Attributes of God

The lecture explains God’s attributes and distinguishes between two kinds of attributes: attributes unique to God alone that no one shares (such as eternality, creation, power, presence everywhere, the examination of hearts, the unlimitedness and complete knowledge), and attributes shared between God and creation but in a different manner (such as wisdom, love, forgiveness, and beauty), so that human attributes are relative and limited while God’s attributes are absolute and unlimited.

Detail of attributes unique to God

• Eternality: God has no beginning, and saying that a relation or matter is “eternal” is fitting only for God alone.

• Creation and power: Creation meaning bringing into being from non-existence is exclusive to God; what humans make are crafts and techniques but they do not create from non-existence.

• Presence and knowledge and eternality-in-time (sermadiyya): God is present everywhere and knows everything — the secrets, the intentions, the future — without devices or mediators, because He is the Creator of beings and what is in them.

Attributes shared but in a different way
Humans may be wise or loving or forgiving, but God’s wisdom, love, and forgiveness differ because they are unlimited and cannot be measured by human measures. Divine knowledge encompasses all times together — past, present, and future — and this justifies God’s foreknowledge of prior choices of people and events (such as choosing Jacob and not Esau).

Spiritual/educational dimension from a Coptic Orthodox faith perspective
Understanding God’s attributes with this distinction establishes fear (reverence), humility, and reliance on God, and corrects linguistic or intellectual mistakes (such as describing human relations as eternal). It also calls us to repentance and respect before God’s greatness, and to acknowledge that our knowledge is limited and that we must trust God’s absolute wisdom in His course with humanity.

Brief conclusion
The lecture affirms God’s unique greatness in His attributes and the difference between the human self and the divine attributes, and aims to teach listeners to acknowledge God’s holiness and live with humility and trust in His wisdom and mercy.

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