7: The Nature or Attributes of God
Attributes of God Eternal, immutable, omniscient, necessary, omnipotent, wise, gracious, holy,
goodness, righteous, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, creator, transcendent, judge,
spiritual, intangible, father, forgiving, honest, pure, just, compassionate, imminent,
personal, sovereign, perfect
Omnipotent God The belief that God is all-powerful
Omnipotence The very idea of an omnipotent being is logically contradictory because it leads to
Paradox questions such as "If God is omnipotent, can God create a more powerful being"
"can God create a stone which is too heavy for him to lift"
Omnipotence Descartes believed God could do absolutely everything e.g. make a square circle
includes the God is the extreme perfection and has no limitations
logically God is the source of logic so he has the power to overcome it
impossible: God is capable and incapable of evil simultaneously
Descartes We struggle to understand because we are limited by human logic and
understanding
Evaluation of It turns God into an unpredictable and arbitrary tyrant who might do anything and
Omnipotence therefore cannot be relied upon. It makes it impossible to have a relationship with
includes the him and trust him with our salvation
logically It challenges the free-will defence. If God is able to logically contradict himself then
impossible he should be able to allow free will and prevent evil simultaneously. As he doesn't
do this, this explanation makes him directly responsible for evil
The Bible suggests a limited God - 'it's impossible for God to lie'
Omnipotence is Aquinas believes that God can do everything which is logically possible. God
limited to the cannot do anything which is inconsistent with his nature because that is a
logically possible: contradiction. God is perfectly good and therefore cannot carry out any form of
Aquinas evil
: Swinburne He believed that God can do and create anything but self-contradictory things are
not things which can be done. He remains totally omnipotent because he can do
everything which can be done
Evaluation of God's miracles are not logically possible - however, they are not self-contradictory
Omnipotence is This could reduce God's power
limited to the It might make him no better than a powerful human
logically possible None of these challenges are particularly successful
God deliberately He suggests that God's power is much more limited. He is not in control of
limits his power for everything. God created the universe in a way that limits his ability to act. This world
our benefit: Peter is suited to free beings because God limits his power. He is still omnipotence
Vardy because the only thing that limits his power is himself. This idea’s popularity grew
after the world wars
: John Macquarrie God chooses to limit his power out of love for humanity
God deliberately 'he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in
limits his power - human likeness...he humbled himself and became obedient it death' Philippians 2:7
quote
The Doctrine of God deliberately empties himself of some of his attributes in order to make Jesus'
Kenosis encounter with humanity possible
Omnipotence is a They argue that having total power is not that nothing can put up resistance to that
statement of the power. That would be like admiring someone who won a race without other
power of God competitors
being God is so powerful it surpasses all other power.
'unsurpassably However, this isn't really omnipotence – example of 2 power standard in an army.
great': Whitehead Just because an army’s power surpasses all other powers, that doesn’t make the
+ Hartshorne army omnipotent.
Issues of Religious Macquarrie and Aquinas and others emphasis that when we speak of the power of
Language God we are using an analogy
Power refers to something in this world so it cannot be applied literally to God
We are limited by human understanding
Biblical examples Miracles of Jesus and the resurrection, the creation of things by word alone, giving
of omnipotence the childless couple Sarah and Abraham a child, God having the power to save
humanity from sin
Omniscient God The belief that God knows everything (past, present and future). Judaism, Islam,
Christianity all claim that God is all-knowing. This is because God is perfect and lacks
nothing
