The Attributes of God

[Thoughtful Monk]

I've been thinking about the attributes of God: love, righteousness, holiness, just, true, etc.

To listen to many people today, one would think God had only one attribute: love.

I suppose they would say that love is God's most important or primary attribute.

To get some other prespectives on this, I submit the following three questions:

1. Does God have a primary or most important attribute?
2. If the answer to 1 is yes, what is it?
3. What is the impact of the emphasis on love?

My answers:
1. No. All of His attributes are balanced in His personality.
2. If I had to pick one attribute as most important, I would go with holy.
3. We are developing an incomplete concept of God and how He works in our lives.

[Sparko]

Existence.

[Cow Poke]

Omnipotence

Beyond that, Hebrews 1 describes Christ as the exact image of God.

[Thoughtful Monk]

Existence.

I see what you mean. If God didn't exist, then nothing would exist including you, me, and (shudder) TWeb. So without God's existence, there would be no existence. That's pretty important.

Yet God could exist and He could have not bothered creating the world. He could have created the world and then let in run. He could be a cruel and malvolent God to His creation. Humanity could be just mere entertainment to Him. So existence is important but in this case you get no idea of who God is.

This is sort of the agnostic view of God.

(I will concede in the age we currently live in, it has become more important to proclaim that God exists. In the past, I think God's existence was more of a given in society.)

[seer]

My answers:
1. No. All of His attributes are balanced in His personality.
2. If I had to pick one attribute as most important, I would go with holy.
3. We are developing an incomplete concept of God and how He works in our lives.

I tend to agree, but wouldn't we say that His love overrode His sense of justice by making a way of salvation for sinners?

[Thoughtful Monk]

I tend to agree, but wouldn't we say that His love overrode His sense of justice by making a way of salvation for sinners?

Overrode is a little strong for me. I would say His love caused Him to create a way of salvation for sinners that also satisfied His justice. That a lot of the story of the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus.

[Sparko]

I see what you mean. If God didn't exist, then nothing would exist including you, me, and (shudder) TWeb. So without God's existence, there would be no existence. That's pretty important.

Yet God could exist and He could have not bothered creating the world. He could have created the world and then let in run. He could be a cruel and malvolent God to His creation. Humanity could be just mere entertainment to Him. So existence is important but in this case you get no idea of who God is.

This is sort of the agnostic view of God.

(I will concede in the age we currently live in, it has become more important to proclaim that God exists. In the past, I think God's existence was more of a given in society.)

I don't think God could be evil or not care. The Ontological argument says that God has to be the greatest being we can concieve or he is not God. We can conceive of a better God than one that is evil or just doesn't care about his creation so any God that exists must be perfect, good and omnipotent, and loving.

[KingsGambit]

I see what you mean. If God didn't exist, then nothing would exist including you, me, and (shudder) TWeb. So without God's existence, there would be no existence. That's pretty important.

Yet God could exist and He could have not bothered creating the world. He could have created the world and then let in run. He could be a cruel and malvolent God to His creation. Humanity could be just mere entertainment to Him. So existence is important but in this case you get no idea of who God is.

This is sort of the agnostic view of God.

(I will concede in the age we currently live in, it has become more important to proclaim that God exists. In the past, I think God's existence was more of a given in society.)

John Stott mentioned this. Several decades ago, he wrote Basic Christianity as a handbook for new/potential converts. Shortly before his death, he said that he had taken for granted that his audience would have no problem acknowledging God's existence because almost everybody did, but if he were rewriting the book today, he wouldn't have done the same.

[seer]

Overrode is a little strong for me. I would say His love caused Him to create a way of salvation for sinners that also satisfied His justice. That a lot of the story of the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus.

No matter the mechanism it would still be the case that love won, not justice.