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God is the necessary being who brought the set of all emergent beings into existence. This entails His being attributed with all necessary qualities. This article is dedicated to identifying some of those qualities.

Power

We proved the existence of God by appealing to the contingency of emergent beings. However, the mere existence of God could not have been a cause for the existence of those emergent beings. This is because the existence of God is without beginning. So if His existence were the cause for the existence of emergent beings, then those emergent beings would have also been without beginning^[1]. Since that is impossible, it must be the case that God is attributed with a quality by virtue of which He can create those beings. This quality is what we call “Power”.

Power: a necessary quality entailing that the attributed being be able to create anything that can be created.

The existence of this quality is necessary, because its existence cannot be contingent. For if this quality were contingent, then this would make it emergent. And that would be change on the part of God^[2], which is impossible given His immutability.

Given His Power, God can bring into existence anything that can be brought into existence. This is true, because the alternative entails the specification of God’s Power^[3]. And whatever is specified, exists contingently, whereas the existence of God’s Power is necessary.

Given the above, God’s Power pertains to all possible essences. This is because God can create anything that can be brought into existence, and any possible essence can be brought into existence.

Will

Despite God’s ability to create any possible essence, not all possible essences actually exist^[4]. Which means that God must be attributed with a quality by virtue of which He can specify which possible essences to create. This quality is what we call “Will”.

Will: a necessary quality entailing that the attributed being be able to specify existence for that which existence can be specified for.

The existence of the Will is necessary, because God is immutable.

Given His Will, God can specify anything that can be specified. This is true, because the existence of the Will is necessary, and not contingent.

Given the above, God’s Will pertains to all possible essences. Since He can specify anything that can be specified, and existence can be specified for any possible essence.

Knowledge 

Given the existence of the Divine Will, God must be able to distinguish the specifications that are chosen from their alternatives. In other words, a being with the ability to make volitional choices must know what those choices are in order to select one of them. The quality by virtue of which such possibilities are made known to God, is called “Knowledge”.

Knowledge: a necessary quality entailing the attributed being’s knowing of all that which can be known.

The existence of Knowledge is necessary, because God is immutable.

Given His Knowledge, God knows all that which can be known. This is true, because the existence of Knowledge is necessary, and not contingent.

Given the above, God’s Knowledge pertains to all essences- whether necessary, impossible, or possible. This is because God’s Knowledge pertains to everything that can be known, and essences belonging to all categories of rational judgement are knowable.

Life

The condition for knowledge is called “Life”, such that it becomes impossible for God to know anything unless He is attributed with this Life. And since God is attributed with Knowledge, He is therefore necessarily attributed with Life.

Life: a necessary quality entailing the satisfaction of the condition for knowledge, for the attributed being.

The existence of Life is necessary, because God is immutable.

Other Attributes

If it is not impossible for God to be attributed with some quality, then He is necessarily attributed with this quality. This is because the existence of qualities for God is either necessary, impossible, or possible. God cannot be attributed with possible qualities, because their existence is contingent, and He is immutable. Thus, if the existence of a quality is not impossible for God, it must be the case that God is attributed with it.

Amongst those qualities that are not impossible for God, are qualities called “Seeing”, “Hearing”, and “Speech”.

Seeing: a necessary quality entailing awareness of everything that can be seen, for the attributed being.

Hearing: a necessary quality entailing awareness of everything that can be heard, for the attributed being.

Speech: a necessary quality entailing the signifying of what is known to the attributed being.

And since those qualities are not impossible for God^[5], they must be necessary for Him. Therefore, God is necessarily attributed with Seeing, Hearing, and Speech.

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[1] The effect of a cause exists as long as the cause exists. So if the cause were beginningless, the effect would have also been beginningless. And it is impossible for emergent beings to be beginningless, since beginninglessness contradicts emergence.

[2] If God’s Power were emergent, then this would mean that God was first in a state of lacking Power, before transitioning into a state of being attributed with Power.

[3] If God’s Power were unable to create anything that can be created, then this would mean that it is specified to only be able to bring some of those essences into existence, but not others.

[4] Just because a possible essence can exist, doesn’t mean it actually does. For there are possible existences that could have existed, even though they don’t.

For example: it is possible for a moving body to have been at rest instead of in motion, despite rest not existing for this body.

[5] They are not impossible because they do not necessitate contingency.