The Nature of God (AQA GCSE Religious Studies A (8062))

The Nature of God: Omnipotent, Loving & Just

Christians believe that God has various qualities, some of God’s qualities are not possible for humans to achieve but others are. Five  important qualities of God are:

• Omnipotence

• Just

• Omnibenevolence

• Immanence

• Transcendence

How are these qualities demonstrated by God?

• Omnipotence

  • God created the universe and everything in it

  • God’s omnipotence is seen through his miracles performed by Jesus

  • The bible says:

• Just

  • With unlimited power and authority, God is believed to be the perfect giver of justice

  • As God is all-loving, he will never support injustice, ill-treatment, prejudice or oppression

  • God gave Moses the Decalogue outlining how he expected people to behave

  • In the bible God said:

• In the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, Jesus taught that God would judge all people according to how they had cared for others.

• Omnibenevolence

  • God created humans in his image (Genesis 1: 27) highlighting his love to his creation

  • God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son highlighting that God was willing for Jesus to be crucified to save humanity

  • In the teaching known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

• Immanence

  • God’s immanence refers to His presence within His creation

  • A belief in God’s immanence holds that God is present in all of creation, while remaining distinct from it. In other words, there is no place where God is not

• Transcendence

  • God has control and authority over His creation

  • God is outside of humanity's full experience, perception or grasp

Why are these qualities important to believers?

• Omnipotence

  • Christians will show determination and resilience when faced with a problem

  • God has a plan for everyone. Therefore, Christians should trust in, and be guided by God

• Just

  • Christians will work for justice in society to demonstrate God’s qualities of being just and compassionate

  • They will think about the consequences of their actions as they will want to be rewarded by God on the Day of Judgement. They believe that any wicked actions will be addressed and made fair

• Omnibenevolence

  • Christians will try to love each other in their daily lives by following the Golden Rule

  • Christians will ‘love their enemies’ to demonstrate agape

• Immanence

  • God's immanence gives him the awareness of and compassion for our suffering and sin

  • Christians believe that God is present and this provides comfort

• Transcendence

  • God's transcendence gives him the power to heal, rescue, and redeem.

  • It means he is beyond the limits of all we understand, he can perform miracles to change the fortunes of those who are struggling

The Problem of Evil & the Christian Response to this

The Problem of Evil

• Evil and suffering exist in the world

• Evil can be separated into two types, Moral Evil and Natural Evil

• Christians believe God is omnipotent (all-powerful), omni-benevolent (all-loving) and omniscient ( all-knowing) so evil should not exist.

• Because evil does exist it leads to a number of possibilities

  • God is simply not powerful enough to stop evil

  • God does not know that it is happening

  • God simply does not love us enough to want to stop the evil

• Christians tell us that he can do all of these things so it leads some to question God’s existence

• John Mackie expressed this philosophical ‘problem of evil’ using the inconsistent triad which states that because evil exists either:

  • God is omnipotent but not omnibenevolent or

  • God is omnibenevolent but not omnipotent or

  • God does not exist

The Inconsistent Triad

How Christians Respond to idea of Evil and Suffering

• God created people with free will and because people are not programmed like computers, they can choose whether to do good or evil.

  • When people choose evil, suffering happens

• To some Christians life is a test. The way people react to suffering and evil determines whether they go to heaven or hell in the afterlife. For example, the Book of Job and how Job responds to suffering in the bible

• Others say that ‘God works in mysterious ways’ and He has reasons for letting evil and suffering happen, but humans will never be able to understand that God has a plan

How Christians physically respond to evil and suffering

• In responding to the problems of evil and suffering, Christians follow the teachings and actions of Jesus, who taught his followers to respond in certain ways

• Prayer: (asking God to help those who are suffering - this type of prayer is called intercession and is found in nearly all types of Christian worship).

• Service: (Actively helping those who suffer) many Christians help in hospitals and hospices, organise food and clothing for the homeless in the UK, raise money to help less developed countries, etc.