Before leaving our study of God as Creator and Moral Governor of the world, we

must give some consideration to the question of personality. In a previous article we

quoted W. James as saying:

The God of Metaphysics* may be infinite and absolute, but He is not a person, and

cannot be the "Living God" of revelation. An Infinite Being is unlimited, and Absolute

Being is unrelated; and anything wholly unlimited and unrelated is, so far, as man is

concerned, unknown and unreal. The God of the Scriptures, the God of Abraham, Isaac

and Jacob, the "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" is a living, loving Person.

God is limited not by limitations imposed upon Him by others, but by His own nature.

Holiness, righteousness, love--these are Divine limitations everywhere recognized in the

Word. God is "absolute" in the sense that He is self-sufficient, and is not "in need of

anything" (Acts 17: 25), but although He is independent in His fullness of relations with

any other, His absoluteness is not such as to exclude His relationship with His creatures,

nor does it prevent His self-sufficient fullness from flowing out to them. "In Him we

live, and move, and have our being."

It has been objected that to describe God as a Person is to speak of God in terms of

man. This, however, is not a valid objection; for this figure of Speech--known as

Anthropomorphism--is precisely the language of Scripture. It is true that human persons

are finite, but it does not follow that personality need be finite. God must either be

personal or impersonal; there is no third possibility. Moreover, the ultimate revelation of

God has been made in a Person--whose name is Emmanuel, "God with us". This,

however, is a subject that must be given due study in its own time and place. We

mention it here so that its light may reflect back to the beginning, and that we may see

that the Personality of God is vital to our faith.