Doctrine of God
The Doctrine of God: What the Bible Teaches About Who God Is
Explore the doctrine of God through biblical studies on who God is, how He has revealed Himself, His self-existence and independence, His triune life, His revealed names, His sovereignty in suffering, and why knowing Him shapes worship, trust, prayer, obedience, and everyday life.
The doctrine of God is the biblical study of who God is. It considers His nature, character, attributes, names, works, and triune life as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not abstract theology for specialists. What we believe about God shapes how we understand Scripture, worship, grace, holiness, prayer, suffering, salvation, and ourselves.
Divine self-existence means that God has life in Himself. He was not caused, created, or brought into being by anything outside Himself. This truth is often called God’s aseity, a theological term describing God’s life in and from Himself.
God’s independence from creation means that He does not need the universe, humanity, worship, service, or anything He has made in order to exist, remain complete, or be God. Creation depends entirely upon Him, but He depends upon nothing outside Himself.
God’s names are also part of His self-revelation. Through them, He makes His character, authority, covenant faithfulness, and relationship with His people known.
God’s sovereignty means that He creates, sustains, governs, and redeems according to His wisdom and purposes. Scripture does not promise believers freedom from suffering, but it does teach that God remains present, powerful, faithful, and at work even when His purposes are difficult for us to understand.
This page gathers Breakwater Blessings studies on the names, character, nature, glory, holiness, love, wisdom, providence, sovereignty, faithfulness, and triune life of God.
Start here
How Has God Made Himself Known?
The Doctrine of God begins with revelation rather than speculation. We do not define God according to imagination, preference, emotion, or cultural pressure. We know Him because He has made Himself known through His works, through His written Word, and most fully through Jesus Christ.
Begin with “God Makes Himself Known.” This opening study establishes the foundation for everything that follows.
Published study path
Continue through the Doctrine of God series
Read the published studies in order, beginning with how God makes Himself known and continuing through His self-existence, triune life, revealed names, sovereignty, providence, and faithfulness in suffering.
- God Makes Himself Known : We do not define God from imagination or preference. We know Him because He has revealed Himself through creation, Scripture, and supremely through Jesus Christ.
- The Living God: God’s Self-Existence and Independence : God does not depend on anything outside Himself. He has life in Himself, and everything else depends entirely on Him.
- God Is Relational: A Short Study on the Trinity : The one true God eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- The Names of God: How God Makes Himself Known : God’s names reveal His character, authority, covenant faithfulness, and relationship with His people.
- God’s Sovereignty in Suffering : Explore how God’s providence, sovereignty, human responsibility, suffering, and redemption fit together, and why Christians can trust Him even when life does not make sense.
Continue through the Doctrine of God resources below.
We do not define God from imagination, preference, or experience. We know Him because He has made Himself known.
God’s names and titles reveal His character, authority, covenant faithfulness, and relationship with His people.
God is utterly set apart in purity, glory, and moral perfection, yet He is also faithful, loving, merciful, and good.
God is sovereign over creation and history. His providence does not mean suffering is unreal, but that suffering never places His people outside His presence, power, or redemptive purposes.
Common questions
Questions this page helps answer
- How has God made Himself known?
- What does it mean that God is self-existent?
- What does the Trinity teach us about God?
- What do the names of God reveal about who He is?
- How can Christians trust God’s sovereignty in suffering?
- How does Jesus reveal the God of the Old Testament?
- What does God’s Law reveal about His character?
- How do God’s holiness and mercy meet in redemption?
- How does covenant reveal the faithfulness of God?
- Can Christians trust God’s providence when life feels uncertain?
Coming studies
Continue exploring who God is
Additional studies will continue building this biblical path through God’s holiness, goodness, wisdom, faithfulness, unchanging nature, and glory.
A study on God’s purity, glory, moral perfection, and the seriousness of worship.
A study on holy love, covenant mercy, goodness, patience, and the character revealed in Christ.
A study on the God whose knowledge is perfect and whose ways are deeper than ours.
A study on God’s faithfulness, immutability, promises, and why His people can trust Him.
A study on God as the center, goal, and highest good of all things.
A study on doctrine that does not end in information, but reverence, obedience, and delight.
Featured Doctrine of God and theology articles
Read more by topic
The opening Doctrine of God study on general revelation, special revelation, Scripture, and God’s supreme self-revelation in Jesus Christ.
A study of God’s aseity, independence, fullness of life, and the complete dependence of creation upon Him.
A study on the triune life of God and why love, fellowship, and communion belong near the center of Christian doctrine.
A study of YHWH, Elohim, El Shaddai, Adonai, Father, and other biblical names and titles that reveal God’s character and covenant faithfulness.
A study of creation, providence, sovereignty, human responsibility, evil, suffering, and the promise that God remains present and faithful to His people through suffering.
How Jesus read Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms as witnesses to His identity and mission.
How Scripture reveals Christ through kingship, suffering, temple, sacrifice, forgiveness, and divine presence.
How God’s law reveals His heart and how the Psalms teach His people to respond in worship.
A study on redemption, holiness, substitution, and belonging to God through the pattern of Numbers 3.
A covenant study on God’s promise, faithfulness, forgiveness, and eternal rescue.
A study on covenant restoration, God’s promise, and the transformation His people need.
Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6 applied to the Father’s care, provision, and call to trust.
The broader study hub for doctrine, Scripture, covenant, Christ in the Old Testament, and Christian life.
Related doctrine
Union with Christ belongs on its own path
To know God rightly also changes how we understand salvation. The God who saves does not merely forgive from a distance. He joins His people to Christ and makes them His own.
That doctrine is closely related to the Doctrine of God, but it deserves its own landing page because it focuses on what God does for His people in Christ and who believers become in Him.
Recently published
Latest Doctrine of God Studies
-
God’s Sovereignty in Suffering
God never promised His people a life without suffering. He promised something stronger: His presence, His rule, His…
-
The Names of God: How God Makes Himself Known
God’s names are more than titles. They are forms of divine self-revelation through which God makes His character,…
-
What Does It Mean That God Is Self-Existent?
God has life in Himself and depends on nothing outside Himself for His existence, fullness, or glory. Because…
-
How Does God Make Himself Known? | Doctrine of God, Part 1
Many people believe in “God,” but Scripture teaches us that God must define Himself. This study introduces the…
-
Doctrine of God Bible Study Series: Who God Is
The Doctrine of God is a short Bible study series exploring who God is as revealed in Scripture,…
-
What Does the Trinity Teach Us About God?
The Trinity is one of the deepest mysteries of the Christian faith, but mystery should not keep us…
“You have said, ‘Seek my face.’
My heart says to you,
‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’”
Stay Anchored
Stay anchored in Christ and guided by Scripture.
Receive new Bible studies, apologetics articles, Christian living reflections, and relationship resources from Breakwater Blessings.
No spam. Just thoughtful Christian resources when something new is published.