Theological Term of the Week

incommunicable attributes
Those attributes of God that belong to Him alone, such as his simplicity, aseity, immutability, impassibility, and eternality. 

• From scripture:

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24-25 ESV)

…remember the former things of old;

for I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is none like me,

declaring the end from the beginning

and from ancient times things not yet done,

saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

calling a bird of prey from the east,

the man of my counsel from a far country.

I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;

I have purposed, and I will do it.

Isaiah 46:9-11 ESV) 

• From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem:

Those attributes we call “incommunicable” are better defined by saying that they are attributes of God that are less shared by us. Not one of the incommunicable attributes of God is completely without some likeness in the character of human beings. For example, God is unchangeable, while we change. But we do not change completely, for there are some aspects of our characters that remain largely unchanged: or individual identities, many of our personality traits, and some of our long-term purposes remain substantially unchanged over many years (and will remain largely unchanged once we are set free from sin and begin to live in God’s presence forever).

Similarly, God is eternal, and we are subject to the limitations of time. However, we see some reflection of God’s eternity in the fact that we will live with him forever and enjoy eternal life.

Learn more:

1. Blue Letter Bible: What are the various ways in which God’s attributes are categorized?
2. Sam Storms: Classifying the Attributes
3. Bruce Ware: Attributes of God: Incommunicable Attributes, Part 1, Part 2
4. Wayne Grudem: Series of lectures on the incommunicable attributes

Related term:

• communicable attributes
• aseity
• eternity
• immutability
• impassibility 
• omnipresence
• simplicity 

Filed under God’s Nature and His Work

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.

Theological Term of the Week

spiritual gift
A God-given empowerment to minister to others within the church. 

• From scripture:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, [12] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ… (Ephesians 4:11-12 ESV)

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. [4] For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, [5] so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. [6] Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; [7] if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; [8] the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12:3-8 ESV) 

• From Keeping in Step with the Spirit by J. I. Packer:

Nowhere does Paul or any other New Testament writer define a spiritual gift for us, but Paul’s assertion that the use of gifts edifies (“builds up,” 1 Corinthians 143-5, 12, 26, see also 17; Ephesians 4:12, 16) shows what his idea of a gift was. For Paul, it is only through Christ, in Christ, by learning Christ and responding to Christ that anyone is ever edified. Our latter-day secular use of this word is far wider and looser than Paul’s; for him, edification is precisely a matter of growing in the depth and fullness of one’s understanding of Christ and all else in relation to him and in the quality of one’s personal relationship with him, and it is not anything else. So spiritual gifts must be defined in terms of Christ, as actualized powers of expressing, celebrating, displaying and so communicating Christ in one way or another, either by word or by deed. They would not be edifying otherwise. 

Learn more:

1. Blue Letter Bible: What Are Spiritual Gifts?
2. GotQuestions.org: What are the different spiritual gifts the Bible mentions?
3. Vern Poythress: What Are Spiritual Gifts? (pdf)
4. Fred Zaspel: Study of Spiritual Gifts

Related term:

• cessationism
• continuationism

Filed under Ecclesiology

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.

Theological Term of the Week

In case you haven’t guessed, I’m a firm cessationist. In this entry on continuationism, I’ve included a few links that make the positive case for it, even though I am not at all convinced by them. For counter arguments, see the entry on cessationism.

continuationism
The view that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit (healing, tongues, prophetic revelations) continue after theapostolic age, and are available for the  believer today.

• Scripture used to support continuationism (see Wayne Grudem’s argument below):

As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. (1 Corinthians 13:8-10 ESV)

• From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem:

[W]e have in 1 Corinthians 13:10 a definite statement about the time of the cessation imperfect gifts like prophecy; they will “be made useless” or “pass away” when Christ returns. And this would imply that they will continue to exist and be useful for the church, throughout the church age, including today, and right up to the day when Christ returns. Learn more:

1. Sam Storms: The Case for Continuationism
2. Tim Challies: Cessationism and Continuationism: An Interview with Dr. Wayne Grudem, Part 1, Part 2
3. Ian Hamilton/Wayne Grudem: A Debate on the Continuation of Prophesy

Related term:

• cessationism

Filed under Ecclesiology

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.