Opus 2025-181: Who Defines Whom?

Anytime you read theology or commentaries you come across big words that people like to throw out.  This morning I’ve been thinking about the immutability of God and the sovereignty of God.  I could add to the list I’m sure.  I think you get the idea though.  The key point I am making is that these are words that we make up or develop in order to try and grasp truths that are beyond our comprehension.

On one side that is healthy.  We look at something we don’t understand and try to find ways to grasp it.  Perhaps it requires a different angle.  Perhaps it requires a deeper dig.  Perhaps it needs more meditation and contemplation to get closer to what the actual truth is.  This is at the root of the scientific method which is given its foundation in the character of the God of the Bible.  It also has its place in the areas of study that deal in deeper truth than science can touch.

One side of that is sick and manipulative.  There are people who like to make a big words because they can then throw around their jargon and confuse the issue.  When I was teaching, I ran into this all the time in education.  They love their jargon.  They love to make up words.  They love to take old words and put new meaning on them that no one would suspect.  They love to change the meaning without telling you.  I expect that in a discipline that is so rooted in pagan values.  I watch it dread in a discussion of the Bible and theology.

Take the idea of immutability. What it really means is unmutable.  And what that means to most people is unchanging.  There is a very real sense in which God is unchanging.  There’s also a sense in which a rock is unchanging.  The two are not the same although the Bible does refer to God as a rock.  God is unchanging in His character, which would be defined in such phrases as, “God is love”.  It does not mean that God is not capable of responding to the free will choices of human beings.

God does not change the physical laws He laid down when He created the universe.   Gravity does not go away.  If He has a need for a miracle, He’s quite capable of stepping outside those laws, but I personally believe that most miracles are worked by God emphasizing different aspects of the laws of nature, and bring you about what looks like to us a miracle.  He does change His response to human beings based upon the free will choices that we make.  I love reading about Moses talking to God and supposedly convincing Him to change his mind.  We see numerous cases of this in the Bible, where God responds differently based on different situations.

Does that mean that God is fickle?  Is God capricious?  Heaven forbid.  It means that part of God’s character is a reflection of personhood.  He is not made up of blind equations and mindless formulas.  We may not understand the nuances but rest assured that they exist.  If a theologian tells you that God is unchanging then ask yourself, “Why does the Bible have Him repenting of making man?”  

Do your own homework.  Accept the words of “scholars” as the opinions of someone who has more knowledge than you do but not necessarily more wisdom or better ethics.

homo unius libri