Theology Proper

Theology proper is the study of God in himself — his being, persons, and perfections. Historic Christian orthodoxy confesses one God eternally existing in three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), each fully God, yet distinct in their personal relations. This is the catholic confession of Nicaea (AD 325) and Chalcedon (AD 451), inherited by the Reformers and codified in the Westminster Confession (chapter 2) and the Belgic Confession (articles 1–11).

God's attributes are not parts of God but simply who God is: he is aseitic (independent), simple, immutable, impassible, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, holy, just, good, wise, and merciful. Reformed theology resists modern projects that trade the classical attributes for social-Trinitarian or passible revisions — the God of Scripture is the God who is without parts, without passions, and without becoming.

These questions treat the Trinity, divine sovereignty and human responsibility, providence, the image of God in man, and the major attributes — holiness, love, wisdom, omniscience, immutability. These doctrines are the grammar of all other theology: everything else we confess rests on what we confess about God.