Pure Actuality: Some practical applications 1

As I have been writing and thinking about the doctrine that God is pure act, that there is absolutely no potentiality in Him whatsoever; that He is the ultimate source of all actuality, of all change, of all motion, of all power, of all knowledge, of all love, of all goodness, of all being; that nothing exists at any moment without his activity, I have begun to see just a bit how transforming this notion really is. In this and some future posts, I will explore the practical implications of the doctrine of actus purus—God is pure act.

We often say things like: God is in charge, God is in control, God sustains the whole universe, in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17: 28). 

But I don’t think that we really meditate on these things and allow them to seep into our bones. If we did, we’d see that (a) all of the above comforting slogans are implications of the doctrine that God is purely actual, and (b) God is more unlike us and everything in creation than anything could possibly be. In other words, if God is purely actual, then the slogans are true, and idolatry—in every possible form—is awful because it radically distorts who God truly is.

Let’s meditate on pure actuality. 

According to the doctrine everything that is a mixture of actuality and potentiality ultimately depends for its actuality on a being that is purely actual, a being in which there is no potentiality whatsoever. Since all beings other than God have existence added to them—they could fail to exist—all beings other than God are actual because God brings them into existence, into actuality. This also implies that in God existence is not added on. He is His existence. The nature of God is to be. Nothing else that exists, exists in that way. God is the height of existence, the pinnacle of existence. He alone exists in the fullest, most complete possible way. Indeed, our very concept of existence cannot capture the sort of existence that He is. His existence is pure, it is not added to Him, it is his very nature. All things that exist, exist because he adds existence to their nature. It is not in my nature or in your nature to exist. My very existence depends on God’s existence, on his bringing into actuality my existence, right now, and right now, and right now, and …. We get the point. Or do we?

Utter a sentence. Any sentence. Say it out loud. The spoken words come into being and go out of being just as quickly. The sentence never exists as a whole. The first sound comes into being and then goes out of being just as the second sound comes into being and goes out of being just as the third sound…. I am like that. Those very sounds, that very utterance, that precise sentence depends for its existence on you and your activity. God speaks me into existence and just as quickly I fade out of existence, and He speaks me into existence and I fade out of existence, and he speaks me into existence, and I fade out…. In Him, I live, In Him, I move, In Him, I have my being. Literally. There is no escaping His presence. Beautiful words to those who love Him; Disgusting words to those who don’t.

Every molecule, atom, particle within me exists and acts at this moment because God actualizes them at this moment. I am very much like a thought of God. He is thinking about me right now; every aspect of me; every part of me; all of me is being thought of by God right now. Indeed, my very being, my very existence, is dependent upon God's thinking about me right now. God does not think foolish things. He does not think ugly things. He does not think wicked things. I am not, in my very being, a foolish thing, an ugly thing, a wicked thing. I am on His lips, at the forefront of the mind of God. Comforting words to those who know Him; Hellish words to those who don’t.

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

1 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.