Opus 2023-297: Dark Thoughts: Immutable Change

I was thinking about the character of God and His attributes.  I have a whole page covered with words that describe God and His actions.

Is God restricted by these attributes?  Is God described by these attributes?  Are the words given in the Bible just a human equivalent of something divine and beyond our comprehension?

I think the answer is “Yes.”

While God in His sovereignty could change His character, part of His character is that He won’t change.  We have a fancy word for that, immutable.  The fact that God is immutable leads to confusion.  It tends to define God as a concrete existence that has no possibility of interacting with creatures like us.  That is obviously not the case.  We have examples of God changing His mind and reacting to people.  Moses argued with God.  Abraham bargained with God.  Gideon is another example.  God’s character did not change in those encounters.  He is immutable.  His stated decisions did change.  He is a free agent.

The Bible gives us a description of God.  We need to remember that God came first and the description came later.  An example of that concept is music theory.  I took a class on music theory in college and did well although I am not a musician.  One of the things I remember being explained to us was that music theory came after Beethoven, not before.  Beethoven did not learn how to do what he did by reading a book.  The book was written in analysis of what he did.  The same is true of God.

Go to the source.

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