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The Greatness of God · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reform thinking. So imagine standing in front of
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a cosmic vending machine. You walk up, you look at the
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available selections. You drop in your quarters, and
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you know in this case, the quarters might be a quick prayer
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or a good deed. Then you press the button
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corresponding to what you want a new job, physical healing, a
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smoother relationship. You step back and wait for the
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blessing to drop into the metal tray at the bottom.
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And if the blessing does not drop, well, you get frustrated.
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You kick the machine you assume is broken, or worse, you assume
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the machine is rigged against you.
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If we are completely honest with ourselves, that is how a massive
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portion of humanity treats the creator of the universe.
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Oh, absolutely. We attempt to shrink an
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infinite, incomprehensible being down into a manageable
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transactional mechanism, something that you know fits
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neatly into our daily routines. We constantly look for ways to
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make the infinite feel safe. I mean, when you step into
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theology, the study of God, you are stepping out of the shallow
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end of a swimming pool and dropping straight into the
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Mariana Trench. The tools we use to categorize
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human behavior or the metrics we use to measure physical objects,
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they completely disintegrate. We are looking at a being who
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defies our standard methods of measurement, and that lack of
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control terrifies the human ego. So we construct these mental
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vending machines or we build little boxes to keep him
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contained. Well, we are going to tear down
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those boxes today. We have a massive mission for
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this session. We're doing a deep dive into the
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source material. Specifically, we are examining
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excerpts from Miller J Erickson's Christian theology
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Zeroing in on the Greatness of God.
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And the goal here goes far beyond some academic exercise in
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a seminary classroom. Right, it is highly practical.
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Very practical. How you view God dictates how
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you live, how you handle a crisis, how you view your
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neighbor. And you know what you do when
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you close your eyes in a quiet room to pray?
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Getting your view of God aligned with reality has staggering,
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life altering significance. It really does.
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So we're looking closely at how Erickson categorizes God's
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attributes. The theological framework
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distinguishes between his natural attributes, which define
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his greatness, and his moral attributes, which define his
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goodness. OK, so greatness and goodness.
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Yes, goodness involves his moral character, so his love, his
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mercy, his strict justice. But our focus for this
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discussion rests exclusively on his greatness.
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We are examining the objective structural characteristics of
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his nature that make Him entirely distinct from anything
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in the created order. I want to set the stakes right
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out of the gate for you, the listener.
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If you have ever felt abandoned during a crisis because you
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assume God was distracted, or if you treat him like a celestial
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algorithm, this deep dive is going to challenge your baseline
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assumptions. We have to start by looking at
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how we naturally distort him. JB Phillips wrote a classic book
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called Your God is Too Small, and the source material brings
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his concepts into the spotlight. There are two major extremes we
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fall into when we shrink God down.
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On one side we have the celestial police officer.
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Yeah, the celestial police officer is a very common
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psychological projection. This is the idea that God is
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constantly peering over the balcony of heaven with a
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notepad, just waiting to catch you stepping out of line.
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The source material actually quotes an old country song to
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illustrate this mindset, which is God's going to get cha for
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that. Wow, yeah.
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In this framework, God's primary posture toward humanity is
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suspicion and punitive readiness.
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You are not relating to a father.
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You are relating to a parole officer.
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Is the traffic cop in your rearview mirror?
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Yeah. When you see those flashing
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lights, your heart rate spikes. You check your speedometer
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immediately. You are not obeying the speed
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limit because you have a huge respect for municipal traffic
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laws. You are obeying because you are
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terrified of the financial penalty.
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Precisely. If God is just a cosmic cop,
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you're higher. Religious life is built on
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avoiding punishment, not pursuing a relationship.
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But there is another extreme which feels much warmer but is
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equally toxic. The grandfather figure.
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The grandfather caricature is the opposite ditch.
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In this view, God is an indulgent, kindly old gentleman
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sitting in a rocking chair in the sky.
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His only goal is for you to be happy, comfortable, and having
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fun. He would never allow anything
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difficult into your life, and he certainly does not have strict
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moral standards that might interfere with your personal
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fulfillment. He is entirely permissive.
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It is the mall Santa Claus approach to theology.
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You sit on his lap. You hand him your wish list.
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He Pats you on the head, tells you how wonderful you are, and
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sends you on your way. That is a great analogy.
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Both the traffic cop and the mall Santa are predictable.
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They are safe. They require 0 awe.
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The text also highlights how our culture embeds these distorted
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views in very subtle ways. Think about insurance contracts.
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They frequently use the phrase acts of God.
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That phrasing is incredibly revealing.
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In legal and insurance terms, Acts of God never refers to a
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beautiful sunrise or a miraculous medical recovery.
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It always refers to catastrophic occurrences, hurricanes leveling
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coastal towns, massive earthquakes, devastating floods.
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The cultural implication is that God is primarily A forceful,
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malevolent entity. It reinforces the subconscious
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idea that when something is destroying human life, that is
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when the divine is active. So we have these practical
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distortions running rampant. If you recognize the traffic cop
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or the Santa Claus in your own thinking, the natural instinct
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is to swing the pendulum hard in the other direction.
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You run to the library, stack up 20 systematic theology
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textbooks, and start dissecting the divine nature to figure out
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the truth. But Erickson warns against
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overcorrecting into what he calls the autopsy approach.
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The autopsy approach is a highly sophisticated theological error.
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This happens when excessive intellectual analysis lays God
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out and classifieds him in a fashion similar to a medical
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anatomy textbook. The student of theology begins
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dissecting the divine attributes so clinically that it becomes a
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purely speculative matter. Just a spreadsheet.
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Yeah, exactly. Building a perfect theological
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spreadsheet becomes the end goal.
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You end up dissecting God with such cold precision that you
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lose his personhood entirely. You treat him like a frog in a
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high school biology class. You know where the heart is.
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You can label the nervous system, but The thing is dead on
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the table. You have the mechanics, but you
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have 0 intimacy that totally misses the mark.
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But if someone is terrified of falling into that hyper
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intellectual autopsy trap, what is the alternative error that
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usually embrace? Well, the alternative is the
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oblong blur. JB Phillips coined that term,
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and it describes the attempt to so generalize the conception of
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God that any concrete definition is lost entirely.
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Some thinkers call it a belief in the Great Whatever.
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The great whatever. Yeah.
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In an attempt to avoid putting God in a theological box, a
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person leaps toward a hazy, undefined, mystical feeling.
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They actively refuse to assign any specific characteristics to
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him, claiming that defining him limits him.
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Which is an absolute disaster when real life hits you.
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If your theology is an oblong blur, you cannot trust it.
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You cannot pray to a blur When you were sitting in a hospital
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waiting room at 2:00 in the morning waiting for a surgeon to
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give you news about someone you love, an oblong blur offers 0
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comfort. No comfort at.
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All you cannot lean your full body weight on a hazy feeling to
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avoid the dead frog on the autopsy table and the useless
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oblong blur. We need concrete biblical
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definitions. We have to understand what an
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attribute actually is. Erickson provides a very precise
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definition here. Attributes are those qualities
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of God that constitute what He is.
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They are the very characteristics of His nature.
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We have to distinguish attributes from acts and roles.
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OK, break that down. Creating the universe, parting
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the Red Sea, guiding human history.
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Those are actions. Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer.
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Those are roles. Attributes are the intrinsic,
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permanent, inseparable qualities of the entire Godhead.
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I want to pause and chew on that word.
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Permanent. Humans have qualities, but they
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fluctuate constantly. I might be a very patient person
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while I'm reading a book on my porch, but the moment I merge
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onto a congested Hwy. that patience evaporates.
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My qualities are conditional. That distinction is central to
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the theological framework. God's attributes cannot be
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gained, and they cannot be lost. Erickson uses holiness to
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illustrate this point. Adam possessed a measure of
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holiness in the garden, but it was not a permanent, inseparable
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characteristic of his nature because he lost it through
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rebellion. God's holiness is an inherent
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dimension of his very nature. He cannot lose His Holiness, and
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he did not acquire it through a process of moral improvement.
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He simply is holy. OK, if we say God is His
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Holiness and God is his love and God is his might, my mind
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immediately jumps to a pie chart.
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It sounds like we are assembling A deity out of different slices.
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30% love, 30% strict justice, 20% strength and so on.
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But that feels like we are Franken spinning a God together
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out of spare parts. How do we avoid the pie chart
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mentality? The classical Christian
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tradition explicitly rejects the pie chart concept.
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Historically, some philosophical systems thought of attributes as
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adhering to an underlying essence, like paint adhering to
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a wooden block. Other views pictured attributes
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as fragmentary parts. The correct biblical framework
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maintains that God's attributes are his nature.
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They're not separate parts operating independently.
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God is entirely his love. God is entirely his justice.
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When he acts in judgement, he is still acting in perfect love.
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When He acts in mercy, he is not ignoring His justice.
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The attributes are simply different ways our finite,
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limited human minds view the singular, unified, perfectly
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integrated being of God. Which naturally introduces the
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concept of incomprehensibility. If God is this infinitely
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unified being, we have to admit our cognitive limits.
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How do we grasp an infinite unity?
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We grasp it truly, but we do not grasp it exhaustively.
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The doctrine of incomprehensibility does not
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mean God is an unknowable mystery hiding in the dark.
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It means we know Him accurately through His self revelation,
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primarily through Scripture and the incarnation of Christ, but
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our knowledge is not comprehensive.
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His revelation is entirely accurate and consistent with His
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nature, but it is not the totality of who He is.
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There is an endless ocean of his nature that are finite minds
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simply cannot contain. It is like standing on the shore
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of the Pacific Ocean. I can feel the salt water on my
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skin, I can watch the tide roll in, and I can say with absolute
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certainty that I know the ocean. I know it, truly.
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But I have no idea what is happening in the Mariana Trench
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or on the ocean floor miles beneath the surface.
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My knowledge is true, but it is a fraction of the reality.
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That is a brilliant way to look at it.
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With that humility established, how do theologians categorize
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these attributes to make them digestible for us?
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Theologians have developed 4 primary classification systems
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over the centuries to help us study the divine nature.
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The first system divides attributes into communicable
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versus incommunicable. OK, Communicable attributes are
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those qualities for which a partial, finite counterpart can
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be found in human beings. Love, mercy, and justice are
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communicable. Humans can exhibit these, though
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always imperfectly. Incommunicable attributes are
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those qualities entirely unique to God, with absolute no human
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counterpart. Omnipresence is a prime example.
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That classification is so practical.
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Recognizing the incommunicable attributes stops us from trying
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to play God. No matter how advanced our
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technology gets, a human being cannot be in two places at once.
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We are physically limited. When we forget that, we burn out
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trying to manage the entire world.
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What is the second system? The second pair is imminent
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versus imminent qualities. Imminent qualities remain
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entirely within God's own nature.
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His spirituality, for instance, is an imminent quality.
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It describes his internal state. Eminent qualities, on the other
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hand, go out from God and operate outside His nature,
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affecting the created order. Mercy is an eminent quality
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because mercy inherently requires a subject to dispense
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it and an external object to receive it.
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You cannot be merciful in an empty void.
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You need someone who requires mercy and the third category.
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The third system looks at absolute versus relative
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qualities. Absolute attributes are those
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God possesses in Himself, completely independent of
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creation. Infinity is an absolute
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attribute. Relative attributes are those
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absolute qualities manifested through his relationship to
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finite objects in creation. Omnipresence is a relative
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attribute because it describes how his infinite nature
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interacts with the finite concept of spatial dimensions.
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Which brings us to the 4th classification, the one Erickson
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prefers and the one structuring our entire conversation today.
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Yes. The final classification divides
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the nature of God into natural attributes and moral attributes.
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Moral attributes relate to rightness, His Holiness, His
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love, His purity. Natural attributes are the non
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moral superlatives, His infinite knowledge, his boundless
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capability. Erickson modifies this
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terminology slightly, calling them attributes of greatness and
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attributes of goodness. Today, our lens is entirely
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focused on the greatness. With the scaffolding in place,
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we can look at the first core attribute of greatness, God's
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spirituality. This is the concept of a God
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Without Borders. The anchor text here is John
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chapter 4, verse 24. Jesus makes a definitive
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statement to the Samaritan woman at the well.
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God is spirit and His worshippers must worship in
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spirit and in truth. This asserts that God is not
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composed of matter. He does not possess a physical,
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material nature. Because He lacks a physical
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body. He is indestructible.
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Material things decay, breakdown, and wear out.
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God is immune to that deterioration.
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Furthermore, lacking a physical body means He is not limited to
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a particular geographical location.
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The conversation with the Samaritan woman is fascinating
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because it centers entirely on geography.
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She asked Jesus about the proper place to worship.
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Is it on her mountain in Samaria or is it down in Jerusalem?
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Jesus shatters the premise of her question.
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If God had a physical body, he would be localized.
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You'd have to buy a plane ticket, pack your bags, and
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travel to a specific temple to get an audience with.
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Right, it would be a physical trip.
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But because he is Spirit, he is universally accessible from a
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prison cell, a hospital bed, or a corporate boardroom.
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Now we have to tackle an obvious tension.
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Anyone who reads the Bible for 5 minutes will notice it
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constantly talks about God's hands, God's eyes, the arm of
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the Lord, or his feet resting on the earth.
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If he's pure Spirit, what do we do with those descriptions?
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Theologians categorize those descriptions as
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anthropomorphisms. These are human analogies used
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to express truth about God in a way our finite, materially bound
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minds can grasp. It is a necessary accommodation
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to our limited understanding. When the Bible says the eyes of
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the Lord roam the earth, it is not suggesting God has physical
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corneas and retinas. It is communicating the reality
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of His absolute awareness and knowledge.
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I. See.
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There are also theophanies in the Old Testament, like the
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burning Bush or the figures appearing to Abraham, which were
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temporary physical manifestations.
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But the rule of biblical interpretation is that we must
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take the clear didactic statements about God's invisible
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spiritual nature at face value and interpret the poetic
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anthropomorphisms in light of those clear statements.
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It is similar to how a parent speaks to a toddler.
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A father might explain a complex financial reality to a
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three-year old by using their Piggy Bank and a few shiny coins
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as an analogy. The father is not lying to the
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child. He is stepping down into the
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child's framework to communicate a true principle at their level
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of comprehension. Ascribing physical features to
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God helps us grasp His actions, but it does not define His
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underlying essence. That is a spot on analogy.
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How does this biblical view of an invisible spirit contrast
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with the other belief systems out there?
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The historical contrast is severe.
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In the ancient Near East, the doctrine of God's spirituality
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was a radical counter to the surrounding idolatry.
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Every culture around Israel worshipped carved pieces of
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wood, stone, or precious metals. The Israelites were declaring
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that God cannot be represented by anything material.
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In the modern era, we see a different kind of pushback.
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Mormonism, for example, maintains that God the Father
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actually possesses A literal physical body of flesh and bone.
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They argue that an immaterial body is a contradiction in terms
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and cannot exist. Which fundamentally shrinks God
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down to a manageable size. Assigning God a physical body is
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like trying to put a chain link fence around the sky.
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It is a massive category error. If he has a body, he is
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contained within spatial dimensions.
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If he's contained, he could be predicted, managed, and
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theoretically controlled. Think about the ancient world.
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People carried their carved household gods in their pockets.
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They could lock their deity in a cabinet if they want to do
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something they knew the deity would not approve of.
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Yeah, you could hide from it. The declaration of a completely
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invisible, uncontainable spirit must have been absolutely
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staggering and terrifying. You cannot hide from a deity who
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has no physical boundaries. The physical universe offers 0
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cover. The source material also
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references panentheism, which holds that the entire universe
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itself is God's body. God is the soul and the cosmos
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is his physical manifestation, Erickson notes there are even
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some fringe evangelical thinkers who have toyed with the idea of
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divine corporeality to maintain a hyper literal reading of
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Scripture. But the orthodox consensus
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firmly rejects all these views, maintaining they cannot be
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reconciled with the overwhelming biblical witness of his
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immaterial spirituality. OK, let us look at the logical
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progression here. If God is an invisible,
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immaterial spirit, a modern listener might naturally assume
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he is just an impersonal force. When we think of invisible
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things that affect us, we think of gravity, wind, or
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electromagnetic fields. Gravity is immaterial, and it is
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incredibly potent. It holds the planets in orbit
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and keeps our feet on the ground.
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But gravity does not care about you if you slip off the edge of
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a tall building. Gravity is not going to suspend
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its rules out of compassion to catch you.
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It is a blind force. If God is just a spiritual
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force, we are completely alone in the universe.
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This brings us to the second attribute, personality.
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God is not a great whatever. He is the Imam.
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The distinction between a spiritual force and a personal
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being is critical. Spirituality does not
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automatically imply personality. Throughout history, many
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philosophical systems have argued for a spiritual reality
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that is completely impersonal. George Hagel, the German
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philosopher, proposed the concept of the Absolute.
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This was a great cosmic mind encompassing all of reality,
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where human beings are simply thoughts within that mind.
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But the Absolute itself has no personal self consciousness you
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can relate to. Paul Tillage, A prominent 20th
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century theologian, argued that God should not be considered a
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being at all, but rather being itself the abstract ground of
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all existence. That philosophical approach
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feels incredibly cold. It reduces the creator of the
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universe to a mathematical equation or a basic principle of
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physics. You cannot have a relationship
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with a principle. It is intensely cold.
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We see a similar impersonal spiritualism in Eastern
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religions, such as certain schools of Hinduism, where
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ultimate reality is Brahma, the all-encompassing whole.
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In that framework, the goal of human existence is not to reach
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out and relate to a personal creator.
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The goal is to turn inward, detach from your individual
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desires, lose your specific identity, and be absorbed back
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into the great cosmic whole. Much like a single drop of water
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falling into the ocean, individual identity is
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extinguished. Contract that chilling reality
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with the biblical picture. How do the Scriptures define the
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personality of God? The biblical revelation presents
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God as an individual being possessing self consciousness
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and a will. He is fully capable of feeling,
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making choices, and sustaining A reciprocal dynamic relationship
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with other personal beings. The most glaring evidence of his
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personality is the fact that he reveals a specific name.
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When Moses is standing at the burning Bush in Exodus chapter
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3, he asks God for his name and the response is I AM or Yahweh.
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That detail is phenomenal. He does not introduce himself to
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Moses by saying I am the absolute, or I am the ground of
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being, or I am the cohesive force of the universe.
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He uses a highly personal pronoun.
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I am In our modern society, names have lost a lot of their
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weight. A string of numbers on a
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government ID or a barcode could function as a name for
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identification purposes. But in the ancient Hebrew
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culture, a name carried massive significance.
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In Hebrew thought, the name embodied the character, the
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essence, and the reputation of the person.
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By revealing His name, God is demonstrating that He is not an
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abstract blind force. Providing a name means He is
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someone you can speak directly to, not just someone you speak
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philosophically about. He communes with humanity.
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The theological record points back to Genesis chapter 3.
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The Garden. Yes, In the earliest depiction
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of the relationship between the divine and humanity, God is
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described as walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
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seeking out Adam and Eve for conversation.
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He possesses all the capacities we associate with personhood,
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knowing, feeling, willing, acting and communicating.
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This realization has massive implications for you, the
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listener, regarding how you approach your daily spiritual
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life. We have to address a common
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cultural operating system here. We frequently treat God like a
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cosmic search engine. We pull up our mental browser.
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We type in our current problem. Maybe it is crushing financial
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debt, a frightening health diagnosis, or a marriage that is
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falling apart and we expect a neat packaged output.
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We expect a solution to print out on our timeline.
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We treat the Person of God as a mechanism for our convenience.
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The theological texts warn explicitly against this
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utilitarian approach. God is not a bureaucratic
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department, you petition. He is not a celestial computer
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program to automatically supply human demands when the right
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sequence of prayers is entered. Attempting to harness divine
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ability to solve our earthly problems belongs to the realm of
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magic, superstition, or technology.
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It is not true religion. True religion is relating to a
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person. We fall into the trap of viewing
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God as a means to an end. We want the physical healing, we
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want the financial breakthrough, and God is simply the heavy
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machinery we use to get those things.
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But the biblical framework insists that God is the end in
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himself. He's to be valued, loved, and
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worshipped for who he inherently is, regardless of what he
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produces for us. Think about the first
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commandment given to Israel. You shall have no other gods
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before me. Why?
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Was it solely because he flexed his muscle and brought them out
22:12
of slavery in Egypt? The theological answer is no.
22:15
The miraculous deliverance from Egypt was the external proof of
22:18
his internal nature. Humanity is commanded to love
22:21
him exclusively because of his inherent worth and absolute
22:24
perfection. Because he is a reciprocating
22:27
personal being, he relates to humanity entirely by choice.
22:30
He is not compelled by some internal defect or lonely
22:33
necessity to interact with us. He chooses to commune with us
22:36
out of the freedom of His will. This establishes A crucial
22:39
bridge to the next attribute of greatness, which is life.
22:42
We are looking at the concept of the uncaused 'cause when the
22:45
biblical authors talk about the living God, they rarely stop to
22:49
present a philosophical argument proving his existence.
22:52
They simply assume it is the ground level of all reality.
22:55
The writer of Hebrews states that anyone who comes to God
22:58
must first believe that he exists.
23:01
His existence is the most basic aspect of His nature.
23:04
The prophets, especially Jeremiah, constantly contrasted
23:08
this vibrant, living God with the inanimate, silent idols of
23:11
metal or stone that the surrounding nations worshipped.
23:14
But we have to be precise. God's life is categorically
23:17
different from the life of any other entity in the universe.
23:20
Let us break that difference down mechanically.
23:23
My golden retriever has life. I have life.
23:26
The oak tree in my backyard has life.
23:28
What elevates God's life from a biological fact to an attribute
23:32
of divine greatness? The core.
23:33
Distinction is found in the Gospel of John chapter 5, verse
23:36
26, which declares that the Father has life in himself.
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The theological term for this is acety.
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He does not derive his life, his energy, or his existence from
23:45
any external source whatsoever. Every other creature in the
23:48
universe possesses A dependent life.
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We are needy. Extremely needy.
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We require constant external sustenance to avoid dying.
23:55
We need a specific mixture of oxygen.
23:57
We need caloric nourishment. We need water.
23:59
We need a narrow range of atmospheric temperature.
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We are incredibly fragile. God is absolutely independent.
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He is never depicted as having been manufactured or brought
24:07
into being. He existed in perfect fullness
24:10
before the concept of a beginning even occurred.
24:13
He draws existence from nothing but Himself.
24:16
He is the uncaused one. We need to spend a minute
24:19
looking at what the source material labels the Poor God
24:22
syndrome. This is a staggering level of
24:24
human arrogance. We often operate under the
24:27
subconscious assumption that God is incredibly lucky to have us
24:31
on his team. We act as though God will be
24:33
emotionally devastated or functionally deprived if we
24:35
decide to walk away from our faith.
24:37
People actually use their belief as a bargaining chip.
24:40
They think if God does not care my mother, I'm going to stop
24:42
believing in him. As if withdrawing their
24:45
intellectual assent is a massive threat to the Almighty.
24:48
It is a vast misunderstanding of divine independence.
24:51
The theological reality is that God does not need humanity.
24:54
If He chose to do so, He could bypass this entirely and
24:57
accomplish every single one of His cosmic purposes without our
25:00
assistance. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
25:03
existed in a state of perfect, joyful, complete communion for
25:06
eternity before the universe was spoken into existence.
25:10
He was not lonely. He lacked nothing.
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Therefore, it is entirely to our benefit that He permits us to
25:14
know Him when He reaches out to humanity.
25:17
He acts out of a pure, unselfish overflow of love, not out of a
25:20
deficit or a desperate need for our companionship.
25:23
That actually makes his love vastly more beautiful.
25:26
If he needed us because he was lonely, his love would be
25:29
transactional. He would be using us to fill a
25:31
hole in himself because he needs absolutely nothing.
25:34
His love for us is entirely free and uncoerced.
25:37
There is a brilliant contrast made here regarding the concept
25:40
of contingency. Every single aspect of human
25:43
existence is heavily conditioned by the word.
25:45
If I will arrive at the airport on time, if there is no traffic
25:49
and if my car engine functions properly, I will be able to
25:51
retire comfortably. If the global economy holds
25:53
steady and if inflation does not destroy my savings.
25:56
I will live to see my grandchildren if my cellular
25:59
biology does not mutate into a disease.
26:01
Our entire reality is a House of Cards propped up by 1,000,000
26:04
fragile ifs. God is the only being in
26:07
reality, free from contingency. There is never a scenario where
26:10
you can say God will exist if or God will accomplish his will if.
26:14
There's absolutely no external condition, no environmental
26:17
factor, and no competing force that dictates his existence or
26:20
his success. He simply is.
26:22
That is the bedrock of his independent life.
26:24
A God who is entirely independent of the created
26:27
universe, who relies on absolutely zero external
26:30
factors, must logically be completely unconstrained by the
26:33
physical and temporal limits of that creation.
26:36
This moves our discussion into what is arguably the most mind
26:39
bending attribute of all Infinity.
26:42
Infinity is the point where human cognitive categories truly
26:45
shatter. We have no frame of reference
26:47
for the infinite. The theological framework breaks
26:50
down Infinity into 4 distinct observable areas, space-time,
26:55
knowledge, and supreme might. Erickson points out that God is
26:58
not just practically unlimited in his current state, He is
27:01
fundamentally illimitable by nature.
27:03
In human history, we frequently mislabel things as infinite.
27:06
We used to think the resources of the oceans were infinite, or
27:09
that fossil fuels were an endless supply.
27:11
We eventually hit the bottom of those serves.
27:13
God has no bottom. Let us examine the first area of
27:16
Infinity, which is space. Theology terms this
27:19
omnipresence. When we use the word
27:21
omnipresence, when we say God is everywhere, we have to clarify
27:24
the mechanism. We do not mean he is like a
27:27
giant invisible blanket stretched incredibly thin across
27:30
the entire span of the cosmos, right?
27:32
We are not saying part of God is in New York and another part is
27:35
in Tokyo. That is a crucial clarification.
27:38
God is not a physical substance that can be diluted or stretched
27:41
out. The source material highlights
27:43
that God is the author of space. He brought spatial dimensions
27:46
into existence. Every finite physical object has
27:49
a specific location, which means it occupies A defined volume of
27:53
space, and by occupying that space it is physically prevented
27:57
from being somewhere else. At the same time, because God
28:00
has no physical body and no spatial dimensions, He is not
28:03
subject to special imitations. He is fully present everywhere.
28:07
The theological tension we hold here is between His imminence,
28:10
meaning He is intensely present and active everywhere in
28:13
creation, and His transcendence, meaning He is not confined or
28:16
trapped by any location. I love the historical narrative
28:19
regarding Elijah and the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel.
28:22
It it perfectly illustrates this point.
28:24
The priests of Bail are screaming, cutting themselves,
28:27
begging their deity to send fire from the sky, and absolutely
28:30
nothing happens. Elijah starts mocking them and
28:32
his taunts are highly theological.
28:35
He suggests that perhaps Bail is on a journey.
28:37
The implication is brilliant. If Bail is a finite, localized
28:41
deity, maybe he is on a business trip in another province and
28:44
physically out of earshot. But the God of Israel never
28:47
takes a trip. He never has to endure commute
28:49
to answer a cry for help. The biblical text is relentless
28:52
in pointing out that there is no corner of creation where God is
28:55
inaccessible. The psalmist writes beautifully
28:58
about this, realizing he cannot flee from the presence of the
29:01
Spirit. If he ascends to the highest
29:03
heavens, God is there. If he makes his bed in the
29:05
depths of Sheel, the underworld, God is already there.
29:09
Jesus concludes the Gospel of Matthew by promising his
29:11
disciples that he will be with them always to the very end of
29:14
the age, regardless of where their missionary travels take
29:17
them. I want to direct a thought to
29:18
you regarding this specific point.
29:21
Have you ever packed up your house, moved away from your
29:23
childhood hometown, or left a specific church congregation and
29:27
felt a lingering anxiety that you somehow left God behind?
29:31
As humans, we attach an immense amount of sacred significance to
29:34
geographical coordinates. We look at a specific summer
29:37
camp or particular sanctuary with stained glass and we think,
29:40
God really met me in that building.
29:42
That is where He lives. We subconsciously localize Him.
29:46
The theology of omnipresence clarifies that this is entirely
29:49
A psychological hurdle, not a spiritual reality.
29:52
God is not bound to a zip code. You cannot outrun Him, and you
29:55
cannot leave Him behind. He possesses full, unhindered
29:58
access to the totality of creation at every single moment.
30:01
Which naturally transitions our analysis to the second area of
30:05
Infinity, which is time. God is infinite in relation to
30:08
time, a concept we call eternity.
30:11
Just as he is not constrained by spatial dimensions, he is not
30:13
bound by the succession of minutes and hours.
30:16
Asking the question how old is God is a category error.
30:19
It is an improper question. The math is not work.
30:22
Infinity plus 100 years is still just Infinity.
30:25
He existed fully before the clock of the universe started
30:28
ticking, and he will continue without end.
30:31
Because he is timeless, he does not undergo growth, development,
30:35
or aging. Human beings change drastically
30:38
over time. The things that interested me,
30:40
the knowledge I possessed, and the emotional maturity I had at
30:43
10 years old are completely different from who I am today.
30:47
I'm a product of time and experience, but God has always
30:50
been exactly the fullness of what He is now.
30:52
This raises a massive mechanical question.
30:54
Does this mean God is frozen? Is he a static observer outside
30:57
of time, completely detached from the reality of a Tuesday
30:59
afternoon in 2026? The theological texts address
31:03
this specific debate. Is God entirely outside of time,
31:06
looking down on history like a completed painting?
31:09
Or is He extended endlessly within time, experiencing the
31:12
flow with us? The biblical witness strikes a
31:15
balance. It shows that God is acutely
31:17
aware of the successive order of events.
31:19
He knows the difference between what happened yesterday, what is
31:22
happening right now, and what will occur tomorrow.
31:24
He acts within human history in a sequential manner.
31:27
However, the critical mechanism to grasp is that there is no
31:30
temporal order to His willing. What does that actually mean in
31:33
practice? No temporal order to is willing.
31:36
It means the process of divine deliberation takes 0 seconds.
31:40
Think about how a human makes a decision.
31:42
We gather data, we weigh the pros and cons, we consult
31:45
experts, and we slowly arrive at a conclusion over a period of
31:48
time. When new information arrives, we
31:51
change our minds. God does not operate this way.
31:54
From the perspective of eternity, He has already
31:56
perfectly determined his actions.
31:58
Therefore, his actions in human history are never frantic
32:01
reactions to unforeseen developments.
32:03
He never gets ambushed by the news.
32:05
He has absolutely no need for backup plans or contingency
32:08
strategies. He does not look at the global
32:10
economic collapse or its sudden medical diagnosis and think,
32:13
wow, I did not see that coming. I need to pivot my strategy
32:15
immediately, which leads perfectly into the third aspect
32:18
of Infinity, knowledge. We call this omniscience.
32:21
His understanding is immeasurable.
32:23
The writer of Proverbs states that the eyes of the Lord are in
32:25
every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
32:29
Jesus magnifies this concept by stating that God knows the exact
32:33
moment a single, seemingly insignificant Sparrow falls to
32:37
the ground and that the very hairs on our heads are numbered.
32:40
Humanity is completely transparent before Him.
32:43
He knows every single fact of reality, including complex
32:46
scientific laws and quantum mechanics that human physicists
32:49
have not yet discovered because he engineered them into the
32:51
fabric of creation. And critically, he knows every
32:55
genuine possibility and potential outcome.
32:57
There is a fascinating point raised in the the source
32:59
material regarding foreknowledge.
33:01
In the book of Isaiah chapter 44, God actively uses His
33:05
ability to accurately know and declare the future as the
33:08
definitive characteristic that separates him from the
33:12
fraudulent idols of Babylon. He basically says, did I not
33:15
proclaim this and foretell it long ago?
33:17
Let the idols tell us what will happen next.
33:19
The ultimate test of a true prophet in Israel was absolute
33:23
flawless accuracy regarding future events, because only
33:27
Yahweh possesses true foreknowledge.
33:29
But a massive database of facts is not enough.
33:32
Having information without the wisdom to apply it is useless.
33:36
The theological framework directly connects His infinite
33:38
knowledge to His infinite wisdom.
33:40
Wisdom is the correct application of knowledge.
33:43
It means God consistently acts in light of all the available
33:45
facts to achieve the highest correct values.
33:48
Human beings frequently act unwisely because we simply lack
33:51
the necessary data. You might choose to drive down a
33:54
highway that looks perfectly clear on your genesis,
33:56
completely unaware that a Brig has watched out 10 miles ahead.
33:59
We suffer constantly from a limited ground level
34:02
perspective. I love the analogy the text uses
34:05
to explain this lack of perspective.
34:08
You place a nickel and a dime on a table in front of a very young
34:11
child and tell them they can choose one.
34:13
The child will almost always grab the nickel.
34:15
Why? Because the nickel is physically
34:17
larger, the child lacks the overarching economic perspective
34:21
to understand inherent value. They make a choice based
34:24
entirely on an optical illusion. Human beings do this constantly
34:27
with our life choices, our relationships, and our careers.
34:30
We want the shiny, immediate nickel.
34:32
We really do. But God has access to the entire
34:34
economic system of reality. He sees the whole picture from
34:37
beginning to end. He never makes a choice or a
34:39
ruling based on incomplete data. When you pray for the nickel and
34:44
he says no, it is because he sees the dime, the quarter, and
34:47
the entire scope of eternity that you cannot perceive.
34:49
That doctrine provides a staggering level of pastoral
34:52
comfort. A believer can pray with
34:54
absolute confidence, knowing that God will not grant a
34:57
request that is fundamentally harmful to their highest good,
35:00
even if that request looks incredibly appealing in the
35:02
moment. This leads us to the final
35:04
aspect of Infinity, limitless ability, traditionally termed
35:07
omnipotence. He is El Shaddai, God almighty.
35:10
We see this attribute displayed all over the biblical narrative.
35:13
Think of Sarah laughing in her tent at the absurd promise that
35:16
she would give birth to a child at 90 years old.
35:20
The Lord responds with a rhetorical question.
35:22
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
35:24
He exercises absolute control over the forces of nature, He
35:28
calms storms with a word, and he determines the specific epochs
35:31
and geographical borders where nations will rise and fall.
35:35
But the theological texts make an interesting point here.
35:38
Creating a physical universe ex nihilo out of nothing is not the
35:42
only, or even the primary measure of His supreme
35:44
capability. Changing the trajectory of human
35:47
personality, rewriting A rebellious human heart, is
35:50
depicted as requiring immense, miraculous divine action.
35:54
Heavy industrial machinery can lift a boulder, but it takes
35:56
supreme divine might to make a selfish person truly love their
35:59
enemy. Because he possesses the supreme
36:02
might, his ultimate will is never frustrated or permanently
36:05
derailed. The theological analysis points
36:08
out that for any entity to successfully complete an ethical
36:11
action, 3 elements must be present.
36:14
First, you must have the knowledge of what should be
36:16
done. Second, you must possess the
36:17
internal will or desire to actually do it.
36:20
Third, you must have the external ability to accomplish
36:23
it. Human beings fail at all three
36:25
of these points constantly. We do not know what to do.
36:28
Or we know what to do but lack the willpower, or we have the
36:31
willpower but lack the resources.
36:33
God never fails because He is infinitely wise, infinitely
36:36
good, and infinitely capable. But there is a massive, highly
36:40
debated qualification here that we have to clarify.
36:43
Every college freshman who takes a Philosophy one O 1 class will
36:45
inevitably bring up the famous paradox designed to trap the
36:48
concept of omnipotence. The skeptic asks, Can God make a
36:52
stone so heavy that he cannot lift it?
36:54
It is framed as a logical checkmate.
36:56
If he cannot manufacture the stone, he lacks ability and is
36:59
not omnipotent. If he makes the stone but cannot
37:01
lift it, he lacks ability and is not omnipotent.
37:04
How does classical theology dismantle this trap?
37:06
Classical theology dismisses the paradox entirely as an
37:09
improperly formulated quotient. It is a logical absurdity
37:13
masquerading as a brilliant thought.
37:15
The question is essentially asking if God is capable of
37:18
contradicting himself or frustrating his own nature.
37:21
Omnipotence does not mean the ability to do the logically
37:24
absurd. God cannot create a square
37:26
circle. He cannot make a married
37:28
bachelor. He cannot alter the historical
37:30
facts of the past. He cannot act in a way that is
37:33
contrary to his own perfect nature.
37:35
This is one of the most brilliant insights from the
37:37
study of attributes. God's inabilities are actually
37:40
his greatest strengths. The fact that the Bible plainly
37:43
states God cannot lie, or he cannot be tempted by evil, or he
37:46
cannot fail to keep a covenant promise is not a limitation of
37:49
his capability. It is the definitive proof of
37:52
His absolute perfection. For a human, the ability to fail
37:55
or lie is a weakness. For God, the utter inability to
37:58
fail is the pinnacle of supreme strength.
38:00
Within this arena of boundless capability, God operates in
38:04
total freedom. He is never under compulsion by
38:07
external political forces, environmental pressures, or the
38:10
demands of humanity. His decisions and actions are a
38:13
matter of his own free choice, driven entirely by his good
38:17
pleasure and perfect wisdom. So if we compile everything we
38:21
have discussed, we have an infinite all knowing, all
38:24
capable, perfectly wise God. By logical definition, a being
38:29
with absolutely no limits and perfect knowledge must be
38:32
entirely reliable. If a perfect being changed in
38:35
any way, he would have to change for the worse, becoming less
38:38
than perfect. This brings us to the 5th and
38:40
final attribute of greatness we are examining today, which is
38:43
constancy. Constancy, which classical
38:46
theology calls immutability, simply means that God is
38:49
unchanging in his nature and character.
38:51
The text cites Psalm one O 2, which draws a sharp contrast
38:54
between the perishing wearing out of the physical earth and a
38:57
God who remains identically the same, whose years will never
39:00
end. The prophet Malachi records God
39:02
declaring I, the Lord do not change.
39:04
The New Testament Epistle of James states that the Father of
39:07
heavenly lights does not change like shifting shadows.
39:10
Let us break down the mechanics of this divine constancy.
39:12
What does it actually mean that he does not change?
39:15
The theological framework divides this into two
39:17
categories, no quantitative change and no qualitative
39:21
change. No.
39:21
Quantitative change means God cannot increase or decrease in
39:24
any attribute. He cannot become smarter because
39:27
he already knows everything. He cannot become stronger
39:29
because He possesses all capability.
39:32
Conversely, he cannot decrease. If he lost even a fraction of
39:35
his strength or knowledge, he would cease to be the Supreme
39:38
Being. No qualitative change means the
39:40
core essence of his character does not undergo modification.
39:44
His overarching intentions, his moral standards, and his eternal
39:48
plans stand absolutely firm because the will that formed
39:51
them is perfect. He is eternally faithful to the
39:53
covenants he establishes. We have to address the giant
39:56
elephant in the room regarding immutability.
39:59
Anyone who reads the narratives of the Old Testament will
40:01
stumble across passages where God seemingly changes his mind
40:05
or the text uses the word repents.
40:08
The most famous example is the story of Jonah and the city of
40:11
Nineveh. God issues a definitive decree.
40:14
40 days in Nineveh will be overthrown.
40:16
The king and the people of Nineveh repent.
40:18
They put on sackcloth and the text says God relented and
40:20
spared the city. If God is perfectly constant and
40:23
his plans never change. How do we explain this
40:26
mechanical shift in his behavior?
40:28
Theologians offer three very clear, texturally grounded
40:31
explanations for these difficult passages.
40:34
The first explanation points back to our earlier discussion
40:36
of anthropomorphisms. Just as anthropomorphisms
40:40
describe human physical features to God so we can understand his
40:43
actions, antipopathisms describe human emotions, reactions, and
40:47
changes of mind to God so we can grasp his relational posture in
40:50
a specific moment. It's phenomenological language
40:54
describing how things appear from the human perspective.
40:57
Second, what appears to us as a sudden change of mind may
41:00
actually be the unveiling of a new preplanned stage and is
41:03
overarching eternal design. The inclusion of the Gentile
41:07
nations into the covenant community look like a massive
41:09
pivot to the 1st century Jewish mind, but Paul argues in
41:12
Ephesians that it was part of the plan from before the
41:15
creation of the world. The third explanation is the one
41:17
that really makes it click for me.
41:19
It involves a shift in relationship.
41:20
The third explanation is that the humans involved radically
41:23
shifted their relationship to God, moving out of the sphere of
41:26
his disfavor, while his absolute moral standards remained
41:29
completely stationary. Consider a practical analogy.
41:33
If you are standing outside in a freezing, driving rainstorm, you
41:37
are cold and miserable. If you turn around and walk into
41:41
a heated building, you are suddenly warm and protected.
41:44
The building did not change its geographical location, and the
41:47
heating system did not alter its nature.
41:49
You changed your position relative to the building.
41:52
When the city of Nineveh repented, it was the human
41:54
population that moved. They walked out of the sphere of
41:57
God's act of judgement and stepped into the sphere of his
41:59
act of mercy. God's standard judging,
42:01
rebellion and showing mercy to the broken hearted remained
42:04
absolutely constant. He did not change.
42:06
Nineveh changed. That is incredibly helpful for
42:09
reading the biblical narratives. Now.
42:10
The theological tradition makes a strong point to distinguish
42:14
biblical constancy from the ancient Greek philosophical idea
42:17
of immobility. God is not a static frozen
42:20
statue carved out of marble. He is incredibly dynamic,
42:24
active, and passionately engaged with human history, but he is
42:27
dynamically stable. You can depend on him.
42:30
However, in modern times, there has been massive academic and
42:33
cultural pushback against this classical idea of an unchanging
42:36
God. The source material spends
42:39
significant time highlighting 2 modern movements, Process
42:42
theology and Open theism. We have to understand the
42:45
historical context that birth these movements.
42:48
In the 20th century, humanity experienced unprecedented
42:51
trauma. Two world wars, the horrors of
42:53
the Holocaust, the detonation of atomic weapons.
42:56
Many theologians looked at the classical orthodox view of a
42:58
sovereign, unchanging God and felt it was too detached, too
43:02
stoic, to address the suffering of the modern world.
43:04
They wanted a God who hurt with them, who suffered alongside
43:07
them, and who was actively learning how to survive the
43:09
chaos of the universe. This desire gave rise to process
43:12
theology. Process theology argues that
43:15
reality is basically process of an interrelated.
43:18
It leans heavily on the philosophy of Charles Hartsworn
43:20
and Alfred N Whitehead. They introduce the concept of
43:24
day polar theism. They claim God has two poles, an
43:28
abstract eternal essence that does not change, but also a
43:30
concrete actuality that constantly responds to processes
43:34
and is affected by the physical world.
43:36
It sounds highly appealing on the surface.
43:38
It makes God sound incredibly relatable, like a copilot trying
43:41
to fly through the turbulence of life with us.
43:43
But what happens when you pop the hood and look at the
43:45
mechanics of process theology? What is Erickson's critique?
43:48
Erickson argues that process theology severe fatally
43:52
compromises the absoluteness and sovereignty of God.
43:54
If God is constantly dependent on the unfolding processes of
43:57
the world, His omniscience is completely shattered.
44:01
In process theology, God only knows what has happened up to
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this exact millisecond. With every new decision made by
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8 billion human beings, brand new information enters the
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universe, and God's mind has to frantically process, update, and
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recalculate His strategy. Consequently, divine sovereignty
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is no longer absolute. God is no longer the author of
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history, guiding it to a guaranteed conclusion.
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He is just a participant hoping things work out for the best.
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He becomes a cosmic reaction engine.
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The text also brings up a related theological cousin
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called Open Theism, sometimes known as free will theism.
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The primary goal of Open Theism is to protect the libertarian
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free will of human beings at all costs.
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They claim that if God possesses exhaustive foreknowledge of our
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future free choices, those choices are locked in certain
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and therefore not truly free. To solve this perceived
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philosophical problem, they stripped God of his
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foreknowledge regarding any future free decisions made by
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humans. They declare the future is open
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even to God. Erickson meticulously details
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the massive theological craters that Open Theism creates.
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If God does not know the future choices of human beings, or if
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He cannot guarantee human actions, there is absolutely 0
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certainty that His final will for the universe shall be
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realized. Furthermore, Open Theism
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completely destroys the validity of biblical prophecy.
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The Scriptures contain highly detailed prophecies involving
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the specific free actions of kings, empires, and individuals
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centuries before they occurred. If God does not know the future,
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those prophecies are reduced to incredibly lucky guesses or
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divine gambling. And that is the pastoral crux of
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the issue. A God who guesses the future, a
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God who is waiting to see what the global stock market does or
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what a hostile dictator decides tomorrow morning before he can
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formulate his plan to protect you, is not a God who can anchor
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a human soul in a chaotic world. If he is guessing, If he is
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frantically recalculating his spreadsheet every time humanity
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does something unexpected, we are all in severe danger.
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That is the devastating pastoral consequence of these modern
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theological experiments. Erickson concludes his analysis
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by affirming that while classical orthodoxy may have
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occasionally leaned too heavily into Greek philosophical
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categories, making God seem somewhat detached, the biblical
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witness is unyielding. The biblical view presents a God
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who is fully active, intimately involved and highly
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compassionate, yet fiercely retains his absolute,
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uncompromised sovereignty, his infinite knowledge and His
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unchanging dependability. We've covered a staggering
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amount of ground in this session.
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We started by rejecting the cultural caricatures that shrink
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God down, the terrified reaction to the celestial police officer,
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and the childish reliance on the grandfather.
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We examine the necessity of avoiding the cold autopsy table
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and the useless oblong blur. We saw that God is an invisible,
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boundless spirit, incapable of being localized or controlled.
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We established that he is intensely personal, possessing a
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name and a desire for communion, not just a blind cosmic force.
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We looked at his absolute self-sufficiency, drawing life
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from nothing but himself, entirely free from the fragile
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contingency of human existence. We discussed his Infinity across
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space-time, knowledge and capability, and we anchored all
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of this in this perfect constancy, a stable, unchanging
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rock against the frantic, shifting shadows of human
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history and modern theological fans.
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Internalizing these attributes is not an academic exercise
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designed to help you pass a theology exam.
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It basically alters the architecture of your daily
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reality. When you truly grasp His
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Infinity and His constancy, it means you never have to panic
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about an uncertain future. The God you bring your
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anxieties, your fears, and your hopes to has no need for backup
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plans. He never operates rates on
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incomplete information, he is never caught off guard by your
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failures, and he is never overwhelmed by the chaos of the
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world. I want to leave you, the
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listener, with a final thought to chew on as you go about your
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day. Building on the framework we
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established, we affirmed that God is the uncaused 'cause He is
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completely, gloriously independent.
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He does not need your prayers to survive.
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His existence, His strength, and His joy were entirely full and
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perfect before the creation of the world.
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Yet this infinite, omnipresent, all knowing being loves you so
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fiercely that he chooses to listen to your voice with
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infinite attention, as if you were the only creature in the
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entire universe. If the God who needs absolutely
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nothing desires to hear your voice, how should that alter the
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sheer staggering reverence you bring into a quiet room the next
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time you close your eyes to speak to him?
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the source
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material. We will see you next time on
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Reformed Thinking.