4.1.1
Suggestions from Scripture
At the beginning of this paper I focused on several passages of scripture that, while not being definitive, certainly gave some direction as to whether God exists within time or not. My summary of these scriptural references was that God:
x Is, temporally speaking and from our point of view, eternal both into the past and
the future; x Also exists now;
x Existed before (not necessarily in a temporal meaning of “before”) the world began in a characteristically different type of existence from the present;
x Acted before (again, not necessarily in a temporal meaning of “before”) this present existence, or age, began;
x These actions, even if it included nothing else, involved the creating of “the heavens and the earth”;
x Despite existing in another age (potentially “before” time), God is no less alive than we are, in fact he is infinitely alive (including having ongoing interactions with our world), and;
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x Our usual measures of time (years and so on) are useless in calculating and
searching God’s eternality—again suggesting God has a different type of existence. This definition obviously leaves many questions about the nature of time and of God’s relation to time unanswered. Up until this point I have attempted demonstrate a
philosophical definition of time as change, but before we can say what God’s relation to this time is, we must explore what scripture has to say about God and change.
Again I should stress that scripture does not provide us with solid and philosophically-ready definitions and explanations, but it can guide our steps somewhat. So here are several key scriptures relating to God’s immutability:
“But you are the same, and your years have no end.” (Psalms 102:27) “I the Lord do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)
“God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind.” (Numbers 23:19)
“… he is the living God, enduring for ever.” (Daniel 6:26)
“… the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17)
“But you are the same, and your years will never end.” (Hebrews 1:12) “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8) “…God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose …” (Hebrews 6:17)
Here we have examples of God not changing in his thoughts (Numbers 23:19), his purpose or character (Hebrews 6:17), his enduring (Daniel 6:26) and most of all in his entire person (Malachi 3:6, Psalms 102:27, Hebrews 1:12 & 13:8). So, according to scripture, God is not just immutable in his character (in that his morals do not go changing), but there is
something inherently immutable about his entire being and existence, having “no variation or shadow due to change”. This all certainly suggests that God might be unchanging in a way that posits his existence outside of what I have defined time to be.
However, we also find in scripture many instances of God relating to humans, of
performing miracles, of listening and talking, of changing emotions and even of his mind being changed. So somehow a biblically-aligned description of God’s nature needs to take into account both the idea that he is unchanging and the idea that he can change enough in order to perform actions and relate to a changing world.
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4.1.2
Does relative change affect God’s immutability?
In my discussion about time above I argued that even relative change could not be
distinguished from examples of real change. So if God is himself immutable, what does it mean to him that there exists a world, relative to him, that is very much changing? Does my moving my arms and hands to type this sentence change God?
Well, firstly, I need to point out that my discussion above in relation to Shoemaker’s argument was very much tied to a spatial existence, whereby the lack of support for absolute space meant that relative movement could not be discounted as an example of real movement. However, when we talk about God, we also understand that he is non- spatial: “God is spirit” John 4:24. This idea aligns well with the other thought elucidated from scripture above that God exists ‘before’ (not necessarily in a temporal meaning of ‘before’) the world began in a characteristically different type of existence from our own. In fact John 4:24 takes this description of God having a different existence so far as to say that “those who worship him must worship in spirit” (emphasis added). To
understand how this different type of existence, as spirit, can avoid relative spatial
change we can compare God to numbers. Numbers exist in a non-spatial sense and are also unchanged by any spatial changes and, although we would not wish to resign God’s
existence merely to that of a number, it does provide an appropriate illustration what non-spatial existence may resemble.
This response to the criticism of relative change—to say that God simply enjoys a very different existence from our own—is fine until you introduce the other concepts of God that a fully developed theology of God requires. I explore these below.