To think of God in terms of anything else in the created universe is to misrepresent him, to limit him, to think of him as less than he really is. Does God suffer infinitely in every suffering of his creatures? in him is the yea"; Norn. We have the ground of our existence outside of us. relation to the disobedient and to the obedient portions of his creatures. . It is the moat tremendous of energies, in unsleeping movement. Like birds in the air or fish in the sea, "at home, abroad, We are surrounded still with God." All change must Vie to better or to worse. 32 : 23—"B« sure your sin will find you out"; Heb. God isn’t made of matter, has no parts or dimensions, cannot be perceived by our bodily senses, and is more excellent than any other kind of existence. Christ's coming and work were no sudden makeshift, to remedy unforeseen defects in the Old Testament scheme: Christ came rather in "the fulness of the time" (Gal. For all practical purposes we may use the words essence, substance, being, nature, as synonymous with each other. In one sense, we must not forget that there is a basic incommunicability of even these attributes, for insofar as such things as the love and goodness of God are infinite, we cannot imitate them. • Yet time and space are not mihttanvcs; neither are they attrilmtex (qualities of substance); they are rather relations of Unite existence. CMlLaw: See Hobbes, Leviuthan, part i, chap. Deut 32 : 40—" For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, is I live forever ...;" Ps. will (Occam, Descartes). (a) The immanent love of God is not to be confounded with mercy and goodness toward creatures. God approves and determines every action necessary for the existence and activity of himself and all creation. Erroneous Views. It follows that the nature of the attributes Is to be illustrated, not alone or chiefly from wisdom and holiness in man. God is active within His Creation. He is not confined to the dimension of space. Harris, Fhllos. The phrase here translated “all things” (ta panta) is used frequently by Paul to refer to everything that exists or everything in creation (for example, Ephesians 1:10, 23, 3:9, 4:10; Colossians 1:16, 17; Romans 11:36; 1 Corinthians. In context, the rhetorical question, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:27) implies that nothing is too hard for the Lord. When God declared his name to Moses, he proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). Love Is therefore possible only between persons, and always presupposes personality. But if soul may be omnipresent in the body oreven in the brain, the divine Spirit may be omnipresent in the universe. God is not under the law of time. 104: 24—" In wisdom hast thou made them all;" Eph. Doct., 166; H. W. Bcecher: "Holiness = wholeness.". The beauty of our lives is so important to Christ that his purpose now is to sanctify the entire church “that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). Paul’s statement might be more explicitly translated, “who continually brings about everything in the universe according to the counsel of his will.”. One. He, as the creator, will always have unique attributes his creation cannot possess. The will by which God exists, and in virtue of which he is mum siii, is therefore not will in the sense of volition, but will in the sense of the whole movement of his active being. . I AM THAT I AM : and he said, Thus shall thou sar unto the children of Israel. See Hovey, God with Us, 187-221; Philippl, Glnubenslehre, 2: 80-82; Thomaslus, Christi Person und Werk, 154,155,346-353; Lange, Pos. “I the Lord speak the truth, I declare what is, “I have seen this people . The one essence of God is present at the same moment in all. 44 : 28—" that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure." Instructor: By Absolute or Immanent Attributes, we mean attributes which respect the inner being of God, which are involved in God's relations to himself, and which belong to his nature independently of his connection with the universe. (a) In virtue of his veracity, all his revelations to creatures consist with his esseutial being and with each other. MORALLY PERFECT: The following are the moral attributes of God; they are listed here together because God’s moral nature is perfectly unified, with no tension between His wrath and His love, for example. The attributes may be divided into two great classes: Absolute or Immanent, and Relative or Transitive. one," but "I am he who is truth and the source of truth"—in other words, truth of being, not merely truth of expression. Yet space has an objective reality to God. Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 1: 138,13ft—" God's regard for the happiness of his creatures Mows from this self-communicating attribute of his nature. Tri-Personality. God may foreknow free acts, 1. Mercy is often emphasized where people are in misery or distress. “Will” is a communicable attribute because we exercise choice and make real decisions regarding the events of our lives. Alexander); for this nature of things is not ultimate, but has its ground in the nature of God. The Biblical method. Is God passible, capable of suffering? 139: 2—" Understandest my thought afar off." Life means energy, activity, movement. Truth is not a scientific or moral, but a substantial, thing—" nicht SuhulSHche, sondern Lebenssache." (6) Nor in utility,—whether our own happiness or advantage present or eternal (Paley), for supreme regard for our own interest is not virtuous; or the greatest happiness or advantage of being in general (Edwards), for we judge conduct to be useful because it is right, not right because it is useful. “No one is good but God alone” (Luke 18:19). Notice the distinction between absolute and relative, between immanent and transitive attributes. Any rational being- who kept the law would be perfect without God, and the moral centre of all intelligences would be outside of God" (Talbot). As there is a higher Mind than our mind, and a greater Heart than our heart, so there is a grander Will than our will. Since all such self-limitation is free, proceeding from neither external nor internal compulsion, it is the act and manifestation of God's power. 12 : 29- "Our God is a consuming Are —to all iniquity. Rev. Omnipresence (God is everywhere … Hence the existence of God is not a contingent but a necessary existence. God is called the “Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 1:8), a Greek term (, The angel Gabriel says to Mary, “With God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37), In Titus 1:2 he is called (literally) “the unlying God” or the “God who never lies.”. See also Hill, Divinity, 517. Some speak of natural and moral attributes. 10 : 24—"Correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger"; Es. The laws of mathematics are disclosures to us, notof the divine reason merely, for this would imply truth outside of and before God, but of the divine nature. (c) God's omnipresence is not necessary but free.—We reject the pantheistic notion that God is bound to the universe as the universe is bound to God. It is more probably eclectic, combining the results attained by many theologians, and applying the intuitions of perfection and causality which lie at the basis of all religious thinking. Thus, he is “a God of faithfulness” (Deuteronomy 32:4). Hurrls, Philos. Hal. As to future events, we may say with Whedon: "Knowledge take* them, not makes them." We do not, however, as will be seen further on, place the ground of moral obligation even in right, considered as an abstract principle; but place it rather In the moral excellence of him who is the personal Right and therefore the source of right. The poet says: "AGodall mercy is a God unjust." 3 :14—" And God said auto Moses. God's love is immutable, wise, holy. On space, see Porter, Human Intellect, 662; Hazard, Letters on Causation in Willing, appendix; Illb. Deut. From this it follows that the whole Logos can be united to and be present in the man Christ Jesus, while at the same time he fills and governs the whole universe; and that the whole Christ can be united to, and can be present in, the single believer, as fully ns if that believer were the only one to receive of his fulness. Aristotle: "Life Is energy of mind." That which conditions all is highest of all. (6) That the infinity of God does not involve his identity with 'the all,' or the sum of existence, nor prevent the coexistence of derived and finite beings to which he bears relation. 8: 32—" freely give us all things "; 1 John 4:10—" Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. Holla/, (quoted in Thomasius, Christi Person und Wcrk, 1: 137 > says that " truth is the conformity of the divine essence with the divine intellect." Duns Scotus held that God's will makes not only truth but right. Yet even pictures of Christ soon lose their power. Therefore, he commands the people of Israel to tear down the altars of pagan gods in the land of Canaan, giving the following reason: “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14, Deuteronomy 4:24; 5:9). You shall love your neighbor as yourself ” (Matthew 22:37–38). But it may be said that foreknowing acts through their motives is not foreknowing at all, but is reasoning or inference rather. Conscience in man is but the reflex of holiness in God. (£>) As describing executions, in time, of purposes eternally existing in the mind of God. God is spirit. and that these deficiencies in our rational conclusions with respect to God must be supplied, if at all, by revelation. God does whatever he pleases. Paul says that God is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). God’s omnipotence refers to his power to do what he decides to do. Jacob Boehme said: "God Is infinite, for God is all." This Being of infinite greatness we clothe, by a necessity of our thinking, with all the attributes of perfection. “who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, He knows what we need before we ask him (Matthew 6:8), He knows the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30), He knows when we sit, when we rise, and what we think (Psalm 139:1–2), He knows words we will say before we speak them (Psalm 139:4), He knows the days of our lives before we are born (Psalm 139:16), He knows every possible future (1 Samuel 23:11–13). In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures” (Psalm 104:24). Holiness, the self-affirming attribute, can in no way be resolved into love, the self-communicating. “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8). Julius MUller, Doct. Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ says the Lord. The following explanations have been proposed. 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