286. As for God's inability to create the universe and everything in it except as a person, this is something a discerning individual can grasp very clearly on the following basis. Inwardly, we cannot deny that love and wisdom, mercy and forgiveness exist in God. God, as the source of what is good and true, is their essence. Since we cannot deny this, we cannot deny that God is a person, since none of these things can exist apart from a person. The person is their subject, and to separate them from their subject is to say that they do not exist.

Think of wisdom, and posit it outside a person. Is it anything? Can you conceive of it as something ethereal or flamelike? No, unless perhaps you think of it as within these things; and if it is within them, it must be wisdom in a form like ours. It must be in every aspect of that form. Nothing can be lacking if wisdom is to be within it.

In brief, the form of wisdom is human, and because a person is a form of wisdom, a person is also a form of love, mercy, forgiveness--of whatever is good and true, because these act in complete unison with wisdom.

On the fact that love and wisdom cannot occur except in some form, see above, 40-43.

Title: Each of Us is a Spiritual Battleground

Topic: Second Coming

Summary: The nuances of the battle that rages on inside each of us are discussed.

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
Isaiah 9:6-7
Numbers 21:15, 27
Luke 16:24
Romans 7:14, 15, 19, 22-25
Ephesians 6:12; 4:22-24
Galatians 5:17
2 Corinthians 10:3-6
1 Corinthians 2:3, 14
James 4:1-10
Revelation 12:7
Genesis 1:1, 6
2 Timothy 2:3, 15, 25
Judges 7:1
1 Samuel 13:5-7; 14:1, 5
Ecclesiastes 11:3
1 Samuel 14:11-15, 23, 52; 17:45
2 Samuel 3:1
Revelation 3:8
Hebrews 12:26
Matthew 15:7, 9, 23, 25-28
Revelation 22:11
Isaiah 9:6