The Simplicity of God

When theologians speak of God’s simplicity, they have in mind that God’s essence is not a composite; it’s not divided. As the first article of the Augsburg Confession puts it, God is “without parts.” And as the first article of the Belgic Confession expresses it, God is “one … simple and spiritual Being.” Moses’ well-known words in Deuteronomy 6:4 have often been used to support belief in God’s simplicity. There we read:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Moses called Israel to be loyal to God and to turn away from all other gods. We know that, at times, the Israelites were tempted to total apostasy by utterly rejecting the Lord and serving the gods of other nations. But more often, the Israelites fell into syncretism and mixed the beliefs and practices of other nations and religions with their own. These other nations referred to their gods, like the Baals, Ashtaroths and other gods, in the plural because they believed that these gods were divided, as it were, among different places. They acknowledged these gods one way in one place and another way in another place.

By contrast, Moses repeatedly taught Israel that God should only be worshiped at the one place that God ordained. Unlike the gods of other nations, God could not be divided into parts between one place and another because “the Lord is one.” In this sense then, Deuteronomy 6:4 lays a foundation for the Christian doctrine of the simplicity of God, the fact that God is not divided into parts.

In the literal translation of James 2:19, James confirmed this understanding of Deuteronomy 6:4 when he said:

You believe that God is one; you do well. (ESV)

James did not write, “You believe that there is one God,” as some translations put it. He literally wrote, “You believe that God is one.” In this way, James confirmed that Deuteronomy 6:4 teaches the oneness, the unity, the simplicity of God.

The doctrine of simplicity has been disputed over the centuries. What it does not mean is that God has no personality, no movement, no dynamism, no characteristics. It doesn’t mean that he is “simple” in the sense that he’s some sort of platonic being with no attributes. What it means is that he’s, if I can put it this way, he’s one kind of being. He does not add anything outside of himself to himself. He’s not composed. He’s not a bunch of parts added together the way some theologians think. So he is, the Bible says, God is a spirit. A spirit by definition is a simple being, not composed, not complex, not polytheistic. And again, this is ultimately a very comforting doctrine to us because it means our God is pure; he is not an amalgam of things that were put into his being or that he composed. So, it’s not that he is simplistic or has no interest or intrigue or personality or love or attributes, it is that his being is not an addition of various parts. He is pure Spirit. [Dr. William Edgar]