Theology & Doctrine · FaithLogic

The Attributes of God

Scripture describes God by what he is: self-existent, eternal, unchanging, everywhere present, all-knowing, all-powerful, perfectly holy, just, wise, good, and loving. Classical theology holds these are not parts of God but the one simple divine being seen from different angles; modern debates concern immutability, impassibility, and the extent of God's knowledge of the future.

In brief

How the attributes are organised. Theologians commonly distinguish the incommunicable attributes (those God alone has — aseity, infinity, eternity, immutability, simplicity) from the communicable ones (those creatures reflect in a limited way — knowledge, power, holiness, justice, goodness, love, wisdom, truthfulness). All of them are held together by divine simplicity: God is not composed, so his attributes are not distinct components but the one divine essence described variously.

The incommunicable attributes:

• Aseity / self-existence — God exists 'from himself' (Latin a se), needing nothing (Exodus 3:14, 'I AM WHO I AM'; Acts 17:25, 'not served by human hands, as though he needed anything'; John 5:26, 'the Father has life in himself').
• Eternity — God has no beginning or end and is not bound by time as we are (Psalm 90:2, 4; Isaiah 57:15, 'the One who inhabits eternity'; 2 Peter 3:8).
• Immutability — God does not change in his being, character, purposes, or promises (Malachi 3:6, 'I the LORD do not change'; James 1:17, 'no variation or shadow due to change'; Numbers 23:19).
• Omnipresence — God is fully present everywhere, without being contained by any place (Psalm 139:7–10; Jeremiah 23:24; 1 Kings 8:27).
• Infinity / immensity — God is without limit in his perfections.

The communicable attributes:

• Omniscience — God knows all things, actual and possible, past, present, and future, including the heart (Psalm 139:1–4; 147:5; Isaiah 46:9–10; Hebrews 4:13; 1 John 3:20).
• Omnipotence — God can do all that is consistent with his nature; 'nothing will be impossible with God' (Luke 1:37; Jeremiah 32:17; Job 42:2). He cannot lie or deny himself (Titus 1:2; 2 Timothy 2:13) — these are not limits but perfections.
• Holiness — God's absolute moral purity and 'set-apartness'; the attribute Scripture most often intensifies ('Holy, holy, holy', Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8).
• Righteousness / justice — God always does what is right and judges rightly (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 89:14; Genesis 18:25).
• Goodness — God is the source and standard of all good; he is kind and generous (Psalm 34:8; 100:5; Matthew 19:17).
• Love — 'God is love' (1 John 4:8, 16); he loves the world (John 3:16), his people covenantally (chesed, steadfast love), and — within himself eternally — the Father, Son, and Spirit love one another.
• Wisdom, truthfulness, patience, jealousy (for his own honour), wrath (his settled opposition to evil).

The modern debates:

• Immutability and impassibility. The classical view: God's being and character never change, and he is not subject to emotional change caused by creatures ('impassible') — the biblical language of God 'relenting' or being 'grieved' is real revelation of God accommodated to us, describing how God's unchanging character meets changing situations. Many modern theologians argue for a God who genuinely responds and can be affected, especially in the cross ('the crucified God').
• Open theism holds that God knows everything knowable but that the free future is not yet there to be known, so God does not have exhaustive foreknowledge of free choices. The historic traditions reject this; the mainstream holds God knows the future exhaustively (Isaiah 41:21–23 makes predictive knowledge the test of true deity).

Synthesis

FAITHLOGIC ANALYSIS. Scripture never hands us a list of attributes; it shows God being God and lets Israel and the church draw the portrait. The portrait that emerges — self-existent ('I AM'), eternal, unchanging in character and promise, present everywhere, knowing everything including the future, able to do all his holy will, perfectly pure, just, wise, good, and 'abounding in steadfast love' — is what the historic churches mean by 'classical theism'. It is not Greek philosophy smuggled into the Bible; it is the Bible's own God described with tools the church borrowed and corrected.

Two of these are under active debate. Does God change or suffer? The classical answer — his being and character do not change, and the incarnate Son 'suffered in the flesh' as a divine person acting through a real human nature — keeps Malachi 3:6 and John 1:14 together; the modern 'passibilist' alternative gains vividness at some cost to the aseity that makes God's promises unbreakable. Does God know the free future exhaustively? Isaiah says predictive knowledge is precisely what separates the true God from idols, and the New Testament rests its case on fulfilled prophecies of free human choices — which is why open theism, for all that it takes the relational texts seriously, has never been the church's teaching. The practical payoff of the doctrine is Malachi's own: 'I the LORD do not change; therefore you … are not consumed.'

Part of the FaithLogic Theology & Doctrine library. Open the full study for the original languages, the early witnesses, the councils, and the arguments.