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]