SECTION ONE: 
THE NATURE OF GOD

In this first section of the Catechism, we will examine Articles 1-4 of our Statement of Faith in the Discipline. These Articles seek to clarify our understanding of the Nature of God, which is generally divided into the essential and the economic. The essential nature of God pertains to the substance of what God is and how He acts as God. It is here that we find a strong distinction between Christianity and Pantheism, which views God as impersonal and intertwined with creation, and between Christianity and Polytheism, which reduces the transcendent to a more easily comprehensible pantheon of deities. The economic nature of God pertains to who God is and why He acts as He does.

Of the two, the Holy Scripture is far less concerned with explaining the positive ontological reality of how God exists and far more concerned with showing the way God relates to Himself, His creation, and, above all else, Humanity. It is essential to keep this in mind, because while the observation of Nature and Human experience may allow us to grasp some aspects of God’s existence and character, some things lie outside of our ability to observe. If God had not revealed Himself to us, we would have been trapped in the darkness of that ignorance, unable to know Him, love Him, or live life as He intended.