God’s attributes of wisdom and goodness have been sources of comfort to innumerable Christians over the past two millennia. God is truly wise and knows exactly what He is doing. Specifically, God is always good and does nothing for spiteful or evil reasons. That is why we can say that God is truly good and wise in all of His dealings, and we can affirm this alongside the ancient Christians. God is altogether wisdom and understanding. Aristides of Athens (AD ?-134), Apology, chapter 1 If I call God ‘Mind,’ I speak but of His wisdom. If I call Him ‘Providence,’ I but mention His goodness. Theo ..read more

When we discuss the omnipotence of God, we’re not discussing whether or not He can create a boulder so big that He can’t move it. We’re not discussing whether God can defy logic and be absurd. What we are discussing is His ability to accomplish anything that is consistent with His holy will. When we frame the discussion in this way, and when we study Scripture and history, we see that God truly is omnipotent. Adversary He has none, for there exists not any stronger than He. Aristides of Athens (AD ?-134), Apology, chapter 1 Can anyone doubt whether anything can be difficult or impossible for ..read more

News recently broke that Israel once again has unblemished red heifers for the first time in almost 2,000 years. Specifically, five red heifers arrived in Israel on a flight from Texas, and this has the Jewish religious community abuzz. If your immediate reaction is, “Why?” I don’t blame you. Bovine news from the Middle East might not seem important. However, when you understand Numbers 19, you will also understand the significance of the red heifer to Judaism. Now, Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ‘This is the statute of the law that Yahweh has commanded: “Tell the people of Israe ..read more

One of the most important relational results of justification is forgiveness. The only way a just God can forgive a guilty sinner is because of the doctrines of penal substitutionary atonement and justification, so if you have not read those blog posts yet, I highly encourage you to do so now. But we can get so caught up in the minutiae of theology, in the deep theological words of soteriology, that we can forget that the most common way the Apostles described salvation is this simple word: forgiveness. We all understand the concept of forgiveness. It’s an act whereby the wronged party cancels ..read more

Unfortunately, the attribute of God that Americans are most reticent to accept is His attribute of wrath. In our culture that so values love and acceptance, wrath is unacceptable. However, a god who is only love but not wrath is not the God of Scripture, and neither is He the God of historical Christianity. While the early church understandably did not place primary focus on this attribute, they nonetheless confessed its reality and never denied it. If I call God ‘Fire,’ I but mention His anger. You will say to me then, ‘Is God angry?’ Yes, He is angry with those who act wickedly, but He is g ..read more

God’s attribute of inscrutability–His inability to be completely comprehended–is one of the most appreciated attributes in church history. There is a beauty in admitting that you can’t totally grasp an infinite God, and Christians have been admitting this truth for millennia. I say, then, that God is not born, not made, an ever-abiding nature without beginning and without end, immortal, perfect, and incomprehensible. ARISTIDES OF ATHENS (AD ?-134), Apology, chapter 1 It seems to me that He is indeed unsearchable in His nature, and that I should argue as to the constancy of His government, so ..read more

When a sinner repents and believes the gospel, he is unified with Christ and consequently receives His righteousness. At this point, if the sinner stood before God the Father face-to-face, how would the Father see him? Would He see a sinner, or would He see an innocent person? He would see an innocent person because Jesus is an innocent person, and the sinner has been united to Christ. This is the doctrine of justification, which is defined thus: the one-time, instantaneous moment where God declares someone innocent of the sins he has committed and saves him from the penalty of sin. Again, thi ..read more

God’s attributes of wisdom and goodness are functionally worthless if God is not also sovereign. What good is it if God’s plan for this world is wise, but God cannot accomplish that plan? What good is it if God’s plan for you is good, but God’s hands are tied in accomplishing that plan? If God is incapable of accomplishing His will because of the freedom of the human will, then He is not sovereign; He cannot accomplish exactly what He desires to accomplish. Thankfully, God is not impotent, but rather sovereign. God’s attribute of sovereignty is a biblical and historical attribute, and He accom ..read more

The moment anyone repents trusts Christ, the Holy Spirit baptizes him into Christ, uniting them forevermore. This results in something we theologically call “imputed righteousness,” or a foreign righteousness that is credited to the sinner who repents and believes. By “righteousness,” I’m referring to the biblical concept of perfect justice and obedience to God’s holy standard, His moral law. By “foreign,” I’m referring to the fact that the righteousness in view today is not found within the sinner–after all, he is a sinner–but rather is found in another person and “imputed” or “credited” to t ..read more

While it should go without saying that God is omniscient (knowing all things past, present, future, potential, seen, and unseen), it is necessary to prove that ancient Christians affirmed this attribute of God. After all, certain camps that claim the name of Christian–open theism and process theology–pride themselves on denying this attribute of God. Does God know everything there is to know? Yes, and if He didn’t, then He wouldn’t be God (cf. Isaiah 41:22-23). Did the early church believe God is omniscient? Yes. Ignorance and forgetfulness are not in His nature, for He is altogether wisdom a ..read more