Changes

At this point, we are thinking of God after he has made a plan. He has done nothing about it as yet, but be is planning to do something. God has now purposed to do something, and that "something" accordingly becomes a possibility; it becomes a potential. We are, at this point, thinking about God after he has decided to express his will; he is self-willed Deity. Potentials have come into existence and Deity has become Potential.

At this point, we are thinking of God after he has made a plan. He has done nothing about it as yet, but be is planning to do something. God has now purposed to do something, and that "something" accordingly becomes a possibility; it becomes a potential. We are, at this point, thinking about God after he has decided to express his will; he is self-willed Deity. Potentials have come into existence and Deity has become Potential.

Perhaps we can better understand Potential Deity if we make a picture of it. Suppose we go back and think of Static Deity as a circle with a dot in the center. [[Display diagram]] Now, let us squeeze the circle around the middle until we have something that looks like an hour-glass. Let the dot be in the center of one of the lobes of the hour-glass. Now, pull the two lobes of the hour-glass completely apart, and we have two circles; one of them has a dot in it. The circle-with-the-dot we will call Deity; it has moved away from the other circle because God decided to do this. The other circle never moved; it is named not-deity, or non-deity. It does not have will; it can respond, but does not start anything. When God moves away from this non-deity circle, he changes what he moves. God thus has qualified the circle-with-the-dot. At this point, we have used a word that has more than one meaning in English - the word "qualified." We should define it:

Perhaps we can better understand Potential Deity if we make a picture of it. Suppose we go back and think of Static Deity as a circle with a dot in the center. [[Display Diagram]] Now, let us squeeze the circle around the middle until we have something that looks like an hour-glass. Let the dot be in the center of one of the lobes of the hour-glass. Now, pull the two lobes of the hour-glass completely apart, and we have two circles; one of them has a dot in it. The circle-with-the-dot we will call Deity; it has moved away from the other circle because God decided to do this. The other circle never moved; it is named not-deity, or non-deity. It does not have will; it can respond, but does not start anything. When God moves away from this non-deity circle, he changes what he moves. God thus has qualified the circle-with-the-dot. At this point, we have used a word that has more than one meaning in English - the word "qualified." We should define it:

Qualified is, in part, defined (in Webster) as follows: (1) "Competent; fit." (2) "Having complied with conditions. (3) "Limited or modified in some way.  

Qualified is, in part, defined (in Webster) as follows: (1) "Competent; fit." (2) "Having complied with conditions. (3) "Limited or modified in some way.