God: Discover His Character

Rating:
Summary: Prepare to Meet God
Review: This excellent book brought me into a deeper and more intimate relationship with the Lord as it probed qualities of God's character that we don't always think about. I have used parts of this book's approach to improve my prayer and meditation life. This may be the best spiritual reading I've experienced in several years.

Rating:
Summary: Our Faithful God is Omni-able and Omni-willing!
Review: Without doubt, next only to Billy Graham, Bill Bright is the senior evangelical Christian statesman of our time. Anything he relates about his 50+ year walk of faith in Christ resonates with authenticity and stimulates life change in all who encounter his sold-out discipleship.(See Campus Crusade and Jesus Film websites for truly global impact of the influence of this one obedient servant of the Lord Jesus). This book is a welcome addition to re-establish the wonderful character of God from a Biblical perpective in the minds/hearts of this and future generations. The modern,minority movement to challenge the historical, evangelical understanding of God's character/attributes needs this bracing reminder of just Who this Majestic God really is. He is there; He has not changed; He is not silent. He will not countenance theological speculators, like Job's friends, to pontificate 'free-will/openness theism' theories. "Your friends have not spoken of Me what is right", God warned (Job 42:7). In fact, a re-reading of Job 36-41 along with this volume will do wonders to add the proper magnification factor to our day and age which makes a deity too small while making the human too big, recreating a god in its image. True logosophy (Wisdom of the Written/Incarnate Word) consists of what may be called Omnitheism - allowing God to be all Scripture says He is without finite, logical, mortal constraints. Biblical Theism - the Whole, Scripturally revealed Triune God Who is All in All, greater than the mere sum of His attributes, titles, names, character traits; Alpha and Omega, I AM that I AM. The God of All Possibles and All Impossible within scriptural bounds. What Omnitheism is NOT: pantheism (God is all, all is God; one-to-one Creator to creature correlation); NOT panentheism (God is in all, all is in God; one-to-one extension of identity/being or reality; Creator contained within the creation); NOT process theism (God is evolving, becoming all He can be - in process); NOT openness/free-will theism (God is all He can logically, rationally, finitely-reasoned,philosophically , possibly be; subject to, not sovereign over, contingencies of created free will, a deity who changes when it is virtuous to change and can add to his knowledge base what cannot be known about future free events, etc.) All of these pseudo-theisms limit God and His attributes and character. Deity is reduced to multi-present, penultimate, finite, quasi-eternal, almost omniscient. This is what happens when reason is exalted in formulation of Control Beliefs over Scripture; exegesis unwittingly becomes eisegesis, and thus a distorted deity emerges. Biblical omnitheism describes God as All He truly is and is able to be finitely described to limited human understanding. We are bound by the Scriptural dictate, "Do not go beyond what is written". What is genuine mystery must remain mystery. Omnitheism is NOT a God Who is everything/anything anyone can ascribe to Him or imagine Him to conceivably be. It's allowing Scripture to speak for Him and reveal just Who He is. After all, the Bible is itself a limited, partial, excerptive portrayal of an Unlimited, Complete, Transcriptive God. While He retains the right to transcend or exceed Biblical description, we assume not in any internally-contradictory, irrational, absurd,unGodlike way inconsistent with His Personhood, Character and what limited Biblical witness we possess. This excellent book belongs in the hands of every thoughtful person, Christian or not. See also Norman Geisler's Creating God in Man's Image; Millard Erickson's God the Father Almighty; Paul Helm's Eternal God; C.S.Lewis Mere Christianity to get a broader, deeper perspective of our Wonderful God!

Rating:
Summary: Our Faithful God is Omni-able and Omni-willing!
Review: Without doubt, next only to Billy Graham, Bill Bright is the senior evangelical Christian statesman of our time. Anything he relates about his 50+ year walk of faith in Christ resonates with authenticity and stimulates life change in all who encounter his sold-out discipleship.(See Campus Crusade and Jesus Film websites for truly global impact of the influence of this one obedient servant of the Lord Jesus). This book is a welcome addition to re-establish the wonderful character of God from a Biblical perpective in the minds/hearts of this and future generations. The modern,minority movement to challenge the historical, evangelical understanding of God's character/attributes needs this bracing reminder of just Who this Majestic God really is. He is there; He has not changed; He is not silent. He will not countenance theological speculators, like Job's friends, to pontificate 'free-will/openness theism' theories. "Your friends have not spoken of Me what is right", God warned (Job 42:7). In fact, a re-reading of Job 36-41 along with this volume will do wonders to add the proper magnification factor to our day and age which makes a deity too small while making the human too big, recreating a god in its image. True logosophy (Wisdom of the Written/Incarnate Word) consists of what may be called Omnitheism - allowing God to be all Scripture says He is without finite, logical, mortal constraints. Biblical Theism - the Whole, Scripturally revealed Triune God Who is All in All, greater than the mere sum of His attributes, titles, names, character traits; Alpha and Omega, I AM that I AM. The God of All Possibles and All Impossible within scriptural bounds. What Omnitheism is NOT: pantheism (God is all, all is God; one-to-one Creator to creature correlation); NOT panentheism (God is in all, all is in God; one-to-one extension of identity/being or reality; Creator contained within the creation); NOT process theism (God is evolving, becoming all He can be - in process); NOT openness/free-will theism (God is all He can logically, rationally, finitely-reasoned,philosophically , possibly be; subject to, not sovereign over, contingencies of created free will, a deity who changes when it is virtuous to change and can add to his knowledge base what cannot be known about future free events, etc.) All of these pseudo-theisms limit God and His attributes and character. Deity is reduced to multi-present, penultimate, finite, quasi-eternal, almost omniscient. This is what happens when reason is exalted in formulation of Control Beliefs over Scripture; exegesis unwittingly becomes eisegesis, and thus a distorted deity emerges. Biblical omnitheism describes God as All He truly is and is able to be finitely described to limited human understanding. We are bound by the Scriptural dictate, "Do not go beyond what is written". What is genuine mystery must remain mystery. Omnitheism is NOT a God Who is everything/anything anyone can ascribe to Him or imagine Him to conceivably be. It's allowing Scripture to speak for Him and reveal just Who He is. After all, the Bible is itself a limited, partial, excerptive portrayal of an Unlimited, Complete, Transcriptive God. While He retains the right to transcend or exceed Biblical description, we assume not in any internally-contradictory, irrational, absurd,unGodlike way inconsistent with His Personhood, Character and what limited Biblical witness we possess. This excellent book belongs in the hands of every thoughtful person, Christian or not. See also Norman Geisler's Creating God in Man's Image; Millard Erickson's God the Father Almighty; Paul Helm's Eternal God; C.S.Lewis Mere Christianity to get a broader, deeper perspective of our Wonderful God!