Incommunicable Traits
D2 Incommunicable Traits
These are those only God has.
E1 Eternality
F1 Defined: having no beginning and no ending. God was never created, nor can never die. There is only one being with this attribute—Yahweh.
G1 Genesis 21:33 LEB And he planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of Yahweh, the everlasting God.
G2 Isaiah 40:28 BSB Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will never grow faint or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.
G3 1 Timothy 1:17 BSB Now to the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
F3 Thoughts
G1 If God is eternal, then His promises are intact. They will happen.
G2 If God is eternal, then life itself is dependent on God.
G3 If God is eternal, then He was THE God always and only. If there were any other god, which one would be sovereign?
G4 If God is eternal, then what He says is also true for eternity.
G5 If God is eternal, then He is omniscient. Otherwise, He could not know and understand everything.
G6 If God is eternal, then He is the Eternal Now, that is seeing past, present, and future as present. He is greater than time. He understands time since He is the creator and created time.
G7 If God is eternal, then His other attributes are also eternal.
G8 If God is eternal, then there is no other king and no other kingdom, except His.
G9 If God is eternal, then He does not grow old or infirm.
G10 If God is eternal, then heaven for believers and hell for unbelievers is also eternal.
E2 Immutable
F1 Defined
G1 Immutable means that God does not change. God’s thoughts, desires, words, and actions do not change. His worldview and lifestyle never change. It refers to His nature, His attributes, and His essence. Time, as we understand, has no effect on God. God does not learn anything, for He knows everything.
G2 It is the idea that God is constant. No one and nothing can change God. He is completely independent. Nevertheless, God is living and acting in everything that is His. It may appear that He changes.
H1 God changes His mind. “Repents” is sometimes the translation. See Genesis 6:6, Joel 2:12-13, etc. This repentance is based on conditions that God has decreed (Joel 2:12-13 and Nineveh in the book of Jonah, especially Jonah 2:13 and Jonah 3:6-10, Deuteronomy 13:17).
H2 God also treats people differently. See Proverbs 11:20 and Proverbs 12:22.
H3 See also Romans 1:23 and 1 Timothy 1:17.
G3 Since this is so and God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18), we know that His promises are true, His warnings are true, His revealing the future is true, His judgments are true, His rules for living are true, His doctrines are true, etc. Everything is true, sure, and doesn’t change, because God does not change.
F2 ISBE entry states: It is the perfection of Yahweh that He changes not in character, will, purpose, aim so of Christ.
G1 Malachi 3:6 WEB For I, Yahweh, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
G2 Hebrews 13:8 WEB Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
F3 The perfection of God by which He is devoid of all change in essence, attributes, consciousness, will, and promises. No change is possible in God, because all change must be to better or worse, and God is absolute perfection. No cause for change in God exists, either in Himself or outside of Him. (Douglas, J.D.; Tenney, Merrill Chapin: New International Bible Dictionary, Zondervan, 1987) (Source)
F4 The Greek word is ἀμετάθετος ametáthetos. According to Thayer’s etc., it means not transposed, not to be transferred, fixed, unalterable. Hebrews 6:17-18 WEB In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.
E3 Infinite
F1 This is defined by Matt Slick as God is without measure or limit in scope or duration. There are no constraints upon him from outside of himself that would restrict him in his scope or duration.
F2 His being:
G1 1 Kings 8:27 WEB But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I have built!
G2 Jeremiah 23:24 BSB Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and earth?” declares the LORD.
F3 His understanding of everything: Psalms 147:5 BSB Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.
F4 Not only can we not understand God, but we also need to understand this: Psalms 145:3 WEB Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is unsearchable.
F5 His attribute of being infinite teaches us that God has no boundaries on what He knows, what He does, who He is, His being (omnipresence), His wisdom, and everything of His attributes.
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