Theological Term of the Week: Simplicity of God

simplicity of God

The state of God in which he is not a composite or compound being. He is not made up of parts, but is simple. He does not possess his attributes, but he is his attributes.

• Implied in scripture in statements that say God is his perfections: 

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8 ESV).

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5 ESV)

…  for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29 ESV)

• From the Belgic Confession:

Article 1: The Only God 

We all believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that there is a single and simple spiritual being, whom we call God — eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, unchangeable, infinite, almighty; completely wise, just, and good, and the overflowing source of all good.

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof:

When we speak of the simplicity of God, we use the term to describe the state or quality of being simple, the condition of being free from division into parts, and therefore from compositeness. It means that God is not composite and is not susceptible of division in any sense of the word. This implies among other things that the three Persons in the Godhead are not so many parts of which the Divine essence is composed, that God’s essence and perfections are not distinct, and that the attributes are not superadded to His essence. Since the two are one, the Bible can speak of God as light and life, as righteousness and love, thus identifying Him with His perfections. The simplicity of God follows from some of His other perfections; from His Self-existence, which excludes the idea that something preceded Him, as in the case of compounds; and from His immutability, which could not be predicated of His nature, if it were made up of parts. This perfection was disputed during the Middle Ages, and was denied by Socinians and Arminians. Scripture does not explicitly assert it, but implies it where it speaks of God as righteousness, truth, wisdom, light, life, love, and so on, and thus indicates that each of these properties, because of their absolute perfection, is identical with His Being.

Learn more:

1. Kevin DeYoung: Theological Primer: The Simplicity of God
2. Kevin DeYoung: Divine Simplicity (video)
3. Persis Lorenti: Classic Theism: Is God Simple or Complex?
4. Tim Bertolet: Divine Simplicity: The Simplicity of God
5. Herman Bavinck: Divine Simplicity
6. Amy Mantravadi: Introduction to Divine Simplicity
7. Matthew Barrett: Divine Simplicity
8. Sinclair Ferguson: The Lord Our God, The Lord Is One: The Simplicity of God (video)

Related terms:

• aseity
• eternality
• immutability
• impassibility

Filed under God’s Nature and His Work

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