A Holy God
What is holiness? All I can say is that it is everything that separates God from His creation and His creatures. It includes moral purity but is not limited to it. How about this:
What is this wondrous mystery
unfolding within me?
I have no words to name it,
for that One is above all praise,
transcends all words
my reason sees what has happened,
wishes to explain,
yet can find no words to tell you.
What it sees is invisible,
simple, pure,
unbounded in its majesty.
I have seen the totality,
received not in essence
but by participation.
As when you light a flame from a flame,
the whole flame you receive.
By St. Symeon the New Theologian
Are we His creation? I’m not sure holiness separated God from His creation . . .
These are just two samples. I found many.
Cindy,
The name of God defines who He is. It designates God’s reputation, character, identity, and nature. When one searches the Scriptures to find out how the name of God is described we find that out of forty-eight descriptions of the name of God, the word “holy” or “hallowed” is used twenty-three times. The other descriptions of God’s name are synonymous with the meaning of God’s holiness: glorious, excellent, fearful, good, terrible, from everlasting, great in might, wonderful, and exalted. Since the name of God is described in this way by the Scriptures, the Christian may conclude that the inherent nature of God is holy and all other attributes of God consist and are moved by this holy nature.
Cindy,
We are to imitate God in certain ways. We are to be set apart and strive for moral purity (holy). Moral purity isn’t the only thing that sets God apart from His creation and His creatures though:
God is self-sufficient we are not
God is all-knowing we are not
God is infinite in wisdom we are not
God is omnipresent we are not
God is sovereign over His creation we are not
God is all powerful we are not
I’m humbled in knowing that there is a God and I’m not like Him in every way. I cannot be like God in every way. When I try to be like God in every way it leads to pride.
Holy is not God’s name, though His name can be described as holy. His name is Yahweh. I call Him Abba, and no, my Daddy is not a monster. I do tremble at the thought of disobeying Him, but not because I think He’s going to torture me. Because He loves me and I love Him, and I know that His love will never allow me to stay in my sin. Whatever it takes to remove me from it, that’s what He’ll do. But He is NOT a monster.
I didn’t say Holy was His name. I said it describes His name. This is a clear example of where you see what you want to see. I never said He was a monster. But that He can be a monster at times. Monster here is being understood in the sense of a strange, terrifying, powerful person who cannot be controlled. I don’t fear His punishment for my sins. That was removed at the cross. The cross is where grace and wrath meet. I’m drawn to it yet I want to move away from it. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Cole, I misread, and I apologize for misreading and for making a mistake about what you said. As for you, you automatically pronounced judgment – guilty of intentionally hearing what I wanted to hear. It never occurred to me to want to hear from you that the Lord is named “Holy.” You not only pronounced judgment on me, but you pronounced wrongly.
Furthermore, you often if not always fail to answer what I write to you. Instead you keep saying the same things over and over. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I don’t think you read my posts very clearly either – if you read them at all. I notice you do this with other people’s posts too. I’ll keep answering your posts though, as I think you pose issues that others want to know about. You yourself don’t seem to want to know anything since you already appear to know everything that you want to know – but other people reading may want to know more. That’s why I’m glad that lots of people are answering your posts, and why I will probably continue to answer them too. If you ever do feel in the mood for a discussion, we’ll be glad to discuss with you. Otherwise I guess we’ll just keep answering for the sake of others, and also just in case you should one day feel like listening and interacting.
Thanks for pronouncing judgment on me Cindy
I think you did it to yourself, Cole, when you said:
I said you were wrong about my intentions, and that is the only judgment I made. As for your behavior, I only told you my observations. If you read more carefully, you’ll see I took pains to make it clear that I was describing to you the way things APPEAR to me. I hope that I’m mistaken.
That is a good post Chris - you sound like an old time Quaker. ‘Christ saith, the Apostles saith - but what cans’t thou say?’ - and you’ve said it according to the true light that lightens everyone who comes into the world 
You have spoken to my condition
Cindy,
All people make judgments. Discernment and decision making are unavoidable and intrinsic to living. Jesus told us not to judge self-righteously or hypocritically. If I’m a drunk I shouldn’t judge and condemn another drunk. I must first remove the log out of my own eye before I set out to help another who is caught up in sin. But I don’t think we are commanded to not judge at all. When you accuse me of judging you or someone else for saying they are doing something wrong and you tell me this is wrong, I simply point out that this is a judgment you are making against me. I am being judged for judging and this is self contradictory. Of course I can be mistaken in judging someone to be wrong. But we do make right and wrong judgments all the time. It’s part of being human. So is making mistakes. Nothing you have said proves that God is loving holiness. On the contrary scripture contradicts you. God is Holy love. I think you just don’t like it when you are wrong about something and this causes you to make false accusations about me. I have my reasons for answering the things I answer and for not answering other things.
I think the reasons you don’t answer are that you don’t want to, or that you haven’t read, Cole, but perhaps you have very good secret reasons to choose not to address my points. After all, you’re not obligated to do that, but it doesn’t make for very enlightening conversation if you don’t respond to the things people say to you.
I agree with you that God’s love is holy, and if that’s the case you could say that God is holy love. I don’t agree that God is holiness and that His holiness trumps His love – because scripture doesn’t teach that.
Cindy,
I think God’s holiness does trump His love. It’s like how I trump you in conversation. 
(Just kidding)
But Holy, Holy, Holy, is repeated three times to show it is most important about God. Not love. I have shown this already. This is also why I have to repeat myself with you.
No, Cole. No. Holy Holy Holy is repeated three times to emphasize its importance – but not to emphasize that holiness is what God is. I have shown this already. What’s more, God’s holiness does not require Him to be a monster at any time.
Cindy,
Holy, Holy, Holy is an adjective showing that Holiness is most important about God. God is love but it’s a Holy love. God’s holiness can be terrifying as my experience shows as well as the whole Bible. Especially the OT.
Note:
The Bible also says God is light. This refers to His holiness in His moral purity. He is love and He is light. It’s who He is. There is no darkness in Him at all. Holy Love.
Cole, God is not a collection of parts with one part more important than the others. It all adds up to love. Aside from your insistence that God’s holiness is His most important attribute, we are in agreement. Perhaps it’s fortuitous that you’ve mentioned the picture of God as light, since light perhaps combines the picture of His purity and His love in a way that better displays their holy character.
I think that your view of God as being monstrous at times might be a corollary of your view of Him as primarily holiness. Holiness without love is certainly a terrifying thought.
But I’m done dancing around in circles. I think we’ve worn this topic out.
Cindy,
When you have lived in darkness your whole life coming into the light can be terrifying. Trust me.
Cole,
I for the most part agree with the others, that God the Father’s essence is love and everything else refers to attributes coming from His essence. Yet, I can sympathize with you in considering the Father as you do. Because for many years from the time I was led to say yes to His Son Jesus, I have struggled with the problem of evil and a loving God. All the examples you gave were in of themselves terrifying to me; disciplining children, destroying the inhabitance of earth with a flood, sending the unbeliever to an eternal torture and etc. What finally got me on track to seeing God has a God of love as His primary essence and extending this love to us as sons and daughters as His chief work, was through the eyes of universal reconciliation and the finish work of the cross. All the things that happen in nature be they floods, earthquakes, epidemics and etc., are all under the auspice of God as “second causes” (due to the Fall). Certainly this is the case, when God uses evil men to bring judgment upon a nation and people of his own like what is written in Habakkuk and the Chaldeans as His tool. God can also be the “first cause “as with His Son Jesus the Christ, “slain before the foundation of the earth” , “smitten by God”; In order that we His children can have life forever. Without evil as a background and a contrast, we would not understand mercy, love, goodness and holiness. In fact Satan himself, in my understanding was created the way he is, by God as the ultimate instrument of His disposal (“a murderer and a liar from the beginning”). I believe the insidiousness of man’s sin grows exponentially with or without Satan’s help since the Garden’s rebellion, but God will still use this unabridged evil for His glory. This happens with the total reconciliation of mankind, and victory over death and sin. This has been my only solace to all the examples you have given that in your estimation makes God the Father a “monster”.
Grace, George
Cole, God is not “loving”: love is God’s very DNA, not just an attribute. In 1 John 4:8,16 we read that God IS love. So by nature, He could never be “a monster at times.” You have a perception problem.
Don’t get fouled up in the “letter of the Law.” The Scriptures are part of a progressive revelation:
(Taken from “Scriptural Inerrancy?”, by Professor C.S. Cowles at pointloma.edu/sites/default/ … nt-way.pdf )
And along these same lines, for a wonderful biblical defense of the truly NONviolent nature of God, (in the very face of Scriptures that indicate otherwise), please see this discussion of Richard Murray’s ideas at
Blessings.