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whole fabric and constitution it reveals the clearest traces of an infinite intelligence, of the
deepest, highest and tenderest emotions, and of a will that is all-powerful. Consequently, we
are constrained to mount from the world to the world’s Maker as a Being of intelligence,
sensibility, and will, that is, as a person. (3) The moral and religious nature of man also points to
the personality of God. His moral nature imposes on him a sense of obligation to do that which
is right, and this necessarily implies the existence of a supreme Lawgiver. Moreover, his
religious nature constantly prompts him to seek personal communion with some higher Being;
and all the elements and activities of religion demand a personal God as their object and final
end. Even so-called pantheistic religions often testify unconsciously to belief in a personal God.
The fact is that all such things as penitence, faith and obedience, fellowship and love, loyalty in
service and sacrifice, trust in life and death, are meaningless unless they find their appropriate
object in a personal God.
But while all these considerations are true and have some value as testimonia, they are not the
proofs on which theology depends in its doctrine of the personality of God. It turns for proof to
God’s Self-revelation in Scripture. The term “person” is not applied to God in the Bible, though
there are words, such as the Hebrew panim and the Greek prosopon, that come very close to
expressing the idea. At the same time Scripture testifies to the personality of God in more than
one way. The presence of God, as described by Old and New Testament writers, is clearly a
personal presence. And the anthropomorphic and anthropopathic representations of God in
Scripture, while they must be interpreted so as not to militate against the pure spirituality and
holiness of God, can hardly be justified, except on the assumption that the Being to whom they
apply is a real person, with personal attributes, even though it be without human limitations.
God is represented throughout as a personal God, with whom men can and may converse,
whom they can trust, who sustains them in their trials, and fills their hearts with the joy of
deliverance and victory. And, finally, the highest revelation of God to which the Bible testifies is
a personal revelation. Jesus Christ reveals the Father in such a perfect way that He could say to
Philip,” He who hath seen me hath seen the Father,” John 14:9. More detailed proofs will
appear in the discussion of the communicable attributes.
A. The Spirituality of God.
The Bible does not give us a definition of God. The nearest approach to anything like it is found
in the word of Christ to the Samaritan woman, “God is Spirit,” John 4:24. This is at least a
statement purporting to tell us in a single word what God is. The Lord does not merely say that
God is a spirit, but that He is Spirit. And because of this clear statement it is but fitting that we
should discuss first of all the spirituality of God. By teaching the spirituality of God theology
stresses the fact that God has a substantial Being all His own and distinct from the world, and