Set 5: Doctrine of God

OT to NT

TH01

Introduction to TheologySpring Term 2009

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

The Emergence of Monotheism

• Conflict? Our one God is the best?• Integration? Our one God integrates all

powers of history and nature in one?• Evidence of both, but clearly the second

rises as the overall tendency of Hebrew faith and ritual (viz. agricultural festivals)

Crisis of Destruction of Israel and Exile: Is God Defeated?

• God acts in history to punish:

Isaiah 10:5

Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger,the staff of my fury!

• Isaiah 10: 24 Therefore thus says the Lord, the LORD of hosts: "O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they smite with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.

• 25 For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. 26 And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a scourge, as when he smote Mid'ian at the rock of Oreb; and his rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. 27 And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck."

Summary of Doctrine of God in Judaism at around the Beginning of the Common Era

• God is creator of everything and the source of all creaturely powers (or gods)

• God is Lord of history, an active force of liberation or salvation in history

• Our God is the universal God, who uses other gods (linked with a and b); therefore “above,” distant, glorious

• Nevertheless, God is “here,” tender, merciful, loving, even vulnerable

Continuity OT to NT

“The God of Jesus is none other than the God of Jewish faith, according to the witness of the OT. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…. the God whom Israel confesses in the shema of Deut. 6:4 (Mark 12:29)”

W. Pannenberg, ST vol.I, 260

Deut 6: 4-5: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

Mark 12:29:-30: Jesus answered, "The first is, `Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'"

At the same time…a big difference

• The difference is centered on the relationship between “God” and Jesus Christ–On the one hand…this is a uniquely

intimate relationship bordering on identity

–On the other hand, there is a profoundly disturbing distinction bordering on opposition

Oneness and Otherness• Unity and Distinction: one and yet distinguishable• Same and yet Different• Close and yet Opposed

• First, look at unity, then distinction• Then ask: how to hold them together