The One God of the Scriptures
The knowledge of God's oneness was imparted through divine revelations to men, as recounted in the Old Testament. God told Israel, his chosen nation: “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4–5).
In the Old Testament, God speaks through the prophets, calling all nations: “Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God; there is no other. … To me every knee shall bend; by me every tongue shall swear, Saying, ‘Only in the LORD are just deeds and power’” (Isaiah 45:22–24).
God revealed himself to the people of Israel progressively, over time, but one of the most important revelations for the Old and New Covenants was when he told his divine name to Moses as he appeared to him in the burning bush: “I am who I am. … This is my name forever” (Exodus 3:14–15). The divine name is mysterious, and the Church believes it expresses God as infinitely beyond anything man can comprehend.
The qualities of God as revealed in the Old Testament are mercy and graciousness: “I will not give vent to my blazing anger. … For I am God and not man, the Holy One present among you” (Hosea 11:9). When the Israelites Moses led out of Egypt fell to worshiping the gold Calf, God heard Moses' prayer and agreed to walk amid the unfaithful to demonstrate his love. “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity” (Exodus 34:6).
The Church believes that God is unique and that he made Heaven and earth. He transcends the world and history, and he is enduring and unchanging. He remains ever faithful. Following the Hebrew Scriptures and tradition, the Church believes that “God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have from him. But he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1, II, 213).
The God of Truth and LoveThe God of the Scriptures is also known for his truth and his love. As the Psalms proclaim, “Your every word is enduring; all your just edicts are forever” (Psalms 119:160). The Church teaches that God is truth itself and that he can never deceive, so believers can fully trust in his word on all matters. God's truth is synonymous with his wisdom, which he can impart to man through revelation. God, who created Heaven and earth, knows about everything he created. Anything he reveals is true instruction, and he sent his Son into the world “to testify to the truth” (John 18:37).
The Church teaches that God's sole reason for establishing a covenant with the people of Israel was his pure, unsolicited love. Because of this love, God never stopped saving and forgiving the Israelites. The Scriptures characterize God's love for his people as boundless. It is compared to a father's love for his son; it is stronger than a mother's love for her children or a bridegroom's love for his beloved. God's love triumphed over the worst infidelities. His love for us is why God gave us his most precious gift: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).
The Church teaches that not only does God love us, God consists of love. God is an external exchange of love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and man is destined to share in that exchange.
God's love is also everlasting. “With age-old love I have loved you,” God tells his people through Jeremiah (31:3). The New Testament goes even further when it affirms that God's very being is love. According to the Gospel of John, “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16).
