“God has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with

him as if you were the only being he had created.”

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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God’s greatness and God’s goodness – How should we understand these as compatible??

• Transcendence = “a quality of being superior in every way”

• wholly other – this is the idea of holy.

• Immanence = “closeness, nearness, involvement”

All the attributes of God fall under one of these categories of understanding.

Natural Attributes Moral Attributes

Heresy/Error -- > Result of the amount of emphasis on one or the other.

Errors that have sprung up surrounding God’s greatness (transcendence) and God’s goodness (immanence)• Deism = “a portrayal of God as Creator of the cosmos but uncaring for it”• Panentheism = “God is greater than the universe and the universe is contained within God; the whole is in God.” • Pantheism = “The substance of God and the substance of the physical universe are the same.”• Process theology = “God is in process, he is in process of becoming reality.”

The Pantheist would say God is the tree and the tree is God.

The Panentheist would say God created the tree and needs the tree for His continued self-existence.

Accepted church tradition about transcendence and immanence:

• “hiddenness of God” =• immutability = “inability to change” strong immutability weak immutability

SO????• We want a God who is incomparably great and incomparably near!

• Tensions exist even up to today; perhaps the best approach is just to live with the paradox.

Coming to some sense of acceptable explanation:• We know only what God reveals to us; He has revealed only so much of Himself.• God may have chosen to self-limit Himself.

GOD is1. A Transcendent Being

--Prior to, distinct from, and not dependent on anything or anyone

--not contained within time or space

--personal yet absolute

GOD is1. A Transcendent Being

--the “omnis”--God “controlling” the limits of

his transcendence but not at the expense of his sovereignty

GOD is2. A Dynamic Being

--Dynamic within himself

--Dynamic in his activity

GOD is3. Absolute Goodness

**evidenced by his holiness--Holy by virtue of transcendence--Holy by virtue of actions and

relations with his creation--Holy by being its restorer when

goodness was lost

“Since holiness embraces every distinctive attribute of the Godhead, it may be defined as the outshining of all that

God is [an ontological attribute]. As the sun’s rays, combining all the colors of the spectrum, come together

in the shining of the sun and blending into light, so in God’s self-manifestation all the attributes of God come together and blend into holiness. Holiness has, for that reason, been called ‘the attribute of attributes’ – that

which lends unity to all the attributes of God.”

R. `A. Finlayson

GOD is3. Absolute Goodness

**evidenced by his giving love--a love story

evidenced by his servant love--God “resting”--God’s response to rebellion

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Review:GOD is

1. A Transcendent Being2. A Dynamic Being3. Absolute Goodness