Tag Archives: Attributes

God’s Omnipotence: Can He Defeat Evil?

In which men and women, wounded in body and soul, learn that God’s omnipotence is a promise of healing.

What do you think: Would debating the existence of Satan be more interesting? Or debating whether God can defeat evil?

Or is it the same discussion?

Interesting enough, the same image for is used for at Wikipedia. Hmm. Maybe Driscoll and Lobert plan to debate the existence of evil. And how God can defeat it.

Anyway, this is a good opportunity to talk about an often-disputed attribute of God: His omnipotence.

What Is Omnipotence?

Omnipotens. The Latin word for all powerful. Omni means all. Potent means powerful.

It is one of the three classical attributes–omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence.

The English Bible translates omnipotens “almighty” 56 times. And only applies it to God. It means God can do all things. Including defeating evil. But that will take a little time to answer. So pay attention.

Biblical Support for God’s Omnipotence

says that God is infinite in his knowledge. And if God is infinite in one attribute, he is infinite in all attributes. Including power.

The Bible also reveals God’s power in creation.

For example:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

In Jesus’ ministry, supernatural acts of power were seen in the miracle, and the .

And don’t forget does a good job of describing God’s power to complete his plan of salvation–the power Paul talks about in .

None of these activities can be performed without infinite power. And theologians throughout history agreed.

Historical Support for God’s Omnipotence

Some theologians wander into God’s omnipotence at random. Others, like Augustine, Calvin and Hodges, are led by overpowering desires.

God is rightly called omnipotent, even though He is unable to die or be deceived. We call Him omnipotent because He does whatever He wills to do and suffers nothing that He does not will to suffer.

God’s power is not just over the natural world. But over the moral world, too.

He is possessed of omnipotence, wherewith to maintain his dominion over the world; and he has dominion in the moral as well as the natural world.

And points to the place where our idea of absolute power comes from:

This simple idea of the omnipotence of God, that He can do without effort, and by a volition, whatever He wills, is the highest conceivable idea of power, and is that which is clearly presented in the Scriptures.

Furthermore, “Sovereignty of God and omnipotence must go together,” . “One cannot exist without the other. To reign, God must have power, and to reign sovereignly, He must have all power.”

Objections to God’s Omnipotence

But there are common objections to God’s omnipotence. Here are the three most common.

Objection 1: God cannot do everything, cause…. The punch line to this classical theologian stumper is if God created a rock so heavy he couldn’t lift it, he isn’t all powerful.

Quite contrary. Whatever God can make, he can move. Whatever he can create, he can destroy. Think .

Objection 2: If God is all good, God desires to save all people. However, the Bible is clear that God doesn’t save all people. So, God cannot be all powerful.

However, God can only save those who want to be saved. This is seen most dramatically in Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem. Forced salvation is a contradiction. God’s love compels, not coerces.

Objection 3: The problem of evil. The classical statement of evil says that an all good, all powerful God could and would want to defeat evil. But evil still exists. Hence, there can be no such god.

But there’s a possibility most agnostics and atheists overlook…

God does want to defeat evil. And he has the ability. Whoever has the desire and ability will defeat evil. In short, since God is both all good and all powerful, he’ll eventually defeat evil. And this jives with Scripture.

What Omnipotence Can Do for You

Men of the Bible everywhere walked with God in a warm rapture of devotion. It was deeply satisfying then. It is deeply satisfying now.

It follows then God is a compassionate God who knows the suffering of his children. And plans to eliminate our suffering.

Omnipotence is an attribute of a personal God whom we Christians believe to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whom we Christians believe suffered and died on the cross. Who we believe will one day return and restore the corrupted earth, our maimed bodies and the premature dead to a pristine state.

In other words, destroy evil. What do you think?

**Part of The Nature of God series.**

10 Biblical Illustrations of God’s Self-Sufficiency

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Here is where you are introduced to the strange concept of God’s self-sufficiency.

God lacks nothing. Craves nothing. He has everything he needs in himself.

In fact, to admit the existence of a need in God is to admit incompleteness in God.

Why God created anything is a mystery then.

We do know that the emphatic teaching of the Bible is that God exists for himself and .

So, with that in mind, let’s explore 10 biblical illustrations of what it means when we say that God is self-sufficient. And then look at how we should respond.

1. God is life.

Self-sufficient, God requires nothing to give him life. He is the . Man, on the other hand, requires something else–something outside himself–to give him life.

2. God lives.

Contrasted against the dead, dumb idols he is the living God. The God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaiah. The God who . The God who doesn’t beg for anything. But commands everything.

3. God is lord.

The Hebrew word Lord used in is adan…meaning master, ruler, owner, lord. Adan is thought to be the root of the noun adom, which is frequently used of men who own slaves. It’s were we get the word Adonia. It’s what believers mean when we prostrate ourselves before God in humble submission. We are slaves to the core.

4. God owns everything.

extend from the earth to the unknown regions of space. God sustains it like a man who sustains a small garden on the side of his house. He doesn’t need it to survive. He sustains it so he can enjoy it.

5. God provides everything.

. What we have, we only have because God has opened up the way for us to get it. Our duty–especially in tithing–is to give back to the church. That is, God. The same is true for our lives.

6. God is jealous.

God is . It’s what isolates him–and Him alone–from every other thing in the universe. Self-sufficiency is his air-tight silo. Except he can talk to us, comfort us, love us despite this barrier.

7. God is independent.

Man is dependent. . Man is unnecessary. We get at the heart of God’s creation when we finally understand that God would still exist if all creation were dead. All animals. All birds. All plants. All men.

8. God gives life.

John uses the word “life” 36 times in his gospel–more than any other New Testament author. It refers not only to physical and temporal life that God gave to the world at creation, but especially to spiritual and eternal life imparted as a gift through belief in Him. is at the beck-and-call of God.

9. God puts to death.

Self-sufficiency declares authority. Authority over birth, work, love and death. All things are slaves to him–the sea, the saint, the suicide. No once can escape Him or is out of His control. .

10. God delivers.

The power of life is in God. As is the power of death. God cannot die, but he can kill. Furthermore, He is alive and without death and he is the one who can . The Creator and the redeemer. That is the self-sufficient God we serve.

How Should You Respond to God’s Self-Sufficiency?

Get this: Gazing upon the face of God is a . Regardless, we are to pursue him. Any motion in His direction is upward for us. Away from him, a descent.

A. W. Tozer said about Christ, “The awful majesty of the Godhead was mercifully sheathed in the soft envelope of human nature to protect mankind.”

Self-sufficient God may be, but merciful, gracious and humble is he also, “who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but , taking the form of a bond-servant, and being in the likeness of men. Being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even on a cross.”

How will you respond?

**Part of The Nature of God series.**

Quick Study: Reformers on the Trinity

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Where you learn what the Reformation added to the discussion about God’s Trinity.

The basic doctrine of the Trinity–one nature and three persons–survived the middle ages and the break with the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century.

In fact, the doctrine’s been the same since the controversy was settled in the early church.

So, what did the Reformation add to the discussion about God’s Trinity? Let me show you.

Martin Luther on the Trinity

, the Father of Protestantism, said, “Christ shows forcefully that the Holy Spirit is an actual Being in the Godhead and separate, distinct Person by Himself, one who is not the father or the Son.”

For example, Luther points out what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in :

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

Luther said this is the equivalent to saying the Holy Spirit is a distinct person with a particular responsibility. This jives with Augustine’s idea of economy of salvation.

John Calvin on the Trinity

All you need to know: Martin Luther’s contemporary, , agreed with Luther.

Calvin said:

The same holds in the case of the Holy Spirit; for we will immediately prove both that he is God and that he has a separate subsistence from the Father. This, moreover, is not a distinction of essence, which it would be impious to multiply.

Same essence. Different person.

Your Turn

All the Reformation did to the discussion on the Trinity is add a focus to the Holy Spirit. But despite the vigorous activity of people like Luther and Calvin, who devoted and endangered their lives to the defense of the orthodox view of the Trinity, deviant doctrines on the Trinity still emerged…most recently seen in William P. Young’s The Shack.

What ancient heresies do you recognize in today’s ideas about God, the Trinity or Christianity in general? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

**Part of the Thoroughly-Painless Guide to the Doctrine of God’s Trinity series.**

Omnipresence: Does God Lounge Like a Man Lounges?

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Where a lounge chair is used as a prop to demonstrate God doesn’t have a body. Yeah, blasphemous, I know.

What does God’s omnipresence have to do with a man spread out on a lounge chair?

Frankly…absolutely nothing.

Yet, millions of people make the mistake–often innocently enough–of imagining God with a human body, throwing his feet upon the earth as a footstool, settling back in a great throne that is heaven.

But the biblical doctrine of God’s omnipresence is in direct opposition to this mistake. Let’s see how.

Omnipresence: Two Things It Isn’t

Omnipresence means that God is present everywhere…at once. There is nowhere that God is absent.

Think .

But, it doesn’t mean that God is the world. That is . Neither does it mean God dwells in all things. That is .

And as the indivisible, simple God…all of God is everywhere. Not this part here, that part there. He is at every point of space. But he is not space. He is all present, in all places, at all times.

Furthermore, God’s omnipresence–though part of a cluster of classical attributes like omnipotence and omniscience–is not an attribute. It’s a way to describe how he relates to his creation. Thus, if there was no creation, God would not be omnipresent.

Omnipresence: What the Bible Says

The word omnipresence never appears in Scripture. Yet, it is implied everywhere.

For example:

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built! 1

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

True, the early Old Testament writers describe God as coming and going in language that might be used of a human. But it does not follow from this that the writers who do so think God is subject to space.

Historical Support for God’s Omnipresence

From early church fathers to the modern age, theologians throughout history have tried to counter the crude idea that God had a body like a man–a serious obstacle if God is omnipresent.

said people do not understand the expression “heaven is his throne and earth his footstool.” They make the mistake of imagining God lounging like a man lounges.

“All though heaven is called his throne, not even there is He contained,” says .

The truth is, he doesn’t need heaven or earth. But, said, “He fills them both with His presence and His power.”

The classical argument against God having a body comes from .

When Jesus said “God is spirit,” , “he was seeking to disabuse the Samaritan woman of the idea that there could be only one right place for worship, as if God were locally confined in some way.”

Jesus’ point is that while we, being flesh, can be present in only one place at a time, God, being spirit, is not so limited.

Why God’s Omnipresence Is Important to You

God’s omnipresence is of great practical importance to your religious life–both from a personal and salvation point of view.

Personally, the nearness of God means you can communicate and enjoy him anywhere and everywhere.

Salvation wise, God’s omnipresence assures you that God will rescue, protect and preserve you from dangers like .

God is here and everywhere. He’s not confined to a stump or mountain or a river. But he’s free in the universe. Near everything, next to everyone. And through Jesus Christ, immediately accessible to every loving heart.

What Do You Think?

So: Have you made the mistake of thinking God had a body? Does it upset you to think that he doesn’t? Does it scare you that God is everywhere at all time? Concern you? Comfort you? Share your thoughts.

**Part of The Nature of God series.**

A Thoroughly-Painless Guide to the Doctrine of God’s Trinity

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In which I compile all my previous post for a simple, growing, definitive guide of God’s Trinity…darling.

Yes. . .yet another post on the Trinity.

But this time I’m compiling all my previous posts for a simple, growing, definitive guide.

Here’s why I’m doing this.

The Reason Why You Must Study God’s Trinity

Listen: The Trinity is not some pointless piece of theological speculation.

It’s a doctrine that demands attention. Study. Understanding.

Why? Because the Trinity is grounded in the complex human experience of redemption in Christ.

And for more than 1600 years this doctrine has stood as the final test of orthodoxy. It shapes how we understand who God is.

So, let’s explore this often-neglected, beautiful doctrine because if you’re a Christian, you’ll mature in your faith.

If you’re not, well….

10 Woefully Inadequate Views

4 Approaches to the Doctrine of the Trinity

Early Church Fathers, Girl Talk and the Seamless Doctrine of the Trinity

How Ancient Creeds and Dead Men Define Our Beliefs

Medieval Scholars on the Trinity

3 Critical Characteristics of the Trinity You Must Know

Reformers on the Trinity

**Part of The Nature of God series.**

3 Critical Characteristics of the Trinity You Must Know

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Discover the three characteristics of the Trinity you must know if you want to live a vivid, meaningful Christian life.

What do you think: Does the doctrine of the Trinity even matter to your every day life?

I mean, is it just some theological abstraction men in university auditoriums bicker about?

Or does it have a concrete, practical application to your personal and private world?

In a nuthsell, does an understanding of the Trinity even matter?

I’m here to tell you that it does. Especially if you want to live a vivid, meaningful life. Let me explain.

Tim’s Excellent Question

I owe a huge thanks for raising his hand yesterday during my headlong rush through the history of the doctrine of the Trinity and asking me to slow down and explain how knowledge of the Trinity even made a difference in his everyday life.

So, let me take a pause and explore the historical, personal and relational characteristics of the Trinity and how it, indeed, can make a difference to you.

Historical: Your Flesh and Bones God

As I pointed out yesterday, Augustine was the scholar who originated the idea of the economy of salvation. Yet, Karl Rahner was the scholar who actually articulated it in those words.

The economy of salvation basically says this:

In the three persons of the Trinity, you have God who created people, Christ who redeemed people and the Holy Spirit who people.

Let me say it another way: God created us, died for us and dwells in us. That, in three over-simplified stages, is the history of redemption.

Therefore, if God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is a historical being, then that means he’s also a personal being. And if He’s a personal being, then He’s perilously close to getting into our business. Just watch.

Personal: Your Private God

So, if this Trinitarian being is a historical being, then we can say three things about Him:

1. He’s unlike other gods who have zero basis in human history.

2. If He was an actual historical figure (Christ–the God man–walked on the Earth), then we can know him.

3. And if we can know Him, then it’s possible to trust in Him and the things He says.

In fact, as Robert Jensen pointed out, and as our creeds try to do, defining God as the three persons creates theological precision in which we then are very clear about which God we are talking about. The doctrine of the Trinity separates the Christian God from the mob of gods competing in our culture.

And with this precision, we no longer have a fuzzy, speculative being we worship. We have a personal, very private, very clear understanding of God. And if we are seriously personal, private and have a clear understanding about this God, then we can have a relationship with Him.

A relationship that sometimes brings personal risk.

Relational: A Passionate Affair

How do you know if you have a good relationship? A good marriage? Believe it or not, but you have a good marriage when you have conflict. I call it passion.

Sound absurd? Well let me say this: Conflict in a marriage isn’t a sign of trouble. Conflict is a sign of contradictions. Differences, yes. But it’s also a sign of struggles two people are working through to create something more beautiful than if they left them alone.

On the other hand, a lack of conflict or contradiction in a marriage is a sign that someone is withdrawn, isolated and independent. The same is true in your relationship with God.

Here’s why. If you are independent and individualistic and carry on thinking God loves you just the way you are and that He’d never conflict or contradict you…you don’t have a relationship with a person…

You have a fawning, submissive, impossibly agreeable robot. [Think here.]

When I say God is historical and personal, I’m also saying He’s relational. I’m saying He cares about us. And he cares enough to want to help us grow into better people. He wants to set us apart from the profane and make us holy. He’s passionate about redeeming His people.

And so the Holy Spirit fits into the Trinity and the history of redemption this way: God created us. Jesus redeemed us. The Holy Spirit changes us.

Over to You

So, without a clear understanding of the Trinity, I do not think you can live a vivid, meaningful life. . .because if we insist on a hollow, distant knowledge of the three persons of God. . .we end up with a diluted, weak association heavily weighted in our favor. Not a relationship.

What would you rather have: a meaningful relationship with a historical being who wants to give you a glorious life that rests in Him? Or would you rather live a paper-thin, solitary existence forever threatening to combust?

I’d love to hear what you think. [Tim, did I answer your question?]

**Part of the Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Doctrine of God’s Trinity series.**

God’s Trinity: How Ancient Creeds and Dead Men Define Our Belief

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Two ancient creeds and one council raise an ominous question: Should dead men define what we believe? Find out now.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, we are building a head of steam towards a definitive guide to the doctrine of the Trinity.

I know you so care.

Regardless, far from being a rather pointless piece of theological speculation…the doctrine of the Trinity is grounded directly in the complex human experience of redemption in Christ.

That’s why I saw it as of paramount importance to explore 10 inadequate views, 4 historical approaches and early Church fathers idea of the Trinity.

Today were going take a quick journey back to the 3rd and 4th centuries where the universal church affirmed–through creeds and councils–that the doctrine of the Trinity was normative for all believers.

Then let’s discuss the prickly problem of ancient dead men defining our modern mode of worship. Let’s go.

Apostle’s Creed: Odd Origins

The –one of the earliest creeds–pointed to the Trinity in its three “I believe” statements: I believe in God the Father, Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit.

The basic point behind the creed was to defend the Gospel of Christ and refute .

The creeds name comes from the 5th Century legend that after Pentecost, the 12 Apostles dictated part of it. That’s why it’s traditionally divided into twelve sections.

Athanasian Creed: Visualizing the Obscure

The , appearing possibly after the first Council of Nicaea in 325, is the first creed to establish equality in the Trinity:

Nothing is before or after, nothing is greater or less: but all three persons coeternal, together and equal.

Early experiments–were talkin’ 12th Century here– in symbolizing the Trinity as a visual device produced the . You can see the diagram on the knight’s shield in the image above.

The Shield of the Trinity was used as a device from which the Athanasian Creed can be read. Kind of like a . But not really.

Council of Constantinople: Condemning and Confirming

And the great ecumenical in A. D. 381 declared this statement as a norm for orthodoxy.

It did this by:

1. Confirming the original .

2. Developing a statement to combat the heresy .

3. Expanding the 3rd article of the Nicene creed to establish that the Holy Spirit must be of the same being as God the Father.

4. Condemning Arianism.

What Do You Think?

Do creeds even matter? Are they too formal? Too limiting? Too stifling?

Besides, “Why should we suppose that early churchmen,” quoting , “who had their own presuppositions and prejudices, were in a position to provide a definitive summary of the faith for all time?”

Or are they important because they define the boundaries within which Christians operate?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Drop them in the comments. Brutal and all.

**Part of the Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Doctrine of God’s Trinity series.**

Four Approaches to the Doctrine of the Trinity

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Chances are, you think about God’s Trinity a lot. Are you thinking correctly? Learn why clarity about this doctrine is so important.

Chances are, you think about God’s Trinity a lot. Question is, are you thinking correctly?

Two weeks ago I wrote about 10 inadequate views of God’s Trinity. This week, I want to look at four correct views…

And then I’ll explain why clarity on this doctrine is so important to you.

Cappadocians on the Trinity

This 4th Century family of monks known as the made major contributions to the doctrine of the Trinity following the Council of Nicaea.

The formula to best describe this approach to the Trinity is “one substance in three persons.” The one indivisible Godhead is common to all three persons of the Trinity.

This approach, however, gives priority to the father, and in doing so, can easily hint at tritheism or modalism.

Karl Barth on the Trinity

Swiss Protestant theologian is generally regarded as championing the importance of the Trinitarian doctrine after a sustained period of neglect by dogmatic theologians.

Barth argued that sin prohibits man from seeing or hearing the self disclosure of God as redeemer. Therefore, the Holy Spirit’s function is to make this revelation visible to sinful man.

In other words: God reveals Himself through the Son…but sinful man is blind to this revelation without the help of the Holy Spirit.

Karl Rahner on the Trinity

One of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th Century, , said the way God reveals himself in the economy of salvation–Father, Son and Holy Spirit–is a disclosure of who he actually is in eternity.

The proper starting point, then, when discussing the Trinity, is our experience of salvation. When we reflect on our salvation experience, we see the Trinity.

Rahner is simply building on what Barth said: Christ is the image of God. But we’ll never see that image unless the Holy Spirit reveals it. That is salvation.

Robert Jenson on the Trinity

In his book –a recommended read if there ever was one– Lutheran theologian says that the Trinity identifies and isolates the Christian God from rival gods through his historical actions–namely, raising Christ from the dead–as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In other words, when you use God’s proper name, you are being unquestionably clear about the God you are talking about. This is theological precision. Precious in an age of lax theology.

Why This Is Important to You

I think the number one reason why you should care about the doctrine of the Trinity is this: you can’t truly adore who you don’t know.

We don’t marry strangers. Or even people we kind of know.

When we truly love someone, we want to know everything about that person. So clarity about God deepens our adoration and dependence on Him as we see His beauty in light of our wretchedness.

In fact, refusal to refine our view of God is an act of rebellion. You know you can know God better. What are you going to do about it?

Your Turn

Which of the four approaches helped you see God better? [For me, it was Jensen’s approach.] Do any of these approaches expose any error in your belief or behavior? Do you agree clarity about God is even important? If not, why?

**Part of the Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Doctrine of God’s Trinity series.**