God's Immutability

(I wrote this when I was an infallible freshman. Therefore, all its contents are true.)


My class schedules lately have been filled with theology, philosophy and literature; which, if you know anything about me, is more than ideal. I love these subjects. And in pursuit of their studies all kinds of radical, if not insane, ideas spend a great deal of time in my mind. But not all of these ideas are without merit; in fact, some have begun to reshape how I think and live. Indeed, as I gain factual knowledge I begin to act differently as a result of newfound belief, because belief in something inspires action on its behalf.


Just as a belief in the dangerousness of a rattlesnake will cause me to intentionally avoid them, so belief in God’s goodness causes me to trust Him. This issue of trust, however, is one of the hardest issues that I’ve ever had to tackle. It doesn’t seem practical at first glance to leave my destiny up to an invisible Being. Verses like, “Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life what you will eat or drink, or your body what you will wear,” and “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart; lean not on your own understanding,” are great verses in theory, but exceptionally difficult in practice.


But after learning some things about God’s nature in my Biblical studies and learning a bunch of logic and philosophy, I came to an understanding that has strengthened my trust. And, oddly enough, it came about during a time of doubt.

I was questioning the doctrine of election. I couldn’t understand how God was justified in saving some but not others. If it’s random, then that’s just unfair for those that are not elected. If it is not random, then that begs the question: for what reason does God give His salvation to some and not others? How does God choose?


The Bible clearly says that it is not by any merit of our own that we are elected. So then what makes some worthy of grace and others not?

It makes sense that we, the elect, being the object of God’s choice, should wonder: why us? And the answer, I found, has much to do with the immutability of God. God’s immutability means that He does not change in His statutes or in His nature. From this attribute of God, Anselm's proof, and the attribute of omnibenevolence I developed the following argument:

(It’s in standard form, but it’s kind of complicated so pay attention.)

Premise 1. God is that than which no greater being can be conceived (from Anselm).
2. Things only change in one of two ways: for the better or for the worse.
3. If God changes for the worse, then He is no longer God, because He was better before (from 1).
4. If He changes for the better, then He was not God before, because He is better now (from 1).
Conclusion/premise 5. Thus, If 1, then God does not change.
6. Choice is a form of change, because as soon as one makes a choice one changes from someone who hadn’t made that choice to someone who had.
C/p 7. If 1, 5 and 6, then God does not choose.
8. Actions are either chosen or not.
9. If not, then actions are nothing more than a pure manifestation of the nature of their vehicle.
10. God takes actions (He creates, loves, makes new, speaks, destroys, etc).
11. It is God’s nature to be omnibenevolent.
C/p 12. Therefore, the actions that God takes are pure manifestations of His perfect goodness.
Conclusion – God only does that which is perfectly good.

When the Bible says that God chose to do something, it does not mean that he made a “choice” in our understanding of the word. God is not up in heaven weighing His options. Rather, God just does what is best. Everything God does is the best thing that could possibly happen.

With this knowledge one can know that trust in the Lord is the only wise thing to do. Trust in Him and you too will be doing what is good and perfect.