Saturday, January 15, 2022

The Names of God


God is ineffable. He cannot be described. Considering the name as being the summing up and the picture of a person and his qualities and peculiarities, we may say that God cannot be named. If our intellect cannot grasp His essence, still less can feeble words express it. Even the transcendent ideas that find expression only in those nobler languages which we call the arts, are still too much "of the earth earthly" to suggest to us a fraction of the wonders and delights contained in the Creator s smallest attribute. Even this earth will never be adequately described, although it is but the footprint of the Almighty. Hence it was said, "Why askest thou My name, which is wonderful?" (Jud. xiii. 18). And again, "I am the Lord that appeared. . . by the name of God Almighty; and My name Adonai I did not show them" (Ex. vi. 3). The name of God was not pronounced or even known by the Israelites: it was represented by four letters which we pronounce Jehovah. No word can express God's nature but the uncreated Word of God Himself, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Never presume to measure the perfections of God by the ideas of men. You cannot judge of His ways, His designs, the wisdom of His decrees, the methods by which He carries them out. To attempt this is the same as attributing a human character to God and a human name.

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