Omnipotent controller of all

• the biblical references to god as king express the belief that everything is subject to god's control
• most christians believe that god not only created the universe, he also sustains it
• the ethical teachings found in the bible show how god sustains human life in the spiritual as well as the physical sense
• most christians believe that god is omniscient. this creates issues both for the problem of evil and for human free will. there are three approaches to the concept of omniscience
• approach 1 to omniscience:

  god knows past, present and future absolutely and in a causative sense. this means that he controls everything that goes on in the universe, including human actions. this view is known as theological determinism
• approach 2 to omniscience:

  because god exists beyond space and time, spacio-temporal language is not appropriate in relation to him, although we have to use it because it is all we have. god simply sees and knows all things, including the free choices that humans make, but his knowledge is not causative (this was the view of aquinas)
• approach 3 to omniscience:

  according to Swinburne, god exists within time and knows all that is logically possible for god to know. this means he cannot be the cause of human future choices, because he cannot know them, though he might be able to predict them
• theological determinism

  the view that god's absolute control of everything means he causes all that happens
• spacio-temporal knowledge

  language related to space and time