When we speak of God’s perfections, we call them “attributes” because we attribute to Him such qualities as belong to the divine nature. Yet all the while we realize that these perfections in God only dimly correspond, in human language, to various properties in creatures.
In reality, the divine attributes are identical among themselves and
with the divine nature. But in our human way of thinking there are
different attributes
because they are like the differences we see in creation, which itself
is a manifestation of the indescribable greatness of God.
The Apostles’ Creed gives only one attribute of God: that He is
almighty. Since apostolic times, however, the Church has identified no
less than fifteen
divine attributes and, by now, a library of literature has been written
to explain what they mean.
God is absolutely one because He is the only Being who must exist, and because there are not many gods (polytheism). He is not just one
chief god (henotheism), nor merely the good god along with an evil god (Manichaeism).
He is the true God because He really exists and is not a figment of the imagination projecting our own fears or desires.
He is the living God whose life is His very essence. He is the being whose inward activity is identical with His nature.
He is eternal because in God there is nothing past, as if it were
no longer; nothing future, as if it were not yet. In Him there is
only “is,” namely, the present. That is why when Yahweh first appeared
to Moses in the burning bush and Moses asked Him for His name,
God told him, “I Am Who Am” (Exodus 3:14).
God is immense because He is beyond all measurement. He encompasses everything, while He alone cannot be encompassed by anything.
He is incomprehensible because He is not limited in any way. God is not confined either in the manner of a body or of a created spirit.
God is infinite not only because He has no limitations, but because He has within Himself the plenitude of all perfection. He is all-knowing,
all-powerful, and has absolute fullness of being.
God is unique because there neither is nor can there be another God. He must have no equal.
God is pure spirit. He has no body or spatial dimension. In our own language, He is a spiritual being who thinks and who wills.
He knows and He loves. He is in the deepest sense a personal God, and not some impersonal force or cosmic energy.
God is totally simple because there are no components or parts in Him, like body and soul or substance and accidental properties.
Thus Christ said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
God is unchangeable because He eternally possesses the fullness of being. There is nothing He can acquire that He does not already have,
nor lose what He already has.
God is transcendent not only because He surpasses all other beings, but because He is completely distinct from the world. He is the Totally Other.
He is perfectly happy in and of Himself, without dependence on any other being for beatitude.
God is finally the most sublime because He is beautiful in the
highest degree. Beauty is that which pleases when seen. That is why the
Scriptures condemn those who are seduced by creatures: “They have taken
things for gods. Let them know how much the Lord of these
excels them, since the Author of beauty has created them” (Wisdom 13:3).
The Church speaks of the foregoing attributes of God as
internal, because they pertain to God as He is in Himself. In today’s
world, in which
atheism is so prevalent, we must be clear in our understanding of who
the one true God is.
However, we must also recognize what are called the relative attributes
of God. These are the divine perfections in relation to the world He has
made.
Among these, the Apostles’ Creed mentions only His omnipotence or
almightiness. By this, we mean that He cannot do anything that
would deny His nature, like tell a lie; nor can He act in a
contradictory manner, like changing His mind.
We know, of course, that God is also omniscient because He knows all
things past, present, and future. He is all-good because He wants only
to
benefit the creatures that He makes. And He is even all-merciful in
forgiving human beings, provided they repent for the offenses they have
committed against their loving Lord.