The Greatness Of God – A Study Of God Chart

How to Read the “Study of God” Chart and Use It as a Research Tool

The purpose of this page is to help readers use the chart at a glance, understand every component correctly, and turn its visual structure into repeatable Bible study steps that yield sound doctrine. The guide is deliberately people-first, text-governed, academically careful, and practical.

1) What the Chart Is and Is Not

What it is: a single-page map of the doctrine of God, often called theology proper, designed for conservative grammatical-historical study. It integrates biblical categories such as revelation, names, attributes, works, and persons with study workflows and visual navigation cues.

What it is not: a speculative system, a philosophical replacement for Scripture, or a substitute for the biblical text. The chart shows where to look and how doctrinal components connect; Scripture remains the authority and source of doctrine.

2) The Big Picture: How the Components Fit Together

Most readers can grasp the chart by thinking in four concentric rings.

1. Core: God Himself. The center denotes God’s self-existence and uniqueness. Everything else orbits this reality.
2. First ring: Revelation. General revelation and special revelation explain how we know God. Doctrine downstream remains accountable to what God has revealed.
3. Second ring: The being and attributes of God. Incommunicable attributes anchor God’s God-ness; communicable attributes guide imitation, worship, and ethical response.
4. Third ring: The Trinity, decrees, and works of God. Creation, providence, redemption, and consummation flow from God’s wise counsel and are carried out by the one triune God.

Surrounding frames include the names and titles of God, covenant presence and worship, and the biblical-theological storyline from creation to consummation.

3) Legend: Symbols, Colours, and Arrows

• Colours mark categories such as being and attributes, revelation, Trinity and persons, works, names and titles, and method notes.
• Solid arrows show theological derivation: revelation governs doctrine, and God’s decrees stand behind His works.
• Dashed arrows show cross-links, such as holiness and worship or love and mercy, without implying logical priority.
• Numbers supply a suggested reading order for new readers.
• Brackets or superscripts may distinguish primary passages from secondary witnesses or OT/NT clusters.

4) How to Read the Chart Step by Step

1. Start at the core reality of God Himself.
2. Move to revelation and note the channels of general and special revelation.
3. Scan the attributes, distinguishing incommunicable and communicable attributes.
4. Visit the Trinity panel and confirm unity of essence with real personal distinctions.
5. Follow decrees into works: creation, providence, redemption, and consummation.
6. Check the names and titles of God as cues for character and covenant presence.
7. End with worship and response: fear of the Lord, trust, obedience, prayer, and mission.

5) Worked Examples

A. Holiness → Worship

God’s holiness denotes His moral purity and majestic otherness. From the holiness node, follow the chart into worship and response, then cross-link to atonement and redemption to see how unholiness is addressed. The outcome is reverent approach to God through the provision He gives in the gospel.

B. Love ↔ Justice

God’s love and justice are not competitors. The chart trains the reader to avoid false oppositions and to see how mercy, righteousness, propitiation, reconciliation, and covenant faithfulness meet in redemption.

C. Trinity → Providence

The providence node should be read through the doctrine of inseparable operations: the one God works indivisibly, while Scripture fittingly highlights personal roles. This protects teaching on providence from modalism and tritheism.

6) Method Cues Embedded in the Chart

• Original-language prompts anchor definitions in usage, not English glosses alone.
• Textual variants should be noted only where they materially change sense.
• Jewish thought horizon keeps themes such as covenant faithfulness, Name, Presence, theophany, incarnation, and Spirit indwelling inside Scripture’s own categories.
• No allegorising means the chart models canonical connections invited by the text rather than imaginative overlays.

7) Free-Will/Provisionist and Dispensational Readings

Because the chart is exegetical first, it can display different theological datasets without making slogans do the work. Free-Will/Provisionist readers can highlight divine initiative with genuine human response. Dispensational readers can attend to the Israel/Church distinction and the future of Israel while acknowledging graft-in blessings for the nations. Reformed or Calvinist contrasts may be mapped under decrees and providence for clarity, provided every claim remains governed by exegesis.

8) Turning the Chart into a Repeatable Study Workflow

1. Select a node, such as truth, faithfulness, holiness, providence, or glory.
2. Collect primary and secondary texts listed with that node.
3. Analyze language in context and avoid word-study fallacies.
4. Trace storyline and cross-links across covenant, Christ, Spirit, and consummation.
5. Synthesize and apply: doctrine should move toward worship, ethics, and mission.

9) Quality, Accuracy, and Citations

Scripture references are provided for every doctrinal movement. The page avoids unverified claims and defines terms by contextual biblical usage. Suggested conservative references for deeper study include Henry C. Thiessen, Jack Cottrell, Robert E. Picirilli, Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Leon Morris, and Ben Witherington III.

If quotations are added later, add precise page citations at publication stage. This page functions as a method and map, not as an anthology of secondary quotations.

10) Common Pitfalls the Chart Helps You Avoid

1. Flattening the attributes into one abstract quality.
2. Opposing love and justice.
3. Losing the Trinity in application.
4. Proof-text chaining without pericope, syntax, and context.
5. Neglecting worship as the proper end of theology.

11) How the Chart Supports Writing, Teaching, and Sermon Prep

• Writing: convert any node into definition, exegesis, cross-link discussion, and pastoral application.
• Teaching: project the chart, zoom into one attribute, read two texts, and end with worship practice.
• Sermons: place the doctrine in redemptive history and call hearers to response.

12) FAQs

Is this chart philosophical or biblical?

It is biblical in intent. It is organized by Scriptural categories such as revelation, attributes, works, and Trinity, and it points the reader back to texts rather than speculative axioms.

Why separate incommunicable and communicable attributes?

The distinction protects God’s transcendence while also showing the moral perfections believers reflect analogically.

How does the chart handle debates about sovereignty and freedom?

It displays relevant data and invites careful synthesis rather than slogan battles.

Can I use the chart devotionally?

Yes, but start with exegesis. Let worship flow from what the text says.

Is there a recommended order?

Yes: Revelation → Attributes → Trinity → Works → Worship/Response.

13) On-Page SEO and Reader Experience

The page is structured around reader intent: it explains how to read a Study of God chart and how its parts connect. Short sections, clear headings, workflow steps, representative references, and local chart files support both human readers and machine-readable discovery.

14) Final Encouragement for Use

Keep the chart beside an open Bible. Choose one node, run the five-move loop, and conclude with one concrete act of worship or obedience. Over time, this produces many one-page syntheses that remain traceable to Scripture and useful for teaching.

Representative Scripture Index

• Revelation: Ps 19:1–11; Rom 1:18–23; Heb 1:1–3
• Being/Attributes: Exod 3:14; 34:6–7; Isa 6:3; Lev 19:2; 1 Pet 1:15–16; Ps 89:14; 1 John 4:8; Num 23:19
• Trinity: Matt 28:19; John 1:1–3; John 14–16; John 15:26; 2 Cor 13:14
• Decrees/Providence: Ps 135; Prov 16:33; Matt 6:25–34; Eph 1:11; Heb 1:3
• Redemption: Exod 12; Lev 16; Isa 53; Mark 10:45; Rom 3:21–26; Rom 5:6–11; 2 Cor 5:18–21; Eph 1:7; Col 1:13–14; Heb 9–10
• Consummation: Rom 8:18–25; Rev 21–22
• Worship/Response: Ps 96; Rom 11:33–36; Rom 12:1–2; Heb 12:28–29; John 4:23–24