The Goodness of God Essays

The Goodness of God Essays The Goodness of God Essay The Goodness of God Essay The Bible shows the goodness of God in different ways, throughout the Old and the New Testament. God was said to have had a moral character, requiring his creation to behave in certain ways and establishing standards of goodness. This may account for the fact that many Old Testament stories seem immoral eg, Abrahams attempted murder of his son, Isaac, and from this, the idea of goodness has evolved. So as the bible shows, God provided the ethics for mankind during this time, (ethnical monotheism). Biblical writers use two Hebrew words to try to describe the goodness which God shows to mankind. Hesed meaning loving kindness and merciful compassion is used 26 times alone in Psalm 136 and rahamum meaning pity and tenderness, Psalm 8: 14. God is portrayed as an omnipotent (all powerful) figure who can react to people and care about they way they behave. God in the Bible is shown as more than just an idea, he exists personally, he is anthropomorphically portrayed. One of the most moving passages in the Old Testament describing Gods love for his creation, is when he is compared with a father teaching a child to walk, the affection is wonderfully described. Hoesea 11: 3-4. God can intervene in his world and always has the ultimate plan. Unlike the unmoved mover, the Biblical God can be a personal and supportive presence in the life on an individual, as show in Psalm 23. Gods goodness in the Bible is the benchmark for his people to aim for. He gives the Jews some guidelines such as the Decalogue Exodus 20, when he enters into a covenant relationship (an agreement) with them. Certain individuals are praised for their obedience such as Abraham and Jobe. The concept also includes the idea of righteous anger, anger that has a reason behind, based on a rule. This anger is shown in Jeremiah 15:6. God is displeased when he sees injustice, such as the poor being exploited, and many prophets, such as Amos, bring this to light. Gods goodness is described as perfect, Duet 32: 4-5 and philosophers generally find this a hard idea to accept. They argue that perfect by its very nature is always the same, unchanging, this was indeed Platos view of perfection and if the Bible suggested that God can interact, he must therefore, be capable of change. Philosophers like Plato ask whether God can suffer or be affected in any way or whether he remains impassible- cannot suffer nor be affected. Jesus in the New Testament embodies goodness, God became man in person of Jesus to demonstrate his love for humanity, John 3:16. The word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory. John 14. This raises many questions as to how God could have been in human form if he is a spiritual being and if God was n heaven at the same time he lived on earth in the person of Jesus. Jesus was seen as goodness personified so that humans could relate to and understand God. Gods love for humanity is so strong he would die for mankind and this is shown when he gave them his only son. The Bible portrays God as such an omnipotent figure that people still have faith in his goodness and follow his rules, the ten commandments, and ethics of how one should morally behave in Christianity today.