Divine Simplicity

I very intentionally omitted one Essential Attribute of God in the last section (and yes I did so with fear and trembling). Divine Simplicity states that “God's nature is not composed of parts [Bounds].” At first glance this was not problematic to me, I understand Divine Oneness, making Divine Simplicity an easy pill to swallow... However, I saved the discussion of Divine Simplicity because I believe it to be inseparably linked to the Doctrine of the Trinity. The Doctrine of the Trinity was alluded to throughout all of the Old Testament, but it was never realized by the Jews. In an effort to establish God as One, they neglected the leadings toward the Doctrine of the Trinity. In Christ we gain the fullness of the Doctrine. Directly preceding the assent Christ says, in Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit [NIV].” This statement is loaded with significance. It says that the disciples are to baptize in the name: a singular noun, implying that there is one God – Divine Oneness. He then goes on to say “of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit [NIV].” There is then, only one God, but we begin to understand that He exists in three persons. Divine Simplicity has its life in this; God exists in three persons, not three parts. How can God be one, but be three persons? The tension of these two statements, while originally problematic, has served as a source of wonder for me as I have continued to explore this fundamental doctrine.

There are two analogies that I have bought into that do fantastic justice to my understanding of the Trinity. My favorite one, and the easiest for my mind to understand is the Tree analogy. The Godhead is like a tree; The Father is analogous to the Roots, the Son analogous to the trunk, and the Spirit analogous to the leaves and branches. This analogy shows the unity of the Godhead, but it does not do justice to the distinction of the persons. The second one, which is very difficult for my mind, is the analogy of the Apostles. This view does great justice to the distinction of the Persons while not giving adequate unity to the Godhead. We are left with a problem, how do we rationalize these two analogies, and arrive at a full understanding of God? I must sadly postpone the continuation of this topic until I get to the topic of God as Trinity; this is merely a preliminary discussion to add depth to the Doctrine of Divine Simplicity.

Aseity

God is entirely other. All that we understand is insufficient to describe the nature of the God. We have adopted verbage to attempt to do justice to our collective understanding of God, describing but never explaining. Orthodoxy has taken great care in the discussion of the Godhead, the nature, essence, or Ontology, of God.

We know first of all that God is uncreated; “There is not reality beyond Himself to which He owes His being [Bounds].” We know this principal as Divine Aseity. In the ancient world, that existed after the fall, there was a prevalence of acceptance that a god existed. Many civilizations believed in many gods, most of which were fickle, and limited in power. These mythic gods often bore god-children among each other, and grew to and lost power in the heavens. When we look at the one true God, that of the Judeo-Christian tradition, we see that God is not born of another being, or that He is not derived from a substance that predated Him, but is in fact uncreated.

Due to His Aseity we know that He does not depend on any other being for His existence. We know this idea as Divine Independence. I believe that there is truly one, and only one God that exists. I refute the ideas of polytheism, which would require other gods to exist, and I also refute henotheism. God is not merely the greatest of gods among gods, He is the only; this doctrine is known as Divine Oneness. In fact there is a series of Scripture verses that were threaded together by early Jews called the Shema; Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41. My Freshman year of college I set myself upon the task of memorizing some sections of Scripture; the first one being Psalm 139, and the second being the entirety of the Shema. The importance of the Shema was that it is the foundational text for the doctrine of Divine Oneness. We must remember the affirmation of this text that “The LORD our God, the Lord is one [Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV].” I needed to assert the Oneness of God as a precursory note to the Doctrine of the Trinity, in order to prevent confusion.

We also understand that God is living. What we know to be life is only a reflection of the Divine Life. “God's life is the eternal, un-derived energy of His being, enabling life, change, and movement in creation [Bounds].” What we know to be life is but a shadow of the true Life that is an ontological facet of the Godhead.

One of the most precious facets of God is His infinity. We understand that space and time are merely constructs of God, a skeleton upon which to create all that we know. When we begin to look at the ontology of God we must understand that God exists outside of, as well as within time. It is pertinent to know that God cannot be circumscribed, He transcends all spacial relations, making Him both transcendent, and immanent; which we call the Immensity of God. We know that time and space are created by God and that He is not bound to them (immensity), we also know that God was never created but always existed (aseity), He is currently alive, and we understand that God will always exist into the future; all of this to say I have built a case that God is eternal in nature. God's Divine Eternality is a key principal to understanding the manor in which we speak of God. He has always existed, and will always exist - but how?

Relational Attributes

One of the most helpful ways, I've found, to understand God is by the attributes He demonstrates in relation to the created order. We often call these attributes the omnis because they are attributes of God that must be understood in the scope of God's Infinity.

The first speaks to God's way of being present within and without the created order. God is omnipresent. God exists in all places at the same time. He has never entered a place in which He was not already present. To further articulate what I said earlier, God cannot be circumscribed. The scope of His presence is infinite, and simultaneous. Not only can He go anywhere, but He currently is everywhere. God does not enter your heart when you accept His saving grace, He's already there. The Godhead is fully present in hell. When we are in worship it is more helpful to help each other understand that God is altogether present than to pray for God to “come into this place.” We see in Scripture a precedent laid down that while God is everywhere, He does exist differently in certain places and times in history (not to be confused with dispensationalism). This is illustrated in Acts 2:1-3 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them [NIV].” We see that the person of the Holy Spirit was existing differently to them in this time and in this place, but Omnipresence explains that the Son, and the Father were all equally present. It is very important that I point out that I believe that the Godhead always exist, and act in concert, even if one Person is acting distinctly. We also see this in the life of Christ. The Spirit and Father were not less present in the salvific moment of the Cross, but it was the Son that was existing differently. This principal is not only true of the Spirit and Son, but is also true of the Father, as we see in the Creation narrative.

The second concept is that of Omniscience, and describes the truth of God's knowledge. I believe that God knows all that has happened, is happening and will happen. His knowledge is actual in that its not merely that He could know all, but that He actually does know all. He does not restrict His knowledge in any way, I would assert that His knowledge is consummate. We also understand that His knowledge is eternally perfect, in that it does not begin imperfect, gradually moving toward perfection, but has and will always exist perfectly – never growing in its scope. We also have this understanding called “middle knowledge;” which states that God has always known every possibility that could happen. We are called to hold in tension the fact that while God has always known all that could and will be, this knowledge does not in any way determine events. This is one of the places where God's Omniscience and God's Omnipresence overlap. God is eternally present; He exists inside as well as outside of time, and therefore He exists in all of time and space, as if He is experiencing all of history in an instant. God allows the created order the power of free will, giving each human a will that is in the image of God's will. Thus God knows all, and free will is still exercised.

I also believe that God is Omnipotent; or all powerful. In fact in order for God to be God, He must be all powerful. While God's power is over all things, it exists in such a way so as to empower creation, and enable the freedom of other things. I mentioned earlier that I believe that God's omnipotence is defined by His character; this means that God cannot be other than He is. God cannot exhibit cruelty for instance, not that He does not have the power to do this, but that cruelty is in fact powerlessness, or privation of power; simply put power is not cruel. God's power can be coercive or persuasive in nature. God is in complete control, yet He does not always control. This means that God can push His creation into His will, and pull it toward His will. God operates coercively at times imposing His will on the created order, and persuasively at times, leading and drawing the created order into His will; a topic that will be dealt with in depth under Providence. The most important thing to understand under the Doctrine of Omnipotence is this; God cannot do anything because His character informs His will. There are three viewpoints that articulate God's omnipotence. One states that God is able to do absolutely anything, and that His character is subject to His power; God could become a tyrannical destroyer in an instant, ant that nothing is preventing Him from doing so. The second one states that while He can do anything, He won't; or His character directs His will. My belief is that God's omnipotence is subject to His character and that there are some things God simply cannot do. God can only be that which He is.