship God in spirit and truth?
- 📝 For LDS, what does it mean that baptism is "essential" for "salvation"?
- 📝 According to Biblical Unitarians, what does it mean for Jesus to be the Son of God?
- 📝 What does it mean for a priest 'to lose faith'?
- 📝 What does it mean that Christ experience death for me?
- 📝 What does it mean for Christ to have been slain before the creation of the world?
- 📝 According to Catholicism what does it mean for every relationship in heaven to be perfect and fulfilling?
- 📝 What does D.A. Carson mean about the wrath and the love of God shown in the OT "in experience and types" and made clearer in the NT?
- 📝 What kind of worship does God look for, for Salvation?
- 📝 Why does Jesus' Resurrection mean hope for an individual and in what context?
- 📝 To the Calvinist, what does it mean that in the beginning God already has His object of wrath?
- 📝 From a Catholic perspective what does it mean for all creatures to fulfill God's will whether they know and want to or not?
- 📝 What does it mean "...blood that will be shed by many of you for the forgiveness of sins"?
- 📝 Jesus said he was like the bronze serpent, which was destroyed because it was worshipped. What does this mean for those who worship him?
- 📝 Exactly what does “to love” mean for the Catholic Church?
- 📝 According to the Young Earth Creationism, why there is still the darkness after God created the light and what does it mean Gen 1:4?
- 📝 What does it mean for the Catholic Church to be inclusive?
