This means that God does not consist
of parts or have any characteristics.
For example, it is wrong to say that God
possesses or displays goodness: he is goodness.
God is unchangeable and so cannot lose
or gain anything characteristically. We
cannot break God down in terms of parts.
God's nature and existence is the same thing,
because to talk of God is to talk of a being that exists.
Brain Davis argues this by recognising that God is not a
thing like a human being but God is a thing in the same
sense that we soeak of the human race as one whole.
God is also immaterial or
incorporeal, so not possessing
a body of any kind. This
suggests that God might be a
soul or spirit os some kind.
God as Eternal
Six main reasons
that explain why
Christians believe
that God is sternal:
1. The Bible
indicates God has
always existed
2. God is not a
physical
being like us
3. God is the creator of the universe.
Time is a feature of the universe and
therefore God is outside of time
4. God is the
untimate
cause of why
things exist
and why there
is change
5. God is perfect and so
not subject to time
because time passing
implies imperfection
6. God exists necessarily, God has
to exist and connot fail to exist
Humans experience time as a successfion of moments.
We speak of eternity in terms of past, present and
future. Because grammar is tensed to speak of God
outside of that becomes difficult. The idea of eternity is
an unchanging present without beginning or end
God as eternal is
understood in
three ways
1. Eternal meaning timeless:
past. present and future are
all the same to God
2. Eternal meaning
'everlasting' within time
3. Eternal meaning God
moving through time with his
creation (Process Theology)