To The Unknown God

 To the unknown God. The church speaks of this passage as if people were worshipping something they didnt know existed. But however the inscription to the unknown God has more philosophy in it than not. In the history of the church and philosophy this idea that God is unknown has meant that God can only be spoken of in the negative and not in the positive.

Someone can say what God is not but not what God is.

Paul in Acts 17:23 doesn't believe that God can only be spoken in the negatives. These people in Acts are like the Catholics, the naturalist like Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, and Hegel and a host of other naturalistic thinkers.

To say that God is not evil, is to say that He is good. Or We might say God is not finite but timeless. Some Calvinist and Catholics teach God is only in the negative statements. John Gill in his Body of Divinity says, "The attribute of God are variously distinguished by divines; some distinguish them into negative and positive, or affirmative: the negative are such as remove from him whatever is imperfect in creatures; such are infinitity, immutability, immortality, &c. which deny him to be finite, mutable, and mortal; and, indeed, it is easier to say what God is not, than what he is; the positive, or affirmative, are such as assert some perfection in God, which is in and of himself; and which in the creatures, in any measure, is from him, as wisdom, goodness, justice, holiness, &c. but the distinction is discarded by others; because in all negative attributes some positive excellency is found." - Page 34 - 35

Augustine was definitely not a Behavioralist

"And if love is a substance, it is certainly not body, but spirit; and the mind also is not body, but spirit." -Augustine, On The Trinity, 9.2.2

God's goodness means that He is unchangeable

When it comes to what is God one aspect of divinity is the goodness of God. What do we mean by goodness? Of course, by it we do not mean to say God is good according to some standard outside of Himself otherwise He wouldn't be good. What we simply mean by the goodness of God is the perfection in which there is no shadow of turning, He does not change. God simply is a spirit and in Him he is not made of parts as the compound or complexity of humans.

John Gill speaks of the goodness of God in his Body of Divinity. He says, "The goodness of God is not distinct from his essence; for then he must be compounded of that, and his essence; which is contrary to his simplicity: he is good in and of himself, and by his own essence; and not by participation of another; for if he was not good of himself, and by his own essence, but of and by another; then there would be some being, both better than him, and prior to him; and so he would not be the eternal God, nor an independent Being, since he must depend on that from whence he receives his goodness; nor would he be the most perfect being, since what communicates goodness to him must be more perfect than he: all which, to say of God, is very unbecoming. It remains, then, that he is essentially good; is so in and of himself, by his own nature and essence." Pg. 92

With this we confess along with Jerome Zanchius,

"God is essentially unchangeable in Himself. Were He otherwise, He would be confessedly imperfect, since whoever changes must change either for better or for the worse; whatever alteration any being undergoes, that being must, ipso facto, either become more excellent than it was or lose some of the excellency which it had. But neither of these can be the case with the Deity: He cannot change for the better, for that would necessarily imply that He was not perfectly good before; He cannot change for the worse, for then He could not be perfectly good after that change. Ergo, God is unchangeable." pg. 25-26, Absolute Predestination

God is actus purus

The Bible says God is Spirit (John 4:24). What this assumes is that God is not only one (Deutronomy 6:4) as in he is not complex but rather simple but it also means that God is pure act. We humans on the other hand are passive. We are acted on. We live and move and have our being in Him alone (Acts 17:28).

God's love for his Elect alone, and His hatred to the Reprobate

"Wrath and hatred are opposed to love, which are never in the heart of God towards his beloved ones: besides, this is said after the manner of men, and according to our apprehension of things." - John Gill, The Body of Divinity, Pg. 40

God never hated the elect, nor did he ever love the reprobate

Absolute Predestination and against the Free Offer

"God is unchangeable in his purposes and decrees, there is a purpose for every thing, and a time for that purpose; God has determined all that ever was, is, or shall be; all come to pass according to the counsel of his will, and all his decrees are unchangeable. . . . the purposes of God are always carried into execution, they are never frustrated; it is not in the power of men and devils to disannul them; whatever devices and counter-workings to them may be framed and formed, they are of no avail. . . . and his purposes are called counsels, because designs wisely formed by men, are with consultation, and upon mature deliberation: and such are  the decrees of God, they are made with the higher wisdom by him, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working, and so are unchangeable. . . ." - John Gill, The Body of Divinity, Pg. 38

Notice that if you read John Gill, in his Divinity, how he is so systematize every doctrine presupposes another. God's immutability presupposes his knowledge and his counsel.

God and Time

"In his nature and essence, being simple, and devoid of all composition, as has been proved: the more simple and free from mixture and composition any thing is the less subject to change. . . . and since he is eternal, there can be no change of time with him; time doth not belong to him, only to a creature, which is the measure of its duration; and began when a creature began to be, and not before; but God is before all creatures; they being made by him, and so before time; he was the same before the day was as now, and now as he was before; 'even the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever:' though he is the ancient of days, he does not become than he was millions of ages ago, nor will be millions of ages to come; his eternity is an everlasting and unchangeable now;" - John Gill, The Body of Divinity, Pg. 36-37

Time existed after creation. God is not older now than he was when he first created.

Negative and Positive statements of God's attributes

"The attributes of God are variously distinguished by divines; some distinguish them into negative and positive, or affirmative: the negative are such as remove from him whatever is imperfect in creatures; such are infinity, immutability, immortality, &c. which deny him to be finite, mutable, and mortal; and, indeed it is easier to say what God is not, than what he is: the positive, or affirmative, are such as assert some perfection in God, which is in and of himself; and which in the creatures, in any measure, is from him, as wisdom, goodness, justice, holiness, &c. but the distinction is discarded by others; because all negative attributes some positive excellency is found." -John Gill, The Body of Divinity, Pg. 34-35

For example, God is infinite which means he is timeless. Some Calvinist and Catholics teach that we can only speak of God in the negative statements. This makes no since. For one thing, if we can only speak of God in the negative only and not in any positive statements as well then how can we know him? I mean we know what he is not, but what is God as the WCF says.