Category: Theology 101
Incommunicable Attributes
B. Immutability.
“I, the LORD, do not change.”
Several years ago I was engaged in a conversation with another man about the attributes of God, and I mentioned the word immutable. He was visibly perplexed as to why it is important to know that one cannot make God “shut up.” Before long I realized that this gentleman thought immutable means “impossible to make mute.” However, the word immutable has quite a different meaning. It is of the same family as mutation and mutant. A mutation is a change or alteration. Therefore, something that is immutable is unchangeable, it does not undergo alteration.
Parmenides argued that whatever is, is without change, and that whatever changes is not, for change is impossible. A rival theory was posited by a philosopher named Heraclitus. Heraclitus argued that nothing is in the sense of being, but that everything is becoming. You can’t step into the same river twice, because both you and the river have become something different by the time you step a second time. Everything is in a state of flux. The only thing that doesn’t change is change.
Throughout history, the church has tended to vacillate between Parmenides’ view and Heraclitus’ view, in terms of God. Some have seen God as immutable in the sense of having no capacity to move or work. Thus, God is paralyzed and static, even without the possibility of creating, for to create would mean a change. Others have seen God as dynamic and adaptable, ever changing His work as He responds to the efforts of His creatures.
The biblical view teaches something akin to both Parmenides and Heraclitus, yet at the same time, differing from both. God certainly can, and does, work. He is not paralyzed and static. He created. He sustains. He interacts with His creation, and moves time according to His good pleasure (Eph. 1:11). Nevertheless, God is altogether unchanging in His essence. He cannot be other than He is. His nature cannot be altered. He cannot become better, nor worse. There is no room for improvement with God, nor can He deteriorate into something less than God. God is immutable in His attributes. There can be no change in His self-existence, or infinitude, or unity, or knowledge, or holiness, or justice, or mercy, or love, et al. Nor does God change His purposes and plans. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.