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God and the Holy Trinity 1.
THERE is but one, and only one, living and true God. He is
self-existent and infinite in His being and His perfections. None
but He can comprehend or understand His essence. He is pure spirit,
invisible, and without body, parts, or the changeable feelings of men.
He alone possesses immortality, and dwells amid the light insufferably
bright to mortal men. He never changes. He is great beyond all
our conceptions, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty and infinite.
He is most holy, wise, free and absolute. All that He does is the
out-working of His changeless, righteous will, and for His own glory.
He is most loving, gracious, merciful and compassionate. He abounds
in goodness and truth. He forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.
He rewards those who seek Him diligently. But He hates sin. He will
not overlook guilt or spare the guilty, and He is perfectly just in
executing judgment. 2.
God is all-sufficient, and all life, glory, goodness and
blessedness are found in Him and in Him alone. He does not stand in
need of any of the creatures that He has made, nor does He derive any part
of His glory from them. On the contrary, He manifests His own glory
in and by them. He is the fountain-head of all being, and the
origin, channel and end of all things. Over all His creatures He is
sovereign. He uses them as He pleases, and does for them or to them
all that He wills. His sight penetrates to the heart of all things.
His knowledge is infinite and infallible. No single thing is to Him at
risk or uncertain, for He is not dependent upon created things. In
all His decisions, doings and demands He is most holy. Angels and
men owe to Him as their creator all worship, service and obedience, and
whatever else He may require at their hands. 3.
Three divine Persons constitute the Godhead-the Father, the Son (or
the Word), and the Holy Spirit. They are one in substance, in power,
and in eternity. Each is fully God, and yet the Godhead is one and
indivisible. The Father owes His being to none. He is Father
to the Son who is eternally begotten of Him. The Holy Spirit
proceeds from the Father and the Son. These Persons, one infinite and
eternal God not to be divided in being, are distinguished in Scripture by
their personal nature or in relations within the Godhead, and by the
variety of works which they undertake. Their tri-unity (that is, the
doctrine of the Trinity) is the essential basis of all our fellowship with
God, and of the comfort we derive from our dependence upon Him.
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