Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

God is not human, that he should lie,
    not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
    Does he promise and not fulfill?

• Numbers 23:19

“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

• Malachi 3:6

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

• Exodus 23:13

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

• Hebrews 13:8

The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God endures forever.”
…
Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.

• Isaiah 40:8, 28

Lord, you have been our dwelling place
    throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born
    or you brought forth the whole world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

• Psalm 90:1-2

“Two major implications follow from this. Duns stressed the freedom of God. Things are the way that they are not because reason requires it but because God freely chose it. (But Duns did not teach that God’s will is arbitrary or beyond all constraint — God cannot contradict himself, for instance.) One aspect of God’s freedom lies in his predestination. Duns identifies four ‘moments’ in God’s predestination. First, he predestines Peter (representing the elect) to eternal glory. Secondly, he decides to give Peter the means to this end — grace. Thirdly, he permits both Peter and judas (representing the non-elect) to sin. Finally, Peter is saved by God’s grace, while Judas is justly rejected because he perseveres in sin.
“Duns’s stress on the freedom of God means that the role of reason and philosophy is necessarily limited. ‘Anselm had claimed that the incarnation and the cross of Jesus Christ are so necessary that God had no choice but to act in this way. But Duns held that they happened because God chose that they should. This emphasized God’s freedom and also limited the possibility of showing such doctrines to be reasonable. In his stress on God’s freedom, Duns went so far as to suggest that the Son would have become incarnate even had Adam not sinned – making the incarnation a free choice on God’s part, not a necessity imposed on him by human sin. Duns believed that reason and philosophy could prove God’s existence and some of his attributes, such as his infinity. But much that Thomas believed to be demonstrated by reason (God’s goodness, justice and mercy, predestination) Duns held to be known only by revelation. Such doctrines are accepted by faith alone, not proved by reason.”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

John Duns Scotus (1265-1308) was a Franciscan Friar.  He was a leading philosopher in the thought that Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, was immaculate, without sin, from birth.  Odd that the Catholic church followed his thinking when the previous philosophers (Anselm, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure) all had the idea that she was made immaculate at some point after birth.  A concept of Duns’ regarding three views on the subject was the only quote in the book I am quoting from.  Some of Duns’ contemporaries felt his philosophy to fall short, even creating the word “dunce” from his name.

I would rather look at a topic that could also be controversial, but in some ways is rather brilliant.  It is dangerous as the scriptures above point to God not changing.  When we consider God having free choice, it seems to indicate that God could change His mind.  But when we consider that within the parameters of God doing various things, Anselm’s concept of God not being able to choose is limiting God’s power and God is infinite.  Yet, God chose to do as He has done.

The Bible has a few instances where God laments, “regretting He ever made mankind, or chosen the Israelites as His Chosen People, etc.”  This does not mean that God changed His mind.  Even in the use of the word “relented” does it mean God changed His mind?  Telling Moses that He could simply wipe out all the Israelites and establish a new covenant with Moses does not state, “Moses, I am going to do this.”  But after Moses pleads for God’s Mercy with His people, God relents.  But God did not change His mind.  He just presented to Moses an alternative, possibly to test Moses.  Even in God’s anger, God is still perfect.

And when I stated that Duns’ philosophy is dangerous, the idea that God is in Heaven, changing His mind because He can.  If you can change your mind, at some point, you will.  Transferring this concept to a God who never changes provides fear that God might renege on His promises.

Ah, under that scenario, I could not accept the philosophy of Duns, and possibly why many of his contemporaries called him a dunce.  They saw the folly rather than the brilliance.

Because if we create a God who cannot choose, then how were the Israelites his Chosen People?  And how can the elect be the elect?  How can my sins be washed away while someone else’s sins remain?

We must hold fast to the truth in the Scriptures above, but at the same time, we must also take comfort that when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, God had known us before time began.  God chose us, and He freely chose to send His Son as an atonement for our sins.  But no, He is never going to change His mind about that.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.