The Names of God
Betty Schwan, who was born 100 years ago this year and who passed into eternal life 10 years ago this day, once asked me what names for God I knew. I did not give a very satisfactory answer. Here is an answer from someone who has given the question more thought:
May the unceasing blessings of the Almighty rest upon you, Mrs. Schwan.
posted by Michael | 12/29/2018
1 Comments:
According to Saint John of Damascus, the most proper of all the names given to God is “He that is,” or “He that is good.”
https://saintsworks.net/forums/index.php?topic=2980.msg64455#msg64455
The second name of God is ὁ Θεός, derived from θέειν, to run, because He courses through all things, or from αἴθειν, to burn: For God is a fire consuming all evil: or from θεᾶσθαι, because He is all-seeing: for nothing can escape Him, and over all He keepeth watch. For He saw all things before they were, holding them timelessly in His thoughts; and each one conformably to His voluntary and timeless thought , which constitutes predetermination and image and pattern, comes into existence at the predetermined time .
The first name then conveys the notion of His existence and of the nature of His existence: while the second contains the idea of energy. Further, the terms ‘without beginning,’ ‘incorruptible,’ ‘unbegotten,’ as also ‘uncreate,’ ‘incorporeal,’ ‘unseen,’ and so forth, explain what He is not: that is to say, they tell us that His being had no beginning, that He is not corruptible, nor created, nor corporeal, nor visible. Again, goodness and justice and piety and such like names belong to the nature, but do not explain His actual essence. Finally, Lord and King and names of that class indicate a relationship with their contrasts: for the name Lord has reference to those over whom the lord rules, and the name King to those under kingly authority, and the name Creator to the creatures, and the name Shepherd to the sheep he tends.
Post a Comment
<< Home