On Our Extraordinary God at An Ordinary Blog

Today I posted on God’s aseity at Out of the Ordinary. Here’s an excerpt:

Aseity is an old word an uncommon one, even in lists of God’s attributes, where you’ll more often find self-existence, self-sufficiency, self-containment, independence, or solitariness used to describe this characteristic of God. But these words don’t all mean exactly the same thing, at least as I understand them. I prefer to to use aseity, because it describes this particular perfection of God more precisely than any one of the other words, and includes within it everything they mean and more. 

Aseity comes from the Latin a se, meaning “from or by oneself.” To say that God is a se tells us that he exists wholly “from himself.” There is nothing else that causes God to exist; rather, he exists uncaused, “by the necessity of His own Being,” to quote Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology. In other words, he is eternally self-sustained and he can’t not exist. Our God, scripture tells us, “has life in himself”(John 5:26). 

The first scriptural evidence of God’s aseity is found at the very beginning of the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Creation, we’re told, has a beginning: “In the beginning” when God created. But not so with God. He was there before the beginning, when there was nothing but him, existing eternally in all his perfection from himself and by himself.

Read the whole post.

I plan to be back later with this week’s post on The Discipline of Grace. It should have been posted yesterday, but wasn’t, partly because of The Great Yukon-Wide Communications Black-Out of 2012 and partly because I was too busy. My internet connectivity has been spotty again this morning, so if you don’t see this post from me later today, that might be the reason. 

Thankful Thursday

I could not have asked for a better day, weatherwise. We’re right at the peak of our fall colors and the weather was clear and warm. I went cranberry picking this afternoon, and dug potatoes bare-footed this evening. In between, I had visits from the two grandbabies. 

I’m thankful for fall, for sun, and for warm. I’m thankful for potatoes in the garden and cranberries in the forest. I’m thankful items crossed off a long to-do list. I’m thankful for God’s help to finish a few big jobs.

Yesterday Natalie took her first step. Today, Amelia grabbed her feet for the first time. Two babies, so different: Natalie is a busy, busy little doer; Amelia loves to sit and watch and smile at the world. Two perfect little blessings to their parents and to me. I am thankful to our heavenly Father who gave each one to us.

I’m thankful for orchard run apples in bins at the supermarket.

I’m thankful for God’s goodness to me, for giving me all these temporal blessings. I’m thankful that the One who has life in himself gives me life, both physical and spiritual.

Theological Term of the Week

atheism
The belief that there is no god, or the lack of belief in a god.

• Scripture applicable to atheism:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [19] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20] For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. [21] For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Romans 1:18-21 ESV).

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,

there is none who does good. (Psalm 14:1 ESV)

• From the Belgic Confession:

Article 2: The Means by Which We Know God

• We know him by two means:

  First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20. 

  All these things are enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse.

  Second, he makes himself known to us more openly by his holy and divine Word, as much as we need in this life, for his glory and for the salvation of his own.

•  From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof:

[T]here is strong evidence for the universal presence of the idea of God in the human mind, even among tribes which … have not felt the impact of special revelation. In view of this fact some go so far as to deny that there are people who are … real atheists; but this denial is contradicted by the facts. It is customary to distinguish between two kinds, namely, practical and theoretical atheists. The former are simply godless persons, who in their practical life do no reckon with God, but live as if there were no God. The latter are, as a rule, of a more intellectual kind, and base their denial on a process of reasoning. They seek to prove by what seem to them conclusive rational arguments, that there is no God. In view of the semen religionis implanted in every man by his creation in the image of God, it is safe to assume that no one is born an atheist. In the last analysis atheism results from the perverted moral state of man and from his desire to escape from God. It is deliberately blind to and suppresses the most fundamental instinct of man, the deepest needs of the soul, the highest aspirations of the human spirit, and the longings of a heart that gropes after some higher Being. This practical or intellectual suppression of the operation of the semen religionis often involves prolonged and painful struggles.

Learn more:

1. Theopedia: Atheism
2. GotQuestions.org: What is atheism?
3. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry: What is atheism?
4. Dustin Segers: No Good Reason To Be An Athiest
5. Gary Gilley: The New Atheism
6. Christopher Hitchens and Doug Wilson: Debate on the Existence of God (video)

Related terms:

• deism
• henotheism
• idolatry
• monotheism
• panentheism
• polytheism
• Trinity

Filed under Isms

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.