Impassibility

Ben Witherington and Roger Olson, “Roger Olson’s Arminian Theology – Part 8”

November 17, 2016 , SEA , Comment Closed

BEN: On p. 89 you talk about the idea of nominalistic voluntarism, which is to say the idea that God is free to do anything he chooses to do, without being constrained or limited by…

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God is in Control? Clarification on a Common Phrase

November 9, 2016 , Casey L. Donnelly , Comment Closed

I drove six hours home to Oklahoma a few days before my grandmother’s funeral. Her fight against cancer was over. I remember when my dad called me with the news. It did not come as…

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Ben Witherington and Keith Stanglin, Jacob Arminius, Theologian of Grace – Part Fourteen

August 5, 2016 , SEA , Comment Closed

BEN: As we conclude this discussion, let’s talk about the practical implications of Arminius’ thought for today. It seems clear to me that Arminius, and Wesley as well, would have rejected recent ideas that have…

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God Is Not Impassive

March 8, 2016 , drwayman , Comment Closed

It is sometimes said of God, that, being infinite and perfect, he is beyond the reach of emotionality; in other words, is an “impassive” existence, a being without feeling. The truth seems to us to…

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Robert B. Chisholm Jr., “Does God ‘Change His Mind’?”

August 24, 2015 , SEA , Comment Closed

Please click on the link to view, Robert B. Chisholm Jr., “Does God ‘Change His Mind’?”, Bibliotheca Sacra 152 (October-December 1995) 387-99.

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Humanity Needs a Personal God

May 11, 2015 , drwayman , Comment Closed

Humanity demands a [personal] God who can thus be recognized and worshiped. The instinct of reverence and homage, which evidently pervades the human heart, so much so that it has found its place as an…

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Roger Olson, “Does God Change?”

March 1, 2014 , SEA , Comment Closed

I don’t remember when it happened, but I remember the shock I felt when I first encountered the idea that God cannot change—as an idea I was supposed to believe as an evangelical Christian. It…

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Calvinist J. I. Packer with Some Helpful Comments on Divine Impassibility

November 6, 2012 , SEA , Comment Closed

From Michael Bird (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/euangelion/2012/10/j-i-packer-on-divine-impassibility/):

According to J.I. Packer, we need to re-think the meaning of divine impassibility (note that this was before the “Open Theism” wars). He writes:

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Does God Repent? – The Bible Answer Man Clarifies

February 1, 2012 , drwayman , No Comment

The classic King James Version of the Bible says, “It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart” (Genesis 6:6). Elsewhere, God says, “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments” (1 Samuel 15:11). If God is perfect, how could he repent?

First, the Bible unequivocally teaches that God is perfectly good and thus incapable of doing evil (Psalm 5:4–5; James 1:13; 3 John 1:11). As such, God’s repentance must not be understood as entailing moral guilt. Indeed, the moral perfection of the Creator sets him apart from his sin–tainted creation (Leviticus 11:44–45; 19:2; 20:7; 1 Peter 1:15–16).

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