Attributes of God

The Attributes of God

Theology Proper is the study of the being and nature of God that is studied under systematic Theology. This however is not to be understood as describing God or presenting Him in a list, God has revealed Himself to us in order that humanity may know Him, we cannot even know half of who God is as our minds cannot fathom of His Glorious being.

Human beings tends to have presuppositions whenever the name of God is mentioned, mostly this is done by speculation without clearly knowing who God is, theology proper becomes a helpful study tool that explains who God is from a biblical point of view. It is very crucial to our understanding that we know our God the way He has revealed Himself to us. A wrong view of God leads to a bad theology that describes God as a humanitarian or any otherthing that He is not. Before one can understand the story of creation and the story of redemption, he/she must first have a correct view of who God is.

The Knowledge of God is innate and that is: it was not founded by experience or some discoveries but revealed to humanity by God Himself. Can we describe God? No! God cannot be described, we can define who He is by His attributes. The Westminster's Catechism gives this definition of God "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power,holiness, justice, goodness, and truth."
God is known by His attributes without which He would cease to be God; He is not described the way human beings are described as having hands and feet or any other body parts because He does not have any as He is Spirit. We talk about God as Love or Holy and just, his attributes defines who He is and what He is not.

Charles Hodge writes:

God, therefore, is in his nature a substance, or essence, which is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable; the common subject of all divine perfections, and the common agent of all divine acts. This is as far as we can go, or need to go. We have no definite idea of substance, whether of matter or mind, as distinct from its attributes. The two are inseparable. In knowing the one we know the other. We cannot know hardness except as we know something hard. We have, therefore, the same knowledge of the essence of God, as we have of the substance of the soul. All we have to do in reference to the divine essence, as a Spirit, is to deny of it, as we do of our own spiritual essence, what belongs to material substances; and to affirm of it, that in itself and its attributes it is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. When, therefore, we say there is a God, we do not assert merely that there is in our minds the idea of an infinite Spirit; but that, entirely independent of our idea of Him, such a Being really exists. Augustine3 says, "Deus est quaedam substantia; nam quod nulla substantia est, nihil omnino est. Substantia ergo aliquid esse est." (Part 1, Chapter V, Systematic Theology -- Charles Hodge)

Some of the Divine attributes of God studied under theology proper are: The Holiness of God, The Justice of God, The power of God, The Love of God, The Sovereignty of God, The Immutability of God, The Faithfulness of God, His omnipresence, His omniscience, His omnipotent, and many others. ";
Many people have a false view of the Divine being and I will list some of these views:

Atheism, Animism, Polytheism, Pantheism/monism, Dualism, Postmodernism Below are some of the attributes of God

The Attributes of God

1. Theology Proper
2. The Sovereignty of God
3. Holiness of God
4. The faithfulness of God
5. The decrees of God
6. The justice of God