Augustine's error - 003
God ineffable?
Augustine speaks about God being unspeakable, but he has created a God of his own imagination. If it were impossible to speak of God, then it would not be proper for him to command us to do so.
- 1Ch 16:24 Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations.
- Ps 96:3 Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.
- Ps 145:6 And [men] shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
- Isa 66:19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, [to] Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, [to] Tubal, and Javan, [to] the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
The very purpose of Christ was to make God known:
- Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
- Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
God a dead stone
Augustine philosophically declared God to be unchangeable. There is grave danger in declaring a doctrine then holding God to your declaration. Did God intend to say that he was effectively dead because he is unchangeable? When Christ became incarnate, wasn't that a change? Did he say it was impossible for the incarnation because he was unchangeable? Of course not! When Jesus moved from Galilee to Jerusalem did he change position? Did he cease to be God because he moved from place to place? Did he cease to be God because he grew from a baby into a man? Of course not.
Could God learn something?
- Heb 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
Could God forget something?
- Heb 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Since the heaven of heavens cannot contain God, that is, nothing is larger than God. Where did God create the universe? He could not create it outside of himself, since there is nothing outside of God. All things exist "in him". He must have made room for us inside of himself. Is that not a change?
Augustine's unchangeable God is more of a slave to predestination than we are. He just exists in a stagnant eternal reality. Augustine's God is dead.
Augustine may not have intended to foist such a false God upon Christendom, and there is room to interpret his writings to limit his intention to speak only of God's unchangeable wisdom. However, his philosophy has been used to limit God's sovereignty to unimaginable extremes.
The God of the Bible changes in the ways that he chooses to change. He declared that his moral intent and his will does not change.
- Mal 3:5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in [his] wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger [from his right], and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
- Mal 3:6 For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Augustine's wild philosophical/doctrinal imagination does not obligate God. God may know or cease to know what he chooses. He has only revealed that his character does not change.
God's need
Augustine makes the point that God is fully satisfied in himself and has no need, and therefor no passion, or desire. The Alef tells us that God created when no one was there to hear or see him do it. From that we can discern that he created for his own purposes and his own pleasure. Augustine's God cannot have a reason to create or his Greek philosophy would infer that he was incomplete before creation. His inferences are illegitimate, since he is both self-sufficient and created the universe for his own purposes and pleasure.
The Greek rule of non-contradiction is a fallacy. It presumes that by man's reason we can limit what God can do. But we already accept that he has done many contradictory things. The Trinity, the incarnation, the king who would come from a cursed line through a virgin birth, the Only Begotten Son who is the Unbegotten Only Son; these are all contradictions that shame us when we attempt to limit God by Greek philosophy.
