Customer Reviews

The Character of God: Discovering the God Who is

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If you're not merely content to know *that* God is, but rather have a passion to know *who* He is, then this book is for you. <<But God's promises do not depend upon my feelings; they rest upon His integrity. I may fail in my promises, but He does not break His. My doubts about His presence insult His integrity. Because I cannot see Him, I begin to question his Word. To live by faith, on the other hand, is to live by trust. This means far more than believing in God; it means believing God.>> In his examination of every aspect of God's character, Sproul brings the reader to a *profound* understanding of the God who is.

This welcome book sheds Biblical light on God's character: Who He is, what He has done for us all through Christ. Afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted. Many great points are made about not taking God 'cafeteria style', picking and choosing which attributes we like or prefer, but taking the Whole God as He is and always will be. He is not just Omni-love or Omnipotent or Omni-immanent; He is not just Omni-holy, Omni-sovereign, Omni-transcendent. The Biblical God is a perfect synthesis of all His attributes, infinitely greater than any human sum of His qualities/character traits. He is, humanly speaking, Omni-Supreme Being - Divine - Trinity - Holy - Love - Powerful - Wise - Merciful - Immanent - Transcendent - Sovereign, ad infinitum. Any other God, especially the recent open theism deity of 'limited foreknowledge, multi-present, quasi-eternal,penultimate, finite-to-limits-of-logic', is not worthy of worship.

I have heard many people in the theological circles mention the name of R.C Sproul, always with an accompanying praise. But I never had the chance to read any of his books until recently when "The character of God" was presented to me as a gift. And what a gift it turned out to be! More of R.C's books will definitely be on my shopping list.

We all speak of God, talk about his role in our lives. The Bible speak about us being created in His image etc.. But very few of us really understand all that God is! Getting to know an infinitely intelligent, all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present creator of everything that is and ever will be is an endeavor of a lifetime, but we ought to start somewhere. This is where this book steps in with confidence.

I think another good name for this book would be "The passport of God" as it is an easy way to learn about the important characteristics of God. Although the subject it handles is immense, this lovely introductory little book (only 170 pages) is not only very well structured but also written in an easy to understand style. The author explains who is this God the Bible talk about, where we can find him, what it means to be an infinite being, does God knows everything there is and what does that mean to us, what it is like to be called Truth, does God change his nature or his mind, how just is God, is he all powerful or is there something he cannot do (for example, can God stop being God, can God lie, can God die...one of the most interesting chapters in my opinion), how loving is God,...

This book is highly recommended: it is light to read but is a heavyweight in the information contained not to mention that it will make you grow intellectually and spiritually!

I say that this is level headed reading, and it is, provided you adhere to, or are coming from a conservative christian perspective. I mention this because this book is written from the point of view of a conservative christian theologian so it has a christian "bent" in dealing with the subject matter of God. However, from this particular point of view, this book is a real treat towards understanding christian theology proper (doctrine of God ) in a simplified and interesting manner. For those in the conservative christian mindset, this is a good primer on the nature of God from a biblical/christian standpoint.