B. CLASSIFICATIONS OF THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES

To facilitate the study of the divine attributes, we may classify them in various ways. Among Lutheran theologians the following two categorizations have principally been used: 1) quiescent and operative attributes; 2) negative and positive attributes. 65

Those who have employed the first classification define as quiescent those attributes in which no effect upon, and no relation to, the world is implied, but which are conceived as remaining within the Godhead and being apart from the world, such as eternity, simplicity, infinity. They are called, more or less appropriately, attributa, immanentia, quiescentia, . The words “absolute” and “remote” may also be employed. “Operative attributes” is the term for all those divine attributes which denote an operation on, or a relation to, this world, such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, justice, mercy. These attributes are also known as attributa relativa, operativa, transeuntia, .66

Those who classify the divine attributes as negative and positive designate as negative such attributes as unity, simplicity, immutability, infinity, immensity, eternity; in other words, the imperfections of creatures cannot be ascribed to God. All those attributes which are found in man, but which are ascribed to God in a higher degree or in an absolute sense are known as positive attributes, such as life, knowledge, wisdom, holiness, righteousness, truth, power, love, goodness, grace, mercy.67

There is a great diversity among modern theologians in classifying the divine attributes. But they are agreed that the divisions of the old dogmaticians are in the pattern of Scholastic dialectics, lack religious value, and are contrary to the findings of modern psychology and religious experience. This judgment need not surprise us, for modern theology is in disagreement with the theological method of the old theologians who describe the divine attributes on the basis of, and according to, Scripture. Modern theologians believe that God can be discerned only in a “religious experience” of God in nature and history.68 Though they retain the old classification of the attributes, they have given an entirely different sense to the meaning of the terms employed. In spite of differences in the classifications the old theologians were agreed that all divine attributes ate identical with the divine essence. There can be nothing accidental or adventitious, or mutable, or amissible in God — in Deum non cadit accidens — for in God the attributes are not distinct from the essence. Life, wisdom, grace, are God’s very substance and cannot undergo change, as in man.69 Modern kenotics, such as Thomasius, teach amissible attributes. They say that the relative attributes, such as omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, are not essential, but accidental, properties of God and can therefore be separated from God. But they maintain this view in the interest of their false Christology, claiming that only by divesting Himself completely of omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, could the Son of God become man.70

No classification of the divine attributes is fully adequate. It is, therefore, of no theological consequence which classification is adopted, so long as the various attributes are defined according to Scripture alone. We agree with Hoenecke (Dogmatik II, 72): “It may sound unscientific to say no more of this division [the division into immanent and transitive attributes] than that it seems to be more appropriate than the others. The fact is that none of the commonly accepted divisions are fully adequate and entirely unobjectionable.”71

We shall follow the division into negative and positive attributes, though we have no special preference for this classification. But in this division, because it is based essentially on a comparison of God and His creatures, we have occasion to ascend from the level of human imperfection to the divine perfection, or, better still, to adore the divine perfection, which transcends all human comprehension. In making this comparison (between human and divine attributes) we dare never go beyond Scripture nor forget the infinite chasm between God and man, for all attributes, regardless of the division, belong to God in a unique manner (modo singulari).

Before discussing the separate divine attributes we must make one more general observation. All divine attributes revealed in Scripture, such as unity, infinity, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, could only fill our hearts with terror if Scripture had not also revealed God’s free grace toward all sinful mankind for the sake of Christ’s vicarious atonement. This attribute of God’s grace is the center of the entire Scriptures, for the scope of all Scripture is Christ, the Savior of sinners, “who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Tim. 2:6). The attribute of God’s grace, which is provided through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, is also the God-intended center of all human history, for the only purpose of the world’s existence is the proclamation of God’s grace through the redemption in Christ (Matt. 24:14).