Three Attributes of God.

Happy Mother’s Day! If there are any mothers reading this, I ask them to give themselves a pat on the back. Although, I have no in depth experience being a mother, however, I know it can be difficult for them. And if you’ve made it through the unbearable years of giving children spankings and punishments, I congratulate you, you’ve done a great job. ;)


The various perfections of God are not component parts of God. Each of them describes his total being. Love, for example, is not part of God’s nature; God in his totaled being is love. While God may display want to fall a D or another at a given time, no quality is dependent of or preeminent over any of the others. Whenever God’s places wrath, he is still love. When he shows his love, he does not abandon his holiness. God is more than the sum total of his reflections. When we have listened up all the action to switch and clean from revelation, we have not fully described God. This stems from His incomprehensibility. Even if we could say we had a complete list of all God’s perfections, we could not fathom their meaning, for finite man cannot comprehend the infinite God. God’s perfection are known to us through revelation. Man does not attribute them to God; God reveals them to man. To be sure, man can suggest attributes of God, but these cannot be assumed to be true unless they are revealed by God. There are a good amount of perfections of God, and I am going to consider them under (a) meaning, (b) scriptural statements (s), and (c) application. And maybe or/other. There are about fourteen perfections of God in fact, but I am just going to cover the main three in this blog post. I may sometime later, go over the others. But I want to just cover these three right now.


Omnipotence
1. Meaning. Omnipotence means that God is all-powerful and able to do anything consistent with his own nature. In actuality He has not chosen to do even all the things that would be consistent with Himself for reasons known ultimately only to Himself.
2. Scripture. The word “almighty” is used only of God in the Bible, occurring fifty-six times, and is the basis for the concept of omnipotence. God revealed Himself as the Almighty One to Abraham (Gen. 17:1), to Moses (Ex. 6:3), to believers (2 Cor. 6:18), and to John several times in the Revelation (1:8; 19:6)
3. A question. Does omnipotence have any limitations? The answer is yes, and in fact, two areas here: Natural limitation and self-imposed limitations. The natural limitation includes the things God cannot do because they are contrary to His nature. He did not choose to spare his Son; He did not choose to save all people; He did not choose Esau; He did not choose to spare James (Acts 12:2). Though He could have done any of these things without being inconsistent with omnipotence, He did not choose to do so in His plan. Questions like, Can God make 2 + 2 = 7, do not imply any deficiency in His omnipotence. That certain question is in the realm of arithmetic, not power. One might as well ask if a nuclear explosion could make 2 + 2 = 7. But more importantly, God cannot ever make wrong right.
4. Ramifications. In the past, God’s power was seen in Creation (Ps.33:9), in preserving all things (Heb.1:3), and in delivering Israel from Egypt (Ps.114). But the greatest display of His power was the resurrection of Christ from the dead (2: Cor. 13:4), for the believer, God’s power relates to the Gospel (Rom. 1:16), to his security (1 Peter 1:5), to his hope of bodily resurrection (1:Cor.6:14), and to daily living (Eph.1:9).

Omnipresence
1. Meaning. Omnipresence means that God is everywhere present with His whole being at all times.
2. Scripture. In Psalm 139:7-11 David asks the question if there is anyplace one can escape from the presence of God. His answer is no, for His place omnipresence is unlimited by space (v.8), undaunted by speed (v.9), and unaffected by darkness (vv.11-12).
3. Some distinctions. As stated in the definition, omnipresence does not mean that God’s being is diffused throughout the universe as part of Him is here and part of Him there. His whole being is in every place, and the presence of the Lord within every believer serves as a good illustration of this. Omnipresence does not mean that immediacy of His presence does not vary. It does. His presence on His throne (Rev.4:2), in Solomon’s temple (2 Chron. 7:2), or in the believer (Gal.2:20) certainly differs in its immediacy from His presence in the lake of fire (Rev.14:10). Though in the lake of fire people will be separated from the face-presence of God (2 Thes. 1:9, prosopon), they will never be separated from Him who is omnipresent (Rev.14:10, enopion). There is obviously no presence of fellowship (for His face will be turned away from the wicked in the lake of fire) as exists when He indwells believers. Omnipresence differs from pantheism which identifies the universe with God. The term was first used by the English deist, John Toland (1670-1722) in 1705 when he taught that “God is the mind or soul of the universe.” This heresy fails to distinguish the Creator from the created, a distinction taught in the very first verse of the Bible. Omnipresence also differs from pantheism as used by process theologians to mean that God’s being penetrates the whole universe yet is not exhausted by the universe. Omnipresence does mean that God is everywhere present but not diffused throughout or penetrating the universe. Furthermore, God is not developing as process theology teaches.
4. Some ramifications. No person can escape the presence of God. This warns unbelievers and comforts believers who, because God is omnipresence, an practice the experience of His presence in every circumstance of life.


Omniscience
1. Meaning. Omni science means that God knows everything, things actual and possible, effortlessly and equally well. A.W. Tozer wrote: God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creature hood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death good , evil, heaven, and hell.
Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything, He is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything nor (except when drawing men out of their own good) does He seek information or ask questions. (A.W. Tozer)
2. Scripture. God knows all His works from the beginning (Acts 15:18). He numbers the names the starts (Ps.147:4). Our Lord displayed omniscience when He declared what might have happened in Tyre and Sidon (Matt11:21). God knows everything about our lives before we are born (Ps.139:16)
3. Applications. (a) Omniscience and security. Nothing can ever come to light in the believer’s life that would surprise God and cause Him to cast him out. “No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our character can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us” (Tozer)
(b) Omniscience and sensitivity. Every warning God gives from an omniscient Being, so we should be extremely sensitive to them. He does not warn us on the basis of only guessing what might happen. He knows.
(c) Omniscience and solace. When faced with those inexplicable circumstances in life we invariably take refuge and find solace in the omniscience of God. Not only does He know what actually happened, but He knows what might have happened. He always knows what ultimate good and glory will come from events which we cannot understand.
(d) Omniscience and sobriety. Sobriety ought to characterize all when they realize that they must stand before an all-knowing God (Heb.4:13).

If you have any questions regarding these 3 attributes and perfections of God, pease leave a question or a comment.