GOD:
OMNIPOTENT CREATOR & CONTROLLER OF ALL THINGS

OMNIPOTENCE

  • Most christians believe that god is omnipotent
  • to say that god is the only god mean she must be omnipotents, the creator if everything that exists and the controller of all things
  • For some to say god is omnipotent means he can do absolutely anything, including the logically impossible
  • others think this is just logical nonsense
    • to say god is omnipotent means ge can do anything thats logically possible
    • this answers the logical problem of evil

GOD AS OMNIPOTENT CREATOR

  • THERE ARE 3 APPROACHES TO THE BELIEF IN GOD AS CREATOR:
  • 1) some believe the universe comes ex deo (out of gods own being)
    • most reject this as it implies that god and his creation are the same thing, whereas most christians believe god = transcendent and wholly other
  • 2) most christians think that god created the universe ex nihlo- from nothing
    • this is the idea expressed on the English translation of genesis 1 "let there be..."
    • howver the Hebrew translation shows this to be wrong
  • 3) those christians who accept the second translation belief that god created the universe out of already existing chaotic matter which he put into an ordered state
    • "the earth being without form and void"
    • this is the view of process theologians

GOD AS THE OMNIPOTENT CONTROLLER OF ALL THINGS

  • this idea follows naturally from the belief that god is omnipotent creator
    • if the universe was made from god, and god = omnipotent, then he must control everything
  • the biblical references to god as king expresses the belief that everything is subject to his control
  • god sustains the universe meaning that he holds it in existence and preserves it from desturction
    • god "set the earth on its foundation so that is should never be shaken" [psalm 104]
  • for some, since god is the only god ad since he is omnipotent, he must be omniscient
    • he must therefore know absolutely all of the past present and future
    • this means the future is fixed and unavoidable [theological determinism]
    • the strongest form of theological determinism argues humans dont have free will and so god has absolute control over peoples actions
  • alternatively, aquinas believes that goes does not exist in time - he exists timelessly
    • a timlesless god sees all times and things including the choices people make
    • but his knowledge is not causative

GOD AS TRANSCENDENT & UNKOWABLE

  • This refers to the belief many christians hold, that for is beyond and outside the world of space and time
  • god is not a thing or obect
  • he is not made ion anything
  • he does not exist in anything (so cannot exist in space or time as the would limit him)
  • catholic teaching refers to god's aseity
    • this is the belief in gods self-existence - its in his nature to exist
    • nothing is responsible for his existence
  • " no one comprehends the thoughts of god except the spirit of god [1 Corinthians 2:11]