What do Christians believe about the nature of God, and how do they understand the Trinity and creation?
Religious concepts: the nature of God (omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, eternal), the Trinity, creation, and beliefs about human nature, sin and salvation.
A WJEC A-Level Religious Studies study of core Christian concepts: the nature of God (omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, eternal), the doctrine of the Trinity, creation, and beliefs about human nature, sin, grace and salvation.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
Have a quick question? Jump to the Q&A page
Jump to a section
What this dot point is asking
This WJEC theme covers the core concepts of Christian belief about God and humanity. You need the attributes of God (the "omni" properties and eternity), the doctrine of the Trinity, beliefs about creation, and the Christian account of human nature, sin, grace and salvation. The themes connect tightly to the Philosophy of Religion paper (the coherence of God, the problem of evil) and to the Religion and Ethics paper (free will). AO1 wants precise doctrinal knowledge; AO2 wants evaluation of how coherent and credible these concepts are.
The answer
The nature of God
These attributes are drawn from scripture and refined by theologians. Omnipotence is usually qualified as the power to do all that is logically possible (so the "paradox of the stone" is not a real limit). Eternity is understood either as timelessness (Boethius, Aquinas: God sees all time "at once") or as everlastingness (God endures through all time). The attributes are not free of tension: holding omnipotence and omnibenevolence together generates the problem of evil.
The Trinity
The doctrine arose from Christian reflection on the New Testament: God is addressed as Father, Jesus is confessed as divine Son, and the Spirit is experienced as God present. The Church defined the boundaries against Arianism (which made the Son a created being) and modalism (which made the persons mere appearances). The "filioque" clause (the Spirit proceeding "from the Father and the Son") later divided the Western and Eastern churches.
Creation
Christians believe God created the universe freely and out of nothing ("creatio ex nihilo"), so creation depends entirely on God and is distinct from him. Genesis 1 to 2 is the key text. Literalists read it as a factual account; conservatives and liberals read the "days" symbolically and see no necessary conflict with science, regarding Genesis as teaching that God is the purposeful source of all things rather than offering a scientific timetable.
Human nature, sin and salvation
Traditions differ over how salvation is received: Protestants stress justification by faith alone ("sola fide"), while Catholics speak of grace working through faith, the sacraments and a life of charity. This connects directly to the "religious life" theme on faith and works.
Examples in context
Model paragraph (the coherence of the divine attributes). The Christian concept of God is internally rich but raises genuine questions of coherence. Omniscience, if it includes foreknowledge of all human choices, appears to threaten human free will, since what God already knows must come about, which would undermine the moral responsibility on which salvation depends. Defenders reply with the Boethian move that God is timeless and so does not "fore"-know but sees all time at once, knowing free choices without causing them. Similarly, omnipotence combined with omnibenevolence faces the problem of evil, met by theodicies that argue an all-loving God may permit evil for the goods of freedom or soul-making. Whether these defences succeed is contested, but the doctrine is not obviously incoherent once the attributes are carefully defined, which is why a strong evaluation engages the refined versions rather than crude caricatures.
Try this
Q1. List four attributes Christians ascribe to God. [4 marks]
- Cue. Omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent and eternal (also personal, transcendent, immanent).
Q2. What does "creatio ex nihilo" mean? [2 marks]
- Cue. That God created the universe out of nothing, so creation depends entirely on God and is distinct from him.
Q3. Evaluate the view that the doctrine of the Trinity is impossible to understand. [20 marks]
- What the marker wants. A balanced argument weighing the doctrine's apparent paradox against its careful definition and biblical roots, with a reasoned judgement on whether "mystery" is a strength or a weakness.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of WJEC exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
WJEC sample20 marksExamine the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.Show worked answer →
An AO1 question testing accurate, detailed understanding of a difficult doctrine.
Define the doctrine: God is one being (one substance, "ousia") in three persons ("hypostases"), Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are co-equal and co-eternal, not three gods and not three modes of one person.
Ground it in scripture and creed: the baptism of Jesus, the "great commission" (Matthew 28), and the Nicene Creed, which affirms the Son as "of one being with the Father" and the Spirit as "the Lord, the giver of life".
Show understanding of the boundaries: the Church rejected modalism (the persons as mere appearances) and Arianism (the Son as a created being), so precision matters.
Breadth comes from noting the filioque dispute between Western and Eastern churches over whether the Spirit proceeds from the Father "and the Son".
WJEC sample20 marks"The idea of an all-powerful and all-loving God is incoherent." Evaluate this view.Show worked answer →
An AO2 question requiring a reasoned argument and judgement, naturally linking to the problem of evil.
For incoherence: the existence of evil and suffering seems to conflict with omnipotence and omnibenevolence together (the Epicurean and Mackie inconsistent-triad challenge); and omnipotence raises the paradox of the stone.
Against: classical theism qualifies omnipotence as the power to do all that is logically possible, not the self-contradictory, dissolving the paradox; and free-will and soul-making theodicies argue that an all-loving God may permit evil for greater goods.
A judgement might hold that the concept is defensible once omnipotence is properly defined and a theodicy is accepted, though critics reply the theodicies do not cover all suffering.
Top answers weigh the strongest forms of both sides and conclude with reasons.
Related dot points
- Religious figures and sacred texts: the person and significance of Jesus (teacher, Son of God, liberator), and the Bible as a source of wisdom and authority, including questions of interpretation.
A WJEC A-Level Religious Studies study of Christian figures and sacred texts: the person and significance of Jesus as teacher, Son of God and liberator, and the Bible as a source of wisdom and authority, including literalist, conservative and liberal approaches to interpretation.
- Religious life: faith and works in salvation, key moral principles (love, the commandments, the example of Jesus), discipleship, vocation, and the role of the Christian community.
A WJEC A-Level Religious Studies study of Christian religious life: the relationship between faith and works in salvation, key moral principles (agape love, the commandments, the example of Jesus), discipleship and vocation, and the role of the Christian community.
- Significant social and historical developments in religious thought: liberation theology (Gutierrez) and its preferential option for the poor, and feminist theology (Daly, Ruether) and its challenge to patriarchy.
A WJEC A-Level Religious Studies study of significant developments in Christian thought: liberation theology (Gutierrez, the preferential option for the poor, praxis) and feminist theology (Daly, Ruether), their challenge to injustice and patriarchy, and Christian responses to them.
- The problem of evil: the logical and evidential problems, the inconsistent triad (Epicurus, Mackie), and the Augustinian and Irenaean (Hick) theodicies.
A WJEC A-Level Religious Studies study of the problem of evil: the distinction of moral and natural evil, the logical problem (the inconsistent triad of Epicurus and Mackie) and the evidential problem, and the Augustinian and Irenaean (Hick's soul-making) theodicies.
- Religious responses to challenges: secularisation and the decline of religious influence, religious pluralism (exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism), and the relationship between Christianity and science.
A WJEC A-Level Religious Studies study of Christian responses to challenges: secularisation and the decline of religious influence, religious pluralism (exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism), and the relationship between Christianity and science.
Sources & how we know this
- WJEC GCE AS/A level Religious Studies specification — WJEC (2016)