Immutibility Versus Immobility

Pastor Bill Farrow

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I ran across an interesting thought as a part of my reading today. The Deistic concept of God arises from a confusion of God's unchangeability within His own nature and the transference of that concept to areas that are outside of or do not directly bear on His nature. Because, these would argue, God cannot change in His essential nature in eternity, He must thus be separate from a creation that is constantly changing; or else He world reflect that change in Himself. This is, essentially, what Deism maintained. 

We should be careful to understand that God and does change, but only in regard to the perspective of creation and not in His essential nature. For instance, His purposes or decrees are eternal and never change. However, the means by which He pursues and accomplishes those purposes within history can and does change. 

Thus the Scripture can portray God's love for Israel, and His eternal plan far them, but history also record times where God has defended them (even though they were sinful and disobedient) and times when God allowed them to reap what they  sowed. The particulars of how God was prosecuting His plan changed, but His decree, purpose, and essential nature did not. Gods pursuit of His plan and purpose are a reflection of His essential Being, and are thus, properly understood in terms of immutability. His various actions historically are not necessarily a direct reflection of His Being and so need not, of necessity, reflect immutability.

Admittedly, this is difficult to grasp, but it seems to be an accurate reflection of both His nature as well as how He acts in history.