Who Or What Is God?

Perhaps a universal definition of God, be it Yahweh, Allah, Elohim, Vishnu, Buddha, Ra, Bumba, Ukko, Gilgamesh, Shiva, Izanagi, Aakuluujjusi, Odin, Jupiter, Zeus, Thor, or any of the other thousands of gods that man has worshiped over the millennia, would be a being that exists both inside and outside the natural world that we occupy. Usually God is credited with creating the universe. Usually, God is credited with omniscience—being all-knowing. Usually, God is credited with omnipresence—being everywhere at at the same time. Usually, God is credited with omnipotence—having the ability to do anything and everything.

For argument's sake since we are examining the Bible, let's limit our consideration to Yahweh. We'll refer to him as God. And we'll assign him the above characteristics along with two others: being all-loving and being just.

So God is all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful. He's also commonly considered to be all-loving and just, as in willing and able to dole out judgment and punishment when he deems fit (a critical component to the God of the Bible).

Those that really like to delve into this stuff will argue that possessing all these attributes is impossible because they can be contradictory. For purposes of this blog we'll be setting those arguments aside for the time being to avoid semantic limitations of language and attempt to focus on a macro level, thus allowing us to have the most possible fun with the book's contents.

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