In Abrahamic religions, the doctrine of divine incomprehensibility says that God is not able to be fully known. Isaiah 40:28 says "his understanding no one can fathom". [1] Most theologians will balance this by saying that God is able to be known in some ways. [2]
| Part of a series on the |
| Attributes of God in Christianity |
|---|
 |
Protestant theologians are usually quick to clarify that we are able to know God, since God reveals himself to us. R. C. Sproul notes, "Theologically speaking, to say God is incomprehensible is not to say that God is utterly unknowable. It is to say that none of us can comprehend God exhaustively." [3]
Some older English versions of the Athanasian Creed confess "the Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible" as a translation of the Latin immensus. [4]
Divine incomprehensibility was said to be a point of conflict in the Clark-Van Til Controversy in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church during the 1940s, [5] but John Frame argues that the issue there was the relationship between human knowledge and divine knowledge, rather than human knowledge and the being of God. [6]
Arianism is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God the Father with the difference that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten/made before "time" by God the Father; therefore, Jesus was not coeternal with God the Father, but nonetheless Jesus began to exist outside time as time applies only to the creations of God.
The Athanasian Creed — also called the Pseudo-Athanasian Creed or Quicunque Vult, which is both its Latin name and its opening words, meaning "Whosoever wishes" — is a Christian statement of belief focused on Trinitarian doctrine and Christology. Used by Christian churches since the early sixth century, it was the first creed to explicitly state the equality of the three hypostases of the Trinity. It differs from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and the Apostles' Creed in that it includes anathemas condemning those who disagree with its statements.
Calvinism, also sometimes called the Reformed tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed, is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the Christian theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. It emphasizes the sovereignty of God and the authority of the Bible.
A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets.
The Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God (TAG) is the argument that attempts to prove the existence of the Christian God by arguing that logic, morals, and science ultimately presuppose a supreme being and that the Christian God must therefore be the source of logic and morals.
Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christian liturgical calendar, and the Sunday of Pentecost in Eastern Christianity. Trinity Sunday celebrates the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, the three Persons of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Presuppositionalism is an epistemological school of Christian apologetics that examines the presuppositions on which worldviews are based, and invites comparison and contrast between the results of those presuppositions.
Rousas John Rushdoony was an American Calvinist philosopher, historian, and theologian. He is credited as being the father of Christian Reconstructionism and an inspiration for the modern Christian homeschool movement. His followers and critics have argued that his thought exerts considerable influence on the evangelical Christian right.
John M. Frame is a retired American Christian philosopher and Calvinist theologian especially noted for his work in epistemology and presuppositional apologetics, systematic theology, and ethics. He is one of the foremost interpreters and critics of the thought of Cornelius Van Til.
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was adopted by the Church of Scotland. As many as 121 ministers were called to the Assembly, with nineteen others added later to replace those who did not attend or could no longer attend. It produced a new Form of Church Government, a Confession of Faith or statement of belief, two catechisms or manuals for religious instruction, and a liturgical manual, the Directory for Public Worship, for the Churches of England and Scotland. The Confession and catechisms were adopted as doctrinal standards in the Church of Scotland and other Presbyterian churches, where they remain normative. Amended versions of the Confession were also adopted in Congregational and Baptist churches in England and New England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Confession became influential throughout the English-speaking world, but especially in American Protestant theology.
Hypostatic union is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one hypostasis, or individual personhood.
Amyraldism is a Calvinist doctrine. It is also known as the School of Saumur, post redemptionism, moderate Calvinism, or hypothetical universalism. It is one of several hypothetical universalist systems.
The attributes of God are specific characteristics of God discussed in Christian theology. Christians are not monolithic in their understanding of God's attributes. Nevertheless, all Christians rely on the New Testament and Jesus Christ as the source of truth about the attributes of God. On the day he was crucified, Jesus said, "For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." John 18:37. The modern Christian must resolve contradictions in attributes of God between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the New Testament God is "love", God is "spirit", and is addressed as "Our Father" by Jesus. The list of attributes below seem to preclude God as "love and spirit": no more, no less, and no different. The attributes listed tend to be logical superlatives that the Old Testament LORD might have exhibited from time to time. Modern Christians must reconcile the description from Jesus with the many brutal images in the stories about the Old Testament LORD. Jesus simplified God's attributes and rendered some lessons and the stories of the Old Testament obsolete, yet still essential for discernment and instruction.
The rule of faith is the name given to the ultimate authority or standard in religious belief. It was used by Early Christian writers such as Tertullian. The phrase is sometimes used for early creeds.
Homoousion is a Christian theological term, most notably used in the Nicene Creed for describing Jesus as "same in being" or "same in essence" with God the Father. The same term was later also applied to the Holy Spirit in order to designate him as being "same in essence" with the Father and the Son. Those notions became cornerstones of theology in Nicene Christianity, and also represent one of the most important theological concepts within the Trinitarian doctrinal understanding of God.
Mystical theology is the branch of theology in the Christian tradition that explains mystical practices and states, as induced by contemplative practices such as contemplative prayer, called theoria from the Greek for contemplation.
The Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church have been in a state of official schism from one another since the East–West Schism of 1054. This schism was caused by historical and language differences, and the ensuing theological differences between the Western and Eastern churches.
The regulative principle of worship is a Christian doctrine, held by some Calvinists and Anabaptists, that God commands churches to conduct public services of worship using certain distinct elements affirmatively found in scripture, and conversely, that God prohibits any and all other practices in public worship. The doctrine further determines these affirmed elements to be those set forth in scripture by express commands or examples or, if not expressed, those implied logically by good and necessary consequence. The regulative principle thus provides a governing concept of worship as obedience to God, identifies the set of specific practical elements constituting obedient worship, and identifies and excludes disobedient practices.
Cornelius Van Til was a Dutch-American reformed philosopher and theologian, who is credited as being the originator of modern presuppositional apologetics.
Sonship theology, also known as Sonship teaching, is a movement within American Presbyterianism, associated with Jack Miller (1928–1996).