Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 36:141 (Jan 1879)
Article: The Unchangeableness Of God
Author: Dorner’s Essay

BSac 36:141 (Jan 1879) p. 28

The Unchangeableness Of God1

Dr. Dorner’s Essay

God is an unchangeable and a living God. This is the corner-stone of the religion of the Bible — the corner-stone, indeed, of all true religion. Neither an unchangeable God without vitality, nor a living God without unchangeableness, can awaken that trust which is the first and simplest normal expression of man’s religious nature. Not a few, indeed, are disposed to maintain that God cannot be at once unchangeable and living. He may have unchangeableness to the exclusion of vitality, or vitality to the exclusion of unchangeableness, but not both together.

Those who accept the revelation recorded in the Bible believe in God as at once unchangeable and living; and the religious history of the world proves the need, if not the truth, of such a conjunction. But theologians, as well as philosophers and scientists, agree in the position that though the two may be believed, they cannot logically be thought together. Is this so? If the conception hitherto formed of the divine unchangeableness be correct, it would seem to be so. But is this conception correct? We think not; and we propose, in the following pages, to show that it is not so, and to endeavor to substitute for it one that shall combine the truth, whilst avoiding the difficulties, in the hitherto

BSac 36:141 (Jan 1879) p. 29

received doctrine of the unchangeableness and vitality of God. We shall divide our discussion into three parts — a historical, a critical, and a constructive one.

I. The History Of The Doctrine

Before proceeding to review the history of the doctrine of the unchangeableness of God in the Christian church, it will be instructive to inquire for a moment how far it was recognized in heathenism, and then to cast a glance at the teachings of the Old Testament on the subject.

§ 1. Heathen View of the Unchangeableness of God. — If unchangeableness and vitality are, as we have affirmed, the two main pillars of all religion, then wherever there has been a religion, however false, we must expect to find them recognized in some form or other. Nor will a careful examination of heathen religions disappoint this expectation. By way of example, let us take the religion of the ancient Greeks. There we find both unchangeableness and vitality, but in such a form that the one neutralizes rather than complements the other. The former is represented by the Μοῖρα or Fatum; but it is both disjoined from, and incompatible with, vitality. The gods are essentially living gods; but they are as far from being unchangeable as their worshippers. There is no trace of an unchang...