Bob Hill
TOL Subscriber
When I talk to the Lord about how wonderful He is, I want to feel the passion that He had when He died for our sins. I want His passion, to be my passion.
I’ve had problems at time when I’ve read Augustine and Calvin and the Westminster Confession, made in 1646. It seems to me that they took the ideas of Augustine and Calvin and put them in a doctrinal statement. I think the ideas in this statement have influenced many of us in our attitudes and beliefs.
Here is a part of the Westminster Confession that caused me to wonder about God and His love. “There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable . . . so as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain.” That seems to be what Hilston believes.
Based on this, Benignus wrote this about God’s love. “Love, of course, is not bound up with sensitive passion and emotion in God, as it is in us. . . . Passions, since they necessarily entail a sensitive and therefore bodily nature, are per se imperfect and limited, and consequently they cannot be predicated except metaphorically of God. . . . we must deny these accompanying passions when we attribute love and joy to God.” [Benignus, Nature, Knowledge, and God, pp. 551,552.]
When I read that they deny God has any passion or feeling, calling it impassibility, it has caused me to study the Old Testament a lot to see if it supports these ideas. It does not, and actually it is just the opposite that it supports – lots of emotion from our Wonderful God.
I was really blessed when I read Dr. James Boice’s book, The Sovereign God. He wrote, “The immutability of God as presented in Scripture, however, is not the same thing as the immutability of “god” talked about by the Greek philosophers. In Greek thought immutability meant not only unchangeability but also the inability to be affected by anything in any way. The Greek word . . . . means a total inability to feel any emotion whatever. . . . That makes good philosophy of course. It is logical. But it is not what God reveals about himself in the Scriptures, and so we must reject it, however logical it may seem.” What a blessing that was for me. He said that he departed from his Calvinistic heritage in this area because, “it is not what God reveals about himself in the Scriptures”.
What a blessing that was to me.
In Christ,
My beloved Savior,
Bob Hill
I’ve had problems at time when I’ve read Augustine and Calvin and the Westminster Confession, made in 1646. It seems to me that they took the ideas of Augustine and Calvin and put them in a doctrinal statement. I think the ideas in this statement have influenced many of us in our attitudes and beliefs.
Here is a part of the Westminster Confession that caused me to wonder about God and His love. “There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable . . . so as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain.” That seems to be what Hilston believes.
Based on this, Benignus wrote this about God’s love. “Love, of course, is not bound up with sensitive passion and emotion in God, as it is in us. . . . Passions, since they necessarily entail a sensitive and therefore bodily nature, are per se imperfect and limited, and consequently they cannot be predicated except metaphorically of God. . . . we must deny these accompanying passions when we attribute love and joy to God.” [Benignus, Nature, Knowledge, and God, pp. 551,552.]
When I read that they deny God has any passion or feeling, calling it impassibility, it has caused me to study the Old Testament a lot to see if it supports these ideas. It does not, and actually it is just the opposite that it supports – lots of emotion from our Wonderful God.
I was really blessed when I read Dr. James Boice’s book, The Sovereign God. He wrote, “The immutability of God as presented in Scripture, however, is not the same thing as the immutability of “god” talked about by the Greek philosophers. In Greek thought immutability meant not only unchangeability but also the inability to be affected by anything in any way. The Greek word . . . . means a total inability to feel any emotion whatever. . . . That makes good philosophy of course. It is logical. But it is not what God reveals about himself in the Scriptures, and so we must reject it, however logical it may seem.” What a blessing that was for me. He said that he departed from his Calvinistic heritage in this area because, “it is not what God reveals about himself in the Scriptures”.
What a blessing that was to me.
In Christ,
My beloved Savior,
Bob Hill