The Reformed Doctrine of God

"Over the years, I've had opportunities to teach systematic theology in a variety of settings, from seminary classrooms to university courses to Sunday school classes in the local church. But no matter where I've taught systematics, the first place I typically start is the doctrine of God. Theology, of course, studies God and His character and ways, so it's appropriate to begin with a look at His nature and attributes before examining what the Bible has to say about redemption, the church, the last things, and the other categories of systematic theology.

Whenever I've taught the doctrine of God, I've started out with two statements that have seemed to fill many of my students with no small amount of consternation. It's been my practice to tell them that on the one hand there's nothing particularly unique about the doctrine of God confessed in the Reformed tradition of Christian theology. Presbyterians, Reformed Baptists, the Dutch Reformed, and other Reformed Christians affirm the same attributes of God that Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, the Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholics all do. There's nothing radically different about our doctrine of God.

Yet, when those same students have asked me what's the most significant distinctive of Reformed theology, I've said it's our doctrine of God. Now, that does sound completely contradictory to my first statement, but I say that the Reformed doctrine of God sets us apart from other traditions for the reason that I know of no other theology that takes seriously the doctrine of God with respect to every other doctrine. In most systematic theologies, you get an affirmation of the sovereignty of God on page one of your theology text, but then once you move on to soteriology (doctrine of salvation), eschatology (doctrine of last things), and anthropology (doctrine of humanity), and so on, the author has seemingly forgotten what he said about God's sovereignty on page one."
                    -  R. C. Sproul