God

Who God is, whether God exists, and what the Bible means when it says that God is love, drawn from Scripture, the creeds, and teachers of the church East and West, from Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine to Julian of Norwich.

The Holy Trinity
The Trinity is the Christian belief in one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal and eternal, whose life is a communion of love.
Belief in God
Christians believe God exists as the source of all that is, the one in whom “we live and move and have our being,” known in reason, prayer, and love.
The meaning of life
The Christian answer to the meaning of life is that people were made to know and love God and one another, and to enjoy God forever.
Who made God?
No one created God. Christians confess God as the uncreated source of all that exists, without beginning and dependent on nothing else.
Images of God
God has no body and cannot be seen. Scripture describes God in symbols, and Christians see God most fully in Jesus, the image of the invisible God.
Demons and spiritual warfare
Many Christians believe demons are real; others read them as a way of naming evil. Mental illness is not possession, and Christ has defeated evil powers.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is God present and at work in the world, the third person of the Trinity, whom the Nicene Creed calls “the Lord, the giver of life.”
God’s love for you
Scripture says God is love, knows you by name, and loved you before you did anything. Nothing you have done can separate you from the love of God.
Satan and the powers of evil
Evil is real, and the Bible names it Satan. Many Christians believe in a personal devil; others read Satan as a name for evil powers. All renounce it.
The name of God
God’s name in the Hebrew Bible is YHWH, probably pronounced Yahweh. Out of reverence Jews say Adonai instead, so most English Bibles print “the LORD.”
Angels
The Bible and the churches speak of angels as spiritual beings who serve God and help people. Angel means messenger. People do not become angels at death.
Speaking in tongues
Speaking in tongues is prayer or praise in a language the speaker never learned, a gift of the Spirit in Acts and 1 Corinthians given to some Christians.
God beyond male and female
God has no body and is neither male nor female. The Bible calls God Father but also compares God to a mother, and the churches teach God is beyond sex.
Does everything happen for a reason?
Scripture promises God’s presence in every event and good brought from the worst. Jesus refused to call disasters punishments, and the Bible admits chance.