Hebrews Beliefs: The Essential Nature Of God

THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF GOD The author of Hebrews wrote, “…without faith it is impossible to please [God]… for he who comes to God must believe that He is…” Ergo, belief in God, would be an essential of Christianity. An atheist Christian would be a contradiction in terms much like a three sided square. Despite establishing that belief in God is required for Christianity, there are still several beliefs about God that need examination. For example, is the deity introduced in the Hebrew Scriptures as the I AM or YHWH (Ex. 3:14) exclusive to a Judeo-Christian supersession, or is it identical with the deity worshiped in other faiths, such as Islam? Three points need to be established in investigating this questions. First, it is necessary

The Mormon Church views the book of Abraham as a canonical book of Scripture, and in chapter four it recounts a six-day creation story, similar to the Genesis creation story. However, there is an alteration, every mention of God is in the plural; that is to say Gods. “… in the beginning … they, that is the Gods organized and formed the heavens and the earth.” A plurality of Gods is consistent with their teachings, through exaltation they believe they will become like their Heavenly Father. Their Prophet Joseph Smith stated in his King Follett sermon that God was once a human like us and was exalted and became a God. This teaching is also expressed by their fifth President Lorenzo Snow, “As man now is, God once was: as God now is, man may be.” Since it appears in their scriptures, is articulated by their publications, was taught by their founder and expressed by another of their presidents, it would be fair to say that it is an expressed belief of the Mormon

The absence of Biblical quotations is because interpretations of the passages would be necessary, but that is not the goal of this paper. However, the mainstream view within Christianity is a Monotheistic view of God, including a denial of the existence of other entities properly being identified as gods. In his book World Religions, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Warren Matthews cites an absolute of Christianity, is the belief in one God, with no partners or rivals. The 2nd century Church Father Irenaeus wrote that the Church received from the Apostles the belief in one God who was the creator of heaven and earth. Another Church Father, Justin Martyr wrote in agreement with Plato’s transcendent God and identified that idea as the God that Christians worship, being unbegotten and without beginning or end. These doctrinal statements also appear in the fourth century Nicene Creed. This Symbol of Faith reads, “We believe in one God… maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.” In summary, the majority of Christianity believes that there is only one God which has always existed without a starting point and is the sole creator of all