ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
AND
THEIR SIGNIFICANCE

You may find some excellent Calvinistic arguments in the following sites: Zanchius' Articles and at Christo's site. Matthew J. Slick in his Calvinist Corner gives these arguments in its summarized form. These are summarization of the exhaustive desertions of various giants of history. Internet is filled with these Reformation Theology. Essential Calvinistic arguments are as follows:

The argument is logical and completely destroys the premises for a monistic sovereign God. There has to be a zero point vibration within Godhead to create a minimum amount of uncertainty for a real God. (This is explained in Hindu philosophy as Nirguna Brahman and Saguna Brahman) This uncertainty pertains to the future and in choices.  God has all the the choices all the time - Omnipotence in a totally free Person. The concept of triune God is the Christian answer to that. This God shares the sovereignty between three persons. It allows for potency of choices, it allows for planning and purposes within the trinity which are inviolable. But it does not allow for Omniscience to the extent of total Foreknowledge nor Total Predestination.

Essentially the idea of a sovereign God and a Predestined cosmos is the product of the Newtonian Era - of the mechanical model of the universe.

In this model, God has created everything and built into it all the laws so that it will go according to his predetermined way. Cosmos is like a mechanical clock - a clever contraption of an ingenious God. This concept has been boosted by the theory of relativity which is considered as the end point of Classical Physics. In relativity we get the four dimensional space-time continuum. This is the result of the finiteness of the velocity of light.  Here all events are points in a four dimensional world.  It lies on a four dimensional graph paper. So to an Omnipotent God all future events lie as though it is done and over. But there were scientific glitches. A being which can travel on the beam of light will remain unchanged because there is no variation in time. But everything he observes also remain unchanged. If one can travel with a speed greater than light one can go back in time. But no material body can travel with speed greater than light. Even at the speed of light the mass becomes infinite and volume zero.  So we have reached a singularity point.   But a non material body – a spirit – may be able to do that. Thus going back into past will be in a different branch of the cosmos.  Hence it is impossible to change the past events.  This is essential if the principle of causality is to remain.  If this causality principle is violated, the very foundation of science and religion falls out.   So the past is ever present – if we know how to read it.  But there is no condition under which even a spirit or non material body can travel to future.   This is simply because future do not exist.

If God is defined in the way Calvinist define including that there is nothing impossible for God,   all the things mentioned in the beginning are certainly true, - provided the same logic is inapplicable to God - because then they are predetermined precisely. For anyone in the four dimensional world constrained within the constancy of light signal, there is no way of knowing the future. The supposition made here is that God being omnipotent can do so.

The fallacy of the argument for predestination is simply that it assumes time and space as absolutes. This was the Newtonian approach. Neither time nor space has any real existence. They are only qualitative aspects of matter in motion. We conceive an abstraction called space from the extension of matter.  We construct an entity called time from the movement and changes of matter. They are interrelated in terms of the changes in properties of matter.  Even though for mathematical purposes we may assume time and space as realities, the results obtained may not correspond to the real world. Every mathematics student knows that not all solutions to a constructed equation are valid. They are subject to boundary conditions. Just as good and evil are only moral realities and not physical realities, time and space are mental constructs and are not physical realities. They are simply concepts derived from matter and its motion. As far as we know from our viewpoint, the past no longer exists, but it is "real" because it has existed.  But  the future is not real, simply because it does not yet exist. We cannot affect the past, but we can affect the future; the past is a closed book, while the future is still contingent upon the present. The past exists only in memory, and the future exists only in possibility. The only reality therefore is now. This has interesting implications for  what God knows. Why do we need to affirm that God knows that which does not yet exist?  God knows the possibilities of the future, but we create the future. That is part of human freedom that God has granted to us.
 
 The Omni Attributes

The attributes of God as enunciated above are answers to metaphysical questions about ultimate reality. And those questions were rooted in the Platonic and Neoplatonic philosophies that saw God  in  idealistic terms. God was defined by asking logical questions. It is based on man's idea of what God should be. Though it is interesting and the results may not be totally invalid, a reality check needs to be made.

The Omni statements as one can easily notice is an attempt to make God as a big man. Omni means all – so we define God as All Powerful (Omni Potent), All Present (Omnipresent) and All Knowing (Omniscient). These are derived directly from the human attributes of power, presence and knowledge. Make them big, We have God.

Rom 1: 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man….
True they are making him to be a big man.

However big we may make these, these definitions are not adequate enough to define God so that any meaningful deduction can be made from them. It does not necessarily tell us anything about God. We are making an idol of words. It is a better idol than a brass idol - so that others won't call us idolaters.

What Bible tells us is that God is beyond our definitions. The "Omni" descriptions  consider God in relation to Space-time and Matter energy. God is all-powerful - that takes care of the energy of cosmos.  God is Omnipresent - that takes care of his spatial description, and God is Omniscient - and that takes care of time, past, present and future.  These are nonsensical definitions of God and are the properties of an anthropomorphic God.  But is he?  Is that what the bible tell us?  God is immanent in his creation not as we are. He transcends it.   This is conveyed through the term "holy" which is totally other and inexplicable in human terms. Take any of the attribute supporting verse, you will see that they are simply an acknowledgment of the limitations of human understanding of God's nature.

In mathematics we have such situations which are known as singularities. Singularities are points or regions where we have no knowledge of values. These cannot be extrapolated. Any attempt to do that will end up in false results. Usually, when encountered in theoretical mathematical considerations, singularities are troublemakers, which physically do not make any sense to us. In Quantum Field Theory the problem is solved by means of a tedious but consistent technique called renormalization. In General Theory of Relativity singularities are regarded as real physical entities – Black Holes – the Bottomless Pit. These black holes cannot be seen because informations can go only into it and not out of it. But we can know it by the behaviour of particles near the event horizon. cannot be seen because informations can go only into it and not out of it. But we can know it by the behaviour of particles near the event horizon. We do not know what lies beyond the event horizon.  Actually, every black hole contains a singularity. Universe according to modern cosmology started as a singularity. Though we do not know what lies beyond the event horizon of black hole, It is possibly a totally new universe. We can only see the black hole because of  uncertainty of the point itself.  This is simply a feeble radiation, which can be detected by any simple instrument.  God is a singularity and we can never know His nature.  The only fact we can know is the feeble emanation that we can feel.

The fact that God is totally the other does not mean God cannot be known here and now. Only that God cannot be known fully because God is immanent in this dimension, as he is transcendent. While it is perfectly legitimate to know the immanent nature of God, it will be foolish to assume to understand the transcendent God.  Just as a two dimensional object can be traced into one dimension by projection, we can indeed perceive God's projection into our existence. This I believe was indeed what God told Moses, when he asked God "What is your name?"

"I am that I am". The Hebrew understanding of that was simply, "You will know me through my actions in history." That is all what we can understand of God. It is through the revelation of God in history and in the ultimate revelation through Jesus that we understand God. Not by meditation or logic as the Hindu Sages did. By this logic we simply arrive at the indefinable nature of God and the need of revelation. The ultimate revelation of Jesus in history left the disciples confused.

John 16: 12 "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

To Nicodemus Jesus said:

John 3: 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

Job 42:1 Then Job replied to the LORD:

2 "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.