1. God is not a being; God is Being itself.
This is the central idea of classical theism, particularly in the tradition of Thomas Aquinas.
Consider the difference:
A tree exists.
A human being exists.
A planet exists.
God is the reason anything exists at all.
The first three are things that possess existence. God, according to classical theism, is not another thing possessing existence. God is the ultimate source of existence.
This is sometimes expressed as the distinction between beings and Being itself.
2. God’s existence is not the same as ours.
When we say that a person exists, we mean that a particular individual is present in reality.
We can distinguish between what that person is (their essence) and the fact that they exist.
Classical theism argues that this distinction does not apply to God. God’s essence and existence are identical.
God doesn’t have existence. God is existence.
This is an important part of Aquinas’s philosophy.
3. God cannot be adequately described through ordinary categories.
This is connected to apophatic theology, sometimes called negative theology.
The idea is that human language and concepts are inadequate to describe God.
We can say what God is not:
God is not a physical object.
God is not limited by space.
God is not one being among other beings.
God is not dependent on anything outside himself.
But when we try to say positively what God is, we encounter the limitations of human language.
