Traditionally, the nature of God is perceived in Christianity through the lens of the Triune. Namely, God is seen as the omnipotent amalgamation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The specified interpretation also implies that God holds absolute power over every human being, as well as every element of nature and reality, in general. The specified notion of God is clearly communicated in Genesis 1:1-2: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (New International Version, 2011, 1:1-2). Therefore, the universe, as well as every creature that inhabits it, including people, represents God’s creation.
Furthermore, God is deemed as the omnipotent, or all-powerful, omniscient, or all-knowing, omnipresent, or all-present, and omnibenevolent, or embodying the concept of goodness. The described approach toward understanding the nature of God, in turn, has been the source of numerous discussions and disputes, mainly, due to the contradiction pointed out by St. Augustine (Okaneme, 2020, p. 2). Namely, given the presence of evil, the coexistence of characteristics of omnipotence and omnibenevolence in God might seem as contradictory (Collins, 2019, p. 87). However, on further consideration of this issue, one might note that the presence of evil may be interpreted as a part of the Divine Plan that people cannot fully understand and embrace. Thus, while the described dilemma has not been resolved fully, multiple solutions to it have been suggested.
In turn, the nature of humanity from the perspective of the Gospel is presented by the story of Adam and Eve. Namely, according to the Old Testament, the the human race emerged after God created Adam and Eve, giving them the responsibility of caring for Earth and granting them free will as the ability to make decisions and act according to the chosen options. Thus, it as the act of free will that encouraged Adam and Eve to abandon Heaven and succumb to sin, therefore, erasing the possibility of ever returning to the state of being sinless, which they has retained until their notorious fall. In turn, the misstep in question has contributed to shaping the origin of humanity to a tremendous extent, adding another component that would become an inherent property of the humankind and, therefore, be regarded as an inseparable part of its origin. Namely, the presence of sin as another vital component of the origin of humanity needs to be mentioned in order to encompass the entire complexity of the human nature according to the Gospel.
Thus, while being created to become an inseparable part of God’s Kingdom, the human race was tainted by the original sin, which would become an inalienable part of its origin, which remains the root cause of the problems that people encounter in their lives. Consequently, getting rid of the inherent sin and achieving redemption and the following salvation is seen as the ultimate purpose of the humankind (Nothwehr, 2019, p. 73). Overall, the Gospel portrays the dual nature of the humanity, emphasizing the presence of the divine force as one of the essential elements that crated the humankind, and simultaneously focusing on the inherent original sin as an inalienable part of the humankind. Thus, the nature of the human race should be seen as complex and requiring thorough theological discourse.
References
Collins, J. M. (2019). The evil-god challenge: Extended and defended. Religious Studies, 55(1), 85-109.
Nothwehr, D. M. (2019). For the salvation of the cosmos: The church’s mission of ecojustice. International Bulletin of Mission Research, 43(1), 68-81.
Okaneme, G. (2020). The problem of evil and the best of all possible worlds in leibniz’s theodicy: Philosophical excogitations. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 18(4), 1-19.
New International Version. (1983). Web.