Doctrine of God

Question 1

Doxology

Answer 1

Worship.

Question 2

Apophatic

Answer 2

Talking about what God isn’t.

Question 3

Cataphatic

Answer 3

Attempts to describe what God is.

Question 4

Communicable

Answer 4

Attributes of God that have been communicated (shared) to us.

Question 5

Incommunicable

Answer 5

Attributes that we don’t share with God at all.

Question 6

Divine Simplicity

Answer 6

God is not composed in parts. Rather, God is His essence.

Question 7

Divine Aseity (a se)

Answer 7

God is life in Himself. He is not contingent upon anything. God does not lack anything, He is the fullness of life in Himself.

Question 8

Divine Immutability

Answer 8

It is impossible for God to change. God is not in process of becoming anything. God is fully realized. He has no parts, no passions, and He is perfect. His will never changes.

Question 9

Biblicism

Answer 9

Using a biblical “trump card” is naive. It isn’t mature to just “chapter and verse” a section of the bible.

Question 10

Divine Impassibility

Answer 10

God does not suffer. He has no passion. God’s love is intense, but not passionate (He did not suffer anything to love you).

Question 11

Pure Actuality (actus purus)

Answer 11

God is purely actualized. He has no potential.

Question 12

Passive Potency

Answer 12

WRONG! Says that God has potential.

Question 13

Divine Atemporality or Eternity

Answer 13

God is not temporary, but eternal. God has no beginning, no end, and no successive moments of experience. God is always the agent of time, never the patient.

Question 14

Divine Infinitude

Answer 14

God is not finite. He is infinite in quantity, dimension, and locality.

Question 15

Omniscience

Answer 15

God is all-knowing. He is perfect in His knowledge. He does not gain knowledge or lose knowledge. His knowledge is infinite and has no need for actualization.

Question 16

Omnipotence

Answer 16

God is all-powerful. His power knows no limits - He can do all things that are actually possible.

Question 17

Omnipresence

Answer 17

God is everywhere present. Divine presence vs. divine absence in hell.

Question 18

Omnisapience

Answer 18

God is perfect in His wisdom. He does not gain wisdom or lose wisdom. His wisdom is infinite and has no need for actualization.

Question 19

Via Triplex

Answer 19

God is perfect. Our language is imperfect for describing Him. Three ways to predicate attributes to God:

1. Way of Negation - we must take away what is imperfect about our description of love in order to ascribe it to God (God’s love is not changing).
2. Way of Causation - (God is love and one of the implications of that is that He causes love).
3. Way of imminence - greatest form/version (because our love is imperfect and God’s love is perfect, His will always be imminent).

Question 20

Theistic Mutualism (Process Theology)

Answer 20

WRONG! Follows the “open model” of God. Says that God has a genuine back-and-forth between God and creatures. Exactly like any human relationship has ever worked.

Question 21

Theistic Personalism

Answer 21

WRONG! Downplays mystery/incomprehensibility. Dislikes the Creator/creature distinction. Teaches that God is a greater version of you, and he is personally like you. They say adamantly that we can speak about God univocally.