The divine attributes

At the burning bush Moses asks God’s name, and God answers “I am who am” and bids him say that “He who is” has sent him. The Fathers read the name as declaring God’s being itself. It bears on the teaching that God exists of himself and that every creature has its being from him.

Moses said to God: Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they shall say to me: What is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses: I am who am. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: He who is, hath sent me to you.

The psalm says to God, “from eternity and to eternity thou art God,” before the mountains were made. His being is set before creation, without beginning. It bears on the teaching that God is eternal, without beginning or end.

Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed; from eternity and to eternity thou art God.

In Jeremias the prophet confesses that the Lord made heaven and earth by his great power and that no word shall be hard to him, and God answers that he is the Lord of all flesh. It bears on the teaching that God is almighty.

Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, behold thou hast made heaven and earth by thy great power, and thy stretched out arm: no word shall be hard to thee:

Behold I am the Lord the God of all flesh: shall any thing be hard for me?

The psalmist says the heavens shall perish and be changed, but God is always the selfsame and his years shall not fail. Hebrews applies these verses to the Son. It bears on the teaching that God is eternal and immutable.

In the beginning, O Lord, thou foundedst the earth: and the heavens are the works of thy hands. They shall perish but thou remainest: and all of them shall grow old like a garment: And as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art always the selfsame, and thy years shall not fail.

In Malachias the Lord says, “I am the Lord, and I change not,” and gives it as the reason the sons of Jacob are not consumed. His constancy is the ground of his faithfulness to his people. It bears on the teaching that God is immutable.

For I am the Lord, and I change not: and you the sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Wisdom says God has mercy upon all because he can do all things, loves all things that are, and that nothing could endure or be preserved unless called by him. It joins omnipotence with love and with the conservation of creatures. It bears on the teaching that God is almighty and that creatures depend on him for being.

But thou hast mercy upon all, because thou canst do all things, and overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance. For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made: for thou didst not appoint, or make any thing hating it. And how could any thing endure, if thou wouldst not? or be preserved, if not called by thee?

Saint James calls God the Father of lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration, and from whom every best gift comes. It bears on the teaching that God is immutable.

Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration.

The Lord tells the Samaritan woman that God is a spirit, and that they who adore him must adore in spirit and in truth. It is the plain scriptural statement that God is not a body. It bears on the teaching that God is a spiritual substance.

God is a spirit: and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth.

In the Apocalypse the Lord God names himself the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. It bears on the teaching that God is eternal and almighty.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Saint John writes that God is charity, and that he who abides in charity abides in God. The words are a statement of what God is, not of one quality among others. It bears on the teaching that God’s very being is love.

He that loveth not knoweth not God: for God is charity.

And we have known and have believed the charity which God hath to us. God is charity: and he that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him.