Our Pastor Column series through the Baltimore Catechism continues with the second and third articles:  “On God and His Perfections,” and “On the Unity and Trinity of God.”

Q:  What is God?

A:  God is a spirit infinitely perfect.

Q:  Did God have a beginning?

A:  God had no beginning; He always was and He always will be.   (N.B. Just as time, the “fourth dimension,” transcends the three physical dimensions of length, width, and depth, so we might understand God as transcending even the “fourth dimension” of time; and language such as “beginning” and “end” pertain to time and therefore do not pertain to God because, again, God transcends time.)

Q:  Where is God?

A:  God is everywhere.

Q:  If God is everywhere, why do we not see Him?

A:  We do not see God because He is pure spirit and cannot be seen with bodily eyes.

Q:  Does God see us?

A:  God sees us and watches over us.

Q:  Does God know all things?

A:  God knows all things, even our most secret thoughts, words, and actions.

Q:  Can God do all things?

A:  God can do all things, and nothing is hard or impossible to Him.  (N.B. There is a common refutation of God’s very existence that asks the rhetorical question, “Can God create a rock that He cannot lift?”  If God can create such a rock, then God therefore cannot lift it (thereby admitting that there is something that God cannot do).  This is a common “gotcha” question that non-believers use against Christians.  In fact, it is a nonsensical question.  Can God create a round square?  Of course not because that would defy the very nature of round-ness and the very nature of square-ness.  Just so, to trap God with illogical “gotcha” questions is nonsensical because they defy the very nature of God-ness.  It is more accurate and complete, therefore, to say that whatever is logical therefore is possible for God.  God cannot create a rock that He cannot lift because that is illogical; however, it is very logical (and therefore very possible) for God to create a rock that I cannot lift!  There are many such rocks, in fact!)

Q:  Is there but one God?

A:  Yes, there is only one God.

Q:  Why can there be but one God?

A:  There can be only one God because God, being supreme and infinite, cannot have an equal.  (N.B. To say that God is all-powerful, for example, is to say that nothing is as powerful or more powerful than God; therefore, there can be only one God.)

Q:  How many Persons are there in God?

A:  In God, there are three Divine Persons, distinct and yet equal in all things:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The Father is the first Person of God; the Son is the second Person; the Holy Spirit is the third Person.

Q:  What is the Blessed Trinity?

A:  The Blessed Trinity is one God in three Divine Persons:   Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Q:  Are the three Divine Persons one and the same God?

A:  The three Divine Persons are one and the same God, having one and the same Divine Nature.

~ Fr. Lewis