Lesson video

Hi everyone.

It's great to see you today.

My name is Mrs. Day and I'm going to teach you some R E.

So over the next few lessons, we are going to look at Christian beliefs and practises.

So, what do Christians believe and why do they do certain things? So we're going to start with Christian beliefs and our title today is, the nature of God.

So feel free to write this down and you might want to get a piece of paper and write down your title.

So the first thing that would be great if you could get is a pen or a pencil and a piece of paper.

If you have a different coloured pen that would be really useful.

So, you can mark your work after you complete it.

Feel free to pause the video and go to get this before we start.

In today's lesson, we will be focusing on two main things.

So firstly, we are going to look at lots of different ways that Christians might describe God.

So, that is what is called character like.

How would Christians describe God to someone if they had to? And secondly, we are going to look at the creation story.

Lots of you have probably heard this story before.

We're going to look at the story, but we're also going to think about where we see God's character in this story.

And then finally, we're going to do a little bit of question practise at the end.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

And so I'm sure you've all heard some beliefs about God in Christianity.

You might have heard friends talk about God.

You might just have general ideas from being around other people and hearing what they think of God.

But today we're going to look at what some Christians would say about God.

And if we can see these characteristics in the creation story.

As we start, think about the character of God.

We need to think about what this word nature actually means.

Our title today is, what is the nature of God.

But that's quite a strange phrase that we don't use that much.

So, if I ask what the nature of someone is, what am I talking about? You can quickly write down an idea or just have a think, what might that mean? So the nature of someone is what an individual is naturally like? So you might have heard someone described as good natured.

And if someone says that it just means, they're good person.

They have a good personality.

They mean well, they want to help other people.

So, what your nature is, is what you're naturally like.

So when we asked this about God, all we are asking is what is God naturally like? So that is a really big question.

What is God naturally like? So before we look at some ideas, what I would like you to do is pause the video and bullet point some ideas of how you think Christians might describe God.

So how might a Christian describe the nature of God? What words might they use? So pause the video now and have a go at just writing down a few different words.

Well done.

I'm sure you've got some great ideas on your sheet of paper.

So now let's have a look at some of the key terms that Christians use to describe God.

And you can see if any of your ideas match up to the words that we are going to look at now.

So, what is the nature of God? Let me take you through a few phrases that Christians might use.

So firstly, we have this word omnipotent.

So God is omnipotent, which means all powerful.

A little trick when you're trying to remember that is, there's a p o in omnipotent and a p o at the start of powerful.

So if you forget, just look at the p o.

Secondly, we have the word omnibenevolent.

So God is omnibenevolent which means all loving.

Again, we have a little trick to help you remember this.

If you look at omnibenevolent, you will notice that the word love is actually in that word backwards.

So, if you look at that word and you get confused, find love spelled backwards in it.

Then we have God is eternal.

And if something is eternal that means that it lasts forever.

So this means that God has no starting point and no end.

And finally, God is creator.

This means that he made everything.

He created the whole world.

If you would like to take a minute to write these words down, you can.

Remember your little tricks to remember omnipotent and omnibenevolent.

So let's go through those one more time.

Omnipotent, all powerful.

Omnibenevolent, all loving.

Eternal, last forever.

Creator, made everything.

So now we have to learn about the different key terms that Christians use to describe God.

We are going to see what you can remember.

So, you're going to get some questions on the big screen.

I want you to write down your answer and then I will show you the correct answer.

Are you ready? Firstly, choose the correct definition of omnipotent.

Write down the one you think or point at it if that's easier.

Three, two, one.

All powerful.

Well done if you got that.

Secondly, choose the correct definition of eternal.

Is it all loving or is it last forever? You can point at the screen.

Three, two, one.

Last forever.

Well done if you go that.

Thirdly, choose the correct definition of Omnibenevolent.

This is a little bit trickier.

You now have four words to choose from.

You have all powerful, all knowing.

Made everything or all loving.

Please point at the word you think is correct.

Three, two, one.

All loving.

Well done if you got that.

Another four word question, choose the correct definition of creator.

All powerful, all knowing, made everything or all loving.

Three, two, one.

Made everything.

Now we're going to do two questions that are slightly different style.

So, does this picture represent omnipotent or Omnibenevolent? So, you need to point that word or write to down.

Do you think this picture represents omnipotent or omnibenevolent.

Three, two, one.

Omnipotent.

Well done.

We have another question of this style.

So does this picture represent God being eternal or go be Omnibenevolent? I will give you a second or two to make your choice.

Three, two, one.

Omnibenevolent.

Well done.

And now this is a little bit harder because we have given you the definition and you need to find the key term.

So choose the correct definition for the key term, all loving.

Please point at the word that you think it is.

Remember the little tricks to help you remember the key terms. Is it omnipotent, eternal, omnibenevolent or creator? Three, two, one.

Omnibenevolent.

Well done everyone, you did really well there.

So now is the time to test yourself.

What I would like you to do now is to pause the video and to try to define each of the key terms. So on your piece of paper, you need to write down one to four, and try to write down the correct definition beside the words.

You can pause the video now and have a go.

Well done.

So, now here are your answers.

So you can mark your own.

Choose a different coloured pen.

Eternal, lasts last forever.

Omnibenevolent, all loving.

Creator, made everything.

And finally omnipotent is all powerful.

So, what we're going to do now is to have a look at the creation story.

You now your key terms, so now it's time to look at a story from the Bible and see if you can spot God's character in this story.

We're going to have a think about what happened in the creation story and where we see God's character in that.

So, as it says on the slide, in the book of Genesis, it says that God created the world in seven days.

God created different parts of the universe in the first six days and rested on the seventh.

So Christians believe that God formed the world by himself.

He created it in seven days.

We read about this in the book of Genesis.

We read of God creating everything in the world.

But, it also tells us what God made on each day.

So I'm going to tell you a little bit about what God made on, each day of creation.

So on day one, it said that God said, let there be light and there was light.

And on day one, God created light and darkness, a day and a night.

Then came date two.

And on day two, it said that God created the sky that you can see all around you.

On day three, it says that God created the sea and the land.

He separated the sea from the land.

Day four, it says that God created the sun and moon and the stars and the sky.

And then we have day five.

And on day five we have fish and the birds.

So, it says in the Bible that God creates all the creatures that swim in the sea and fly in the sky.

And then finally we get today six.

And on day six, God creates all the animals on the land and human beings.

And what's really important about day six is that the Bible tells us that God creates human beings in his image.

And then after day six, we have day seven.

And on day seven, God rests.

You might wonder why we have a holy day or a Sunday when Christians go to church and they call it a day of rest, that is where the day of rest comes from.

And what's really interesting about the story is, at the end of every day, the Bible says God looks at what he's made and he says it is good.

So that is the creation story and I'm sure lots of you might have heard that story before.

And if you're interested, you can go and research and find out lots more about it.

If you look at Genesis chapter one in the Bible, you can read the whole story.

But for this lesson, we are just going to focus on the first five verses of this story.

So, I'm going to read to you the first five verses of Genesis chapter one.

You can follow along on the screen.

In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate.

The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness.

And the Spirit of God was moving on the water.

Then God commanded, "let there be light", and light appeared.

God was pleased with what he saw.

Then he separated the light from the darkness and he named the light day and the darkness night.

Evening passed and morning came.

That was the first day.

So those are the first five verses of the whole Bible.

And they speak of God's creation.

So, you're going to do a task using these verses.

I'm going to show you a worksheet in a minute or two.

And on that worksheet, you have to find where you see God's character in these five verses.

So where can you spot God being omnipotent? Remember that means all powerful.

Where can we see God being omnipotent in these five verses? Where can you spot God be omnibenevolent, all loving in these five verses.

So this is the worksheet that you're going to complete.

As you can see, there's a table for you to fill in.

You have the five verses to the right hand side.

And all you have to do is fill in the table on the left hand side.

I have done the first one for you as an example.

So the key term is omnipotent and the definition as you all know now is all powerful.

And the quote that you could use as an example in the text is where it says God's commanded, "let there be light" and light appeared.

This quote shows you that God is all powerful, that God is a omnipotent.

So I would like you to do the same with the other three key terms. Now you need to pause your video to complete this task.

You can resume it once you have finished your task.

Well done.

Really, really well done.

Now we're going to go through some of your answers together.

So, God is eternal.

Where can we see that in the passage? If you look at the very first verse it says, in the beginning when God created the universe the earth was formless and desolate.

How does that show us that God is the eternal? Well, it shows us that God was there in the very beginning.

It says in the beginning God created.

For God to create it has to have be there.

So that shows us that God is eternal.

Secondly, God as omnipotent, this is the one that we did together.

So then God commanded, "let there be light" and light appeared.

That shows that God is all powerful.

I have never just created light when I've said the words, let there be light.

But this shows that God is omnipotent.

The third one is God as omnibenevolent.

This one's a little bit trickier, but the first that I picked out was God looked at everything he had made and he was very pleased.

And Christians believe that for God to make something that he is pleased with for human beings to enjoy shows his love.

Christians believe that God's creation of this world for people to enjoy and make the most of shows that he is all loving.

Finally, God as creator, I think you could use pretty much anything in that passage to talk about God as creator.

But what I looked at? The verse that I chose was God looked at everything he had made and he was very pleased.

This verse shows that God created everything.

And it says God looked at everything he had made.

Really well done on this.

You might have find some verses that I haven't chosen.

If they still show that God has that character, that's great.

You can use those.

Really well done on that task.

What I would like you to do now is to practise writing this on paper.

Because I know that when you're in school, you have to also write down answers.

And we need to work on our writing style.

So you might get a question that says, explain two of God's characteristics.

We know four of God's characteristics.

So you can choose any two that you like.

When we're writing in paragraphs like this, it's important that we look at the word explain.

If we just write down omnipotent, that's not going to get us very many marks because we haven't explained it.

So I've helped you to do this by writing some sentence starters in the white box.

So you can follow the sentence starters.

I will do one with you now to give you an idea.

So I might say, one of God's characteristics is, that he is omnipotent.

For example, in Genesis it's said, and God's commanded, "let there be light" and there was light.

I would put those in quotation marks.

They shows that he is omnipotent or all powerful because he had the par to say four words and create light.

That's really good paragraph.

You have given your point.

You've given a piece of evidence from the Bible and you've explained what it means and how it shows God's power.

So you can use that structure and do it with two other characteristics of God.

You can pause the video now and resume once you have finished Really well done everyone, okay? I am so impressed with all your hard work today.

I think you've done really well and I hope that you now I understand key terms that describes God's character or the nature of God, the creation story, and where we see God's character in that story and how to write about it in a structured way.

Really well done and I'm so looking forward to seeing you next time for another lesson on Christian beliefs.

Finally, if you would like to share any of the amazing work that you've done today, please feel free to ask a parent or care to share your work on any of these social media platforms and type @OakNational, #LearnwithOak in your post.

Thank you so much for joining us today, and I can't wait to see you again soon.