2. What is an attribute of God?
• A characteristic than can be attributed to
God’s nature.
• An essential trait of God.
3. The Importance of the Truth of God’s
Attributes
• All basic theological truths depend upon God’s
attributes.
• Knowing the “true” God helps us identify the
“false” gods.
• Being in error on God’s attributes has
consequences.
• Spiritual growth is build upon our concept of
God.
• A commitment to what is not ultimate, will
ultimately be spiritually unsatisfying
4. Be prepared to comment on the
following statement.
“What you think of God is the most
important thing about you.”
A. W. Tozer
5. How many attributes does God have?
• Geisler proposes 20 nonmoral attributes of God,
5 nonmoral characteristics of God, and 3 moral
attributes of God.
• Many theologians use terms like communicable
and non-communicable attributes.
Communicable attributes were those shared by
humans, such as love holiness. Non-
communicable attributes are those that exclusive
to God, such as omnipotence, omniscience, and
omnipresence.
6. Nonmoral Attributes of God
Also called metaphysical attributes
1. Pure actuality and
simplicity
2. Aseity (not caused by
another)
3. Necessity
4. Immutability
5. Eternality
6. Impassibility
7. Infinity
8. Immateriality
9. Immensity
10. Omnipotence
11. Omnipresence
12. Omniscience
13. Wisdom
14. Light
15. Majesty
16. Beauty
17. Ineffability
18. Life & Immortality
19. Unity
20. Triunity
10. How are God’s Attributes Predicated
• Only three possible ways to predicate (ascribe)
1. Univocally—attributed entirely the same way
it is attributed to creatures.
2. Equivocally—to use attributes of God in an
entirely different way.
3. Analogically—attributed in a similar way.
11. Geisler says the analogical
attribution is the only option
“Analogous God-talk is the only meaningful way
to speak of God.”
There are two basic types of analogy: extrinsic
and intrinsic.
1. Extrinsic analogy is an analogy where only
the effect, not the cause, has the
characteristic properly.
2. Intrinsic analogy is an analogy where both
effect and cause possess the characteristic.
12. Reasons for Metaphorical
Attributes of God
Metaphors . . .
1. inform us what God can do, not what He is.
2. communicate what God is like in an indirect
and non-literal way.
3. Are often evocative, even though they are
not literally descriptive, that is, they do not
literally and directly describe God.
13. Kinds of Metaphorical
Descriptions of God
1. Anthropomorphisms—depict God in human
form, such as having eyes.
2. Anthropopathism—picture God having changing
human feelings like anger and grief.
3. Anthropoieses—attribute to God human actions,
such as repenting and forgetting.
None of these are intended as literally true, and to
take them as such can lead to serious error.
