The Bible,
Immutability and Impassibility
The only thing that counts in true
biblical theology is God’s word. Therefore, we must look at the biblical
evidence. The foundation of the Calvinistic view of predestination is
immutability. I have shown the philosophical basis of the concept of immutability.
The basis is Greek philosophy. But, what about impassibility. I have touched on
it briefly. Is God impassible – not influenced by our problems? Does God ever
change? The question is not, does God change in His character or at
God suffers! What comfort that gives me.
Our God is touched by our sufferings. God suffers because of us, with us, and for
us. For instance, in Hos 11:1-4,7-9 it says,
When
Our
wonderful God is passionate. Next, we observe Him as the loving husband, in Hos 1:2; 2:5,13; 3:1; 6:4:
The LORD said to Hosea: “Go, take yourself
a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great
harlotry by departing from the LORD.” 2:5
“For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved
shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and
my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’”
We have been greatly influenced by the
Greek philosophy that has permeated Christianity. You may think, a perfect God
can’t suffer. But, it is true. When tragedy s
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. 10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying: "I will declare Your name to My brethren;In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You." 13 And again: "I will put My trust in Him." And again: "Here am I and the children whom God has given Me." 14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. 17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
Therefore, we must
conclude that the impassibility of God is not found in the Bible. It is only
found in rationalistic thinking influenced by Greek philosophy.
Immutability is discussed more frequently
by modern theologians. It is similar to impassibility. It means unchanging.
There are some portions of Scripture which say God does not change. For
instance, Mal 3:6 says “For I am the
Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” First,
“I do not change” are the words lo shaniti. This
passage shows God’s trustworthiness. He is not going to go back on His promise
to David even though David’s people have become extremely corrupt. This is not
an absolute statement about God’s at
Psalm 89 is the most comprehensive passage that shows God’s faithfulness to David as shown in Malachi:
2
For I have said, “Mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall
establish in the very heavens. 3 I have made a covenant [unconditional] with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: 4 ‘Your seed
I will establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations.’” Selah
5 And the heavens will praise Your wonders, O Lord;
Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the saints. 20 I have found My servant David; With My holy oil I have anointed
him, 21 with whom My hand shall be established; Also My arm shall strengthen
him. 24 But My faithfulness and My
mercy shall be with him, and in My name his horn shall be exalted. 27 Also I will make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings
of the earth. 28 My mercy I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall
stand firm with him. 29 His seed also I will make to endure forever, and
his throne as the days of heaven. 30 If his sons forsake My law and do not walk
in My judgments, 31 if they break My statutes and do not keep My commandments,
32 then I will punish their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with
s
Further, in Jer 33:17,20-22, it says:
For thus says the Lord: “David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of
the house of
This should be enough to show that God made a specific, unconditional promise to David. He will not go back on His covenant with David. That’s what it means in Mal 3:6 when He said “I will not change.”
Some Scripture shows God’s anguish over
The Lord said also to me in the days of
Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding
God thought or said[2] that
In a similar
manner, God spoke of
Now let me sing to my Well-beloved a song of
my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very
fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the
choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it;
so He expected it to bring forth good grapes. But it brought forth wild grapes.
And now, O inhabitants of
God was grieved by their response to
His graciousness. He expected good fruit, but there was none. God did all He
could do with free agents. “What more could have been done to My vineyard that
I have not done in it?” They rebelled. Further, the New Testament shows us that
the Holy Spirit can be grieved (Eph
Finally, on this subject, some of God’s
actions with Hezekiah are related in 2
Kings 20:1-6. God emphatically told Hezekiah that he was going to die.
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’” Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add to your days fifteen years.’””
Hezekiah prayed, and the Lord responded. This certainly is not the impassible, immutable God of Plato, Plotinus, Augustine, and Calvin.
There are other portions of Scripture which genuinely say God does change His mind. Here are some of the most obvious ones. In Gen 6:5-7, God shows His passion and mutability. The AV stated it well:
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented[3] the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
The NIV translated it this way:
The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”[4]
Either way you translate it, the mildest translation shows God was grieved. He was sorry that He had created man. It caused the impassible God to have intense feeling. It was the cause for the immutable God to change His mind. This didn’t happen just once. It happened repeatedly.
What
does it mean when this word, nacham, repent, is used
for God’s actions? Calvinists like to call this action an anthropomorphism or
and anthropopathism, but is our God such a poor
communicator that He would continually use a figure of speech which showed He
repented, was grieved, or changed His mind, if the opposite idea was the truth?
Of course not! Our God is the greatest communicator! This Hebrew word, in any
of its translations, undermines the rationalistic idea of immutability derived
from Greek philosophy. As I had to, we must all jettison our preconceived ideas
and return to God’s word for an understanding of His nature and works.
Three more passages should lay the ideas
of immutability and impassibility to rest. Num
14:22,23,26,27 says:
“Because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, 23 they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.” 26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.”
Then, in Psalm 78:38-41 it says:
But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath; 39 For He remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again. 40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! 41 Yes, again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.
Remember, later, God expressed His passion. In Jer 15:6, God even said, “I am weary of repenting!” In these passages we not only see that God changed his mind ten times (mutability), but He was weary (passion) of repenting.[5]
God’s repentance when He changed His mind after Moses prayed in Exo 32:9-14 shows us something about God’s foreknowledge. We understand from Tit 1:2, “God, who cannot lie”[6], that God does not lie. Since He does not lie, could He have told Moses that He was going to destroy the nation when He knew He was not. No! On the other hand, if God changed His mind because Moses prayed, He did not lie. God also made many contingent promises. He even stated in 1 Sam 13:13,14 that He would have established Saul’s kingdom forever:
And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
Saul had disobeyed, and his kingdom was not established at all. Instead, in 1 Sam 16, Samuel anointed David.
Does this mean that God does not know any of the future? Of course not. God knows the future of the events He predetermines. In fact, that is what the Scriptures show us. For instance, He said in Rom 8:29,30:
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
In Isa 46:9-11, God shows us how He can declare what is going to happen in the future. He makes it happen.
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure, 11 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.”
He makes a similar statement in Eph 1:11: “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works [the][7] all things [taV pavnta] according to the counsel of His will.” The specific all things He is referring to is the body of Christ of verses 10 and 23, “that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things [taV pavnta] in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him (1:10); “which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all [taV pavnta] in all” (1:23).
This has to do with our eternal security, since “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, [to] be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (1:4,5). He chose the body of Christ to be holy and blameless before Him making it sure by His predestination. It doesn’t say He chose us as individuals to be saved. It says He chose us in Him. Because we are in Christ, we are chosen. Christ is the elect one. We become members of the body of Christ by believing. Once we believe, we are part of the predestined corporation.
My conclusion is: We are not foreknown as individuals, chosen as individuals, or predestined as individuals. According to John 1:9, everyone has been enlightened by Jesus Christ, “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” The father has drawn everyone who will listen, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me” (John 6:44,45). The Son draws everyone. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to Myself [pavnta" eJlkuvsw proV" ejmautovn]” (John 12:32). The Holy Spirit testifies of Christ. “But when the Helper comes . . . the Spirit of truth . . . He will testify of Me” (John 15:26). It is up to each person to respond to the call of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Since God did not predestinate individuals to be saved, we must be sure we take the opportunities to present the gospel of grace to everyone. We should pray for wisdom and boldness to open our mouths to present the mystery just as Paul did in Eph 6:19, “Pray . . . for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.”
[1] My modification of the New King James is based upon the Hebrew. Also confer the following translations: ASV, And I said after she had done all these things, she will return unto me; but she returned not: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Darby, And I said, after she hath done all these things, she will return unto me; but she returned not. And her sister Judah, the treacherous, saw it. NASB, And I thought, “After she has done all these things, she will return to Me”; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. NIV, I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. NRSV, And I thought, “After she has done all this she will return to me”; but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it.
[2] The Hebrew word is rm'aow:, “and I said”. Some translate it, “and I thought”.
[3] The Hebrew word is way nachem, Niphal of nacham. It was translated repent 41 out of 108 times it was used in the AV. The modern translations use the word relent to soften the idea when it refers to God. But, relent has the idea of giving way, yielding. That gives me the idea that God gives up, as in a wrestling match. That sounds too demeaning to me.
[4] My emphasis to show the translation of nacham, repent, and God’s passion.
[5] Do a search on your computer or look up repent in your Strong’s concordance. You’ll be amazed how many times God repents.
[6] oJ ajyeudhV" qeoV", Robertson, Word Pictures, “The non-lying God.”
[7] In this sentence, I added this definite article [the] in front of all things because the Greek had taV pavnta all things with a definite article. When all things has a definite article it usually is not referring to a universal all things but the all things limited by the context.