What is God?

Of what is the Divine Nature of God comprised? God is not made of any kind of physical or bodily substance. God is not made of matter, or atoms, or molecules. Neither is God made of any kind of energy or light. Matter and energy are interchangeable, so if God is not matter, then He cannot be energy. Matter and energy are created things, but God is the only uncreated thing. Matter and energy are finite and limited and imperfect, but God is infinite and unlimited and perfect. God is not made of matter or energy.

God is not made of the same substance as a soul or an Angel, nor is He made of any kind of spiritual substance whatsoever. For souls and Angels are created things, but God is uncreated. Also, spiritual substances, like material substances, are finite and limited and imperfect, whereas God is infinite and unlimited and perfect. The soul is confined to the body during life. Angels can be confined to particular tasks, or prevented from exercising certain abilities. God cannot be made of spiritual substance, for then He would be finite and limited and able to be confined.

God is not made of anything even similar to matter or energy or spiritual substance. For although Creation is like God, God is not like Creation. God is unique, and He is separate from, and far above, all Creation.

God Is One

Saint Augustine said: “God is truly and absolutely simple.” [De Trin. iv, 6, 7] Saint Aquinas agreed and added: “The absolute simplicity of God may be shown in many ways.” [Summa, I, Q. 3, A. 7] And St. Aquinas further stated: “in every composite there must be potentiality and actuality; but this does not apply to God….” [Ibidem] In other words, God does not have any unrealized potential, nor any potentiality at all. All that He is, and all that He does, is entirely actual. In God, there is and can be no potentiality. There is no unused, or not yet attained, ability or quality. Nothing in God is unexpressed.

God is entirely One. God is not divided into parts. God is not divided into separate qualities, such as love, mercy, justice, etc. God is not divided into the qualities that God possesses versus the use of those qualities by God. God is not divided into who God is and what God does. God-is-good and God-does-good are absolutely the same in God. In God, being and doing are exactly the same, for God is One. All that God is and all that God does is One. The Divine Nature of God is entirely absolutely One.

God is not a thing which acts at some times and refrains from acting at other times. For then God would be divided into the times when He acts and the times when He only has the potential for acting. Neither is God a thing which acts continually. For then God would still be divided by time, according to each separate moment of acting, with a potential for continuing to act. God must be Eternal, beyond all Time, in order to be entirely One and to be entirely actual, with no potentiality.

But even if God were a thing which acts beyond all Time, He would still be divided between the thing that He is and the acts of that thing. For even if a thing were to act beyond Time, there would still be a division into the thing itself versus the acts of that thing. If God were a thing which acts, He would be divided between substance (what a thing is) and act (what a thing does). And then God would not be truly and absolutely One. If God were a thing which acts, His Nature would have to be made of some type of substance, capable of acting, making Him finite and limited. But God is infinite and unlimited and absolutely simple.

Furthermore, if God were a thing which acts, then His acts and the qualities of those acts would be distinct from His Nature. Thus God would not be Love itself, but He would only be a thing which acts with the quality of love. Such a condition would reduce the love and mercy and justice of God to mere descriptions of the quality of His acts, and not of His very Nature. A thing which acts with love is less than One who is Love by His very Nature. And God cannot be less. Therefore, God is not a thing which acts.

In truth, God is Love, and not merely a thing which acts with love. Love is not merely a description of God’s acts or qualities. God is not merely loving. God is Love. Human persons are loving as a quality; they exercise love from time to time, or perhaps not. But God is Love itself. He is also Mercy itself. And God is Justice and Truth and Existence and Will and Knowledge and more. And yet God is One.

Everything that God Is/Does is One

All that God is, and all that God does, is One Divine Eternal Act. [Summa, I, Q. 1-26] Love, mercy, justice, and every other truth about God are all One in God. And God does not possess these as qualities or attributes. God does not possesses love or mercy or justice or knowledge. God is love, mercy, justice, knowledge, etc. And these words, when applied to God, are merely different descriptions of the very same Act that is God himself.

In God, being is doing and doing is being. God is love because the Act that is God is properly described as Love itself. And the Act of Love that is God is Eternal. God does not possess any unused potential to love, nor any unused potential at all. If a human being stops loving, that human being does not stop existing. But if God stopped loving, then God would stop existing. Existence and Love and Mercy and Justice and Knowledge and Will (and all else that can truly be said about God) is One in God. Existence and Love are the very same One Divine Act that is God. Love, mercy, justice, patience, knowledge, will, power, eternity, etc. are all the very same Divine timeless single Act of being and doing, which is God himself and nothing else. God is nothing other than that one Act, and that Act is nothing other than God.

God does not merely exist. God is Existence. Human beings have existence as a quality, as do all created things; they exist because they were created. But God is uncreated. God has always existed. Therefore, God does not have existence as a quality. God is Existence, just as God is Love and Mercy and all other truths about God. God has always existed because God is Existence. God is loving and merciful and just because God is Love and Mercy and Justice. God cannot lie because God is Truth. God exists because He is Existence itself.

It is true that God is Love. But God is also Mercy, and Justice, and Truth, and Eternity. Yet God cannot be divided. God is One. Therefore, in God, Love and Mercy and Justice and Truth and Existence and Eternity and Knowledge and Power and Will (etc.) are all One. In God, Love is exactly the same as Mercy, is exactly the same as Justice, is exactly the same as Truth, is exactly the same as Existence, is exactly the same as Knowledge, is exactly the same as Power, is exactly the same as Will (etc.). All that truly describes God is not a description of His qualities, but of His very Nature. And all these truths are One in God.

The above text is an excerpt from my booklet: God is One Divine Eternal Act

See also: The Three Persons of the Trinity are consubstantial

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and
translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.