The Four Omnis in God's Attributes Theology
The "four omnis" refer to a traditional grouping of divine attributes: omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnibenevolence. These attributes describe God's unlimited presence, power, knowledge, and goodness, respectively. Christian theology, as a systematic study of biblical facts, includes the being and attributes of God as a primary department [4, 7, 10].
Omnipresence signifies that God is present everywhere at all times. This attribute is often understood in relation to God's immanence, His active involvement in creation, as well as His transcendence, His existence apart from creation.
Omnipotence means God is all-powerful, capable of doing anything consistent with His nature. Theophilus of Antioch, an early Church Father, described God as "Lord, because He rules over the universe" [5]. This power is not arbitrary but is always exercised in accordance with His other attributes. Charles Hodge, in his Systematic Theology, discusses how the divine nature's attributes, such as omnipotence, are not transferred to Christ's human nature in a way that would make the human nature itself omnipotent [3, 9].
Omniscience indicates that God is all-knowing, possessing perfect knowledge of all things, past, present, and future. This includes not only facts but also all possibilities.
Omnibenevolence, or perfect goodness, means God is entirely good and the source of all goodness. The ceaseless praise of God in Revelation 4:8, "Holy, holy, holy," emphasizes His ultimate holiness, which is intrinsically linked to His goodness [1]. This triple repetition signifies the highest possible affirmation of His character [1].
These attributes are considered essential aspects of God's nature, not merely qualities He possesses. John Gill, commenting on 1 Timothy 1:17, notes that attributes like eternity, incorruptibleness, and invisibility belong to the one and only God, encompassing the Father, Son, and Spirit [2]. The Eastern Orthodox tradition, as articulated by John of Damascus, emphasizes that while Christ's human nature is worshipped, it is not worshipped as mere flesh but as flesh united with divinity, within the one person of God the Word, thus not doing homage to that which is created [6]. This highlights the distinction between the divine attributes and created nature. These divine attributes are understood to be numerically the same in the persons of the Godhead, unlike the essence common to all humanity, which is only specifically the same [8].
Sources
- Revelation (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Revelation 4:8: 4:8 day and night: The four beings ceaselessly praised God’s basic characteristics: his holiness, his power (the Almighty), and his eternity (see study note on 1:4). • Holy, holy, holy comes from Isa 6:3 and is the highest worship affirmation in Scripture. To double something makes it emphatic; to triple it makes it ultimate.”
- 1 Timothy (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on 1 Timothy 1:17: Now unto the King eternal,.... This doxology, or ascription of glory to God, on account of the grace bestowed upon the apostle, may be considered, either as referring to all the three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, who are the one and only God; and to whom all the attributes of wisdom, power, eternity, immortality, or incorruptibleness, and invisibility, belong; and who are jointly concerned in the grace bestowed upon any of the sons of men. Or else to God the Father, in agreement with a parallel place in Rom 16:27 who is the only true God, in opposition ”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 83: urged by Lutherans as well as others against the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation that it supposes the accidents, or attributes of the bread and wine in the Eucharist, to continue when their substance no longer exists. In like manner, according to the Lutheran doctrine, the attributes of the divine nature or essence are transferred to another essence. If there be no such transfer or communication, then the human nature of Christ is no more omniscient or almighty, than the worker of a miracle is omnipotent. If the divine nature only e”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, section 14: § 4. Christian Theology . As science, concerned with the facts of nature, has its several departments, as Mathematics, Chemistry, Astronomy, etc., so Theology 32 having the facts of Scripture for its subject, has its distinct and natural departments. First — Theology Proper, Which includes all the Bible teaches of the being and attributes of God; of the threefold personality of the Godhead, or, that the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct persons, the same in substance and equal in power and glory; the relation of God to the world, or, h”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 2: Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria — CHAP. IV.--ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.: And He is without beginning, because He is unbegotten; and He is unchangeable, because He is immortal. And he is called God [<greek>Qeos</greek>] on account of His having placed [<greek>teqeikenai</greek>] all things on security afforded by Himself; and on account of [<greek>qeein</greek>], for <greek>qeein</greek> means running, and moving, and being active, and nourishing, and foreseeing, and governing, and making all things alive. But he is Lord, because He rules over the universe; Fat”
- CCEL (Eastern Orthodox) “John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, section 54: man: and Him we worship along with the Father and the Spirit, with one obeisance, adoring even His immaculate flesh and not holding that the flesh is not meet for worship: for in fact it is worshipped in the one subsistence of the Word, which indeed became subsistence for it. But in this we do not do homage to that which is created. For we worship Him, not as mere flesh, but as flesh united with divinity, and because His two natures are brought under the one person and one subsistence of God the Word. I fear to touch coal”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, section 1: Faith.—Our Knowledge not regulative 355 General Objections to Hamilton's Theory 359 Founded on a Wrong Definition of the Absolute and Infinite; on a Wrong Definition of knowledge.—Necessity of a Supernatural Revelation 364 CHAPTER V. THE NATURE AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. § 1. Definitions of God 366 § 2. Divine Attributes 368 Relation of the Attributes to the Essence of God.—The Divine Attributes do not differ merely in our Conceptions 371 The Divine Attributes cannot be resolved into mere Causality.—They differ virtualiter 373 § 3. Classificat”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 10: numerically the same in all men, then all men are one man in the same sense that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one God. This is a reductio ad absurdum . It is clearly taught in Scripture and universally believed in the Church that the persons of the Trinity are one God in an infinitely higher sense than that in which all men are one man. The precise difference is, that the essence common to the persons of the Godhead is numerically the same 59 whereas the essence common to all men is only specifically the same, i.e. , of the same kind, ”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 130: to the former view, Christ, as man, was from the moment of his conception, everywhere present, omnipotent, and omniscient, and actually in his human nature governed the universe. The only difference, therefore, between the state of humiliation and that of exaltation, concerns the mode in which this universal dominion was exercised. While on earth it was in a way not to be apparent and recognized; whereas after his ascension, it was open and avowed. According to the opposite view both these points were denied. That is, while it was admitt”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, section 11: the mechanism of the heavens according to his own good pleasure. As the facts of astronomy arrange themselves in a certain order, and will admit of no other, so it is with the facts of theology. Theology, therefore, is the exhibition of the facts of Scripture in their proper order and relation, with the principles or general truths involved in the facts themselves, and which pervade and harmonize the whole. It follows, also, from this view of the subject, that as the Bible contains one class of facts or truths which are not elsewhere reve”