About Attributes
Originally posted on 1/10/2020
Part of learning any new subject is learning new vocabulary. It doesn't matter if you're learning about agriculture, medicine, cooking, or checkers. Learning something new requires learning new words and definitions. Theology is no different. Before we can begin a study of the attributes of God, it is crucial that we understand what an attribute actually is.
For most of us, this chapter will require some mental heavy lifting. We will be thinking about things and in ways that we are not accustomed to thinking. Still, nearly everyone reading this book will be up to the task and I have no doubt whatsoever that you will find it worth your effort.
Definition
It's been said that Oscar Hammerstein was the only person who could begin a love song with the word "fish." His love song begins, "Fish got to swim, birds got to fly, I gotta love one man till I die, Can’t help lovin’ dat man of mine.”[1]
The essence of the song is that, just as fish have to swim because it is natural to them and birds have to fly because that is natural to them, so the singer has to love one man till she dies. In fact, she can't help but love that man, because it is as natural to her as flying is to birds and swimming is to fish. She can't help but love because it is part of who she is.
It is this idea of an activity being essential to the nature of something that is at the core of what we call the attributes of God. God has certain characteristics that are true of him, and must be true of him, as surely as fish swim and birds fly.
Simply put, an attribute is something that is true of someone or something. Or we might say, an attribute accurately describes some characteristic of a person or object. So, if we were to list some of the attributes of a racquetball, we might say that it is blue, round, and made of rubber. These are all traits of your average racquetball.
In the same way, if we were to write down some of your attributes, we might say that you are human being, that you are either male or female, that your hair is a certain color, that you are so many inches tall, and so forth. These would all be things that are true of you. These would be some of your attributes.
This being said, a quick perusal of both these lists makes plain that these attributes may be broken down into two types. Aristotle called these two types "accidental attributes" and "essential attributes."
"Accidental" vs "Essential"
Accidental attributes are those things that are true of someone or something but don't have to be true for that object or person to remain what they are. For example, the racquetball I described is blue, but not all racquetballs are blue. Some racquetballs are pink. No doubt they come in other colors as well. The color of a racquetball is not essential for a racquetball to be a racquetball.
In the same way, there are some things that are true of you that don't have to be true for you to be you. Currently you are so many inches tall, but that hasn't always been the case. You have grown a great deal from when you were an infant. In the same way, your hair color changes as you grow older (or after a visit to a salon). But neither your height nor your hair color is essential to you being you. Both may change without changing the essence of who you are. They are therefore considered "accidental" attributes.
Essential attributes, in contrast, are those things that must be true of a person or object in order for it to remain what it is. For example, a racquetball is round. If a racquetball was any other shape, it would not be a racquetball, it would be something else. Therefore, roundness is an essential attribute to a racquetball. Similarly, if you were magically changed from a human being into a giraffe, you would no longer be what you are now. You would no longer be a man or a woman but would be a mammal of a different sort. Such a transformation would be so radical that it would change you into something different from what you are now. You would no longer be you. Thus, being a human being is essential to your identity. "Humanness" is therefore an essential attribute.
We should also notice that our essential attributes are not something that require effort. For example, I am male. I do not have to try to be male nor can I stop being male.[2] I am male all the time, regardless of the situations in which I find myself. When I express the physical characteristics of being male (which are legion and go far beyond what most people think), I am merely being myself.
The reason this distinction between accidental and essential attributes is important, is because God also has accidental and essential attributes. For example, is it essential for God to have created anything? Could God have remained God without ever being a creator? The answer of course is, yes, he could. Thus, while being the creator is an attribute of God, it is not essential to his being. He could have existed forever and ever without creating anything and still have remained God.
Essential Attributes Are Eternal
Understanding that God has both essential and accidental attributes, however, raises an important question: how are we to determine which attributes of God are to be considered "essential?" Clearly there is only one way to answer this question. Any attribute of God which is not eternally true of him cannot be considered essential. Whenever an attribute of God is situationally true, that is, based upon being in a certain set of circumstances that may or may not be true at any given moment, that attribute cannot be an essential attribute. Otherwise those moments where this state of affairs was not true would be times when God was not God.
Let's look at an example. Consider the following passage of Scripture:
LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger. Ps 85:1-3
In this text we learn several important truths about God. First, God was angry with the nation of Israel because of their sin. Second, God forgave the iniquity of his people and covered all their sin. Third, as a result, God turned away from his hot anger and was favorable once again to his people.
After analyzing these three verses, we might say that God's anger was situationally based, that is, it was a result of his interaction with unforgiven sin. Once the issue of sin was dealt with, God was no longer angry. Therefore, while it is true that God has an anger that is often expressed, it is also true that his anger is not eternally expressed. Once the issue of sin has been dealt with, the anger goes away. God's wrath is therefore an accidental attribute, not an essential attribute. God does not have to be angry in order to be God.
We might think of it this way. Before God created anything, God was still God. In that situation, there was no one deserving of his anger for there was no sin. Yet God was still God. He did not have to be angry in order to exist, as he has eternally existed. His anger requires a specific situation in order to be expressed.
In contrast to the wrath of God is the love of God. Consider the following:
But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, Ps 103:17
Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Ps 25:6
In both of these verses we see the LORD's love existing from eternity past. Before God created any of us, he loved us. His love is from eternity past to eternity future — “from everlasting to everlasting.” As a result, while God's wrath is considered an accidental attribute, his love is an essential attribute. His great love defines who he is as a person. He does not have to try to love. When God loves, he is simply being himself. If God were to ever stop loving, he would stop being God.
The Relationship Between God's Essential and Accidental Attributes
Even though we will be considering God's essential (or eternal) attributes first, recognizing them as the basis of his accidental attributes, this does not give us the liberty to ignore the accidental attributes of God. It is important to recognize, for example, not only that God gets angry, but under what circumstances God gets angry as well as what is necessary to appease that anger. We will learn that the accidental attributes of God are actually his essential attributes coming into contact with a certain set of circumstances.
Think once again of a racquetball. The attribute of bouncing is not something essential to being a racquetball. After all, a racquetball could sit in its case on a table for all of eternity and never bounce, yet still remain a racquetball. This being said, if this racquetball was removed from its case and dropped on the floor, it would bounce. This is a predictable action for racquetballs. Why? Because the rubber in the racquetball will always cause a bounce when it comes against a hard object at speed. Because of the regularity of this result, we learn something about the nature of a rubber ball by understanding this interaction. Not only so, but because of the regularity of this effect we can predict where a ball is going to bounce under a specific set of circumstances. This is what makes the game of racquetball possible. If the ball bounced in completely random ways, the game would be impossible.
The same is true with the attributes of God. When the essential attributes of God interact with certain situations, certain predictable results follow. For example, when God's holiness comes in contact with sin, anger is the predictable result. It is as predictable as a racquetball bouncing. Thus, by studying God's accidental attributes as interactions between the essential attributes and specific situations, we actually bring into clear focus the essential nature of God so that we might know him better.
I suppose we should state for the record that, unlike a racquetball, God is a complex person. This means that his actions in any given situation are not immediately predictable. He may, for example, judge sin the moment it is committed or may choose to wait until eternity to judge that sin. But it is certain that sin will be judged regardless of when the judgment takes place. We may not be able to predict God's immediate actions at any given time, but ultimately we know how God will respond.
Attributes Do Not Compete with Each Other
It's not uncommon to hear a well-meaning Christian ask, "Is God more loving or is God more holy?" This type of question is usually asked when someone is trying to figure out why God did what he did in a certain situation. But in reality, this is an impossible question to answer.
Let's take our imaginary racquetball and ask a similar question. Is this racquetball more round or is it more blue? Clearly this is a question that cannot be answered. It's not more of one than the other — it's both. Its roundness is not expressed at the expense of its blueness. Its blueness takes nothing away from its roundness. Both of these attributes are expressed 100% of the time with no competition between the two.
Adding a third attribute does not change the situation. The racquetball is 100% blue, 100% rubber, and 100% round all the time. These attributes are always expressed independently of each other.
So it is with God. God is 100% holy and 100% loving at all times without these two attributes ever competing with each other. Add as many attributes to the mix as you like, and the answer will always be the same. Even if you add in accidental attributes you will find no competition between the attributes. For the accidental attributes are based entirely on God's essential attributes coming into contact with some specific situation.
Conclusion
As I stated at the beginning of this chapter, these concepts can be tough sledding for most of us. We aren't accustomed to thinking in this way. Still, if our ultimate goal is not merely to know more about God, but also to "get to know" him, then thinking clearly and precisely about his attributes is essential. By learning about God's essential nature and how this nature interacts with his creation, we move a good way down the road toward this goal.
[1] Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man is from the musical Show Boat, music by Jerome Kern and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based upon Edna Ferber’s best-selling novel of the same name.
[2] I understand at this point that some might take issue with this statement as their definition of “being male” may be different than mine. To avoid confusion, I define maleness as having an X and a Y chromosome as well as possessing the resultant physiological characteristics that accompany that genetic formation (which are multifaceted and touch nearly every area of our bodies). It makes no difference how I act or how I feel. At the cellular level I remain male.