The Nature Of God

Question 1

Give a quote to support the idea of God’s eternity

Answer 1

In the beginning God created - Genesis 1

Question 2

Give a quote to support the idea of God’s omniscience

Answer 2

You have gone against my will and eaten from the tree - Genesis 3

Question 3

Give a quote to support the idea of God’s omnipotence

Answer 3

God made man in his own image - Genesis 2

Question 4

Give a quote to support the idea of God’s omnibenevolence

Answer 4

For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son

Question 5

What is meant by referring to God as timeless?

Answer 5

He can see all of time at once

Question 6

What is meant by referring to God as everlasting?

Answer 6

He moves through time

Question 7

Give an advantage of being timeless

Answer 7

Demonstrates omniscience as God knows what is best for us

Question 8

Give a disadvantage of being timeless

Answer 8

Why does God not prevent evil as he can foresee it?

Question 9

Give an advantage of being everlasting

Answer 9

God can be seen as omnipresent and sharing our experiences

Question 10

Give a disadvantage of being everlasting

Answer 10

If God is always present why does he allow people to die unnaturally?

Question 11

Give the dates of Boethius

Answer 11

475-525 AD

Question 12

When did Boethius write ‘The consolation of philosophy?’

Answer 12

Whilst in prison awaiting execution

Question 13

What is meant by providence?

Answer 13

God’s care and protection

Question 14

In ‘The consolation of philosophy’ what do both Boethius and lady philosophy represent?

Answer 14

~ Boethius represents the naive questioner

~ Lady philosophy represents the thoughts of B

Question 15

What does Boethius say to lady philosophy about foreknowledge and free will?

Answer 15

~ There seems to be a hopeless conflict between divine foreknowledge of all things and freedom of the human will
~ There can be no freedom in human decisions and actions
~ What God knows is necessary and certain

Question 16

How does lady philosophy justify foreknowledge and free will as compatible?

Answer 16

~ The nature of the knower
~ Humans can know things that lesser animals cannot
~ In the same way God knows things that we cannot

Question 17

What does Boethius say on God’s knowledge?

Answer 17

It encompasses the infinite sweep of past and future, and regards all things in its simple comprehension as if they were now taking place

Question 18

How does Anthony Kenny criticise Boethius?

Answer 18

“The whole concept of a timeless eternity, the whole of which is simultaneous with every part of time, seems to be radically incoherent”

Question 19

How could a Boethian respond to Kenny?

Answer 19

He fails to distinguish between the temporal and non temporal + the human and divine perspective

Question 20

How does Nelson Pike criticise Boethius?

Answer 20

As the language of traditional doctrines show God doing things in the past, He must be within time

Question 21

How could a Boethian respond to Pike?

Answer 21

Some languages such as Chinese do not have tenses, so Pike’s point is subjective

Question 22

Give a quote from Nicholas Wolterstorff on God as everlasting

Answer 22

“Regrets over the pervasive pattern of what transpires within time have led whole societies to place the divine outside of time”

Question 23

Give a quote from Aquinas on the difference between time and eternity

Answer 23

“The primary intrinsic difference of time from eternity is that eternity exists as a simultaneous whole and time does not”

Question 24

What example does Peter Geach (1916-) give to illustrate the problem between divine will and foreknowledge?

Answer 24

Playing chess with a grandmaster - you are free to make a move but ultimately will always lose

Question 25

What are the implications of the paradox of the stone?

Answer 25

~If God can create a stone too heavy for him to lift then He is not omnipotent
~ If God cannot create a stone too heavy for him to lift then He is not omnipotent because His powers of creation are limited

Question 26

How does Aquinas defend God from the burden of sin?

Answer 26

He says that to sin is ‘to fall short of something’ and God is not capable of this because he is a supremely perfect being

Question 27

How does Swinburne defend God’s omnipotence?

Answer 27

He said that omnipotence is being able to do anything logically possible, and that God is unable to do that which he knows is wrong

Question 28

Complete this quote from Descartes on God’s omnipotence - “I do not think that we should ever…”

Answer 28

“…. Say of anything that it cannot be brought about by God”

Question 29

Give the biblical quote from Mark 10:27 to show God’s omnipotence

Answer 29

“With God all things are possible”

Question 30

Complete this quote from Socrates - “An unexamined life is….

Answer 30

…… Not worth living”

Question 31

Complete this quote from Hartshorne on God’s impassibility - “One can do nothing for God, and our worst sins harm God…..

Answer 31

…… As little as the finest acts of sainthood”

Question 32

Complete this quote from Vardy - “God is limited by….

Answer 32

….. The universe he has chosen to create”

Question 33

Impassible

Answer 33

Incapable of suffering pain or harm, unfeeling

Question 34

Paradox

Answer 34

A situation where two contradictory statements both appear true

Question 35

Middle knowledge

Answer 35

The idea that God knows all the possibilities of what would happen in different scenarios

Question 36

Complete this quote from Aquinas on God as timeless - “He who goes along the road does not see those who come after him…..

Answer 36

….. Whereas he who sees the whole road from a height sees at once all those travelling on it”

Question 37

Process theology

Answer 37

The idea that God is changing with the universe so our knowledge of God progresses as we learn more about him

Question 38

Why can process theology be seen as problematic to God’s omniscience?

Answer 38

It claims that God does not know everything that will transpire

Question 39

What does D.Z.Phillips (1934-2006) say about God’s eternity?

Answer 39

It is more of a quality than an existence through time as the notion of God’s eternity attempts to convey the idea that we cannot comprehend God

Question 40

Give the 5 main qualities of God

Answer 40

Eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omnipresent