God and the logically impossible

Last evening

2003 The Problem of Evil: Anglican and Baptist Perspectives: MPhil thesis, Bangor University 

For my MPhil surveys,

I received fifty each, completed of Anglicans and Baptists who have attended a post-secondary denominational college, University or seminary, or are members of one of those denominations who have studied religion at a post-secondary level.

Statement five: 

My fifth statement was another dealing with the logical nature of God. God cannot commit the logically impossible such as ceasing to exist. 

With Anglicans, 66% agreed with this point, while 22% were not certain, and 12% disagreed. With Baptists, 78% agreed with the statement’s concept, while 14% were not certain, and 8% disagreed.

My main consideration in creating this statement was to put across the idea that God is not a contradictory being. He is a being of consistency, in my view, and this means both that he could not manage to cease to exist or create another God equal to him. In the same way, he could not work against his own holy nature by sinning as he willed evil for the greater good. I think, instead, he wills it within his perfect character, realizing that in a fallen creation, evil and suffering will take place and that he can fulfill his good purposes by using evil within his holy plans.

August 23, 2019

2010 Theodicy and Practical Theology: PhD thesis, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter 

Within a theistic, Christian tradition and worldview, God is considered infinitely and eternally holy and perfectly good; logically, as it would be contradiction, God cannot be at the same time, considered infinitely and eternally unholy and imperfectly evil.

If God actually was infinitely and eternally evil, this would actually be what is good, and there would in reality be no distinction between good and evil. But based on the scripture, reasonable theology and reasonable philosophy of religion, that is not the case.

Also, as I discussed in both my PhD (2010) and on this website, God cannot ontologically have finite nature or finite attributes (God does not ride a skateboard, but could make a skateboard move as if ridden). God the Son, as second member of the Trinity, does at the incarnation, as a human being, have finite nature and attributes, but God the Son, Jesus Christ's infinite, eternal divine nature does not mix with his acquired finite, everlasting nature.

CALVIN, JOHN (1543)(1996) The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Translated by G.I. Davies, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.

FEINBERG, JOHN.S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.