Muslims and Justin's Teaching

Justin is doing a fantastic job. For those of you there, I hope you're learning. I hope at least some of you are looking up more on the verses listed in your spare time.

Know that even though it may seem that Justin talked about a lot of different aspects of theology, he actually barely scratched the surface. I think most of you learned some aspects of God's character you maybe didn't know before last night. And even though he mentioned many aspects, let me tell you a few he didn't even tough on (for the sake of time and simplicity - not because he forgot or didn't know). Goodness, Forbearance (patience or long-suffering), Mercy, Grace, Kindness to name a few.

And within each character of God that he gave, so much more could be said. One example - on Holiness. When we speak of God's holiness, as Justin said, we are speaking of him being separate from sin (negative side) and also pure (postive side). That's only a small aspect of holiness. Two other simple points to add (though there is so much more to add) to the topic of God's holiness.

1. The root defintion has to do with being set apart. And a key aspect of God being holy is that He is absolutely other - absolutely not like us - His "otherness". We cannot theologically say that God is "so" good, or "so" loving. That has the idea that his goodness is just ours times a lot or that his love is just a lot bigger than ours. But in actuality, his love is wholly other than ours (an example of that. When Tim loves person B, and person B refuses to love Tim, Tim hurts - because Tim has lost something; When God loves person B, and person B refuses to love God, God hurts - but not because God has lost something, but because person B has lost something; again - this is a small example of God's otherness relating to His love.

2. When we speak of God being holy - and this highly relates to the first point - His holiness relates to his attributes. His love is a holy love. His grace is a holy grace. His justice is a holy justice.

These two points overlap and I probably moved from the first point to the second in my first point. But - for now, it's good enough for me.

I hope you take time to look through some references and really think about how great is our God. Look up verses. Share with others what you are learning. Write down questions (even on here). Talk to me - or talk to Justin. Talk to your friends.