# Do we confess God is omnibenevolent?



## Unoriginalname (Dec 23, 2011)

I generally steer away from apologetic discussions for many reasons but I always hear atheists bring up theodicies in order to try and stump people. But one thing that always sat funny with me is the theodicy usually includes the notion that the Lord is omnibenevolent. This may sound silly but is that a true attribute of the Lord?


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## athanatos (Dec 23, 2011)

Depends on what we mean by it. That God has full intentions of doing what we think is good or maximally good? _Nope._


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## Pergamum (Dec 23, 2011)

God being all-good intrinsically does not mean He must treat all evil men good externally according to the expectations of those same evil men.


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## Unoriginalname (Dec 23, 2011)

My hang up may just be that most of my interaction with philosophy has been ethics particularly research and medical ethics (nursing nonsense) so when I hear the term benevolence I think of an active good not an constitutive good, which I realize may not be a fair distinction


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## Contra_Mundum (Dec 23, 2011)

The Bible says, "God _IS_ love."

That has made some people think that God must love everyone, and all exactly the same.

It has made some people think that Christians claim God treats people or ought to treat people only in ways they think is pleasurable.
Or he would like to treat them so, except he won't violate their precious free-will...

So the term "omnibenevolent" isn't really that good a term.
It was coined by folks who want to have such an "attribute" lie next to the traditional terms: omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient.

I'd stay away from it. There's little room for "wrath" otherwise.


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Dec 23, 2011)

In my opinion, omni-benevolent is the watchword of process theology and open theism. As Rev. Buchanan indicated it is attempted to be used along with the traditional omni's, but even these are re-defined by the open theist to align with their omni-benevolent God, who, because "he loves us so much" refuses to "micro-manage" us and somehow self-limits his omniscience by giving us libertarian free will. In so doing, God cannot even genuinely know the future because he does not know what his autonomous creatures will do until they do it. 

In the end, the God of open theism is the _Survivor® God_, Outwitting, Outlasting, and Outplaying, his autonomous creatures. Sigh.

More on this pernicious movement (a freely downloadable book):
http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_bbb/books_bbb.pdf

AMR


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## August (Dec 25, 2011)

Contra_Mundum said:


> So the term "omnibenevolent" isn't really that good a term.



It isn't, and it has not even been around for a long time. Atheists love using the term when invoking the Epicurean objection though.


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## bookslover (Dec 26, 2011)

In the sense that He exercises common grace, which includes even unbelievers, then yes, He is, in that sense, omni-benevolent.


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## py3ak (Dec 26, 2011)

Omniscient=knowing all things
Omnipotent=having all power
Omnipresent=entirely and simultaneously everywhere
Omnibenevolent = ?? 
If you break it down into its constituent parts it means "All good willing". I see two options there:
1. That God wills good to all. 
2. That God wills all good, which in turn could be taken to mean:
A. That there is no good but what God wills (true)
B. That God wills all possible good (false: the Reformed deny that God is omnivolent; there are things he could will that he doesn't)

Given the context, I suppose it is taken as meaning one; but that is an equivocation on "omni" with the analogy of the others. In the other cases, the attribute refers to what God is, whereas in meaning one it refers to what he does. 

So it's not a particularly astute neologism.


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