this, but theism stands for the fact that a creature, though absolutely dependent, nevertheless also
has a distinct existence of its own. And implanted in this existence there is “a drive toward self-
preservation.” Every creature, to the extent that it shares in existence, fears death, and even the
tiniest atom offers resistance to all attempts at annihilating it. Again: it is a shadow of the
independent, immutable being of our God.
Immutability
[193] A natural implication of God’s aseity is his immutability. At first blush this immutability
seems to have little support in Scripture. For there God is seen as standing in the most vital
association with the world. In the beginning he created heaven and earth and so moved from not
creating to creating. And from that beginning he is, as it were, a coparticipant in the life of the
world and especially of his people Israel. He comes and goes, reveals and conceals himself. He
averts his face [in wrath] and turns it back to us in grace. He repents (Gen. 6:6; 1 Sam. 15:11; Amos
7:3, 6; Joel 2:13; Jon. 3:9; 4:2) and changes plans (Exod. 32:10–14; Jon. 3:10). He becomes angry
(Num. 11:1, 10; Ps. 106:40; Zech. 10:3) and sets aside his anger (Deut. 13:17; 2 Chron. 12:12; 30:8; Jer.
18:8, 10; 26:3, 19; 36:3). His attitude toward the pious is one thing, his disposition to the ungodly
another (Prov. 11:20; 12:22). With the pure he is pure; with the crooked he shows himself a shrewd
opponent12 (Ps. 18:26–27). In the fullness of time he even becomes human in Christ and proceeds
to dwell in the church through the Holy Spirit. He rejects Israel and accepts the Gentiles. And in
the life of the children of God there is a consistent alternation of feelings of guilt and the
consciousness of forgiveness, of experiences of God’s wrath and of his love, of his abandonment
and his presence.
At the same time the Scriptures testify that amid all this alternation God is and remains the same.
Everything changes, but he remains standing. He remains who he is (Ps. 102:26–28). He is yhwh,
he who is and ever remains himself. He is the first and with the last he is still the same God (Isa.
41:4; 43:10; 46:4; 48:12). He is who he is (Deut. 32:39; cf. John 8:58; Heb. 13:8), the incorruptible
who alone has immortality, and is always the same (Rom. 1:23; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16; Heb. 1:11–12).
Unchangeable in his existence and being, he is so also in his thought and will, in all his plans and
decisions. He is not a human that he should lie or repent. What he says, he will do (Num. 15:28; 1
Sam. 15:29). His gifts (charismata) and calling are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29). He does not reject his
people (Rom. 11:1). He completes what he has begun (Ps. 138:8; Phil. 1:6). In a word, he, yhwh, does
not change (Mal. 3:6). In him there is “no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).
On this foundation Christian theology constructed its doctrine of divine immutability.
Mythological theogony could not attain to this level, but philosophy frequently named and
described God as the unique, eternal, immutable, unmoved, and self-consistent Ruler over all
things.13 From the presence of motion in the universe Aristotle inferred the existence of a “first
