Can God's Commonly Held Attributes Exist Simultaneously?

[ElCodeMonkey]

It is often said that God is all Loving, all Kind, all Just, all Merciful, all Good, etc, etc. I would argue that sometimes love is not kind and sometimes justice is not merciful. Sometimes mercy is not good. Can God really be 100% these things? This would indicate that a Venn diagram of all these attributes would entirely overlap. Otherwise, God can only be a percentage of these things in which case the Venn diagram would look like a typical Venn diagram where the center can be called God. But that would then limit when and how he could take action if there's no solution to be all things at once. How do we resolve this?

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 1 by ElCodeMonkey]

100% means complete, complete is not synonymous with all-encompassing.

A complete apple does not encroach an orange from being an orange. In scripture "perfection" and "Completeness" are synonyms. Complete love, is love that completely / perfectly fulfill it's function to the proper degree. When "love" encroaches on justice, it is not complete, it's in fact passed beyond its limits and becomes a distorted, perverted, damaged "incomplete" parody of the real thing. Perfect justice knows exactly when it is "complete" and when another quality "mercy" or "love" for example needs to come into play. Justice is not tempered or balanced by love, as if one is to harsh and needs to be moderated by the other, perfect justice and perfect mercy, like the Apple and the orange, complete in themselves, coexist in perfect harmony, in a perfect being.

To mix my metaphors, like the runners in a relay race, each runs 100% their section (how long each section needs to be, being determined by the circumstances, rather than a fixed course), the course wouldnt be complete if a needed section was missing but combined all runners run 100% of their section and stop when their course is complete. When all sections are run, its the complete race.

DEUTERONOMY 32:4

The Rock, perfect is his activity, For all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness who is never unjust; Righteous and upright is he.

Jehovah God is lacking no positive quality to the proper degree; If a quallity were missing or not 100% of its necessary function, he would be incomplete/imperfect. As it is JEHOVAH is the complete manifestation of all the facets of what is good and fine





JW

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NOTE All posts I write represent my personal faith based beliefs/opinions as one of Jehovah's Witnesses

[marco]

It is often said that God is all Loving, all Kind, all Just, all Merciful, all Good, etc, etc. I would argue that sometimes love is not kind and sometimes justice is not merciful. Sometimes mercy is not good. Can God really be 100% these things? This would indicate that a Venn diagram of all these attributes would entirely overlap. Otherwise, God can only be a percentage of these things in which case the Venn diagram would look like a typical Venn diagram where the center can be called God. But that would then limit when and how he could take action if there's no solution to be all things at once. How do we resolve this?

I don't see why a Venn Diagram wants to go anywhere near God. He would be the universal set and that would be the end of it. Your characteristics that carry completeness would simply show as that universal set. One infinity easily fits into another infinity. We tease ourselves when we place God in boxes. He doesn't fit.

[StuartJ]

Seeing as how "God" can be anything humans imagine "God" to be ...

And certain humans imagine their version of "God" made - and can therefore suspend - every law of the Universe and beyond ...

It's not hard to imagine that they can imagine that their god can be all things to all people simultaneously ...

Because their god is "GOD" ...

Of course.

[Guy Threepwood]

Seeing as how "God" can be anything humans imagine "God" to be ...

And certain humans imagine their version of "God" made - and can therefore suspend - every law of the Universe and beyond ...

.

That's only logical, a creator is not bound by the rules of his own creation.
What's the rationale behind the belief that he would be?

[ElCodeMonkey]

A complete apple does not encroach an orange from being an orange.

What I am saying is that Christians claim their God is a complete apple but then also say he's a complete orange. He can be a complete fruit, of course, but then he could only be all one or the other or part one and part another. And if all fruit, he can no longer be all vegetable. Fruits and vegetables are both good in their own right, but sometimes you might need one rather than another like if someone is suffering scurvy, celery is not likely to help as much as an orange. And yet we say God is all apple, all orange, all broccoli, and all celery. Or do you contend that it cannot be equated this way and that each of the God-characteristics fully encompass one another unlike in my vegetation example? Does this help get my point across?

[Guy Threepwood]

[Replying to post 6 by ElCodeMonkey]

And if all fruit, he can no longer be all vegetable

Then maybe think of him as a fruit salad.. he can bend the rules, he made them!

[ElCodeMonkey]

[Replying to post 6 by ElCodeMonkey]

And if all fruit, he can no longer be all vegetable

Then maybe think of him as a fruit salad.. he can bend the rules, he made them!

Okay, then he's not ALL anything. He's part this and part that. We're not really talking about physical objects here, we're talking characteristics that seem to be overlapping in some ways but opposed in others.

Nobody has a good argument for this?

[Guy Threepwood]

[Replying to post 8 by ElCodeMonkey]

The world, the universe, is a lot of things, a fruit salad, including our characteristics. he created them all..

[ElCodeMonkey]

[Replying to post 2 by JehovahsWitness]

Thinking about it a little more, I think I understand what you were saying. You're essentially saying, for example, that true justice would know when to yield to mercy lest it no longer be justice. Is that really plausible though? It's almost like saying true darkness would know when to yield to light. Aren't justice and mercy ultimately opposites? Mercy would somehow have to become a just thing to do. But when can mercy be equivalent to justice?