THE INCOMMUNICABLE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

1. Independence

a) God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation
can glorify him and bring him joy.

b) Sacrifices must be represented by a sincere commitment towards God not those animal
sacrifices.

c) Jesus is divine. God did not create us because his lonely. The trinity is there and they love
each other. He is not dependent on us.

d) God exist by virtue of his own nature. This independence is biblical.

2. Unchangeableness

a) God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises, yet God does act and
feel emotions.

b) Herman Bavinck (the doctrine of God’s immutability) - His immutability marks the
difference between the creator and the creature. Hence, his purposes does not change and
can trust him in his promises.

c) Does god sometimes change his mind?

i. No. We need to make a distinction between intrinsic change and extrinsic change. God
does not change, what changes is the situation around him but he does not change on
his approach on the matter.

d) The challenge from process theology

i. Charles Heartstone - God changes overtime because it is an inevitable process in

existing. That is the essence of existing.

e) God is both infinite and personal

i. He is not subject to any limitations of humanity or creation in general. Despite that he

is personal, he interacts with us a person.

ii. Roman - They see God as personal but not infinite.

f) Why is this doctrine important? (importance of unchangeableness of God)

i. Because if god changes, it can be for the better or for worse. This is a room for an
argument that God is not perfect. Hence, he can become evil or less powerful that
may affect his promises for us. With this, we don’t have a guarantee that God can save
us from our sins. Our basis of our faith will waiver.

TN: Intrinsic change means a change in the essence of God itself. Extrinsic change are external
changes outside of his being that may be caused by other people.

3. Eternity

a) God sees events in time and acts in time. God is not limited in time. He knows all things in
the past and in the future.
 b) God is timeless in his own being

i. God is the past, present and future.

ii. God is the creator. He is an immaterial spirit, hence he is eternal.

c) God sees all time equally and vividly

i. God is all-knowing. All history, including the future, is present in his consciousness
forever.

4. Omnipresence
a) He does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his
whole being.

b) God is present everywhere

i. He is not only present in a particular place but instead he is present in every part in
space. In him all things hold together. (It says in him and not a just a part of him)

ii. Even the largest space cannot contain God. He is everywhere. This encourages us to
pray at any place and at anytime.

c) God is present to punish, to sustain and to bless

i. God acts differently in different places. He can punish, sustain or bless. This is not
contradicting to his unchanging nature. Instead, this is his nature.

5. Unity

a) God is not divided into parts yet he has different attributes/divine simplicity.

b) The assumption are that all attributes are all true. God is light, God is light. It is divine
simplicity meaning it is unity and not divided into parts.

c) He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth
generation?

d) We should seek God’s totality and not divide it into parts. We should thing of it as a whole.
6.