The study about God and angels provokes curiosity in man since humanity is somewhat obsessed with the

need to unveil the curtains of obscurity blocking the pathway of the unknown from the known. A society or community without Christianity is not completely ignorant of a supreme being or supreme beings since every person is birthed with a sense of religion or a longing to worship a supreme being. A study about man is in and of itself a mystery to wholly scrutinize or fathom. However, man is created with intelligence and a level of discernment, but there is a part of man that is still ensconced in the thicket of the unknown. Man battles to understand the meaning of existence and how he came to be. Man wrestles with the idea of where he will be in the hereafter. All of these concepts and more incite the curiosity of man to begin to turn over the stones of enigma to find a way to make sense of them. Grudem and Ericson extensively dealt with the subjects of God, angels, and man and they have dug deep to unravel some aspects of God, angels, and man that provokes a deeper curiosity to research more about these subjects. This paper exhaustively deals with these three aspects in the light of Millard Ericson and Wayne Grudems views and suppositions as they come to bear on my life experiences and aspirations. Ericson begins his discussion about God by underscoring the concept that it is very feasible for readers to strike a clear difference between Gods reality and how He relate with the world He has created.1 With Ghanaians, the reality of Gods existence is not a problem prior to conversion, but the question of how to relate with this Supreme Being is the problem. Every African is born with a sense of belief in a supreme being. The quest is how to know this God and to relate with His power and Being. Grudem approaches the problem of evaluating Gods existence by asking the question about the manner wherein man can know about the existence of

Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1998), 289. 1

God. Grudem believes that there is an innate craze to know about God in every person.2 This assertion is true in the sense that the African child is groomed to believe in an all-powerful God. There is a saying in Ghana that no one shows the child where God is. This maxim certifies that a child is born with some knowledge about the existence of God and he does not need to be showed the dwelling place of God. Paul explains that regardless of the beliefs of Gentiles in many gods, they cannot deny the premise that they have the capacity to know about God, but they chose to treat Him with contempt (Rom 1:21). Our ancestors worshipped a being we call the perfect and reliable being whom we cannot know much less relating to him. Libations are made to him in honor of his providence and protection. Though we believed he cannot be known, but his existence was never challenged or doubted. As I grew up as a young boy, I never heard anyone disdaining the essence of this Supernatural Being. Awe and dread was the feeling when the leaders of our community utter his name during libations. Many titles were given to this unknown being, like the leader of the crowd, when one gets Him, he will be sufficient, the Lord of all and many others like these. These beliefs spearheaded the conversion of many Ghanaians when the gospel finally reached us. We did not wrestle with the knowledge about the existence of a Being whose likeness is aloof from that of man and who cannot be understood regardless of our passion to make sense of Him. Ericson explains that the knowledge about the existence of God is the foundation of all the branches of theology.3 Distortion in the knowledge of who God is will definitely distort our understanding of what the other branches of theology are. The knowledge about God controls the knowledge of the Bible as well. Ericson explains that J. B. Philips commented about the concept of God as a Being whose responsibility is to track
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 141.
3 2

Ericson, 290. 2

down wrong doers and rain down upon them a just recompense of their actions.4 Many people in different cultures have eccentric beliefs and understanding about God. In Ghana, the general concept is that Gods power is only revealed towards evil people, but He awaits to get a cup full of ones sins and wickedness before He will finally bring justice upon him. This view has betrayed the nature of God as being holy and as a God who swiftly rises up to put a stop to sin. I will stamp out this negative view of God through given attention to the preaching and teaching of the Word of God so that Christians will be educated and enlightened about who God is with regard to His dealing with sin and wickedness. Grudem brings to light Scriptural evidences that point out the existence of God apart from humans inner sense of knowledge about Him. The bible explicitly establishes the essence of Gods existence in its opening sentences in the beginning God (Gen 1:1).5 Many complain about the enigmatic nature of the bible and their despair is seen through their misunderstanding of the Biblical texts that explicate about Gods reality. Few teachers and preachers of the Word of God give time to educate themselves about the unadulterated Word of God. Many young ministers are called in Ghana, but these young ministers think they can only be exceptional in the ministry with the anointing of God boasting in the view that the Holy Spirit will teach them into all things, even into the deep things of God (John 14:26; 1 Cor 2:10). Moreover, with this they say that they need nobody to teach them. They rest upon the power of God upon their lives in healing and doing all kind of miracles, but because their faith in Christ not deeply rooted upon the Word of God, their ministries are full of mayhem and confusion. The senior ministers are silent and bereft of the ability to direct these young guys unto righteous paths prescribed by God

Ibid. Grudem, 142. 3

in His word. The minister of Jesus Christ must study to show himself approved as a workman of God rightly dividing the Word of truth (2 Tim 2:15). The time has come for the servants of God to arise and shine through the ministration of the Word of God to all and sundry and to teach others to observe all that Jesus taught them (Matt 28:19, 20). Grudem emphasizes on the fact that the belief in the authenticity of the Scriptures must take a ripple effect in believing in all that the Bible states.6 This follows the logical assertion that rejection of the validity of the Scriptures is tantamount to a rejection of Gods existence and there is no middle ground. Reason, experience, and cultures have been overly underscored at the expense of Biblical truths. Today, reason and culture have taken the place of our pietistic ancient landmarks set by the Christian community. I believe it is high time Christians apologetically exalted the validity of the Scriptures over the plausibility of experience. Ones inability to make sense of a plausible truth does not automatically overrule its reality. God exists regardless of whether we believe, experience, or understand Him or not. Thomas Aquinas understanding of God as the greatest cause of everything somewhat affirms African traditional beliefs about a being who is transcendent, but caring enough to understand humans ordeals and despair. Grudem poses some argument to provide evidence for the existence of God.7 These arguments serve as an ostensible proof of Gods existence though no explanation can be good enough to wholly describe Gods being and habitation. General revelation has been the mechanism that engineered the thrust of Africans belief about an uncontrolled controller. The earth, the sun, and other rivers have been deities worshipped by other Africans, but above all, African traditional worshippers revered a being though mystic and

Ibid. Grudem, 143. 4

unapproachable, but He exists within a labyrinthine- enigmatic realm. He must be worshipped, but cannot be known or related to. The panoramic creative realm of the earth is so beautiful to be an accident and the order and design of created elements are extremely ravishing to be taken for granted as contingent on fortuity. My call and ministry is to help enlighten todays generation to come to terms with the reality of the existence of God irrespective of their inability to have a cordial relationship with Him. Experience is an indispensable force in human existence, but to see truth as contingent on human experience is a falsity that needs much to be desired. In my future ministry, I will intentionally educate students and the cooperate business world through lectures in classrooms, seminars and conferences whereby they will be enlightened about Gods existence and the possibility of relating to Him will be transmitted. God is so transcendent and aloof to disclose Himself and to allow His creation to have any affinity with Him. He dwells in a far away realm, He is extremely lofty and exalted to be understood much less interacted with. These and more are the cries and despair of many Ghanaians regarding their views and beliefs about God. The nightmare or obsession of many Africans is not about the veracity of Gods existence, but about the possibility to get in touch with Him. Faith in an unknown being is not a subject worth pursuing re African outlook, but longing for amity in this unknown being is. Erickson and Grudem have exhausting teachings about the nature and character of God concerning His relationship with humans and that of Himself. Erickson explains that Gods attributes define everything about Himself.8 However, Grudem adds to this and rhetorically asks the question that even if humans can possibly know God, to what extent can they know God?9 Paul, in his letter to the Romans challenged them to

Erickson, 291. Grudem, 149-50. 5

get out of the quilt of deliberate presumption in order to come to terms with the reality that God Himself discloses everything man needs to know about his Creator. God did not owe man the possibility of revealing Himself, but He chose to make Himself known. Erickson and Grudem expatiate on the attributes of God that He shares with humans and the others He shares with Himself (or with the other two persons in the Trinity).10 Before the fall of man, there was a possibility for man to somehow share in Gods perfect nature, when man was created in Gods image and likeness. After the fall, man assumed a depraved state and nature in that he no longer could function in the way he was created to be. The life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ have in a great deal reconciled man from a state of depravity to a regenerated realm whereby man can celebrate his freedom and authority that was earmarked for him from the beginning of time. This assertion will cement my teachings in the future. I will educate Gods children to know their stand in Christ and to operate in the authority given to them by Christ. Erickson explains that Gods Spiritual nature does not make him an abstract being who cannot be experienced and related to. He emphasizes on Gods personality which is the attribute that makes Him capable of being relational and which becomes a catalyst through which He is known by man.11 Ghanaians have to be brought into the banquet hall of understanding that even though God is transcendent, yet He came to the level of man by being like man in order to express divine love to man. In Gods nature, there are two attributes that is hard to decipher with regard to human existence. Erickson explains that the love and justice of God have become forces to wrestle with as far as life is concerned.12 As a young boy growing up, I came to the point of believing that I was created to swim through the pool of despondency. I was born with a
10

Erickson, 292-326; Grudem, 150-56. Erickson, 294-97. Ibid., 323-25. 6

11

12

deformity (slow in speech stammering lips). I became a laughing stock among my peers as a high school student. This bane destroyed my ability to believe in myself and to stand up to my hopes and aspirations. I saw God as a Being who indulges in favoritism and partiality. This is because, I saw a world full of normal beings and others who are sick and deformed, but He seems to be doing nothing about it. Many people are fixated with thoughts like these against God. The absence of Gods justice in relation to our world will jeopardize the peaceful existence of mankind. In addition to this, the absence of His love in relation to the world will result into a total annihilation of the world, since a holy God cannot behold the atrocities perambulating in this world. His love is the sustaining attribute of our world, and His justice is the judicial tool that destabilizes the presence of evil from captivating our world. People say, if God is God, why does He not destroy evil and make this world a happy place to abide in. My take on this is that, evil is a force that appears in the absence of good. Because good men have stopped being good, evil lives in the stead of good and it in turn deteriorates the world God has created as good. Evil does not live in a vacuum. Evil is a parasite that feeds on an available prey (man). It is a spirit that needs a body to abide in. Evil can only be destroyed forever, if man is destroyed forever. This preamble overrules the hullabaloo involving Gods justice and love. The love of God for His people gives us the dibs to still worship Him and to exist even though we deserve His justice, which is death. The doctrine of Trinity is not clearly dealt with in the Bible, but it is implied in the teachings of the bible. Erickson announces the misconceptions that have cropped up because of mans desire to make sense of the Trinity. He also sees this doctrine as a nitty-gritty that adds virtue to our beliefs and understanding of who God is.13 The major misunderstanding concerning

13

Ibid., 346-67. 7

the doctrine of Trinity is the general truth that God is one, but we explain that there are three personalities who form this Godhead. The Old Testament establishes the view that there is no other god but one. I see this doctrine as one of the secret truths about the God that Moses stated in Deut 29:29: the secret things belong to the Lord. I believe with the passage of time and our growth in our relationships with the Lord, we will grow in knowledge and the eyes of our understanding will be enlightened to grasp the mysteries concerning the doctrine of Trinity. We can only explain to our uttermost understanding and we cannot go beyond it because Jesus never explained into detail the rudiments and systems that encompasses the totality of His relationship with the Father and at the same time with the Holy Spirit and vice versa. He explained in the way the disciples could comprehend best at that time. Jesus baptism reveals the separate entities in the Godhead. The Son was in the water, the Spirit came upon Him as a dove, and a voice in heaven spoke about the Son being the One He is well pleased. The premise that this doctrine is a hard nut to crack does not mean that it must not be a puzzle worth answering and hence should be considered as pettifogging. Grudem agrees that this doctrine is an enigma and he brings to the fore some measures through which we can reach an understanding of the basics of this doctrine; these are the knowledge that three personalities make up the God-head, each of these three personalities is God in every sphere, and lastly the knowledge that there is only One God and not three gods.14 I have tried to explain this doctrine in the past, but in my course of explaining, I misconstrued matters. Since then, I have been delving deep into the subject to understand it to deepen my relationship with God and to help others comprehend it. Grudem again throws an assertion about the relevance of this doctrine to the Christian faith in relation to salvation and sanctification. He emphasizes that a proper understanding of this doctrine is very imperative

14

Grudem, 227-31. 8

because it strengthens our faith in the atonement work of Jesus Christ.15 The Lordship and divinity of the Father and the Spirit are not questioned as compared to that of the Son. Denying the divinity of Christ is to deny the veracity of His death and resurrection. If He is a created being like all of us, then His death on the cross is no different from someones death on the road via an accident. Moreover, His blood being the seal and the instrument whereby we receive the remission of sins is just a prevarication. I will uphold the exigency of bringing to light the deity of Christ because the culture in which I come from believes in God, but they have not yet come to grips with the understanding of the God who exists in three separate personalities, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The belief in spirits and other demonic agents is a norm in the African society. These are topics most deliberated and debated about every now and then. Angels and other spiritual beings have wrongly beclouded the African mentality so much that every misfortune is dedicated to spirits. To explain about demons and angels in the African culture is like explaining the importance of eating to them, needless to explain. They seem to be au fait with demons and spirits, but the comprehension about angels and demons has taken entrenched positions that fear and dread ensue in the hearts of Africans when demons and spirits are talked about. Instead of seeing angels and demons as created beings, the awe and fright that exude when they are talked of cause Africans to see them as divine beings who are worshipped and treated as votive. Erickson describes them as not divine, but they are beyond humans. He explains the temptation of treating the topic about Angels as not crucial and hence relevant to Christian doctrines.16 Grudem on the other hand sees angels as one of the most talked about entities in the Scriptures

15

Ibid., 247. Erickson, 457. 9

16

especially in the Old Testament and because of this premise the knowledge and understanding of angels is crucial and must not be treated as inconsequential.17 Grudem explains about angels and he says that the purpose of their existence is to be instruments through which the love of God can be revealed to us.18 They are created to worship the Lord and to serve the people of God by becoming emissaries to humans from God.19 With this truth in mind, I will transport my culture from the misunderstanding of what angels and spirits really are and how they must approach them, not as divine beings, but as messengers sent by God to them. The dispensation of Angels are not over as some scholars posit, but their presence is still important to the Lord by sending them to fulfill what He pleases in the life of humans. To say that they are no more useful to humans since we have the complete counsel of God imprinted in the Bible is to establish the view that they no longer exist. Grudem enlightens us about this truth and adds a caution that though they are useful to God and to man as well in these last days, but their work must be probed and examined with carefulness having the Scriptures as the benchmark and yardstick.20 Demons are angels who are considered as evil because of their disobedience and rebellion against God.21 Christians must come to the point of the realization that demons are evil, but their presence must not cause us to shudder and despise the power of God to protect us from the clutches of satanic and demonic attacks. They are indeed powerful, but Gods power transcends theirs and they can only inflict us with pain and sicknesses only when God allows them. They are

17

Grudem, 397-401. Ibid., 402. Erickson, 468-69. Grudem, 402-08. Erickson, 470-73. 10

18

19

20

21

destined for an everlasting torture in the lake of fire for they will be bound at a specified time in the future.22 Ghanaians uphold the existence of God in high esteem and they never challenge Gods creation and power over the world. Their belief in God attracts their belief in a God who created everything seen and experienced in this world. Mans origin is attributed to this Supernatural Being who created all things. There has never been a time that mans existence is attributed to anything apart from God by Ghanaians. Grudem establishes the view that God was not under any obligation to create man in order to make Him more powerful as God. Nevertheless, He according to His sovereign will created man to glorify Himself and by virtue of this, man exists to extend worship and glory to his Creator.23 The belief in God as the Creator of everything known and unknown must attract a heart of worship to this Creator. Africans in general undoubtedly believe in a God who created all things, but they are oblivious or possibly negligent of the consequences that lie behind the knowledge of a truth. They believe in God, but deny Him the worship that due Him and instead they serve other created beings. Grudem explains the image and likeness of God in man as the entity that affirms the view that God created man like Himself.24 This premise must instill fear and dread in man not to see other people regardless of their physical state as anything less than a likeness of God. Erickson sees this image of God in man as a fulcrum around which the beingness of man revolves.25 This image defines the reality and identity of man. In my opinion, the fall of man unequivocally displaced man from a pious state to a polluted state, but the fall did not displace or even distort this image of God in man. If
22

Ibid., 474-75; Grudem, 412. Grudem, 431-42. Grudem, 442-50. Erickson, 493-95. 11

23

24

25

it did, then I see man as no different from other created beings after the fall. Sin corrupted mans physical and spiritual essence, but the image of God was created as immaterial and uncontrolled by man. God had the same view about His image in man after the fall as it was before the fall. This is affirmed by His command to Noah after the flood. He instructed Noah to make it a law that whosoever kills another man will be put to death and God underlines the reason to this and says: for in the image of God made he man (Gen 9:6). I stand to differ from scholars view that this image was defaced and obliterated by sin (John Gill) and injured by the fall (Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown), because it is how we treat the image of God in other men that taints this image. Killing a fellow human being is an opposition to divine will and purpose. It is killing the image of God. Erickson explains that Gods image in man was not lost because of sin for Gods commands against the killing other people was both to those who worshipped Him and those who did not worship Him. He sees the image of God in man as not coincidental or outside the confines of human existence.26 The end of the matter is that to say that this image was distorted after the fall is to believe that everyone born by man or woman has a distorted imago dei. This view is heresy because it makes Jesus no different from us as carrying a distorted image, because He professed and paraded to be fully man. Jesus incarnation as God manifested in flesh as hundred percent man affirms the certainty that man did not lose his decorum created by Gods image in him after his sin in the Garden of Eden. Gods image in him remained perfect and intact, but his human nature was defaced, obliterated, depraved, and injured by sin. This means Christs death and resurrection will metamorphose man from a sinful human state (minds and hearts being sullied by sin) to a perfect spiritual state as Jesus was.

26

Ibid., 531-34. 12

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created man male and female (Gen 1:27). Grudem explains that both sexes are created by God to exist as unified entities.27 Relationship is the crux of Gods creation of man and woman. The topic of who is the most important of these sexes must not be brooked because after the creation of man and woman, God exclaimed that it was very good (Gen 1:31). Not only was the man created very good, but the woman too was created very good. Erickson sees the relationship between man and woman as having nothing to do with importance. He explicates that the woman created as helper does not make her inferior to the man. He explains the root meaning of the word and says that it is being a co-worker and co-enabler to the man.28 The culture of Ghana has grown from a state of women being subjected to being subservient to man to the state whereby women are considered as important. Girls were commanded not to think of going to school, but they were relegated to the kitchen with their mothers to only know how to cook and serve a man. The girl child was inferior to a boy child. Families who gave birth to a boy child were given the accolades of having produced a human being. On the contrary, families were not praised for given birth to a girl child. Africans believe that the extension of ones family is dependent solely on the boy child (paternity) and never the girl child (maternity). These discriminatory concepts are obsolete these days and now the girl child is seen as equally important as the boy child. They are allowed to go to school and become whom they were created to be. Before, girls were mutilated29 to stop them
27

Grudem, 454-59. Erickson, 563-64.

28

Female mutilation involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs. It is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. The practice also violates a person's rights to health, security, and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death to some girls definition by World Health Organization. 13

29

from experiencing sexual pleasure when they marry, because the cultures in Africa believed that if the woman enjoys sex, she will jump from one man to another. This inhuman practice is banned in many African countries and culprits are brought to book if they are found indulging in it. This discrimination between the boy and the girl has taken entrenched positions in the schools where boys are derided and put to scorn when a girl excels over them in their studies. The boy is considered to have an excelling mind than the girl. These days, the culture has come to know that if the girl child is given the leeway and the latitude in the same way like the boy child, they will be equally excellent in every sphere of life. There are many women doctors and lawyers now and this premise has denied other people the opportunity to revive the old discrimination against women. Women preachers are loved and accepted by the African society and not only men are causing revival in Ghana, but the women too. Gods rule concerning the man as the head of the family is established in Ghana societies. The father is seen as a god figure who needs to be revered and feared. The only area where the women cannot make headway in the Ghanaian society is in the area of politics. It is still an exercise in futility for a woman to run for presidency. They are voted as ministers in parliament, but until now, no woman has ever run for presidency or vice presidency, let alone being appointed into a highest office. This reality does not make the woman inferior to the man as it was in the past, but since truth must be given the leeway to percolate and disseminate with the passage of time, the future will be the judge whether women will be voted into office as presidents or not. The defense of the equality of man and woman does not involve their roles. Man is given the role to lead, whereas the woman supports and assists the man in his leadership responsibility.30

30

Grudem, 459-63. 14

The views about man created with only two parts (body and soul) and that of being created in three parts (body, soul, and spirit) have been a debate on the theological platform. The views about the body are not challenged except those that concerns the soul and the spirit. According to Grudem, many scholars debate that the soul and the spirit cannot be separated and when the Bible speaks of the soul, it is also referring to the spirit.31 The Bible speaks of the soul as the part that enforces existence meaning it is the animated element of man the source of life (Gen 2:7; 12:13; 17:14; 19:20; 12:15 etc). The soul is affected by external elements, while the spirit is the faculty that gets revived through encouragement and it gets dumped and troubled by discouragements via outside pressures (Gen 41:8; 45:27; Ex 6:9 etc). The word spirit used in the Old Testament for man is the same word God uses referring to His own Spirit (Gen 1:2, 6:3 etc). In the same vein, God gives to man the spirit of wisdom and of knowledge, but we cannot say God gives to man the soul of wisdom and knowledge (Ex 28:3, 31:3, 35:31 etc). In Job, Elihu referred to himself as being created by the Spirit of God and the breath of God has given him life (Job 33:4, 14). This to some extent established the difference between spirit and soul, which is also referred to as breath in the Bible. God does not put ones soul into another person, but He impacts one with anothers spirit or possibly He impacts one with anothers strength or anointing (Num 11:17). To say a few, the Bible categorically explains the differences between the soul and the spirit, however, sometimes it seemingly uses both interchangeably, for example David explains in the psalms that no guile is in the spirit of the man whom the LORD imputes no iniquity (Ps 32:2). This verse seems to connect the man with the spirit but it also affirms that the psalmist sees the spirit as located in the man himself. This defines the habitation of the spirit in the soul (the man). If the soul and spirit are not different and must be seen as the same, then,

31

Ibid., 472. 15

we are saying we can emphasize on the fact that God has a soul, when He talks about His Spirit.32 These readings have inspired me to have a second thought about my views concerning, God, angels and man. In the past, I held many views concerning Gods dealings with man and how He created man to exist to glorify Him. Many Ghanaians are still fixated with wrong understanding about God and demons as well as man that I am ready to avail myself for God to use me to bring them from ignorance to knowledge so that Gods will and purpose for their lives will be established.

32

Grudem, 472. 16