THE HELLENIZATION OF CHRISTIANITY: A DEFENSE OF OPEN THEISM

by

Christopher C. Fisher

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the
University Honors Program
_______________________________________________________________

The University of South Dakota

 December, 2006

What is Open Theism?

Open Theism has been subject to many false characterizations and straw men set up
by Calvinists to discredit it. Although once in a while a Calvinist will do a decent job of
defining it, it is more subject to false accusations and partial explanations than a thorough
description.
In his The Openness of God: A Critical Assessment, Stephen J. Wellum defines Open
Theism by a few main characteristics. The first characteristic is a strong emphasis on divine
love and the relationship between God and humans. The second main characteristic is an
emphasis on libertarian free will. Although a decent overview of the conclusions of Open
Theism, Wellum forgets that one cannot define something by the results. Just as the wind is
not defined by tree branches moving, Open Theism should not be defined by libertarian free
will and a God who genuinely loves and interacts with his creation. Instead Open Theism
should be defined by its methodology.
Open Theism is easily defined as an attempt to return to Biblical truths. It is an
attempt to take the Bible literally using common sense and recognizing figures of speech
using defined and consistent methodology. Open Theism looks to the Bible to determine who
God is and holds in suspicion ideas introduced into Christianity via pagan sources.
Open Theism should not be associated with sola scriptura because there are truths
apart from the Bible. The Bible never established the laws of gravity or basic mathematics.
God pre-existed the Bible. Some of God’s characteristics can be deduced apart from the
Bible and Open Theism recognizes this. But if those characteristics conflict with the Bible
then Open Theists also recognize that either the deductions were wrong or the Bible is in
error (rendering Christianity false). The Bible should never be retranslated to mean
something the original authors never intended.
Open Theism is unable to be traced to any Pagan philosophers as Calvinism can be
demonstrably shown to do. Although Calvinists try to root Open Theism in the freedom
mentality of the mid 20th century, they forget that correlation does not equal causation. Most
Open Theists have at some time in their life been hardcore Calvinists, a stark difference than
the hippies of the 60s. Open Theism is really a revival on par with Luther’s break from the
Catholic Church proclaiming the Bible trumps man’s invention.
The Bible should define the true nature of God, and it should be read in a
straightforward manner such as other books are read and understood. It, being God’s word,
should act as a mirror for reality, showing truths that are in existence. Extra-Biblical
definitions should not be placed onto Biblical words or concepts. The Bible, not man-made
philosophy, is the ultimate source for the true God.

The Hellenization of Christianity

A grand play begins. The plot begins to take shape. The characters step forward. First
and foremost is the most ancient of the characters. Born into aristocracy, his arms are filled
with writings, and it is from him all wisdom and knowledge flow. His name is Plato (427-347

2
B.C.), beloved of the world for time eternity. It is his writings and shape and influence all
major thought in preceding centuries.
Our next character steps from the shadows. He is unknown, hidden from the ages but
his role is crucial to the plot. Without him, the other characters’ actions, motions, and
thoughts would not form as they do. He is known as Plotinus (205-270 A.D.), a neo-Platonist
extraordinaire. It is his refinement of Plato that becomes mainstream in his day. Behind him
emerge his pupils.
The older of the two is known as Ambrose (340-397 A.D.), a Catholic bishop and a
mentor of the younger. His sermons are filled with allegories and bitter criticisms of his
rivals, most notably the Arians. He turns to his young mentee and directs him not to take the
Bible at face value but instead interpret it in light of Plotinus.
The younger character’s eyes shine as he emerges into the light. His heathen days are
long past and finally he accepts the Holy religion of Christ. This is Augustine (354-430
A.D.), a former Manichean and the church’s beloved. It is his words that will echo through
the centuries and become synonymous with Christianity. He will do more than any other
character in history to bring Plato into the church, and he succeeds beyond his wildest
dreams.
Two supporting characters stand left of center stage. One is named Martin Luther
(1483-1546 A.D.). This man is a pious, self flagellating, Augustinian monk. He will carry
Augustine into his revolution against the Holy Catholic Church.
The other character is John Calvin (1509-1564 A.D.), another revolutionary but in the
manner of Chi Guevara. He would create his own city, his own laws, and his own justice. At
the height of his power he would execute 38 people in the name of creating a Christian
Utopia, most executed for witchcraft and spreading the plague and others for theological
views. He was a devote follower of Augustine, and used Augustine’s words to form the
theological beliefs now known as Calvinism.

Plato

Around 400 years before Christ’s birth, a child was born in Athens who would
change the world. The young man’s real name is not exactly known to us but he was known
as Plato1 to his friends, a student of Socrates. Socrates, himself, would never pen a single
book so the task fell upon Plato to write of Socrates’ deeds. We can be confident not all of
Plato’s writings are of the real Socrates. Plato, it seems, was pushing his own agenda using
literary techniques that were quite effective. The audience would be attached to the familiar
character of Socrates, following his every word, his crafty tricks and quick wit, while the foil
character would be drawn through the maze as a helpless mouse. In this fashion Plato could
propagate his ideology without the fallout that might occur if published as his own views.
Plato wrote at the time of the Greek gods. It was thought many gods ruled the
universe; there were practically countless gods from which to choose. Each god had their
own personality, vices, and methods of manipulation, all of which were fashioned from the
lives of the Greeks themselves. Greek literature reflected this and exalted the gods’ evil
dealings with mankind.

1
Plato means broad shoulders. Plato was a wrestler and was known by this physical characteristic.

3
 In one such story, Hera, the wife of Zeus, turns her eyes on her husband and loathes
him. He has been interfering with her plans against the Trojans. In order to distract Zeus, she
formulates a bold plan of seduction, bribery and deceit. She deceives Aphrodite, the goddess
of love, into giving her a golden girdle with the magic charms of love, desire and flattery.
She then bribes Sleep to close Zeus’ eyes in slumber. Sleep is offered a golden seat at first
but holds out until Hera offers him Pasithea, the youngest of the Graces for a wife.
Hera then proceeds to approach Zeus who is overpowered by her charms:

Never yet have I been so overpowered by passion neither for goddess nor mortal woman as I
am at this moment for yourself- not even when I was in love with the wife of Ixion who bore
me Pirithous… nor yet with Danae…Then there was the daughter of Phoenix… Semele…
Alcmena… queen Ceres again, and lovely Leto, and yourself- but with none of these was I
ever so much enamoured as I now am with you.1

In this segment Zeus lists all his infidelities. Zeus performed more evils, to be sure,
but this segment is included just so an idea of the depravity of the Greek gods can be
established. The Greeks reveled in all the passions of the flesh, and their religion reflected
their evil.
The gods of the Greeks are undeniably evil and indefensible in their actions. Even
evil people know when they are evil. A thief will feel wronged when someone steals from
him. God gave us all a conscience2, and soon the Greek gods came into question for their
immorality.
The gods soon became embarrassments to a new generation of philosophers, a
generation who thought of themselves as enlightened and above their barbaric ancestors. And
as rebellious children, lashing out aimlessly at all they know, the philosophers rejected all
attributes of the Greek gods. Plato writes in his Republic about the myths of the Greek gods:

…there was that greatest of all lies in high places, which the poet told about Uranus, and
which was a bad lie too,--I mean what Hesiod says that Uranus did, and how Cronus retaliated
on him…
they are stories not to be repeated in our State; the young man should not be told that in
committing the worst of crimes he is far from doing anything outrageous; and that even if he
chastises his father when he does wrong, in whatever manner, he will only be following the
example of the first and greatest among the gods…3

Plato continually faults the Greek gods for a breakdown of Greek society. These are the
stories he never wants told. Children, he says, should never hear of the evil doings of the evil
gods of old: “Neither must we have mothers under the influence of the poets scaring their
children with a bad version of these myths.” These are not only lies, he proclaims, but “bad
lies”.
Instead, Plato’s society would replace the gods of old with a new god, on totally
removed from any semblance of the evil gods of the Greeks. He makes this the first principle
of his new society. Plato’s new god is entirely good; he does no evil and causes no evil:
1
Illiad, XIV
2
Rom 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these,
having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Rom 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and
their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
3
Republic, II

4
 God is always to be represented as he truly is… And is he not truly good? and must he not be
represented as such... And no good thing is hurtful… And that which hurts not does no evil…
And can that which does no evil be a cause of evil?
Impossible…
It follows therefore that the good is not the cause of all things, but of the good only… Then
God, if he be good, is not the author of all things, as the many assert, but he is the cause of a
few things only, and not of most things that occur to men. For few are the goods of human
life, and many are the evils, and the good is to be attributed to God alone; of the evils the
causes are to be sought elsewhere, and not in him.1

From here Plato lambastes the gods of Homer yet again. The Greek gods cause evil, and
telling their stories is foolish. He despises the gods of old and in his new perfect society there
is no room for silly tales of the evil deeds of Zeus or Athene or any other of the passion
driven gods. Plato’s god can only do that which is good, a key concept that is echoes
throughout the ages. Future philosophers wrestle with this foundation, trying to reconcile a
God who knows the future with precise certainty and who is at the same time not the author
of evil. Plato sets the stage for this future philosophical dispute.
Plato goes on in constructing the antithesis of the Greek gods. In the following
paragraphs he carries the axe with which to kill the Greek passions forever, immutability:

Shall I ask you whether God is a magician, and of a nature to appear insidiously now in one
shape, and now in another--sometimes himself changing and passing into many forms… or is
he one and the same immutably fixed in his own proper image?
…if we suppose a change in anything, that change must be effected either by the thing itself,
or by some other thing… And things which are at their best are also least liable to be altered
or discomposed; for example, when healthiest and strongest, the human frame is least liable to
be affected by meats and drinks, and the plant which is in the fullest vigour also suffers least
from winds or the heat of the sun or any similar causes… and will not the bravest and wisest
soul be least confused or deranged by any external influence?
True.
…Then everything which is good, whether made by art or nature, or both, is least liable to
suffer change from without… surely God and the things of God are in every way perfect…
Then he can hardly be compelled by external influence to take many shapes?
He cannot.
…If he change at all he can only change for the worse, for we cannot suppose him to be
deficient either in virtue or beauty… Then it is impossible that God should ever be willing to
change; being, as is supposed, the fairest and best that is conceivable, every God remains
absolutely and for ever in his own form.2

It is important to Plato that god cannot be influenced by external factors. He is totally and
completely non-dependent on his creation. His creation does not sway him or cause him to
change in any way.
Like a recurring theme, Plato next reiterates his distaste for the evil acts of the
traditional gods and proclaims that god does not change. God does not deceive and change
forms. He says that anyone who claims such things makes cowards of their children and
commits blasphemy against Plato’s new god.3 From here he argues that god is unable to lie,

1
Republic, II
2
Republic, II
3
Republic, II

5
much for the same reasons as not being able to change. Plato’s new god is simple and
immutable, a stark contrast to the prominent gods of the times.
Plato ends this book of the Republic with one last outburst at the passion filled gods
of old. Because we should attempt to be like god, we should not heed the words of the poets.
We should not even allow them to speak in our utopia. The passions of the gods are dead:

Then, although we are admirers of Homer, we do not admire the lying dream which Zeus
sends to Agamemnon; neither will we praise the verses of Aeschylus in which Thetis says that
Apollo at her nuptials
…These are the kind of sentiments about the gods which will arouse our anger; and he who
utters them shall be refused a chorus; neither shall we allow teachers to make use of them in
the instruction of the young, meaning, as we do, that our guardians, as far as men can be,
should be true worshippers of the gods and like them.1

While the Greek gods were passionate, changeable, and effected by outside influences, the
new god was impassible and immutable. But Plato’s rebellion did not stop there, he needed a
framework in which this new God could live and a philosophy to explain why these attributes
were the way they are. For this he concocted a God outside of time. He explains this concept
throughout Timaeus:

…when he set in order the heaven, he made this image eternal but moving according to
number, while eternity itself rests in unity; and this image we call time. For there were no
days and nights and months and years before the heaven was created, but when he
constructed the heaven he created them also. They are all parts of time, and the past and
future are created species of time, which we unconsciously but wrongly transfer to the eternal
essence; for we say that he "was," he "is," he "will be," but the truth is that "is" alone is
properly attributed to him, and that "was" and "will be" only to be spoken of becoming in
time, for they are motions, but that which is immovably the same cannot become older or
younger by time, nor ever did or has become, or hereafter will be, older or younger, nor is
subject at all to any of those states which affect moving and sensible things and of which
generation is the cause. These are the forms of time, which imitates eternity and revolves
according to a law of number. Moreover, when we say that what has become is become and
what becomes is becoming, and that what will become is about to become and that the non-
existent is non-existent-all these are inaccurate modes of expression.2

Thus the concept of timelessness is born out of a philosophical rebellion. We first start seeing
the terms and concepts so common in the history of Christianity, explanations for how this
system works and can be defined. A changeless God cannot age. He cannot have a before and
after, if so, new relational attributes could be assigned to him. At one instant someone could
say God is in existence before the fall of Rome and at the next one could say he is in
existence after the fall of Rome. Outside influences cannot affect God if he is to be perfect.
Our understanding of him cannot change or be altered by any event if he is to be immutable.
This is a god totally independent of his creation, relying on no man, and feeling no passion.
These ideas were to now become the new drumbeat of humanity. Plato’s schools
would teach and train the future leaders of the world, and Plato would become the father of
many schools of thought. His influence would extend from the pages of the Gnostics to even
the innermost circles of Christianity. Anyone in the proceeding centuries who was considered
learned would study his writings and accept them into their own doctrines.
1
Republic, II
2
Timaeus

6
 Plotinus

Over four centuries after Plato, another man was born to this world who would leave
his mark on Christianity. This man’s name was Plotinus, and, although considering himself
to be a Platonist, he would come to lead the movement known as Neo-Platonism. Within his
own lifetime his work would become mainstream. Building upon Plato, his thoughts would
dominate and influence his own generation as well as all future generations.
We can be quite confident all of Plotinus’ writings have survived to the current day.
He did not write much and was not one for spelling and grammar. His almost illegible
writings were deciphered and edited by his trusted student Porphyry into what we know
today as the Enneads. What we know of Plotinus’ life we have through Porphyry’s
introduction to the Enneads, which tells of a man “ashamed of being in the body.”1
Plotinus lived as he preached. He disdained the flesh and earthly desires. He was a
vegetarian. He was very hesitant to letting himself be drawn and sculpted; he hated his
earthly image and could not understand why he should make an image of an already flawed
image. Plotinus refused medicine of any kinds and let his body be eaten by disease. He died a
sickly withered man in his bed, Porphyry records, by a snake bite.2
Plotinus’ philosophy resembled much of what pagan religions do. There was hatred
for the flesh. There was purification through physical abandonment. There was glorification
of the will and the ability to overcome fleshly desires. All of which the Bible condemns: “Col
2:23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and
neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.”
There was also deep meditation, something known as the ascension:3

In the advancing stages of Contemplation rising from that in Nature, to that in the Soul and
thence again to that in the Intellectual-Principle itself- the object contemplated becomes
progressively a more and more intimate possession of the Contemplating Beings, more and
more one thing with them; and in the advanced Soul the objects of knowledge, well on the
way towards the Intellectual-Principle, are close to identity with their container.4

It was this act which helped move Plotinus closer to the One (god). Plotinus’ theory held that
god was perfect and we were just images of perfection. We were not real perfection and the
most holy thing we could do was try to return to that perfection. This was accomplished
through becoming as god is, and Plotinus’ god seems uncannily similar to the one worshiped
by Christians today.
Plotinus states time and time again that god is above predicates. God is indescribable:

Thus The One is in truth beyond all statement: any affirmation is of a thing; but the all-
transcending, resting above even the most august divine Mind, possesses alone of all true
being, and is not a thing among things; we can give it no name because that would imply
predication:5

1
Enneads, Porphyry: On the Life of Plotinus and the Arrangement of his Work, 1
2
Enneads, Porphyry: On the Life of Plotinus and the Arrangement of his Work, 2
3
Plotinus, 211
4
Enneads, 3.8.8
5
Enneads, 5.3.13

7
Elsewhere he states: “Once you have uttered ‘The Good,’ add no further thought: by any
addition, and in proportion to that addition, you introduce a deficiency.”1 The only real way
we can speak about god is through negatives:

We do not, it is true, grasp it by knowledge, but that does not mean that we are utterly void of
it; we hold it not so as to state it, but so as to be able to speak about it. And we can and do
state what it is not, while we are silent as to what it is: we are, in fact, speaking of it in the
light of its sequels; unable to state it, we may still possess it.2

God is only to be known through negatives. If man is spatially located god is not spatially
located (omnipresent). If man is temporal god is not temporal (atemporal). If man is
changeable god is not changeable (immutable). There is nothing god cannot do (omnipotent).
There is nothing god cannot know (omniscient). There is no defect in god (perfection). He is
known, but only through unlimited characteristics, characteristics not tying him down to
specific qualities or actions, but ones wholly encompassing everything, unable to be
distinguished from nothingness.
The first unlimited, negative attribute to be ascribed to god is incompositeness. God is
not made up of any parts.3 From there simplicity is deduced. Something without parts is
wholly itself. It is simple. It is unity. Simplicity, in turn, breeds self-sufficiency; god is not
dependent on anyone:

Even in calling it "The First" we mean no more than to express that it is the most absolutely
simplex: it is the Self-Sufficing only in the sense that it is not of that compound nature which
would make it dependent upon any constituent; it is "the Self-Contained" because everything
contained in something alien must also exist by that alien.4

Along the same lines of Self-Sufficiency, being “the First” and being perfection necessitate
omnipotence: “If The First is perfect, utterly perfect above all, and is the beginning of all
power, it must be the most powerful of all that is, and all other powers must act in some
partial imitation of it.”5 Plotinus argues in the fashion throughout his work, the beginning of
power must be the most powerful of all, the originator of perfection must be the most perfect
of all, the first cause must be the most simple of all. It is these non-sequiturs that dominate
the Platonic mode of thought. This thinking drives Platonism and eventual even Christianity.
Having established Indescribability, Self-Sufficiency, Simplicity and Omnipotence,
Plotinus then describes god’s infinite nature saying of the: “One, it has never known measure
and stands outside of number, and so is under no limit either in regard to any extern or within
itself;”6 He says this is so because first, there is nothing above god to set bounds to him, and
second, it is pure unity and being measured would bring “duality” to him; he would be able
to change. The perfect cannot change.
And because God is also perfect Plotinus proceeds argues that God is omnipresent.
Perfection and simplicity combined merits that god is above spatial limitations:

1
Enneads, 3.8.10
2
Enneads, 5.3.14
3
Plotinus, 16
4
Enneads, 2.9.1
5
Enneads, 5.4.1
6
Enneads, 5.5.11

8
 The authentic and primal Kosmos is the Being of the Intellectual Principle and of the
Veritable Existent. This contains within itself no spatial distinction, and has none of the
feebleness of division, and even its parts bring no incompleteness… every part that it gives
forth is a whole; all its content is its very own, for there is here no separation of thing from
thing, no part standing in isolated existence estranged from the rest, and therefore nowhere is
there any wronging of any other, any opposition. Everywhere one and complete, it is at rest
throughout and shows difference at no point; it does not make over any of its content into any
new form; there can be no reason for changing what is everywhere perfect.1

Plotinus’ concept of omnipresence put god not everywhere at once, but above space itself, in
a spirit world of sorts. This is a concept not foreign to modern Christian theology. Augustine,
later, would claim the exact same thing.
Not only does perfection place god above limitation in space, but also time:

The phrase "He was good" [used by Plato of the Demiurge] refers to the Idea of the All; and
its very indefiniteness signifies the utter absense of relation to Time: so that even this
Universe has had no temporal beginning; and if we speak of something "before" it, that is
only in the sense of the Cause from which it takes its Eternal Existence. Plato used the word
merely for the convenience of exposition, and immediately corrects it as inappropriate to the
order vested with the Eternity he conceives and affirms.2

Here it seems Plotinus is referring to god as the “he” in “he was good”. Plotinus elsewhere
states that “the good” and god are one and the same: “When we speak of The One and when
we speak of The Good we must recognize an Identical Nature; we must affirm that they are
the Same…”3 Plotinus never directly says god is outside of time.4 But it should be
remembered that the Enneads are a loose collection of writings and responses Plotinus
generated usually for specific points. They are not a comprehensive ideological overview of
all things Platonic. Also, it should be noted that Plotinus is very clear that what is outside of
time is better than that that is affected by time. Time means decay. Time is the image of
perfection, just as the real world is an image of the perfect. The One always is the perfect and
what is imperfect is always that which changes. Note that Plotinus borrows heavily from
Plato in his definition and explanation of time:

We begin with Eternity, since when the standing Exemplar is known, its representation in
image- which Time is understood to be- will be clearly apprehended- though it is of course
equally true, admitting this relationship to Time as image to Eternity the original, that if we
chose to begin by identifying Time we could thence proceed upwards by Recognition [the
Platonic Anamnesis] and become aware of the Kind which it images.5

Compare this to Plato’s own definition of time:

These are the forms of time, which imitates eternity and revolves according to a law of
number. Moreover, when we say that what has become is become and what becomes is

1
Enneads, 3.2.1
2
Enneads, 3.7.6
3
Enneads, 2.9.1
4
Enneads, 9.1
5
Enneads, 3.7.1

9
 becoming, and that what will become is about to become and that the non-existent is non-
existent-all these are inaccurate modes of expression.1

Time was the image. Time was that which was imperfect. It was the lack of creation that was
evil and destructive. This is how Platonists saw the world, as a corrupt image of that which
was perfect. Plato says that time imitates eternity just as the Soul imitates the One. They both
imitate in the fact that they are just shadows of what are perfect. That was Plotinus’
definition of reality, of matter: dirty and separated from perfection.
In the first Ennead Plotinus describes the current state of man as “an ugly Soul,
dissolute, unrighteous: teeming with all the lusts.”2 Man’s soul is weighed down with filth. It
is a foreign substance that overcomes our perfection and turns us dirty. Man is the result of a
descent. Plotinus describes next what must be done: “his ugly condition is due to alien matter
that has encrusted him, and if he is to win back his grace it must be his business to scour and
purify himself and make himself what he was.”3
To the Platonists, just as to many of the other religions of the day, the Philosopher’s
job to return from this chaos, become one with god through purification. Plotinus did this
through abstinence from the desires of the flesh, hatred of the body, and meditation. He
describes the two stages for unification with the perfect:

…our journey is to the Good, to the Primal-Principle… For all there are two stages of the
path, as they are making upwards or have already gained the upper sphere. The first degree is
the conversion from the lower life; the second- held by those that have already made their
way to the sphere of the Intelligibles, have set as it were a footprint there but must still
advance within the realm- lasts until they reach the extreme hold of the place, the Term
attained when the topmost peak of the Intellectual realm is won.4

The pinnacle of the Plotinus’ religion was contemplation, or meditation. This was the goal of
every good Platonist. This was the second stage. The first was abstaining from fleshly
desires, including sex or any other activity that aroused passion. The second was
introspection, the return to the One. It was here the Platonists could become like god, simple,
unchangeable, impassible, eternal, and all knowing.

Therefore we must ascend again towards the Good, the desired of every Soul… there are
appointed purifications and the laying aside of the garments worn before, and the entry in
nakedness- until, passing, on the upward way, all that is other than the God, each in the
solitude of himself shall behold that solitary-dwelling Existence, the Apart, the Unmingled,
the Pure, that from Which all things depend, for Which all look and live and act and know, the
Source of Life and of Intellection and of Being.5

As recorded by his pupil, Porphyry, Plotinus’ ideas became very popular. He was beloved by
all even to the extent of being named guardian of the children from very elite families.
People would come from all over the known world to study under him. His teachings,
including his ideas concerning God and a devotion to the ascent, would permeate the ancient
world, even into the upper, Christian region of Africa.
1
Timeaus
2
Enneads, 1.6.5
3
Enneads, 1.6.5
4
Enneads, 1.3.1
5
Enneads, 1.6.7

10
 Augustine

Aurelius Augustinus was born in 354 AD to a poor family from the small African
town of Thagaste. These are humble beginnings considering the young Aurelius would
change the face of Christianity. Known today as Augustine of Hippo, he would be the one to
introduce more pagan philosophy into the Christian Church than any other patriarch,
solidifying ideas such as immutability and timelessness. Augustine would draw on the
Platonists for the majority of his theology. In essence, his theology was derived from Plato,
not the Bible.
The teachings of Plotinus, along with the teachings of other Neo-Platonists would
become predominant in Augustine’s time. Christianity would be shunned as ‘anti-
intellectual’ and for simpletons. Those considered the ‘learned’ and ‘educated’ of the time
were Platonists. Augustine would be raised in a culture which laughed at the teachings of
Christianity, especially the resurrection of Christ.1
By the time Augustine had moved to Milan in 384 AD, he had been exposed to a sect
known as the Manicheans, in which he served as a ‘Hearer’ for some nine years.2 The
Manicheans stressed the idea of a perfect and passive good, the Summum Bonum, which they
attributed to a god who was one of two main powers in the universe. The other power was
the ‘kingdom of darkness’. The ‘kingdom of darkness’ would fight against the good as God
was helpless being as he could not change.3 Augustine would later, after his conversion to
Christianity, devote a good deal of writing to counteracting the philosophy of the
Manicheans, but it was through their doctrine that Augustine would formulate his views of
God being unchangeably perfect, the Summum Bonum:

The highest good, than which there is no higher, is God, and consequently He is unchangeable
good, hence truly eternal and truly immortal. All other good things are only from Him, not of
Him. For what is of Him, is Himself. And consequently if He alone is unchangeable, all
things that He has made, because He has made them out of nothing, are changeable. For He is
so omnipotent, that even out of nothing, that is out of what is absolutely non-existent4

Another idea Augustine would inherit from his Manichean past would be disdain for fleshly
desires, particularly the need for sexual relationships. The reason Augustine could not
advance to an “elect” those nine years with the Manicheans was due to the fact he could not
give up sex. The Manicheans, like the Neo-Platonists, disdained fleshly desires. They
equated sex with evil. Sex was the original sin that allowed the darkness to begin to
overthrow the light:

Then Jesus came and spoke to the one who had been born, who was Adam, and explained to
him (about) the gardens (of Paradise), the deities, Gehenna, the satans, earth, heaven, sun, and
moon. He also made him fear Eve, showing him how to suppress (desire) for her, and he

1
Brown 300
2
Brown 35
3
Brown 36
4
On the Nature of Good 1

11
 forbade him to approach her, and made him fear to be near her, so that he did (what Jesus
commanded).1

Augustine would clearly maintain these beliefs throughout his life. In his Against Two
Letters of the Pelagians, Augustine states:

For it was not fit that His creature should blush at the work of his Creator; but by a just
punishment the disobedience of the members was the retribution to the disobedience of the
first man, for which disobedience they blushed when they covered with fig-leaves those
shameful parts which previously were not shameful.
Although, if those members by which sin was committed were to be covered after the sin,
men ought not indeed to have been clothed in tunics, but to have covered their hand and
mouth, because they sinned by taking and eating. What, then, is the meaning, when the
prohibited food was taken, and the transgression of the precept had been committed, of the
look turned towards those members? What unknown novelty is felt there, and compels itself
to be noticed? And this is signified by the opening of the eyes... As, therefore, they were so
suddenly ashamed of their nakedness, which they were daily in the habit of looking upon and
were not confused, that they could now no longer bear those members naked, but immediately
took care to cover them; did not they--he in the open, she in the hidden impulse--perceive
those members to be disobedient to the choice of their will, which certainly they ought to have
ruled like the rest by their voluntary command? And this they deservedly suffered, because
they themselves also were not obedient to their Lord. Therefore they blushed that they in such
wise had not manifested service to their Creator, that they should deserve to lose dominion
over those members by which children were to be procreated.2

To Augustine sex was the original sin and all future sex was the result of sin. The forbidden
fruit was merely a euphemism for that which both Plotinus and the Manicheans despised.
Both Adam and Eve covered their sexual areas after they had done this sexual deed. They
were ashamed and covered the afflicted areas. Augustine equates this with a loss of
willpower, the same lack of willpower that pervaded his own life. Without the original sin we
would not have sexual passions, we would be wholly and truly chaste. We would be living
the ideal life as described by Plotinus. Augustine furthers this idea in Of the Good of
Marriage:

Whether, therefore, without intercourse, in some other way, had they not sinned, they would
have had sons, from the gift of the Almighty Creator, Who was able to create themselves also
without parents, Who was able to form the Flesh of Christ in a virgin womb, and (to speak
even to unbelievers themselves) Who was able to bestow on bees a progeny without sexual
intercourse3

Augustine and his writings are filled with account of sex and sexual desires. Sex ruled his life
so much so that even after his conversion he would still dream of it. Augustine was for his
entire life addicted to sex, maintaining multiple live-in-girl-friends throughout his life4, and
would not give up his passions until his conversion to Christianity.
By the time Augustine is appointed as the professor of rhetoric in Milan he had given
up Manichaeism in favor of the fad.5 He adopts Platonism; particularly the works of Plotinus
1
The Manichaean Version of Genesis 2-4
2
Peleg 1.31-32
3
On the Good of Marriage 2
4
Confessions 6.15.25
5
Brown 59

12
whom he reads in the Latin do to his poor Greek skills.1 It was Marius Victorinus, an African
professor of rhetoric, who is the one to translate the Neo-Platonist works into Latin.2
Coincidently, Victorinus was acquainted with a priest by the name of Simplicianus, who
would be the one to pioneer the hybrid of Christianity and Neo-Platonism. He would come to
be known as the spiritual mentor of Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, and it would be Ambrose,
in turn, who became the spiritual mentor of Augustine.3
Not too long after Augustine’s conversion from Manichaeism, Augustine was
appointed as the professor of rhetoric in Milan.4 This is where Augustine first met Ambrose,
whose sermons Augustine would have regularly attended.5 With Ambrose endorsing
Platonism as well as the idea of changeless perfection, Augustine would soon convert to
Catholicism. When Ambrose declared that the Bible must be interpreted in light on Plotinus,
Augustine was delighted. He could finally accept the Bible and Platonism without incident.
Augustine recounts his feelings after this newfound information: “I was glad too that at last I
had been shown how to interpret the ancient Scriptures of the law and the prophets in a
different light from that which had previously made them seem absurd, when I used to
criticize your [God’s] saints for holding beliefs which they had never really had at all.”6
After casually discrediting God’s word, and affirming his own platonic philosophy,
he goes on to say: “And when he [Ambrose] lifted the veil of mystery and disclosed the
spiritual meaning of text which, taken literally, appeared to contain the most unlikely
doctrines, I was not aggrieved by what he said, although I did not yet know whether it was
true.”7 Augustine here says he was not fazed by this newfound information. Augustine never
actually believed the Bible and so Ambrose claiming it is allegorical would not come as a
shock to him.
This concept of accepting both Catholicism and Platonism would only be
strengthened by Augustine’s meeting with Simplicianus. At this meeting Augustine would
reminisce about reading the Platonic works which were translated into Latin by Victorinus.
Augustine remembers Simplicianus’ reaction to this event in Confessions: “Simplicianus said
that he was glad that I had not stumbled upon other writings of other philosophers, which
were full of fallacies and misrepresentations drawn from worldly principles. In the Platonists,
he said, God and his Word are constantly implied”.8
Augustine would take it upon himself to incorporate paganism into the Christian
religion. He felt as if it was a personal calling from God to use his Platonic knowledge in
studying Christianity:

By reading these books of Platonists I had been prompted to look for truth as something
incorporeal, and I caught sight of your [God’s] invisible nature, as it is known through your
creatures… I was certain both that you are and you are infinite, though without extent in
terms of space either limited or unlimited. I was sure that you it is you who truly are, since
you are always the same, varying in neither part nor motion… But how could I expect that
Platonist books would ever teach me charity? I believe that it was by your will that I came

1
Confessions 1.14
2
Brown 84
3
Brown 76
4
Brown 59
5
Brown 73
6
Confessions 6.4
7
Confessions 6.4
8
Confessions 8.2

13
 across those books before I studied Scriptures, because you wished me always to remember
the impression that they made on me… For if I had not come across these books until after I
had been formed in the mold of your Holy Scriptures and had learned to love you through
familiarity with them, the Platonist teaching might have swept me from my foothold on the
solid ground of piety, and… I might have thought it possible for a man who read nothing but
the Platonist books to derive the same spirit from them alone.1 (emphasis mine)

To Augustine, the only use for the Bible was piety. He makes clear that without the Bible’s
sense of piety one would only require the books of the Platonists. The Bible’s soul necessity
was transcribing godliness. Theology and all else could be derived from Platonic sources.
Augustine created his own god, a platonic god, even before consulting the Bible. Augustine
saw it as God’s eternal will that he would read and incorporate Platonism into his
Christianity. This new discovery opened the path for Augustine’s conversion from Platonism
to Christian Platonism.

Ascent

10. Wherefore, since it is our duty fully to enjoy the truth which lives unchangeably, and since
the triune God takes counsel in this truth for the things which He has made, the soul must be
purified that it may have power to perceive that light, and to rest in it when it is perceived.
And let us look upon this purification as a kind of journey or voyage to our native land. For it
is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the
cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.2

Within Augustine’s confessions Augustine describes two Platonic ascents, one before
his conversion to Christianity and one after. The methodology for his ascent mirrors the
Platonic template. He starts early in the chapter with purging his life of earthly passions. He
moves on to contemplating various states of goodness and purity. He proceeds to guide the
reader through the progression of thoughts leading to his climax:

And thus by degrees I was led upward from bodies to the soul which perceives them by means
of the bodily senses, and from there on to the soul’s inward faculty, to which the bodily
senses report outward things--and this belongs even to the capacities of the beasts--and thence
on up to the reasoning power, to whose judgment is referred the experience received from the
bodily sense. And when this power of reason within me also found that it was changeable, it
raised itself up to its own intellectual principle, [213] and withdrew its thoughts from
experience, abstracting itself from the contradictory throng of fantasms in order to seek for
that light in which it was bathed. Then, without any doubting, it cried out that the
unchangeable was better than the changeable. From this it follows that the mind somehow
knew the unchangeable, for, unless it had known it in some fashion, it could have had no sure
ground for preferring it to the changeable. And thus with the flash of a trembling glance, it
arrived at that which is. [214] And I saw thy invisibility [invisibilia tua] understood by means
of the things that are made. But I was not able to sustain my gaze. My weakness was dashed
back, and I lapsed again into my accustomed ways, carrying along with me nothing but a
loving memory of my vision, and an appetite for what I had, as it were, smelled the odor of,
but was not yet able to eat.3

1
Confessions 7.20
2
On Christian Doctrine, 10
3
Confessions 7.17.23

14
Augustine, having had the background and devotion to Platonic thought, saw no problem
with the use of introspection as a method to gaining truth. He does the same again later after
his official conversion.1 These moments Augustine considered as a valid method for gaining
truths about God and theology. His only concern with Platonism was piety, as already shown.

The Conversion that Wasn’t

Augustine’s conversion experience starts with a dream by Augustine’s mother,

Monica. In the superstitious land of Christian North Africa, dreams served a vital role in the
predicting of the future, and Monica’s dream foretold of Augustine’s conversion from
paganism to Catholicism. In this particular dream Monica saw Augustine’s soul standing on
the same ruler as her:

In her dream she saw herself standing on a sort of wooden rule, and saw a bright youth
approaching her, joyous and smiling at her, while she was grieving and bowed down with
sorrow. But when he inquired of her the cause of her sorrow and daily weeping (not to learn
from her, but to teach her, as is customary in visions), and when she answered that it was my
soul’s doom she was lamenting, he bade her rest content and told her to look and see that
where she was there I was also. And when she looked she saw me standing near her on the
same rule.2

This dream Monica took as saying Augustine would someday become a Christian and this is
the reason Monica put up with the “blasphemies” of Augustine for so many years. She
prayed for him diligently that he would repent and become Catholic. Augustine had this
always on his mind as he formed his own worldview.
Book eight of Augustine’s confessions details Augustine’s conversion to Christianity.
He sees fit to start it with a nod to Platonism and Plotinus’ discussions about substances:

Of thy eternal life I was now certain, although I had seen it “through a glass darkly.” And I
had been relieved of all doubt that there is an incorruptible substance and that it is the source
of every other substance.3

This is not a concept germane to the Bible. This is what the Platonists were debating along
with the Hellenized Christians. The fact that Augustine puts this at the start of his chapter
without flinching gives testimony to his adherence to Platonism.
He then talks about his only resistance to conversion. The need for marriage: “But I
was still tightly bound by the love of women; nor did the apostle forbid me to marry,
although he exhorted me to something better.”4 Augustine here takes Paul out of context to
be consistent with Platonic ideals. Paul in 1 Corinthians was expecting an imminent return of
Christ, thus rendering the point of marriage moot:

1Co 7:25 Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my
judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.

1
Confessions 9.10.24-25
2
Confessions 3.11.19
3
Confessions 8.1.1
4
Confessions 8.1.2

15
 1Co 7:26 I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for
a man so to be.
1Co 7:27 Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife?
seek not a wife.
1Co 7:28 But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not
sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.
1Co 7:29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have
wives be as though they had none;1

It is important to note some key concepts. Paul first disassociates this from God saying it is
his own command. He than says those bound to a wife should not be loosed. Surely
Augustine should have seen he was promised to a wife and should have embraced her, but he
did not. He let his preconceived idea of holiness interfere with the plane truth of the gospel.
Paul then is clear that marriage is not sin, and lastly states the entire reason for this command
was that the end times would be soon upon them, rendering marriage useless.
Augustine lived about 250 years after this was written by Paul. If he did not see the
fact that God’s game plan had changed through scripture (detailed in later chapter), he should
have realized that the return never happened nullifying the point of Paul’s comment. Instead
he took Plotinus’ teaching that: “the procreative desire is lawless or against the purposes of
nature”.2 Sexual desire was evil and unnatural. Augustine was to adhere to the Manichean
idea of sex as evil: Adam sinned when he seduced Eve and this is how original sin was
passed on to the rest of humanity. Sex is to be discarded for those who are truly holy.
Augustine embraced this idea over the Biblical idea of sex.
It is then Augustine recounts his meeting with Simplicianus that helped path the way
to Christianity. Simplicianus affirms Platonic philosophy and then recounts to Augustine of
Victorious, the translator of the Platonic texts, and his testimony. The proud of Rome
gnashed their teeth when this prominent Roman converted to Christianity.3 This gives
Augustine hope and vigor such that he was: “I was eager to imitate him.”4
Augustine starts his chapter six restating the reason for his hesitance to embrace
Catholicism and how God: “didst deliver me from the chain of sexual desire by which I was
so tightly held, and from the slavery of worldly business.” Augustine and his good friend
Alypius meet a man named Ponticianus who soon discovered the writings of Paul in
Augustine’s possession. He lights up and proclaims his own Christianity and begins to tell
Augustine of his own heartfelt tale.
Ponticianus and three friends one day were walking in the gardens in groups of two.
One group stumbled upon a cottage and found in it a biography of Anthony, a monk who
upon hearing the gospel gave up all his worldly possessions and established a monastery.5
The one man read it diligently then turning to his friend questioned what they were doing
with their own lives. Both men became convicted and converted to Christianity, giving up all
their worldly possessions including their promised brides: “Both of them had affianced brides
who, when they heard of this, likewise dedicated their virginity to thee.”6 When Ponticianus

1
KJV. All quotations from the Bible are taken from the King James Version of the Bible as found on the
ESword Bible software.
2
Enneads, 3.5.1
3
Confessions 8.3.4
4
Confessions 8.5.10
5
O’Donnell 59
6
Confessions 8.6.15

16
finally met up with the men they tried to convince him also. He, though, was week and did
not what to give up his earthly desires. This pained him greatly.
Here were two men who did just as Augustine dreamed to do. They were him and did
what he could not do. He started to despise himself, his own lack of will:

And now thou didst set me face to face with myself, that I might see how ugly I was, and how
crooked and sordid, bespotted and ulcerous. And I looked and I loathed myself;
… But now, the more ardently I loved those whose wholesome affections I heard reported…
the more did I abhor myself when compared with them. For many of my years--perhaps
twelve--had passed away since my nineteenth, when, upon the reading of Cicero’s Hortensius,
I was roused to a desire for wisdom. And here I was, still postponing the abandonment of this
world’s happiness… all bodily pleasures, though they were to be had for the taking. 1

Augustine had resolved to do just as they did over 12 years ago but was unable to control his
own body. He cannot take this lack of will and proceeds to grab his friend, Alypius, and start
screaming at him about their own inadequacies. He then retreats to the garden with Alypius
close behind.2
The thought of not having the willpower to give up the lusts of the flesh puts
Augustine into a frenzy:

Finally, in the very fever of my indecision, I made many motions with my body; like men do
when they will to act but cannot, either because they do not have the limbs or because their
limbs are bound or weakened by disease, or incapacitated in some other way. Thus if I tore
my hair, struck my forehead, or, entwining my fingers, clasped my knee, these I did because I
willed it. But I might have willed it and still not have done it, if the nerves had not obeyed my
will…before long I should have power to will because shortly when I willed, I would will
with a single will. For in this, the power of willing is the power of doing; and as yet I could
not do it.3

Augustine is obsessed with his will, a key characteristic of the prominent pagan thought.
Without control over the will, no one can forsake the needs of the flesh. Without control over
the will, no one can return to God, become one with God and be holy. These are all
characteristics of Plotinus’ ascent, the central tenant of Plotinus’ religion.4
Augustine starts to engage in self-flagellation during this struggle. This was not
uncommon in paganism. The flesh was imperfect and to be hated. Self-mutilation was holy in
the disowning of the flesh. In subsequent generations it is used precisely in the same manner,
purification. This is also an entirely pagan concept. Paul addresses both this and will worship
in Colossians:

Col 2:21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;

Col 2:22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of
men?
Col 2:23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and
neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

1
Confessions 8.7.16-17
2
Confessions 8.8.19
3
Confessions 8.8.20
4
Gerson 203

17
These were man made ideas. They were not to be followed. But Augustine did not care for
the Bible; he cared only for the Platonic philosophy that his mentors had transposed on
Christianity. Contrary to Paul’s teaching, Augustine devotes the next few chapters to the
glorification of the will.
Augustine next goes into a trancelike state in which all his old infidelities come back
to haunt him. They pull at his clothing and attempt to seduce him saying: “Are you going to
part with us? And from that moment will we never be with you any more? And from that
moment will not this and that be forbidden you forever?”1 They started to prod him, doing
anything to make Augustine look at them. But he leaped away.
It is then another woman appears to him:

the chaste dignity of continence appeared to me--cheerful but not wanton, modestly alluring
me to come and doubt nothing, extending her holy hands, full of a multitude of good
examples--to receive and embrace me.2

She in turn tried to seduce him. Continence, being a clear euphemism for chastity, extends
her arms, exposing herself, waiting for an embrace. She taunts him with examples of children
and virgins of all kinds:

And she smiled on me with a challenging smile as if to say: “Can you not do what these
young men and maidens can? Or can any of them do it of themselves, and not rather in the
Lord their God?”… And I blushed violently, for I still heard the muttering of those “trifles”
and hung suspended. 3

All this time Alypius remains faithful to Augustine, not leaving his side but sitting in silence.
Augustine cannot bear to let his friend see him weep so again he flees, this time to a fig tree.
Again he hallucinates.
Augustine hears a child calling to him to take up and read. At first he is confused but
then remembers the story of Anthony. Augustine races back to Alypius and to the writings of
Paul lying next to his friend. He picks up the book and reads the first passage his eyes come
across: “Rom 13:14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the
flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Augustine wrongly takes this as a call to chastity4 and recalls
that: “as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full
certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away.”5
This was the pinnacle of Augustine’s conversion experience. He has finally overcome
his barriers to the Christian religion, he has embraced chastity. He then proceeds to run to his
mother and tell her that her dream was indeed true:

Then we went in to my mother, and told her what happened, to her great joy… For thou didst
so convert me to thee that I sought neither a wife nor any other of this world’s hopes, but set
my feet on that rule of faith which so many years before thou hadst showed her in her dream
about me. And so thou didst turn her grief into gladness more plentiful than she had ventured
1
Confessions 8.11.26
2
Confessions 8.11.26
3
Confessions 8.11.27
4
The Greek word translated lust means outrageous and wanton sexual behavior or licentiousness. This term is
not applied to lawful sexual intercourse by married couples. Augustine’s’ interpretation reveals his obsession
with sexual intercourse, his pagan conception of sanctification, and wanton disregard for Scripture.
5
Confessions 8.12.29

18
 to desire, and dearer and purer than the desire she used to cherish of having grandchildren of
my flesh.1

Augustine had a dramatic conversion, to be sure. But Augustine equated his conversion to
abstinence with his conversion to Christianity. The two were one and the same, a concept
entirely alien to the Bible. Whereas Paul says you are saved through the gospel2 Augustine
took his queues from Mani and Plotinus. Augustine’s conversion experience was purely
pagan. Whereas a one would expect a newfound Christian to marry his lover and mother of
his child, Augustine condemns her to living a life of a single mother in an ancient world.3 He
never even names his girlfriend as if to erase her memory entirely. She was the blot on his
purity and he opted to erase her.
Augustine’s conversion resembled more of a Manichean purification ritual with
Platonic overtones than a Christian conversion. Sexual intercourse was a hindrance to
purgation in preparation to the union with the One. The soul had to be purged in order to
become closer to God. Augustine has attempted this purification before in these other
religions. Only in Catholicism will he finally succeed.

Augustine’s Teaching

It can be clearly seen from both Augustine’s conversion and his multiple ascents with
what dedication Augustine showed Plotinus and what disregard Augustine showed the Bible.
This dedication extended much further than just his life experiences. He did such a fine job
of incorporating Platonism into his theological works that Augustine’s good friend, Nebridius
of Carthage, would praise that they were “full of Christ, full of Plotinus, and full of Plato”
(“illae mihi Christum, illae Platonem, illae Plotinum sonabunt”).4
In On Christian Doctrine, Augustine makes clear he is not embarrassed by adherence
to Platonism but instead embraces it: “Moreover, if those who are called philosophers, and
especially the Platonists, have said aught that is true and in harmony with our faith, we are
not only not to shrink from it, but to claim it for our own use from those who have unlawful
possession of it.”5 And claim it, Augustine does. His writings are mirror images of those of
Plotinus.

The highest good, than which there is no higher, is God, and consequently He is unchangeable
good, hence truly eternal and truly immortal. All other good things are only from Him, not of
Him. For what is of Him, is Himself. And consequently if He alone is unchangeable, all
things that He has made, because He has made them out of nothing, are changeable. For He is
so omnipotent, that even out of nothing, that is out of what is absolutely non-existent...
Therefore every spirit, though subject to change, and every corporeal entity, is from God, and
all this, having been made, is nature. For every nature is either spirit or body. Unchangeable
spirit is God, changeable spirit, having been made, is nature6

1
Confessions 8.12.30
2
1 Cor 15:1-9
3
Confessions 6.15.25
4
Crouse 37
5
On Christian Doctrine 2.40.60
6
On the Nature of Good 1

19
Augustine retained the Platonic notion of images. The perfect was immutably so and all else
was imperfect because it was just images of that perfection. All that is of nature is good and
the fullest nature is perfection. It was the lack of nature, the lack of perfection that was the
evil in this world:

Your answer is quite correct, when you say that evil is that which is contrary to nature; for no
one is so mentally blind as not to see that, in every kind, evil is that which is contrary to the
nature of the kind… Hence is the new word which we now use derived from the word for
being,--essence namely, or, as we usually say, substance,--while before these words were in
use, the word nature was used instead. Here, then, if you will consider the matter without
stubbornness, we see that evil is that which falls away from essence and tends to non-
existence.1

Evil was to good as the light was to the dark. Darkness is the absence of light. Evil was the
absence of creation, the absence of good. This is how Augustine rectified the problem of the
origin of evil. God was to remain the perfect changeless creator from whom no evil flows
and creation was to be an image of the good. Creation was not perfect or else it would have
all the attributes of God. It was imperfect in that it lacked his characteristics. The Platonists
had originated a method to explain the misery in the world combined with the immutable god
of Plato. Augustine embraced these ideas wholeheartedly.
Like modern theologians, Augustine sought for any semblance of Platonic philosophy
in the Bible. He attached onto a phrase not dissimilar to that in Plato’s Timeatas: “God said
to his servant: ‘I am that I am,’… For He truly is because He is unchangeable. For every
change makes what was not, to be: therefore He truly is, who is unchangeable”.2 Like the god
of Plotinus, Augustine’s God was wholly immutable. There was never a change in God, not
in his emotions, not in his actions, not in his form. Anything that changes becomes something
different.
Likewise, in the fashion of Plotinus’ reasoning, Augustine a few paragraphs later
argues that God is without limit. Just as Plotinus says that which is limited must originate
form something unlimited, that the imperfect must be created from the perfect, Augustine
argues:

But God cannot be said to have measure, lest He should seem to be spoken of as limited. Yet
He is not immoderate by whom measure is bestowed upon all things, so that they may in any
measure exist. Nor again ought God to be called measured, as if He received measure from
any one. But if we say that He is the highest measure, by chance we say something; if indeed
in speaking of the highest measure we mean the highest good.3

Compare this to Plotinus’ own words:

The Matter even of the Intellectual Realm is the Indefinite, [the undelimited]; it must be a
thing generated by the undefined nature, the illimitable nature, of the Eternal Being, The One
illimitableness, however, not possessing native existence There but engendered by The One.4

1
On the Morals of the Manichaeans 2.2
2
On the Nature of Good 19
3
On the Nature of Good 22
4
Enneads 2.4.15

20
The concept of an infinite God was forefront in Augustine’s mind. For him, Christianity
could not be believed if God was able to change, be measured, was effected by his creation,
or lacked any other attribute prescribed to God by the Platonists. As with future Christian
philosophers, Augustine accepted Plotinus’ thinking and reasoning, and as in modern times,
he saw anyone who denied the Platonic attributes as unlearned fools.

The evidence is not obscure, but clear and obvious to every understanding, and irresistible,
the more so that no one can remain in ignorance of it, that God is incorruptible, immutable,
liable to no injury, to no want, to no weakness, to no misery. All this the common sense of
rational beings perceives, and even you assent when you hear it.
But when you begin to relate your fables, that God is corruptible, and mutable, and subject
to injury, and exposed to want and weakness, and not secure from misery, this is what you are
blind enough to teach, and what some are blind enough to believe. And this is not all; for,
according to you, God is not only corruptible, but corrupted; not only changeable, but
changed; not only subject to injury, but injured; not only liable to want, but in want; not only
possibly, but actually weak; not only exposed to misery, but miserable.1

In his Christian Doctrine he echoes this sediment:

9. Now, no one is so egregiously silly as to ask, "How do you know that a life of
unchangeable wisdom is preferable to one of change?" For that very truth about which he
asks, how I know it? is unchangeably fixed in the minds of all men, and presented to their
common contemplation. And the man who does not see it is like a blind man in the sun,
whom it profits nothing that the splendor of its light, so clear and so near, is poured into his
very eye-balls.2

As should be obvious, Augustine uses ad hominem attacks on his opponents. These attacks,
as in the modern world of politics, worked quite well to Augustine’s advantage especially in
a world infatuated with Platonic ideas. The Platonists were the learned and respected of the
day, so it was not much of a stretch to call their opponents belittling names, especially those
who questioned God’s immutability.
As with future theologians, first and foremost in Augustine’s mind was the platonic
notion of the unchangeable:

But that is true eternity which is true immortality, that is that highest immutability, which
cannot be changed at all. For it is one thing not to suffer change, when change is possible,
and another thing to be absolutely incapable of change… so fire is called eternal, yet not as
God, whose alone is immortality itself and true eternity.3

It is from this Unchangeability timelessness could be inferred:

For that exists in the highest sense of the word which continues always the same, which is
throughout like itself, which cannot in any part be corrupted or changed, which is not subject
to time, which admits of no variation in its present as compared with its former condition.
This is existence in its true sense. For in this signification of the word existence there is
implied a nature which is self-contained, and which continues immutably. Such things can be
said only of God, to whom there is nothing contrary in the strict sense of the word.4
1
On the Morals of the Manichaeans, 11.20-21
2
On Christian Doctrine, 9
3
On the Nature of Good, 39
4
On the Morals of the Manichaeans, 1

21
Without timelessness, Augustine shows, God could not be immutable. Beings in time change
in relation to other beings. Beings in time as affected and influenced by other beings.
Elsewhere it is argued that beings that are subject to time age. Immutability necessitates
timelessness.

Augustine’s legacy

Augustine died on August 28, 430 with the invading Vandals at the gates of his home
town of Hippo (Azkoul 32). His library with over 93 of his own works survived the Vandals
and allowed his writings to be saved for future generations (Brown 432). Although
Augustine’s works were widely circulated (Azkoul 42), he did not achieve cult status until
the mid 800s during which debates on God and immateriality were advocated by King
Charles the Bald (823-878 AD) (Azkoul 43), grandson of Charlemagne and Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire. This proved to create a lasting impression:

Whatever may have been the preeminence [of] Augustine before the great intellectual
struggles of the Carolingian period, he became, as result of them, forever the supreme patristic
authority in the West… Henceforth, Western religious writers would drape themselves in the
mantle of Augustine. Anselm, Aquinas, Bonaventure will call themselves his disciples, but so
would the Protestant Reformers and, later, the 17th century Jansenists.1

The Augustinian doctrine of God which the Catholic Church adopted would later be
inherited by the Protestant denominations during their split from the Holy Roman Church.
Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk, and John Calvin studied Augustine’s work,
advancing a stronger theology of Predestination and Immutability. Thus the modern God of
Christianity was born from the remnants of Platonic philosophy.

John Calvin

John Calvin was a Christian reformer born in 1509 to an attorney in France. After
being expelled from Geneva he later returned to rule the city, trying to create a Christian
utopia by any means. This included executing those whom he deemed heretics such as
Servetus, whom denied the trinity. Calvin would, in his life, only produce one book on
theology, Institutes of the Christian Religion, along with several commentaries on books of
the Bible. It was this man who would help led Christianity out of Catholicism.
John Calvin was thoroughly indoctrinated with the writings of Augustine. Calvin
refers to Augustine over 350 times throughout his Institutes, mostly to draw on Augustine for
support for his viewpoints and to cast Augustine in a positive light. This is more times than
any other name throughout institutes except for God and Christ Jesus. Calvin sees Augustine
as infallible. He defers to Augustine commonly as a source for pure Christianity before the
corruption of the Catholic Church. His esteem for Augustine is evident in how he even
handles Augustine’s viewpoints:

1
Azkoul 46

22
 His book is extant and in men’s hands; if I wrest it to any meaning different from that which
Augustine himself wrote it, they are welcome not only to load me with reproaches after their
wonted manner, but to spit upon me.1

In a section of Institutes arguing for unconditional election, Calvin writes: “Were we

disposed to frame an entire volume out of Augustine, it were easy to show the reader that I
have no occasion to use any other words than his.”2 Calvin showed devotion to the works of
Augustine.
Calvin even relies on Augustine for his ideas on omnipotence, defending an
Augustinian outlook on the correct rendering of that doctrine:

For Augustine, rightly expounding this passage, says that where power is united to endurance,
God does not permit, but rules (August. Cont. Julian., Lib. 5, c. 5). They add also, that it is not
without cause the vessels of wrath are said to be fitted for destruction, and that God is said to
have prepared the vessels of mercy, because in this way the praise of salvation is claimed for
God, whereas the blame of perdition is thrown upon those who of their own accord bring it
upon themselves. But were I to concede that by the different forms of expression Paul softens
the harshness of the former clause, it by no means follows, that he transfers the preparation
for destruction to any other cause than the secret counsel of God.3

In all Calvin laid the foundation for modern Calvinism from the pages of Augustine. The
biggest contribution, however, that Calvin gave was a notion of divine control over all things.
John Calvin, throughout his Institutes, blames all evil on the work of God, although not
assigning guilt to God.

When unjustly assailed by men, overlooking their malice (which could only aggravate our
grief, and whet our minds for vengeance), let us remember to ascend to God, and learn to hold
it for certain, that whatever an enemy wickedly committed against us was permitted, and sent
by his righteous dispensation.4

Elsewhere he claims “that nothing takes place save according to his [God’s] appointment”5
and that “nothing happens by chance, though the causes may be concealed, but by the will of
God; by his secret will which we are unable to explore.”6 Calvin’s God was the author of
everything. All things that happened where due to some secretive plan of God. If a child was
molested, God’s secret will had determined that it would come to pass and be used for his
glory. If an evil dictator arose and killed 6 million Jews, God was using these actions for his
own glory, because he controls all things.
Calvin’s ideas on complete sovereignty would become the standard definition of
omnipotence:

God is deemed omnipotent, not because he can act though he may cease or be idle, or because
by a general instinct he continues the order of nature previously appointed; but because,

1
Institutes 1.19.12
2
Institutes 3.22.8
3
Institutes 3.23.1
4
Institutes 1.17.8
5
Institutes 1.17.11
6
Institutes 100 APHORISMS, 13

23
 governing heaven and earth by his providence, he so overrules all things that nothing happens
without his counsel.1

Modern Christianity

Modern Christianity has, in large, maintained this god invented by Plato and Plotinus:

Now we assert that God is infinitely perfect in the sense explained, and that His infinity is
deducible from His self-existence. For a self-existent being, if limited at all, could be limited
only by itself; to be limited by another would imply causal dependence on that other, which
the very notion of self-existence excludes. But the self-existing cannot be conceived as
limiting itself, in the sense of curtailing its perfection of being, without ceasing to be self-
existing. Whatever it is, it is necessarily; its own essence is the sole reason or explanation of
its existence, so that its manner of existence must be as unchangeable as its essence, and to
suggest the possibility of an increase or diminution of perfection would be to suggest the
absurdity of a changeable essence. It only remains, then, to say that whatever perfection is
compatible with its essence is actually realized in a self-existing being; but as there is no
conceivable perfection as such -- that is, no expression of positive being as such -- that is not
compatible with the essence of the self-existent, it follows that the self-existent must be
infinite in all perfection. For self-existence itself is absolute positive being and positive being
cannot contradict, and cannot therefore limit, positive being.2

This excerpt was taken from a popular Catholic website. The website goes on the list more
attributes of God that should be all too familiar to the reader: unity, simplicity, eternity,
omnipresence, immutability, and omniscience. The site is basically a mirror of Augustine, or
less obviously, of Plotinus. The reasoning itself is a direct parallel to what was written almost
seventeen centuries prior. The same terms are used that are familiar in Plotinus’ work, words
such as potentiality and actuality.
The main difference between modern Catholicism and Calvinists is the
adherence to free will. A form of free will was even a concept championed by
Augustine. Although Catholics and some Protestants claim free will exists, the
majority denies the idea of libertarian free will (simply defined as having the ability
to do otherwise). If it is known from before the world began that Tom would drink a
soda on Monday then he is destined to do that action no matter what. He had no real
part in this action. A series of events caused this action from eternity past. This is not
libertarian free will. Libertarian free will necessitates an open future with genuinely
free creatures.
Calvinists, such as Norman Geisler, deny the possibility of free will in their
definition of God. God to the Calvinist controls all things as a puppet master to his
puppet. All human actions are the result of God’s meticulous control. Geisler
describes God in his book “Creating God in the Image of Man”:

God has absolute unity (oneness), simplicity (indivisibility), aseity (self-existence), pure
actuality, and necessity (rather than contingency). God is both eternal (non-temporal) and
infinite (without limits). God is also omnipotent (all-powerful) and omnipresent (everywhere

1
Institutes 1.16.3
2
The Nature and Attributes of God

24
 present). God is also fully omniscient, knowing the future perfectly and infallibly, including
what free creatures will do in the future.1

Like Augustine, Norman Geisler quotes Exodus 3:14 to give support to the idea that God is
as the pagan philosophers perceive. Because Christians might not take his word for it Geisler
makes sure to name drop a few key figures in Christian theological thought: Augustine,
Anselm, and Aquinas. Geisler uses them to say that Exodus 3:14 proves God is pure being or
self existent. This he calls God’s aseity:

God is pure actuality with no potentiality in his being whatsoever. That is, God has no
possibility of not existing. Whatever has potentiality (potency) needs to be actualized or
affected by another. And since God is the ultimate Cause, there is nothing beyond him to
actualize any potential he may have… God’s aseity or pure actuality means that he is Being;
everything else merely has being. God is pure actuality; all other things have both actuality
and potentiality.2

Geisler treats the phrase “I Am” as his basis for all other attributes of God. This he develops
throughout his book. “I Am” is taken as meaning God has pure existence and is atemporal.
This is no accident. It is this phrase in the Bible that most clearly parallels both the works of
Plato and Plotinus. If any verse in the Bible were to be used for support of Plato’s god it
would be this one:

They are all parts of time, and the past and future are created species of time, which we
unconsciously but wrongly transfer to the eternal essence; for we say that he "was," he "is," he
"will be," but the truth is that "is" alone is properly attributed to him3

The word “is” is in the same tense as “I am”. This Plato says reveals the true nature of an
atemporal god. Plotinus adopts these modes of speaking saying something strikingly similar:

As for those who pronounce Time a thing of no substantial existence, of no reality, they
clearly belie God Himself whenever they say "He was" or "He will be": for the existence
indicated by the "was and will be" can have only such reality as belongs to that in which it is
said to be situated:- but this school demands another type of argument.4

This would be weighty evidence, indeed, if “I Am” meant what Plato or Plotinus would use it
to mean. But the question remains if “I Am” in its Biblical context means what Giesler would
have us believe. He spends a good portion of his book defending “I Am” as evidence but
seems to miss a few crucial points. First the text says something a little different than what
Geisler presents:

Exo 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Exo 3:15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,
The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all
generations.

1
Geisler
2
Geisler
3
Timaeus
4
Enneads 3.7.13

25
God’s full name includes much more personal information about him. God sees fit to identify
himself with human beings! This is a key part of his name. God is reveling here that he is a
relational God, a God much different than the immutable god of Plato. This personal
characteristic hints that even “I Am” means precisely that, as illustrated by the following
example:
A wife asks a husband to take out the garbage and he responds: “I don’t think so.” To
this she gets mad and asked for an explanation. He then proceeds to say “I am who I am”.
This would not mean he is floating in an eternal now, composed of pure actuality, and is
wholly immutable. This would be better taken as a character statement. The husband has a
strong dislike for taking out the garbage and has refused in the past. She knows his character
and if not now she should by his character statement “I am who I am”.
It should also be noted that this is not the only time this phrase appears in the Bible.
In one instance Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees in the temple. They start to inquire about
who he claims to be, asking him how he saw Abraham as he had claimed:

Joh 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Joh 8:59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the
temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

The Jews saw this as a claim to be God. They were familiar with Exodus 3:14 where God
names himself “I Am” and here was a man doing the same. They saw this as blasphemy and
took up stones to kill Jesus for this sacrilege. Jesus had to flee in order to live. This was a
definite claim to be the “I Am” of Exodus 3:14.
If Jesus could label himself “I Am” it should be assumed all attributes of that name
should be applied to him also. If not, then why attribute those attached attributes to God in
Exodus 3:14. It would be clear God defines himself with names that are meaningless if this
was the case. But Jesus did define himself as “I Am”.
Jesus was not floating in an eternal now. Jesus was not unchanging. Jesus was not
omnipotent or even omniscient1 for that matter. Jesus grew in the spirit. Jesus aged. Jesus
even studied the scriptures, not an action that one would expect an omniscient being to take.
Jesus was human and he was still able to apply “I Am” to himself. “I Am” is a character
statement, not an affirmation of Platonic philosophy.
But all these points are ignored by Geisler, who prides himself on his knowledge of
the Bible. He fails basic exegesis of Biblical texts. Geisler, maintaining his unbiblical
definition of “I Am” uses this as a base for his entire belief system. Geisler’s “I Am”
establishes God’s aseity and aseity translates into simplicity (indivisibility):

Since God is not composed in his being but is pure existence or pure actuality with no
potentiality, it follows that he is simple and indivisible. A being that by nature is not
composed cannot decompose. One that has no parts cannot be torn apart. Hence, God is
absolute simplicity with no possibility of being divided… Likewise God cannot be divided
because to be divisible he would have the potentiality to be divided. But pure actuality has
no potentiality in its being whatsoever. Hence, it must be absolutely simple or indivisible.2

1
Mar 13:32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the
Son, but the Father.
2
Geisler 27

26
The concepts of pure existence and pure actuality are not found in the Bible. The definitions
are vague in themselves and contain too many assumptions built into their Calvinistic usage.
Why must the first cause be pure actuality? Why does pure actuality mean simple? Why
cannot the being be complex and unable to decompose? It is if modern Christianity is
accepting Plotinus without question. It is Plotinus who speaks and argues in this fashion, not
the Bible:

…if there is no Matter there to harbour potentiality: if nothing there has any future apart from
its actual mode: if nothing there generates, whether by changes or in the permanence of its
identity; if nothing goes outside of itself to give being to what is other than itself; then,
potentiality has no place there: the Beings there possess actuality as belonging to eternity, not
to time.1

The Bible never uses these words. They are an invention by man transposed onto the Bible.
Pure actuality not only necessitates simplicity but also non-contingency according to
Geisler: “He is pure actuality and, as such, has no potentiality. But if he has no potentiality to
not exist, then he must exist.”2
Geisler then proceeds to make three arguments in favor of immutability. For this he
again defers to Aquinas as to give himself more credibility. It should be remembered that
Aquinas (1225-1274) was obsessed with Aristotle, the direct pupil of Plato, to the point of
dedicating several works to discussing Aristotle’s writings. Aquinas was to Aristotle as
Augustine was to Plotinus. Aquinas hung on every word of Aristotle and was most
influenced by him:

As a philosopher, Thomas is emphatically Aristotelian… He adopted Aristotle's analysis of

physical objects, his view of place, time and motion, his proof of the prime mover, his
cosmology… But to acknowledge the primary role of Aristotle in Thomas's philosophy is not
to deny other influences. Augustine is a massively important presence. Boethius, Pseudo-
Dionysius and Proclus were conduits through which he learned Neo-platonism.3

Aquinas not only incorporated Aristotle’s Platonism but also Augustine’s Neo-Platonism,
which were not very different at all. While Plotinus and Aristotle disagreed on minor issues
such as substance, their works by enlarge are mirrors of each other in relation to god. This
should be evident in Geisler’s argumentation for traits such as immutability.
The first argument for changelessness stems from pure actuality. Again, something
that has no potentiality cannot change. Since God is pure actuality he cannot change. Geisler
bases almost every attribute of God on this vague and undefined notion of actuality.
Geisler goes on to describe his second argument based on God’s simplicity:
“Everything that changes is composed of what changes and what does not change. But there
can be no composition in God (he is an absolutely simple being). Hence, God cannot
change.”4
Notice the resurgence of Plotinus’ work.

The third argument for God’s Unchangeability argues from his absolute perfection… God is
by his very nature an absolutely perfect being. If there were any perfection he lacked, then he
1
Enneads 2.4.3
2
Geisler 27
3
Saint Thomas Aquinas
4
Geisler 28

27
 would not be God. However, to change one must gain something new. But to gain a new
perfection is to have lacked it to begin with. Hence, God cannot change.1

This is the most blatant nonsense on the part of Geisler. He predefines God how he wishes
God to be. Anyone who says they believe God exists then is forced into believing he is the
absolute perfection as defined by Geisler, never mind the gods of the Greeks. The Greeks
were not atheists and their gods were not perfect. God is not by definition perfect. Whether in
reality God is perfect is another matter, but Geisler is so lost in his Platonic theology that he
writes such blatant falsities. This shows how engrained Geisler is in his theology with such
wanton disregard to reality and the scriptures.
The Bible never defines God as absolutely perfect, as is done by Plato and Plotinus. If
the Bible did there would still be the question of what is absolute perfection. One man might
say changelessness is boring and the perfect being is not boring. Another might claim that red
is the best color and the absolute perfect being must be the color red. Absolute perfection is
entirely subjective and the only way Geisler can argue that perfection implies immutability is
to assume Platonic ideas not found in the Bible.
Geisler spouts more Platonic ideas of perfection as he argues that God is impassible:

God is without passion. For passion implies a desire for what one does not have. But God, as
an absolutely perfect being, has everything. He lacks nothing. For in order to lack something
he would have to have the potentiality to possess it. But God is pure actuality, as we have
said, with no potentiality whatsoever. Therefore, God has not passion for anything.2

Augustine talks of these very things. Plotinus dedicates an entire tractate to the discussion
between potentiality and actuality. The Bible remains silent on the issue. From here Geisler
makes the argument for God’s atemporality or eternity. God’s immutability leads directly to
God’s eternity:

…whatever exists in time can be computed according to its befores and afters. However, a
changeless being has no befores or afters; it is always the same. Consequently, God must be
timeless.
Another argument for God’s eternity also follows from immutability. It begins with the
premise that whatever is immutable has no succession. In addition, whatever is in time has
succession of one state after another. From this Aquinas concludes that whatever is immutable
is not temporal.3

Both these reasons seem the same on face value, and they are. Befores and afters are methods
to measure succession. Here Geisler attempts to make two arguments out of one point, a
point that does not necessarily follow. Something can be unchanging in its form and non-
relational attributes, take for example a rock. But this thing is in time and has befores and
afters. It is purely a pagan idea of immutability and perfection that forces a perfect object to
not even change in a relational sense to other items. Saying Jeff is one meter away from the
rock and was before two meters away from the rock does not mean the rock is changing in
any real way. This point of Geisler’s is rooted in Platonism.

1
Geisler 28
2
Geisler 29
3
Geisler 29-30

28
 One thing most Christians agree upon is the idea of the trinity. Those who do not
accept the trinity are labeled heretics almost universally. There is one God.1 Jesus was God.2
Both God and Jesus are the same person. Another key fact is that Jesus is in subjection to
God.3 This means Jesus is distinct from God. They are different parts of the same being, but
Platonism denies this as a possibility:

The first argument is taken from the simplicity of God. Whatever is an absolutely simple
being cannot be more than one. Morever, God is an absolutely simple being. Therefore, God
cannot be more than one being. A simple being cannot be more than one, since to be more
than one there must be parts, but simple beings have no parts. Absolutely simple beings are
not divisible. Therefore, they cannot be more than one.
Secondly, God’s perfection argues from his unity. For if two or more God’s existed they
would have to differ. And in order to differ one must have what the other lacks. But an
absolutely perfect being cannot lack anything. Therefore, there can only be one absolutely
perfect being.4

This is the end conclusion of Geisler. This is what he states as the last attribute of God that
God is simple and without parts. The entire concept of the trinity, three beings in one,
contradicts Platonic notions of perfection and simplicity. God is not simple. He is complex.
He is both spirit5 and man. God has parts, as can be easily inferred from the Bible.
It was the struggle with the Platonic notion of unity and the heretical ideas which
logically result from it that divided the early church. This is what gave rise to the Aryan
heresy, the sect that claimed Jesus was not God due to these reasons. Jesus grew up. Jesus
was human. Jesus was not simple. If God was to be absolutely simple, Jesus could not be
God. Even before Augustine solidified Platonic ideas in the church they had been riddled
with these Platonic overtones and Christians struggled with the hybrid of Platonism and
Christianity. Christians even waged war in the streets over these issues not even found in the
scriptures.

A Critique of the Hellenized God

The Platonic reliance in Christianity introduced primarily through Augustine is

undeniable. The question remains: is this the God of the Bible? It could be the case that by
coincidence the Platonists were correct, and the same god for which they argued just happens
to be the God of the Bible. But if so, one would expect the Calvinist’s general concepts to be
consistent throughout the Bible.
Before engaging in studies, statisticians, economists, scientists, all first present a
hypothesis. This hypothesis should be a statement or paragraph that would describe what the
results of the study are expected to show. If one were to study whether or not the god of
1
Isa 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and
believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
2
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…
Joh 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
3
1Co 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him
that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
4
Geisler 32
5
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

29
Plotinus is the same as the God of the Bible then the Bible should very clearly show a good
number of things.
If God is omnipresent, God should not have a temporal location. He should not be
walking from one point to another if he were already in all spots imaginable. He should also
be fully aware of all things happening in the universe at all times, unless the omnipresence
does not extend to being able to experience happenings at all points that are occupied. God
should never be said to not be in a particular place and references to his location should
imply that he is physically everywhere.
If God is omnipotent, under the classical definition, then nothing that happens should
be outside of God’s will. God should be in control of all things. In this case he would not
ever be surprised. He would not ever change his mind. He would not ever be limited or have
his actions changed by his creation. We should not see God’s creation defying God, unless of
course, God is also schizophrenic, making beings for the specific purpose of failing him.
If God is immutable we should not see him interacting with his creation. We should
not see God being moved or affected in any way. We should also not see him surprised or
jealous or in love. He should not even acknowledge his creation, because an immutable God
cannot change in any fashion.
If God is omniscient we should never see God lacking knowledge. He should never
be surprised by what has happened. He should never learn new thoughts. He should correctly
and thoroughly describe all future events, and he should not declaring that things will happen
which never come to past.
If God is timeless we should not see God acting in successive events. We should not
see God learning new things or being surprised by the course of human events. All references
to God by those who know him should acknowledge a set future.
With the main tenets of Calvinism being immutability, timelessness, omniscience,
omnipresence, and omnipotence any single unanswered counterexample would prove
Calvinism to be false. If one example of God not knowing the future were given, then he
could not be omniscient by any modern definition of the word. Likewise, if one example of
free will from the Bible could be drawn, then the Calvinist’s concept of omnipotence, God
controlling all things, would be defeated.
If Frank said that all cars were red, then any example of a brown car would show
Frank’s statement to be false. All cars can not be red while at the same time one of them is
brown. At best Frank now would have to modify his statement to say that most cars are red.
Likewise, if those who say God is immutable are presented with any change in God than they
can not longer hold that God is immutable. At best they can say is that he does not change
very often. Specific counterexamples defeat all encompassing statements.
Exodus 32 is one such counterexample, simultaneously proving false almost every
single tenet of Calvinism. Exodus 32 recounts a situation in which Moses actually converses
with God. Israel, having just been delivered from the Egyptians and en route to the Promised
Land, made camp at the base of Mount Sinai. This was God’s mountain. God himself would
be physically dwelling on it during Moses’ stay.1 After Israel established camp, the Lord
commanded Moses to climb Mt. Sinai to engage in a private audience with God. Moses
would speak “face to face” with God as he did multiple times throughout his life.2 But
before Moses went up, he was instructed to set a perimeter around the mountain so that no

1
Exo 19:18
2
Exo 33:11

30
other person would enter the mountain1; Moses would be the only Israelite holy enough to
meet God, and the only Israelite Holy enough to receive and carry the Ten Commandments.
After Moses failed to return for some time, the people grew tired of waiting and
began to turn to other gods. Aaron, the brother of Moses and Moses’ mouth to the people,
directed the construction of a golden calf which the people would worship instead. All of
Israel then pitched in their valuables to be melted in order to form this idol. They would
praise this statue as the god who led them out of Egypt.2
God must have been furious. Here is a people he had just saved from Egyptian
bondage, a people for whom he decimated the Egyptian army, a people he led and fed on the
way to a special Holy Land set apart for only them, and they have the audacity to turn from
God within 40 days of setting up camp. God, seeing the corruption of his chosen people,
became angry and said to Moses: “Exo 32:10: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath
may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great
nation.”
Notice that God decided to scrap his original plan of using the whole of Israel for
Abraham’s descendants, and instead decided to fulfill his promise through Moses, also a
decedent of Abraham. God himself declares his anger and desire to kill those who were
unfaithful, and because of their unfaithfulness, God decided to revoke his promise to them.
He next proceeds to command Moses to not speak to him and to let him sit in anger. It
appears that God does not want Moses to intercede on Israel’s behalf as he had done in the
past.
But, Moses still loved his people and did not wish for their destruction. So Moses
begged God to change his mind. Moses did not even stop to consider that God was
unchanging or that he knew the entire future and thus was choosing the best course of action.
Moses was no Calvinist. Instead, Moses tried to reason with the Holy of Holies:

Exo 32:11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath
wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with
great power, and with a mighty hand?
Exo 32:12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them
out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn
from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
Exo 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by
thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all
this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
Exo 32:14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

This example shows that God changes his mind based on the actions of his creatures. God,
unless he was lying, told Moses he would consume his people. Moses, knowing God’s
character because he had a personal relationship with him, understood that he can reason
with God and change God’s mind. So Moses proceeded to set up a logical argument why
God should not destroy his people: the Egyptians would mock God, and Israel was God’s
chosen people. God then weighed the costs (justice against the unrighteous and fulfillment of
religiousness) versus the benefits (to please Moses and not give occasion for mocking), and
decided that he should take mercy on this people.

1
Exo 19:12
2
Exo 32:8

31
 Did the people proceed to repent and follow God the rest of their lives? One would
expect a God who controlled or merely knew the future to understand who he was saving.
Just as the when Hezekiah rebelled shortly after God extended his life, every Israelite present
at this event died in unbelief in the wilderness, save Caleb who was righteous in God’s eyes.
Israel continued to rebel against God even after the incident in Exodus 32 until God
ultimately revoked his promise to them and denied them access to the Promised Land.1 The
Calvinist must believe that God spared Israel knowing full well that they would again rebel
when next given a chance to do so. Why would God seek after Israel’s repentance if he knew
they would ultimately reject him?
Revoking promises does not make God a liar. On the contrary, it makes him
righteous. Bob Enyart, pastor of Denver Bible Church and host of radio talk show Bob
Enyart Live, illustrates this point by telling about a Father who promised to take his son to
Disneyland. The son soon rebels and hits his sister. To this the father revokes his promise.
God is not a slave to his word. He rewards the righteous and punishes the guilty (Enyart).
What seemed like a problem for those who do not adhere to the Calvinist model of God in
reality is a problem specifically for the Calvinist. The Calvinist is at a loss to say how God
can know the future but still revoke promises. God would be a liar to state something which
he knew to be false, yet in the Bible he revokes his promises.
The traditional Calvinist response to Exodus 32 is to ignore it, but we can speculate
on their thoughts about this text by other general claims they make. Calvinists claim that
when the Bible speaks of God’s repentance and his emotions that the Bible is speaking
anthropomorphically, or, more correctly stated, anthropopathically (ascribing human
emotions to God). They claim God’s repentance is merely a figure of speech to represent
God in human terms. Calvin, although he effectively ignored all of Exodus 32 in his magnum
opus, “Institutes of the Christian Religion”, wrote concerning divine repentance and various
other emotions:

When it is said that God repented of having made Saul king, the term change is used
figuratively. Shortly after, it is added, “The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is
not a man, that he should repent,” (1 Sam. 15:29)2. In these words, his immutability is plainly
asserted without figure… For, Balaam, even against his will, behaved to break forth into this
exclamation, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should
repent: has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
(Num. 23:19).3
1
Num 14:23
2
This verse (1 Sam 15:29) must be taken in context. God just rejected Saul as king of Israel. He changed his
mind about Saul’s ability to be king. After removing Saul (aka changing his mind about Saul being king), he
declares he will not change his mind. This is parallel to a father saying to his son who recently wrecked his own
car: “You cannot drive my car. I am not a politician that I should change my mind.” This does not mean he will
never change his mind, just that he will not in this situation. Nothing the son could say or do would change the
fathers mind on this one issue, not for every issue.
3
Likewise, in Numbers 23:19 Balak had just hired Balaam to curse Israel because Israel’s army had set out
to destroy him. Balaam is then besought by the Lord not to go to Balak, but Balaam disobeys God. God then
threatens Balaam with an angel, and Balaam decides to speak what God has told him. Balaam tells Balak that he
will not curse Israel, and that “ God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should
repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Num 23:19).
The very next verse says: “ Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot
reverse it” (Num 23:20). This is talking about solely the blessing and not about God’s general actions.
Note: It does say God put words into Balaam’s mouth, although through threatening and a show of power,
which infers that God does not put all words into everyone’s mouth. This is not the God of Calvinism.

32
 13. What then is meant by the term repentance? The very same that is meant by the other
forms of expression, by which God is described to us humanly. Because our weakness cannot
reach his height, any description which we receive of him must be lowered to our capacity in
order to be intelligible. And the mode of lowering is to represent him not as he really is, but
as we conceive of him. Though he is incapable of every feeling of perturbation, he declares
that he is angry with the wicked. Wherefore, as when we hear that God is angry, we ought not
to imagine that there is any emotion in him, but ought rather to consider the mode of speech
accommodated to our sense, God appearing to us like one inflamed and irritated whenever he
exercises Judgment, so we ought not to imagine any thing more under the term repentance
than a change of action, men being wont to testify their dissatisfaction by such a change.
Hence, because every change whatever among men is intended as a correction of what
displeases, and the correction proceeds from repentance, the same term applied to God simply
means that his procedure is changed. In the meantime, there is no inversion of his counsel or
will, no change of his affection. What from eternity he had foreseen, approved, decreed, he
prosecutes with unvarying uniformity, how sudden soever to the eye of man the variation may
seem to be.1 (emphasis mine)

Calvin’s reasoning why the phrase “God repented” is in the Bible was because humans are
not intelligent enough to understand God’s unchanging ways, never mind that basically every
Christian in today’s world now knows the “true” unchanging God without difficultly. It is
sheer arrogance on Calvin’s part to believe that he could know God better than Moses who
spoke face to face with God. Moses genuinely believed he could change God’s mind or he
would not have attempted to persuade God. Good thing that Calvin’s superior intellect could
decipher the Old Testament and inform the rest of the world on its true meaning. The world
might actually believe the Old Testament means what it says if not for Calvin.
Calvinists, especially John Calvin in the previous quote, seem to think they can pick
and choose which verses are anthropopathic and which verses should be taken literally.
Granted there are figures of speech in the Bible. For example “the lowest parts of the earth”
and the “womb” are used interchangeably “Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my
mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken
away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”, “Psa 139:15 My substance was not hid from thee,
when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.” But this
figure of speech can be identified through context and holds a specific meaning. Figures of
speech have meaning. The “lowest parts of the earth” means “womb” and vice versa. What
does “God repented” mean? Does it mean that God didn’t repent? John Calvin would have
others think so. He claims it is a word only to mark a change in God’s procedure, and
actually means the opposite of what it says. He then changes the meaning back to the normal
meaning to apply to his own proof text (1 Sam. 15:29). In order to make Calvinism coherent
with scripture, words must be changed to mean the opposite of their definition.
Due to the nature of this argument a new breed of Calvinist has arisen: a Calvinist
who thinks both that God is above time, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and that he
displays emotions. I will henceforth refer to these Calvinists as neo-Calvinists. Bruce A.
Ware, one such neo-Calvinist, writes in his book “God’s Lesser Glory” about how this new
theory would work in conjunction with Exodus 32:

Again analogies fail. Nevertheless, this situation is like the experience of a mother who takes
her eight-year-old daughter to the dentist’s office for her first filling. The mother, with her
vast experience of such procedures, may “know” exactly what will happen and anticipate each

1
Institutes 1.17.13

33
 step of the process. Yet, as she sits besides her daughter, who is reclining fearfully and
tearfully in the dentist’s chair, and as she observes the dentist intensely at work, she may feel
distress, anguish, even pain as she stairs into the frightened and confused eyes of her precious
little girl. The fact that she “knew” previously everything that would occur did not preclude
her from entering into the existential situation, feeling genuine and heartfelt pity. So to with
God. While he can know everything about some future situation, he may enter fully into the
existential unfolding of that situation and respond appropriately, changing in emotion and
disposition in a way fitting the changed situation itself.1

A very heart-wrenching story to be sure, but does this explain Exodus 32? If Ware wished to
make this directly analogous he would have phrased it more like this: The mother takes her
child to the dentist, knowing full well she would want to kill this child and would be talked
out of it by the dentist. She knows that she will not, however, kill the child at any time. Yet
she still claims that she will. Time and time again the child enrages the mother, each time the
mother saying she will kill her child, and each time the dentist telling her that she would be a
bad mother if she killed her child. Finally she takes her child home, knowing full well that
she will drive him back to the office just as he steps in the door. Just inside the door, the child
mouths off to the mother. The mother is furious and drives back to the dentist office and lets
the child die of old age without ever returning home.
This more resembles schizophrenia2 than the loving parent that Ware wishes to
portray. God’s actions in Exodus do not resemble a movie director crying upon watching his
own movie. It resembles a God who is reacting to free agents, a concept which is entirely
unacceptable to most Calvinists. The average Calvinist will fight to their death without any
support from the Bible to claim that God’s creation cannot affect him. This is purely anti-
Biblical and laughable at best. If God knew that he would have these emotions all along or
that he could not respond to his creation then why does he take precautions against future
wrath: “Exo 33:3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst
of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.” The Calvinist
worships an anti-Biblical, schizophrenic God.
More extreme neo-Calvinists, such as John M. Frame, have argued that God repents
although his moral character is forever immutable. He attempts to reconcile God’s
repentance by claiming God is both above time and in time:

In the previous chapter, I indicated that God exists both above and within time; he is both
transcendent and immanent with respect to time. That distinction is relevant to God’s
unchangability in important ways. Obviously, God is unchangeable in his atemporal or
supratemporal existence. But when he is present in our world of time, he looks at his creation
from within and shares the perspectives of his creatures. As God is with me on Monday, he
views the events of Sunday as in the past and the events of Tuesday (which, to be sure he has
foreordained) as future. He continues to be with me as Monday turns to Tuesday. So he views
the passing of time as a process, just as we do.3

Although Frame takes his neo-Calvinism to the extreme, other Calvinists have also
argued that God can enter time. But this makes little sense. If God is above time then where
1
Ware 92
2
1Co 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
God does not lie nor does he create confusion. He does not make statements to trick or fool those who love
him. God is not schizophrenic and disdains those who think in two minds:
Jam 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
3
Frame 176

34
would he find the time to enter time? Bob Enyart argues that God would be in a prison if he
was above time. He would not have successive thoughts or actions, and he definitely could
not enter time. Entering time would be a new action, and in the “eternal now” there are not
successive moments of time. John M. Frame argues for something that he is not able to even
conceptually explain. The fact is that if God was above time and knew the entire future he
would not repent. Repentance only occurs when one wishes that they did not think or do
something. For God to be repenting of his intent over things which he knew would happen
would make God legally insane. Only an insane person constantly thwarts their own plans.
An excellent example of God changing his plans based on the actions of his creatures
is found in one of the Calvinists favorite texts. In the book of Jeremiah we find God declaring
the reasoning behind his activity. Jeremiah is told to go down to the potter’s house and
observe him at the wheel. God then proceeds to tell Jeremiah his normal rules:

Jer 18:3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the
wheels.
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made
it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as
the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
Jer 18:7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to
pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
Jer 18:8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of
the evil that I thought to do unto them.
Jer 18:9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to
build and to plant it;
Jer 18:10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good,
wherewith I said I would benefit them. 1

Bruce Ware writes of this: “The clear message here is that God does what he pleases, and the
clay takes the shape that the potter decides.”2 But is this really the case? Note that the potter,
God, did not finish the work he started. God goes on to explain why: when nations repent or
rebel, God responds accordingly, blessing those who repent and cursing those who rebel. Did
God corrupt the clay or did the clay corrupt itself? If God corrupted the clay, then why didn’t
he finish the work he started? Calvinists will not even acknowledge that God did not finish
the work he started in this parable.3
God’s decision to bless or curse a nation is not the arbitrary decision that Calvinists
would have others believe. This is a rational and just choice based on the actions of
independent beings. John Sanders furthers the exposition on this passage in his book The
God Who Risks:

For Jeremiah, the word of the Lord does not foreclose the future but opens up new
possibilities. The people are called to a decision that will affect the future for both God and
themselves. In this respect God is like a potter. When the clay does not turn out as anticipated,
the potter changes his mind and works to reshape the clay into something else. But why would
the clay not turn out the way God intended? Either because God is not a skilled enough

1
KJV
2
Ware 134
3
Enyart

35
 potter, or because there is some defect in the clay. If God exercises meticulous control over
his clay, then the problem is definitely with God.1

Jeremiah affirms God’s willingness to change his mind based on the actions of his creatures.
If the Calvinists were correct, then the Bible should contain no such verse which states that
God responds directly to his creation. It should also not contain a verse that says God will
repent of the evil he “thought” to do to them. The Calvinists are blinded by their own
preconceived notion that God cannot be affected by his creation, that “God cannot be
affected by love”.2
The paganism of Calvinism is made evident in God’s interaction with Israel, his
chosen nation, throughout the entire Old Testament. God constantly repents, sparing Israel
the fate which he declared. Israel continually rebels and is punished by God, to which they
turn again to God and God repents of his judgment. At one point God states that he is weary
of repenting (Jer 15:6). God has forgiven Israel so much that he is feeling deluded. God
describes his disappointment with Israel in Isaiah:

Isa 5:1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My
wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
Isa 5:2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest
vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked
that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
Isa 5:3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt
me and my vineyard.
Isa 5:4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?
wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
Isa 5:5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the
hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be
trodden down:
Isa 5:6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up
briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
Isa 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah
his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness,
but behold a cry.

God specifically states that he has done more than enough to coax Israel into repentance (Isa
5:4). He becomes frustrated, not because he had always known that Israel would reject him
and he tried anyways, but because he allowed them free will and expected them to return to
him (Jer 3:7).
Although the Bible is replete with examples of this kind, Calvinists reject it as
anthropopathism. They think God lied to his people because they were too simplistic to
understand the Bible’s true meaning. This was one of the many reasons that Greek Scholar
Bob Hill, pastor of Derby church, converted from Calvinism. He writes:

It seems to me that it would be a strange way to bring the truth within our comprehension, to
state what is directly opposed to the truth, and to reiterate the downright falsehood again and
again, in a most misleading way, and in a matter of such vital moment that all possibility of

1
Sanders 86
2
C.S. Lewis 92

36
 religious life depends on it, and through which alone any lasting comfort comes to the hungry
human soul.1

With this said, the Calvinist is left without excuse for believing the lie. The Bible cannot
maintain that God is above time or knows the future; any such attributes would alter God into
a liar and render the Old Testament a lie. Every tenet of Calvinism fails when compared to
Exodus 32 and multiple other texts of the same caliber, yet Calvinists still maintain the
Hellenistic attributes of God based on a few key proof texts.

Omnipresence

Jer 23:24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do
not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.

This is about the closest the Bible comes to stating anything to the likes of omnipresence.
̂ ̂ is used many times in the Bible to refer to an idea of replenishment or
The word fill (mala')
creation. Elsewhere in Jeremiah, he uses the word figuratively to illustrate a certain idea.3
2

This alone makes this a questionable text for omnipresence.

Alternative readings could mean God can see everywhere he wants. The context
seems to be about hiding, and just as a security guard can watch cameras in a building and
see everywhere, God can use alternative methods of extracting information that do not
require direct presence. Although this does at face value seem like good evidence for
omnipresence (on heaven and earth) it is not conclusive. If this verse was the only verse that
related to God’s location in the Bible then it would be safe to assume omnipresence, but in
light of other verses such as Genesis 18:20 it most likely means one of the alternatives:

Gen 18:20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and
because their sin is very grievous;
Gen 18:21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the
cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.

In this case God personally visits Abraham and then resolves to go personally see whether
his sources we correct on the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah. These verses next led into a
debate between Abraham and God where Abraham argues God down number by number to
the minimum number of righteous people for whom he would spare Sodom and Gomorrah.
Being as God’s reason in consulting Abraham was because he did not want to hide his works
from someone so important in the history of the God’s plan; it seems God did not know
previously what number of righteous people would be in Sodom and Gomorrah. If he did he
would have stopped the discussion early with Abraham informing him of the exact number of
righteous people and would not have bothered to verify the information. But these verses

1
Hill
2
Gen 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl
multiply in the earth.
3
Jer 19:4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto
other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place
with the blood of innocents;

37
make clear that God is not imprisoned to be everywhere at once. He can hide his face from
evil if it so suits him. He is not forced to look or be everywhere at once.
Another proof text of omnipresence is Psalm 139:8:

Psa 139:3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my
ways.
Psa 139:4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
…
Psa 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Psa 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell 1, behold, thou
art there.

The context seems to suggest that David, the author of Psalm 139, had a special relationship
with God and that was the reason God was so knowledgeable to David’s ways and present in
David’s life. This also fails as a proof text for omnipresence.

1Ki 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens
cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?

Nourish is the same word as contain. This word appears to be similar to a “fulfill” and
“sustain” connotation, as if God would grow bored with the temple or the temple is not good
enough for him. It does not look to mean it can not contain him because he is so large.
Even if this was a reference to God’s size it would not mean he is everywhere. At
most it would mean that God fills a large amount of space. The concept that God is
omnipresent flies in the direct face of other verses:

Jer 23:39 Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the
city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence:

God is not forced to remember everything. He is not forced to watch everything or be

everywhere. Just as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, God can choose to not be in the
presence of evil.

Omnipotence

The Calvinist definition of omnipotence is the equivalent to complete sovereignty,

that God controls all things. Calvin argues that nothing comes about without God’s
meticulous planning, whether good or bad. For this belief several proof texts are pointed to
that emphasis God’s power. Emphasis of God’s power however is not sufficient to draw the
omnipotence that the Calvinist defines. Statements about God’s ability to do all things in no
way necessitates that God indeed does everything. What are needed for total sovereignty are
verses that say God controls all things. For this the Calvinists point to Ephesians 1:11:

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

1
The word “hell” here is rightly translated sheol, used to mean the literal grave or the waiting place of the dead.

38
A couple points should be made before expounding on this verse. All hardly ever means all:

1Co 15:27 For he [Jesus] hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are
put under him, it is manifest that he [God the father] is excepted, which did put all things
under him.

It is impossible to stress enough the importance of common sense in reading the scripture.
“All things” hardly ever means all things. Just as in modern times, someone can say: “I am
good at everything” and not mean everything, the same figures of speech were prevalent at
the time of Paul. Common sense should tell us the meaning, as Paul points out.
Pretend an average Christian was reading this passage and only read the first
sentence, if the rest of the Bible suddenly exploded or had been lost in the distant past, this
Christian would proclaim things like God was put in subjection under Jesus’ feet or he would
try to write it off on a technicality: “God isn’t technically a thing so he was not put under
Jesus’ feet.”
Modern Christians do this very thing in today’s world when reading the Bible, as if
the apostles were writing a computer manual and carefully chose their words as to only be
correct through obscure technicalities not able to be understood by the common reader.
Paul’s letters were not to theologians and technical experts, but to common Christians, new
converts.
It is also interesting to note that Paul points out he was not a skilled speaker: “2Co
11:6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly
made manifest among you in all things.” Paul was not trying to trick or mislead people
through crafty words, he was writing to a simple people. We must use common sense and not
technicalities to interpret the Bible.
We know for sure God is not the author of all things: “1Co 14:33 For God is not the
author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” There is plenty of
confusion in the world. Take for example the IRS tax code, with loopholes and contradiction
riddling its endless pages. God is not the author of the IRS tax code. He is not responsible for
everything. A more correct reading of Ephesians 1:11 should read: God does not do things on
a whim.
A person can exclaim: “I eat all things according to my diet.” But this in no way
means that they eat all foods in existence. This just means that the food they do eat is limited
by what their diet prescribes. Just as in this case, Ephesians 1:11 is better read as all the
things that God actually performs has been thought through. Romans 8:28 is often seen as the
sister verse for Ephesians 1:11:

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose.

It is hard to see in practice all things working together for the Christian’s benefit. Paul,
himself, was executed by Nero. Nero took special delight in lighting his gardens by setting
Christians on fire and placing them on the tops of poles. All things were not working together
for the good of those Christians. Sometimes bad things just happen for no reason as
illustrated by Jesus:

Luk 13:1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood
Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

39
 Luk 13:2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners
above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye
that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Just as in today’s world, people in Christ’s time were fatalists. They believed everything
happened for a reason and everything was designed for some grand scheme. This was a
reoccurring pagan idea as illustrated by the story of Oedipus who was destined to kill his
father and marry his mother. The entire pagan world believed in fate, it was Christianity
which spoke of randomness and the ability to change one’s own fate.1 Fate was not a
Christian concept.
Jesus even goes so far as to talk about “chance”, the idea that randomness is present
in the universe. He does this in the parable of the Good Samaritan: “Luk 10:31 And by
chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the
other side.” It might be argued that since this is present in a parable it in no way resembles
reality, but is that true of Jesus’ parables? When Jesus tells parables it is always of farmers,
sons, fathers, and other real world things. Jesus never tries to make points through made up
ideas and concepts such as talking cats in boots or mystical powers turning objects to gold.
While the characters in Jesus’ stories were not necessarily real, the environment and ideology
was based on the real world.
With this being established, Romans 8:28 seems contrary to the idea of chance and
random pointless events. But Greek Scholar, Bob Hill on Derby Bible Church argues the
verse is improperly translated:

Rom 8:28 should be literally translated this way: [GraecaII font] Oi[damen de; o{ti toi`"
ajgapw`sin to;n qeo;n pavnta sunergei` eij" ajgaqovn, toi`" kata; provqesin
klhtoi`" ou. And we know that He [God] works with those loving God, with those called
according to [His] purpose all things for good.2

As in Ephesians 1:11, God only works good to those who follow him. He does not
hurt the ones he loves. He instead predestines us to adoption, as sons, because of his desire to
have a personal relationship with us as is stated just a couple of verses earlier.
But what of the Calvinistic notion of predestination? The apostle Paul speaks quite
often about being predestined. If God knew from before the world began each individual
who would be saved then the Calvinists must be right, either that or the Bible must contain
internal errors. The Calvinists point to verses such as Eph 1:5: “Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will.” and then claim God has complete knowledge of all future events. Surely predestination
is a Biblical doctrine and the Calvinist is correct.
First, note that even if this verse meant what the Calvinist say it means, it does not
deal with complete foreknowledge of all future events. They rely on the logical fallacy of
induction, trying to go from specifics to generalities. It is illogical to say that since Bob’s car
is red, then all cars are red. Likewise, if God knew all individuals who were going to be
1
Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
2
http://www.biblicalanswers.com/questionsanswered/qa_nt_bible_translation_2_body.htm

40
saved it does not follow that he knows all future events. The Calvinist must rely on this
fallacy to maintain that the Bible supports God knowing the future. One cannot conclude
generalities from specifics.1
Second, predestination was never meant to mean what it is used for in today’s
context. The word προοριζω (proorizō) was used in ancient Greece as an agricultural term.
H. Roy Elseth expounds on this concept in his book Did God Know?:

“Predestination,” as used in the Scriptures, needs further explanation. The term was originally
applied to agriculture. A farmer would preset, prearrange, or delineate the boundary lines
around his fields. He would thus “predestinate” the metes and bounds of his land. Likewise
God sets the bounds and procedures for becoming a fulfilled Christian.2

The word προοριζω was used by farmers as they were setting up boundaries to their fields,
not when they were deciding everything inside the field. In English, we get the word
“horizon” from προοριζω. The horizon is a boundary between earth and sky. The word
προοριζω means, quite literally, to limit in advance.3 Predestination has nothing to do with
individual people, but everything to do with rules of play: “For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren” (Rom 8:29).3 God is not choosing individuals to go to either heaven
or hell, but instead setting up a generic path for any willing human being to take.
Bob Enyart tells a story of a certain man who wished to travel to Dallas via airplane
and proceeds to buy a ticket for the flight. The plane is scheduled to fly to Dallas. In other
words, the plane is predestined to travel to Dallas. The man, however, was not predestined to
travel to Dallas until after he got on the plane. It was his choice to go to Dallas, he wished to
travel to that destination, and he bought the ticket. After the plane lifts off the flight
attendant jokes in an announcement “We hope Dallas is in your travel plans, because that’s
where you are going.” This is humorous because the man cannot change the destination, nor
can he leave the plane. The plane was predestined to go to Dallas, and thus, after buying the
ticket and entering the plane, the man was predestined to go to Dallas. Predestination
signifies the rules of the game, not extensive foreknowledge and arbitrary choosing on God’s
behalf. Predestination is just another word which the Calvinists change the meaning to agree
with their theology.

Omniscience

Omniscience is traditionally defined as God knowing all things including all events
past and future. Many Open Theists redefine omniscience as God knowing all things that are
possible to know, and a future free action, by definition, is unknowable. This reasoning is the
equivalent to Stand to Reason, a Calvinist organization, affirming God is not above the laws
of logic. God cannot do the logically impossible.
This paper’s purpose is not to consider definitions and discuss logical inconsistencies
and proofs, but to evaluate what the Bible states and then conclude based on the evidence

1
Moreland 29
2
Elseth 54
3
Strong

41
what the Bible claims is the attributes of God. Implications, unless contradictory with other
evidence, are no reason to affirm or deny conclusions.

It should be noted, that in order to show that the Bible presents God as knowing the
future exhaustively, single examples can not be used. Just as economists can predict inflation
or turns in the market, it might be the case that God either can see a chain of events leading
to predictions or that he himself enables those predictions to come true. A single example
does not prove omniscience, as classically defined. What is needed is an overriding proof
text. For this Revelation 1:8 is often presented:

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and
which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

This verse does not necessarily present God as knowing the entire future or being outside of
time, as is also argued. This verse could simply mean that God created the world and will end
it. He is eternal, meaning he will live forever, and he will be here when the world ends. This
is not a very good proof on future knowledge.
Other verses point to phrases such as God is “perfect in knowledge”.1 Besides the
point that is often used that God could know all things and those things must be limited to
what is logically possible, another point can be made. The Bible often uses exaggerations to
illustrate points. As with the “I Am” statement there is an instance where the perfect in
knowledge is applied to Christ:

Joh 21:17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was
grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him,
Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my
sheep.

As has been said before, Christ was not in an eternal now. Christ did not know everything.
Christ grew up, learned new things, and waxed strong in the spirit. He was very much a
human being. John knew this. But just as in modern America, hasty generalizations are the
norm. Their purpose is a figure of speech not meant to be taken literally but instead as a rule
of thumb. Jesus was indeed very wise and knew a lot. But Jesus did not know everything.2
Those who want to define perfection of knowledge to mean all future events are
committing the logical fallacy of circular reasoning. God is knows the future because he is
perfect in knowledge. God is perfect in knowledge because he knows the future. Those who
affirm omniscience define the phrase “perfect in knowledge” to exclude anything who wants
to differ on the definition. Definitions of God’s attributes should be gained from the text and
not through man made definitions.

1
Job 36:4 For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee…
Job 37:16 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in
knowledge?
2
Mar 13:32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the
Son, but the Father.

42
 It is often argued that because God knows about the life of birds1 that he knows all
things, past, present and future. But this is not the case. Knowledge about birds is present
knowledge. Maybe if the verse referenced God knowing the life spans of all future birds, this
could act as conclusive evidence. But that is not the case, nor is ever in the Bible.
God however does predict things that will happen in the future. At one point in the
Bible he defines himself on his ability to do so:

Isa 46:9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God,
and there is none like me,
Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are
not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

But this can be accomplished in other ways besides knowing all future events. He can be
predicting based on current data. Alternatively, he could be accurate because he personally
uses his power to bring this things to past. In all, there is no definite evidence that God is in
complete knowledge of the future.

Timelessness

Time is defined as sequential events. Hours and seconds are only ways to measure
sequential events. Liters and gallons are not water, but ways to measure water. Hours and
years can in fact be experienced at different rates. The theory of relativity predicts a
spaceship taking off from Earth and moving close to light speed would experience less hours
and seconds then Earth. Upon returning to Earth, they would find their relatives and loved
ones either older then they should be or dead (depending on the distance traveled by the
spaceship). This has no bearing to the attribute of timelessness being as both creatures are
experiencing sequential events in an order that can be mapped to each other without moving
backwards in time.
Timelessness is the theory that God can interject into the overall sequence of events at
any point he wishes. Time is here seen as a created thing, just as mater or light. The Bible,
however, does not state that God created time, just as God did not create darkness or the laws
of logic. Darkness is the absence of light. It is not a thing to be created.2 Likewise, logic is an
axiom that must be true.

2Pe 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all
things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
…
2Pe 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

1
Mat 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your
Father.
Mat 10:30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Mat 10:31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
2
Some verses refer to “before time began”. The KJV translates these verses as “before the world began”. The
Greek renders literally “before time eternal”. These are figures of speech meaning God made his plan a long
time ago and does not deal with the literal creation of time.

43
 2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is
longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance.

The above passage (2Pe 3:8) has nothing to do with timelessness. It is in direct context of
being about God’s patience. It makes sense as such. God lives forever and as such his
concept of a long time is very different than his temporal creatures. Just as the life span of an
ant is nothing to the average human, God thinks nothing of thousands of years. Also, because
God is powerful, he can do infinitely more than us in a day than we can do in a thousand
years.1 God is powerful and longsuffering.
Even if this passage dealt with God’s concept of time, this would be no proof for
timelessness. Note that both a day and a thousand years are periods of time and that this verse
is saying that God experiences time. A timeless being would not measure experiences in days
of years. This verse is hard evidence against God being timeless. In fact, the only way to gain
a notion of timelessness from this verse is to presuppose timelessness and interpret the verse
based on that presupposition.
Another common proof text is found in multiple forms throughout Revelation: Rev
1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and
which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
This makes sense without any hint of timelessness. God created the world and will
end it. He is eternal also, in the sense he always was and will never die. The mere use of the
words “was”, “is”, and “is to come” give the reader a picture of a God who lives in time. It is
also interesting to note that in the same chapter it mentions that it is Christ, or the son of man,
that is saying these things.2 As mentioned previously, all names assigned to Christ should
mean the same thing as names assigned to God. Christ was not timeless and thus this verse
means no such thing.

Immutability

Immutability is the idea that God does not change in any respect. It is argued that if
God were to change he would be less perfect. This argument is not found at all in scriptures,
but seems to be a pagan created notion transposed onto the Bible. Those who advocate
immutability always rely on a select set of proof texts. In one publication by Campus
Crusade for Christ they list Numbers 23:19, Psalm 119:89,90, Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 1:10-12,
and James 1:17 in support of immutability.

Num 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should
repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it
good?

1
Psa 90:4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
2
Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and
send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and
unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
Rev 1:12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
Rev 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment
down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

44
 Num 23:20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot
reverse it.
Num 23:21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel:
the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.

This Numbers 23 text has a parallel text in Samuel, notably absent from the Campus Crusade
list. In 1 Sam 15:29 we find almost the exact same verse sandwiched between two verses that
say specifically that God does indeed repent. The exact same Hebrew word (nacham) ̂ is used
in all three verses, four including the Numbers 23 passage. This leaves us with a few
possibilities. The first is that the Bible is false. The second is that some uses of the word are
figurative, which would leave us the problem of deciphering which verses were figurative
and which were not. This should be done in a consistent and rational way and the principles
should then be exported to the exegesis of all other scripture. If some of these words were
figurative, it is odd that they would be packed so closely in such a straightforward way. The
author should have surely seen the problem and would have resolved it if any of these words
were to be figurative.
The third option the reader is left with is to use context to gain information about the
meaning of the words. The context reveals the most likely meaning of the words. In Samuel,
God ripped the kingdom from Saul because of Saul’s exceeding wickedness. Saul entreats
God’s prophet to intervene on his behalf and Samuel refuses stating: “I will not return with
thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from
being king over Israel… The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and
hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou… And also the Strength of Israel
will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.”1
This is not God making a universal claim about his eternal attributes. This is God
saying that this one particular decision will not be revoked. This is the equivalent to a child
asking his mother for the use of the family car to which the mother says: “No, you cannot use
the car, and I will not change my mind like your father does.” God is just engraving his
judgment in stone with this passage. This reading would mean all verses in Samuel
concerning repentance are taken literally while maintaining no contradictions.
Likewise, in Numbers 23:19 Balak had just hired Balaam to curse Israel because
Israel’s army had set out to destroy him. Balaam is then besought by the Lord not to go to
Balak, but Balaam disobeys God. God then threatens Balaam with an angel, and Balaam
decides to speak what God has told him. Balaam tells Balak that he will not curse Israel, and
that “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath
he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Num
23:19). The very next verse says: “ Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he
hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it” (Num 23:20). This is talking about solely the blessing
and not about God’s general actions. God was just engraving this one particular judgment in
stone.
Even if these verses were not limited to their relative instances, they would be no
proof from immutability. I can change greatly without changing my mind. I can grow older,
experience new things, go through many emotional states, and endure pain, hardship and a
host of other dynamic events. This verse is no way is a proof for immutability. The only way
it could be taken as such is if outsiders come to it with the presupposition of immutability.
The same applies to Psalm 119:
1

45
 Psa 119:89 LAMED. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
Psa 119:90 Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it
abideth.

Just as in James 1:17, this is saying God’s word is solid. He will not backslide on what he
said to those who continue in their end of the bargain. The very next verse tells about the
Israelites and their steadfastness in the following God. This verse hardly means God can not
change in any sense. At most it means he cannot change in his promises. The real application
of this verse is that Christians can be secure in their salvation because God is not arbitrary in
keeping promises. God’s morality is forever, as is confirmed by Campus Crusade’s next
proof text: Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed.
In Malachi 3 God is speaking to the people about morality. People do not change
much. Even today people say to one another that certain moral laws do not still apply today.
The same thing was prominent at the time of Malachi. God just finishes telling Israel he is
going to judge the people on morality and then goes on to say that he does not change. In
context it is clear God does change and is dynamic:

Mal 3:5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the
sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that
oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the
stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Mal 3:7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and
have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.
But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

Note that God says he will come near to his people in verse 5. This is a clear change,
supplemented by the fact verse 7 affirms God’s dynamic character. Verse 7 states a
conditional dictating God’s actions. He tells the people to return to him and he will respond
based on their actions. His use of change only refers to his character just as Hebrews 13:8
refers soley to Christ’s character: “Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and
for ever.”
The same concept expounded on in an earlier chapter still applies. Statements about
Unchangeability should be consistently applied to both God and Christ if said about both.
Jesus was not floating in an eternal now. Jesus was not unchanging. Jesus was not
omnipotent or even omniscient1 for that matter. Jesus grew in the spirit. Jesus aged. Jesus
even studied the scriptures, not an action that one would expect an immutable being to take.
Malachi is a poor proof text for immutability.
Often used as a parallel text to Malachi, Hebrews 1:10 is quoted.

Heb 1:10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the
heavens are the works of thine hands:
Heb 1:11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;

1
Mar 13:32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the
Son, but the Father.

46
Obviously, Campus Crusade was desperate when they came to quoting this as proof of
changelessness. This verse is merely speaking about God’s eternal life. He has lived from
eternity past and will live to eternity future. He will never die, a concept not disputed in the
Christian church.
With the widespread acceptance of Immutability as a characteristic of God, the Bible
remains quite silent as to establishing this characteristic. Almost all verses quoted in support
of this doctrine require a presumption of immutability by those using them to support this
idea. The Platonic influence on Christian theological thought should be clear by the utter
inability to establish immutability via scripture.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

God is: Living, Eternal, Creator, Mighty, Witness, Good, Exalted, Great, Loving, Jehovah,
Gracious, Spirit, King, Righteous, True, Powerful, Wise, Blameless, Lord, Known, Just,
Awesome, Merciful, Judge, Holy, and Savior!1

There are three main sources for a Biblical definition of God: How God defines
himself, how the Bible defines God, and how men in the Bible define God. How God defines
himself is the most important of all. His specific words are direct revelation of how he wants
to be known to his creation. His words are without human taint.
A few main themes appear the many times God defines himself to others. God
consistently identifies himself with those who have had special relationships with him:

Exo 3:6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

This shows God is a personal God. He values his creation such that even his very name
mentions his interaction with mankind. There is no room for this in the impassible god of
Platonism. God is a personal God.
God also shows this characteristic through his love for mankind. God himself became
flesh for us. He lived among us. He ate with us, cried with us, even died for us. His ultimate
change was humbling himself and becoming one of his own creatures in the body of Jesus
Christ. At the heart of the gospel is God’s love, personal relation with mankind, and ultimate
self-sacrifice for his creation.
Towards the beginning of the Bible a good part of the references for God defining
himself have to do with his power:

Gen 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram,
and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

This even becomes his name in the ancient world. God is the Almighty. Meaning literally, he
is the most powerful being in existence. There is no other god, and no one can compare to his
power.
Many times, this reference to himself as the Almighty is not alone. Just as in the
above verse it is coupled with an interactive command to his creation, elsewhere he couples

1
Enyart

47
this with past actions that he has done for his people or future actions he will do for his
people. Even his Almighty attribute is inherently tied to his give and take relationship with
his creation.
But most commonly, God also defines himself by his actions:

Num 15:41 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your
God: I am the LORD your God.

God makes the people aware of his actions and uses his own actions to define himself. As the
Bible progresses, God continually adds more works to his name. God is defined by the work
he does on earth and the works he will do in the future. It is interesting to see that all his
works are done on behalf of his creation. God blesses in response to godliness and punishes
in response to wickedness, in an attempt to correct bad actions.
The Bible, itself, is replete with definitions and attributes of God. One overriding
characteristic is God’s jealousy. God wants his creation to love and honor him. As a loving
husband watching over his wife’s infidelities, God has been subject to see all the infidelities
of his chosen people. That is the story of the Bible, God’s relationship with Israel, and
Israel’s continual rejection of the God of their fathers.
God continually defines himself as jealous throughout the Bible:

Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me;

Exo 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a
jealous God:

Deu 4:24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

Deu 6:15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD
thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.

In fact the overwhelming majority of references to jealousy in the Bible are in reference to
the character of God. God is a jealous God. He is the creator of the universe and there is
nothing that man can do worst than reject his own creator.
Another key attribute God defines is Living. False gods, or idols, are made out of
wood or stone. The many references to God criticizing idols hold a few references to their
stability. Just as the idol of Dagon fell to God’s ark of the convent, other pagan idols fell
over. Idol craftsmen had to make stable bases and God mocks these idols for being static and
lifeless.
But the most important attribute of God is his love:

1Jo 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

God’s purpose in creation was a love relationship with mankind. Adam failed him, Israel
failed him, and even after he sent his only son to die for the world, mankind still rejects him.
God is not a puppeteer manufacturing his own self hatred. God is not a static, emotionless
God. He is a loving God still trying to entice human beings into a love relationship with him.

48
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The members of the Honors Thesis Committee appointed
to examine the thesis of Christopher C. Fisher
find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted.

_____________________________________
Leroy Meyer
PROFESSOR/COORD.
LANGUAGE, LINGUISTICS, & PHILOSOPHY

_____________________________________
Father Joe Forcelle
Newman Center Director

_____________________________________
Carl Gutzman
PERSONNEL SPECIALIST II
HUMAN RESOURCES

51