Question and discussion on God's personality

[DRDS]

Hey everyone, I was wanting to discuss God's personality. The main reason being, regardless of the fact that I'm a follower and have studied the Bible and apologetics and other things regarding the God of the Bible I'm still deeply wondering what God's demeanor and personality will be like when we get to meet Him in person after this life.

And it still makes good sense to ask this since we all know other fellow believers some who have great personalities, the ones who act happy, fun, kind, loving, and so on where as we also know believers who are jerks. The kind whom I know who act that way are the proud,legalistic, prudish, hateful, arrogant and so on.

And both types of believers believe the same things, both types believe in the same God, the same morals, the same plan of salvation by faith, but still have different personalities, demeanor or flavors if you will.

My question is, knowing what I just listed, what well God mostly resemble? Will he be more of the happy and fun type of a being or will He be more of the legalistic and prudish type? I mean, will His personality be more like a William Lane Craig or a Hugh Ross or be more like a Fred Phelps or a John Hagee?

As you can tell I certainly hope that He will be more of the former than the latter but to be honest I don't know. I mean I know certain things about God, that He is just, loving, all powerful and all knowing. I know that He plans on doing away with evil soon and plans on running His own kingdom for eternity but what is His personality and demeanor like?

Is it something I won't be able to know until this life is over or do you think I can somehow grasp it with further Bible study or other things? Anyways, thank you all for your time.

[PaulSacramento]

The only way to know God's personality is through Christ.
We know about God's temperament and such via the OT books, but we need to realize that it was Christ that was there with Abe and with Moses, it was the Word of God that spoke to them, they never saw The Father, the only ever saw The Son.
And in Christ we get the full picture of God in all his glory.
Love, a pure, intense, unadulterated, unblemished love.
I see Him having a great sense of humour too, why? if there is one thing that makes humans so different than other animals, its our ability to laugh and joke and enjoy laughing and joking.
I see Him as being a reflection of Us at times, to help us understand better.
I see Him as being compassion personified.

[Sam1995]

And it still makes good sense to ask this since we all know other fellow believers some who have great personalities, the ones who act happy, fun, kind, loving, and so on where as we also know believers who are jerks. The kind whom I know who act that way are the proud,legalistic, prudish, hateful, arrogant and so on.

[But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 NIV]

Pardon the assumption, but would it not be a possibility to argue that the people who have great personalities are those who are filled with the Holy Spirit and thus are receiving the fruits of the sprit, and those who appear to have a personality which has a negative effect on both themselves and others are those who aren't filled with the Holy Spirit at that time? I don't like to make any assumptions because I fully understand that the large majority of us have both our good days and our bad days. Of course there are people who are genuinely more caring/loving/etc than others, but we all have good and bad days in the sense that sometimes when we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, it shows to the people around us because of the way that we act.

As for your question -

My question is, knowing what I just listed, what well God mostly resemble? Will he be more of the happy and fun type of a being or will He be more of the legalistic and prudish type? I mean, will His personality be more like a William Lane Craig or a Hugh Ross or be more like a Fred Phelps or a John Hagee?

I laughed at the bit about comparing God's personality to WLC or Fred Phelps lol, that was good! As PaulSacramento said, we can only get to really know the personality of God through Christ, the Bible does make many references to God's character and how we can come to know more about many of God's qualities such as:

His eternality
His omnipotence [all powerful]
His omniscience [all knowing]
His omnibenevolence [all loving]
His compassion
His grace
His forgiveness

The list could go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, but I was getting bored listing things . God's character is revealed to us in both the OT and the NT, what I would say it is important to be weary of however is getting God's character mixed up, as I think there are aspects to God's character which appear slightly differently in the NT than they do in the OT, such as forgiveness. [if you want me to give some examples of this, ask me and I shall respond ]

know that He plans on doing away with evil soon and plans on running His own kingdom for eternity but what is His personality and demeanor like?

Personally, this is going to look like I'm completely stealing all of which PaulSacramento said [probably a good thing because we both believe in the same God ]

I think that He will have a love and compassion for us beyond our mere human understanding. That God will show us how deep his unconditional love and grace are when we come before Him. As PS said - I too think He will be the true meaning of humour and joy, all we have to do is look at the original design of the garden of eden, beautiful fruit, cool trees, a river with gold in it, no shame in nudity, and then other things such as laughter, jokes, sex [within the right context] and general joy all give us the idea that God is humerous and is the true meaning of joy. I think that, through Jesus we get an idea of the approval that God will show towards us when we eventually come before Him, as an example of this - this verse totally blows my mind when I read it!

[For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. - Hebrews 10:14 NIV]

I mean.......wow....

Anyway, I pray that God will continue to reveal His character to you more and more both through His word and through revelation via the Holy Spirit, God bless my friend!

SB

[DRDS]

Thank you Sam and Paul, these are some very good and encouraging words. I certainly need them right now. Bottom line, I hope God certainly isn't like many of His followers or so called followers that I have met over the years. Many of them could even make Fred Phelps and so on look like saints.

[PaulSacramento]

Thank you Sam and Paul, these are some very good and encouraging words. I certainly need them right now. Bottom line, I hope God certainly isn't like many of His followers or so called followers that I have met over the years. Many of them could even make Fred Phelps and so on look like saints.

We always have to start with a premiss I think and mine is that IF God is GOD then He is a superiour being in all the sense of the word, but what does that mean?
We have to start form somewhere, some point of refernce and the only one for us as humans is, will, humanity.
So, from there we look and see what qualities are best and most productive in humans?
Love, compassion, understanding, respect for life, a sense of justice, all those things that we find "noble" and the best qualities in Man.
So,, God, if He is GOD, will be the highest conceivable level of those qualities.
In short, if God is GOD then He is all that is good and just and correct.

[Icthus]

While I think, being a Christian and all, that God is great, I think it would be a mistake to attribute a human-like personality to him. He is so far beyond us, that the way we understand everything (our process of thinking, our emotions, etc.) just can't compare in any way to him. I don't think that a personalist view of God that sets him up as a human-like being (except with infinite power, knowledge, goodness, etc. and not material) is the right way to think about him. I suppose I'm more of an Aristotelian when it comes to God's nature, but I do think that a personalist approach is good when trying to make analogies.

[PaulSacramento]

While I think, being a Christian and all, that God is great, I think it would be a mistake to attribute a human-like personality to him. He is so far beyond us, that the way we understand everything (our process of thinking, our emotions, etc.) just can't compare in any way to him. I don't think that a personalist view of God that sets him up as a human-like being (except with infinite power, knowledge, goodness, etc. and not material) is the right way to think about him. I suppose I'm more of an Aristotelian when it comes to God's nature, but I do think that a personalist approach is good when trying to make analogies.

We are made in His image, as such, we "share" certain qualities.
They are obviously NOT physical ones and to "negate" God attributes we know to be good is to put humans above God.

[DRDS]

But again bottom line, I hope God isn't in any way like Fred Phelps. I mean, what will we do if He happens to be like Fred Phelps and considers things like legalism, prudeness, self-righteousness, anger and all the other things that make up Fred Phelps to be good things. And most of us just may just not see that due to our sinfulness currently?

Because for some reason I have met way more believers who act like this than act otherwise and I"m nervous that God is just like them just a infinitely more so than them especially in these areas. Again I really hope He isn't and that He doesn't hold such things to be good. But with the way many believers at least in my area act it makes me wonder.

Again I hope He's not like that.

[bippy123]

DRDS, just look at how Jesus cares for and loves all of us. Jesus came down from his throne in heaven and yet lived such a perfect life in humility. Imagine God coming down to earth and washing the feet of another. Think about how amazing that is by itself. Imagine being crucified by your creations and still loving them and asking the father to forgive them.

Bro, there will always be self righteous folks, but don't let it deter you from our goal on this earth and that is our lord and Savior. That's the kind of love I hunger to meet face to face in heaven:)

[PaulSacramento]

It is important to understand that in Christ, God is revealed.
No one has ever seen God, NO ONE, only the Son has made Him Known.
So, if Christ is all the God is, how was Christ?
He loved us so much that He died for us.
Enough said eh?

[DRDS]

Nicely said Bippy and Paul, I hope you all are right, this the view of God I WANT to have, it's all about getting rid of any doubt or aggravation that I have regarding this.

[DRDS]

Nicely said Bippy and Paul, I hope you all are right, this the view of God I WANT to have, it's all about getting rid of any doubt or aggravation that I have regarding this.

[neo-x]

This is also a version of the personality of God, though not a very popular one.

What is God? Who is he? Is he someone/something who is as he is described in the scriptures or is he your own personal Santa?

If its the latter than you will likely end up as an atheist. Because unlike Santa, God is not obliged to keep up with our wishlists. I am afraid for many Christians and atheists, God is not who he is really is, he is just another Santa. Anyone who has read the Bible with some scholarship to understand it would know that God lets the bad happen, that God always does not save you. He won’t answer your prayers and he will not be there with you. That there are times, when God will plainly abandon you and let you down. He abandoned his own son on the cross. You will have every reason to believe that God is not good and he is not faithful.

I am afraid, this is a version of God which is not fairly popular, not within Christianity either. Nonetheless this is the most accurate version according to the scriptures, history and personal experience. We have had preached, especially in the west, not a God as the scriptures tell us but a mythical Santa who is all loving and all caring and needs our prayers to sustain himself, much like the gods on mount Olympus.

You can read the full article here:
http://johnadavid.wordpress.com/2012/11 ... nta-claus/

[PaulSacramento]

This is also a version of the personality of God, though not a very popular one.

What is God? Who is he? Is he someone/something who is as he is described in the scriptures or is he your own personal Santa?

If its the latter than you will likely end up as an atheist. Because unlike Santa, God is not obliged to keep up with our wishlists. I am afraid for many Christians and atheists, God is not who he is really is, he is just another Santa. Anyone who has read the Bible with some scholarship to understand it would know that God lets the bad happen, that God always does not save you. He won’t answer your prayers and he will not be there with you. That there are times, when God will plainly abandon you and let you down. He abandoned his own son on the cross. You will have every reason to believe that God is not good and he is not faithful.

I am afraid, this is a version of God which is not fairly popular, not within Christianity either. Nonetheless this is the most accurate version according to the scriptures, history and personal experience. We have had preached, especially in the west, not a God as the scriptures tell us but a mythical Santa who is all loving and all caring and needs our prayers to sustain himself, much like the gods on mount Olympus.

You can read the full article here:
http://johnadavid.wordpress.com/2012/11 ... nta-claus/

God never abandoned Christ on the cross, that is a misunderstanding of "my God why have you foresaken me".
God doesn't LET bad things happen, He doesn't let us down or abandon Us, if He did He would be inferior to a human father that does all he can for his children, a human father that is there for his kids and never abandons his children.