Heidelcast 136: I Am That I Am (11): The Attributes Of God

With this episode we return to the series on the doctrine of God, I AM that I AM. This is episode 11. The series begins at episode 123. We are talking today about the divine attributes. We begin with the doctrine of divine infinity. We are also considering the doctrine of divine omniscience and under that, the theory of middle knowledge. Our culture has trivialized infinity in science fiction and even children’s entertainment (“to infinity and beyond!”) but God’s infinity is basic to the Christian doctrine of God. It is always in the list of divine attributes we affirm in our confessions. By it we are thinking about the perfection of God in his being and attributes. Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just;  A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He” (NASB). God is also omniscient. He knows everything. There are no surprises to God. He is not becoming. He is not gaining (or losing) knowledge. We distinguish two aspects in his knowledge, natural and free. The Jesuits (and some evangelicals following them in the modern period) proposed in the early 17th century a third category: middle knowledge. In this episode I will explain what this is and why it is a serious mistake.

Congratulations to Daniel Nealon, Assistant Pastor of  Deer Creek Church (PCA) in Arvada, CO (in the Denver metro). Heidelblog readers voted his the best question in last week’s episode. So his copy of Always Reformed will be going in the mail shortly. Thanks for listening and for calling in Daniel.

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One comment

  1. Very much appreciated this episode. If I might recommend some supplementary reading to your listeners that explores this topic as well and in what seems to be full agreement with yourself (and from a Westminster PhD grad, no less!) I would recommend _The Wonderful Decree_ by Travis Campbell. Very accessible reading for the lay person, but still with a 20 page bibliography and extensive footnotes for those who wish to dig a bit deeper. He also identifies one of the problems of Molinism as being an issue of creator/creature distinction and the problem of the creature driving the creator rather than the other way around.

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