Decorum: If you do not like philosophy, this thread is not for you and those intended de-railing arguments are not welcome here. Therefore, if philosophy offends you and you’d like to make an issue of it please begin your thread about that or go about with the habitual circular proof-texting without logical reason you prefer elsewhere, …please.
You’re going deep on me, bro. First, I don't change what the scriptures describes but rather reason for it's meanings and truths. It’s cool, I like this discussion but it’s been a while and I don’t know how much time I’ve got, but I’ll open it by sharing a few of my thoughts and info on the subject. I’ve previously studied, discussed and thought much of this through in consideration of what is known as, Aseity and “The Doctrine of Divine Simplicity”.
Unlike being created, the being of God is identical to the "attributes" of God. For example, God does not have goodness, but simply is goodness. God is what He has, He does not have evil, therefore He can not be evil.
God is His own cause of being. His attributes are His own. His being of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, love, and truth are concrete, personal and describe the whole Nature of God and He is Unchanging. Nothing that is in Him did not come from Him and He is “simply” the complete cause of who He is.
We humans were created with attributes that are subject to change. God caused creation to be and in doing so He divinely designed creatures who were made in His likeness and image which were placed into time and space. We have certain attributes that we were designed with which we cannot change either but we also have other attributes or parts of us which obviously do change, our bodies, minds and even spirit may change. For instance, from the very beginning of our own doing, in disobedience to God, we gained the attribute of the knowledge of good and evil. In the fall we did not lose our ability to choose or lose the attributes of human volition. God did not re-create His creatures at that time, we have the same human condition divinely given to Adam to choose and change and we have gained the “knowledge” of good and evil. Because we can choose evil, we do choose evil, maybe not always but it only takes once and our standard of being falls into death as evil separates us from God.
Now, man was made in the image and likeness of God, but as for nature of being, in contrast and comparison to the Aseity and the “Doctrine of Divine Simplicity” I have termed the condition of man as the “Doctrine of Humanistic Complexity”. It could be said we each have limitations according to our nature of being.
Bottom line concerning God and His “free will”: God is only Good, He can not choose evil, He can not change to evil. In fact, to say that God can change or be what He is not is heresy.
“God is what he has. As identical to each of his attributes, God is identical to his nature. And since his nature or essence is identical to his existence, God is identical to his existence. This is the doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS). It is represented not only in classical Christian theology, but also in Jewish, Greek, and Islamic thought. It is to be understood as an affirmation of God's absolute transcendence of creatures. God is not only radically non-anthropomorphic, but radically non-creaturomorphic, not only in respect of the properties he possesses, but in his manner of possessing them. God, we could say, differs in his very ontology from any and all created beings.”
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, William F. Vallicella
You’re going deep on me, bro. First, I don't change what the scriptures describes but rather reason for it's meanings and truths. It’s cool, I like this discussion but it’s been a while and I don’t know how much time I’ve got, but I’ll open it by sharing a few of my thoughts and info on the subject. I’ve previously studied, discussed and thought much of this through in consideration of what is known as, Aseity and “The Doctrine of Divine Simplicity”.
Unlike being created, the being of God is identical to the "attributes" of God. For example, God does not have goodness, but simply is goodness. God is what He has, He does not have evil, therefore He can not be evil.
God is His own cause of being. His attributes are His own. His being of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, love, and truth are concrete, personal and describe the whole Nature of God and He is Unchanging. Nothing that is in Him did not come from Him and He is “simply” the complete cause of who He is.
We humans were created with attributes that are subject to change. God caused creation to be and in doing so He divinely designed creatures who were made in His likeness and image which were placed into time and space. We have certain attributes that we were designed with which we cannot change either but we also have other attributes or parts of us which obviously do change, our bodies, minds and even spirit may change. For instance, from the very beginning of our own doing, in disobedience to God, we gained the attribute of the knowledge of good and evil. In the fall we did not lose our ability to choose or lose the attributes of human volition. God did not re-create His creatures at that time, we have the same human condition divinely given to Adam to choose and change and we have gained the “knowledge” of good and evil. Because we can choose evil, we do choose evil, maybe not always but it only takes once and our standard of being falls into death as evil separates us from God.
Now, man was made in the image and likeness of God, but as for nature of being, in contrast and comparison to the Aseity and the “Doctrine of Divine Simplicity” I have termed the condition of man as the “Doctrine of Humanistic Complexity”. It could be said we each have limitations according to our nature of being.
Bottom line concerning God and His “free will”: God is only Good, He can not choose evil, He can not change to evil. In fact, to say that God can change or be what He is not is heresy.
“God is what he has. As identical to each of his attributes, God is identical to his nature. And since his nature or essence is identical to his existence, God is identical to his existence. This is the doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS). It is represented not only in classical Christian theology, but also in Jewish, Greek, and Islamic thought. It is to be understood as an affirmation of God's absolute transcendence of creatures. God is not only radically non-anthropomorphic, but radically non-creaturomorphic, not only in respect of the properties he possesses, but in his manner of possessing them. God, we could say, differs in his very ontology from any and all created beings.”
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, William F. Vallicella
