SBS Class Nov72010

8/8/2019 SBS Class Nov72010

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Friendly Fire"Doctrines of the faith and how they are being

undermined today in the American church"

Essentials under attack in the evangelical church1. Assaults on the authority of Scripture

2. Deviations in doctrine of the Trinity3. Exclusivity of Christ (this will included the subjectmust the gospel be preached in order for people to besaved)

4. Distortions of doctrine based on the love of God -5. Substitutionary Atonement - why is this important andwhy is it being so attacked6. Q and A session



Interview with Dr. Bruce Ware



R eview from last week

The Att ribu t e of Immu ta bili t y - to say that God is immutable is tosay Biblically at least two things:

1. God can¶t change in His attributes, His essence, His very being,that is who God is, as God

2 . He can¶t change in His ethical commitments that are an extensionof His own moral nature

God is holy which means He can not be unholy (Lev 11:44)

God is love which means He can not be not loving (1John 4:8)God is self sufficient which means He can¶t have any needs

(Psalm 50, Isaiah 40:12-17 and Acts 17:24-25)God is just and therefore can not be unjust ( Is 30:18, R om 9:14)



Turn t o M a lach i 3:6 - Ex a mple of God¶s immu ta bili t y

Mal. 3:6 ³For I, the LO R D, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

In this verse before we even look at the context one can see boththe ontological and ethical immutability.

Ontological - For I the LO R D do not changeEthical - and because of this, you are not consumed



L ook at the attitude of God toward Jacob as compared with therest of the world

M a l. 3:1 ¶ ³Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he willclear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, willsuddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant,in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,´ says the LO R D of

hosts.M a l. 3:2 ³But who can endure the day of His coming? And whocan stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner¶s fire and likefullers¶ soap.M a l. 3:3 ³He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and Hewill purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, sothat they may present to the LO R D offerings in righteousness.M a l. 3:4 ³Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be

pleasing to the LO R D as in the days of old and as in former years.



God¶s covenant promise to His people is this, when judgmentcomes, the judgment will come in the way of refining fire, purifying

away the impurities and bringing about pure gold.

And now look at God¶s attitude toward the rest of the world

Mal. 3:5 ¶ ³Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will bea swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers andagainst those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress thewage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those whoturn aside the alien and do not fear Me,´ says the LO R D of hosts.

Mal. 3:6 ³For I, the LO R D, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.



The point of this section of Scripture:

When God comes as a refiners fire then He will wipe out thosewho are against Him. They will be destroyed and this begs thequestion, ³why isn¶t Jacob destroyed?´

Is the answer because Jacob is so good and holy and has done

everything just right and therefore he isn¶t wiped out?

No, the answer is God pledged to Jacob, that He would save them.And so when He comes His judgment upon them will come in the

form of a refiners fire. In order that they will be pleasing to theLord.

But upon everyone else who stands against Him there will bedestruction.



How can you be confident that this will be true?

Answer in the Scriptures ³ I the LO R D do not change.´(ontological immutability)

Turn t o Jos h u a 21:43-45 - ex a mple of God¶s immu ta bili t y

43 So the LO R D gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 TheLO R D gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LO R D

handed all their enemies over to them. 45 Not one of all the LO R D'sgood promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.



So God Himself is truthful (ontological) and therefore you can be sure that what God gives (ethical) is according to His

promises.

In verse 43 - he had sworn to give their forefathers (all the land)

In verse 44 - just as he had sworn to their forefathers (peace on

all sides)

In verse 45 - Not one of all the LO R D's good promises to thehouse of Israel failed

And do you see why?The ethical commitments made by God flow from Hisontological immutability. He always does what He says!



OK so the two go together and we can see that the ethicalimmutability flows out of the ontological immutability

However these categories do not exhaust the Biblical teaching asto whether or not God can change.

And throughout the history of the church there has been a strongappeal to answer the question can God change?And the answer has been a resounding NO!

The thinking has been that God can not change in any respect and

the reason for that we have covered because of His ontological being.



Because if God could change for the better then He wasn¶t asgood as He could have been, and if He could change for the

worse then there might be something better.

This would be a contradiction so to avoid any of that in any waythen it was held to that God could not change.

But in the last 200 years theologians have taken a closer look tosee as to whether this is what the Bible says and what we shouldin fact hold to on the immutability of God.



How do we handle the event at M t. Sinai in which Moses is talkingto the LO R D after the people have made this golden calf.

Turn t o Exodus 32:12-14Ex. 32:12 ³Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, µWith evilintent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and todestroy them from the face of the earth¶? Turn from Your burning

anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people.Ex. 32:13 ³ R emember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants towhom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, µ I will multiplyyour descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shallinherit it forever.¶´Ex. 32:14 So the LO R D changed His mind about the harm whichHe said He would do to His people.



So maybe it would be helpful for us to develop another categorywhen it comes to this issue of God¶s immutability in regard tothe question can God change?

We are going to call this a change that is different from a changefor the better or a change for the worse.

There is change we can talk about that takes place where there isa change in the moral situation.

For example: When a parent witnesses a child that is beingdisobedient, perhaps being caught in a lie then it is appropriate

that the parent change in relation to changed moral situation brought about by the child.

And the result is the parent bring discipline to bear upon thatchild.



We are going to call this R EL A T ION A L MU TAB ILI TY;

Go d in His relati o nship t o us is a Go d wh o changes inappr o priate ways t o changed m o ral situati o ns .

For example the story of Jonah going to Nineveh;God says preach this message ³40 days and Nineveh will bedestroyed´And so what does Nineveh do?Well there did exactly what Jonah feared they would do, theyrepented. And it was the exact reason that Jonah did not want to

go.

So in response to the people turning and repenting what does Goddo?He forestalls judgment on these people.



Now ask the question; does this change God¶s character in any way?Answer - No

Does this change who God is as God?Answer - No

Now here is the question we are getting to;Does it change God¶s ethical commitments?

Some have argued that God said it and therefore He must do it.

But don¶t we have underlying throughout Scripture a principle thatGod makes clear from the beginning and it pervades all through theScripture.



If people turn from their wicked ways that God will hear their cryfor mercy and He will bring forgiveness.

So implicit in the statement ³40 days and Nineveh will bedestroyed´ is the condition unless you repent .

This is in the fabric of God¶s relationship with sinners from the get

go.

We see that Nineveh repents and God therefore changes from Onewho is fixing to vent His wrath on them to now bringing mercifulforgiveness to them.

This is not a change in His ethical commitments but in fact God¶smerciful response is an expression of His ethical immutability.



God¶s relational mutability, changing from wrath to forgiveness, isan expression of God¶s ethical immutability.

Which is the ethical commitment by God that whenever a sinner repents then God will forgive.

So God keeps His word

Turn t o: Jeremi ah 18:6-10



B eginning of Session #2 - Do ct rine of Immu ta bili t y

So what about this question in Scripture about God changingHis mind.

There are 27 affirmations and 7 denials of God¶s changing Hismind.

27 times He changes His mind7 times He does not change His mind

To get to the heart of this turn to1 Samuel 15:11 and 1 Samuel 15:35



1Sam. 15:11 ³ I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned

back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.´And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LO R D all night.

1Sam. 15:35 Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of hisdeath; for Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LO R D regretted that

He had made Saul king over Israel.

The word regret here means to relent from having done or tochange from having done this.

Here we have two uses of the word ³nacham´ here in the Hebrewwhich means to relent or change of mind.



Did you know that there is another use of this word in this chapter?And it comes in verse 29.

1Sam. 15:29 ³Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change Hismind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind.´

So in this chapter you have a very interesting case study on this particular question.

Either the author is nuts and you have an obvious contradiction.

Most of the time you would probably conclude that the author hadsomething in his mind or he would not have written it this way.



And this is true with the Biblical writer who is under inspirationand is not writing in a way that is contradictory.

So in what way are we able to say in verse 11 and 35 that Godrelented and in verse 29 the glory of Israel can not change Hismind?

Is it possible that verse 29 establishes an absolute rule that Godcan¶t literally change His mind or relent in the way that we do ashuman beings.

Here is the point; when we read verse 11 and 35 we dare not think that God relents, regrets or is sorry for something in the way thatwe do.



In 1 Samuel 15:29 ³ the Glory of Israel will not lie or change Hismind´ has almost the same phrase in Numbers 23:19, which isGod speaking through Baalam in his second oracle.

So here we have two places that say God can¶t lie or change Hismind.

If you are an open theist like Greg Boyd, Clark Pinnock and JohnSanders then you hold to the view that you reconcile these versewith the fact that in verses 11 and 35 God sometimes changes Hismind and in verse 29 sometimes He does not.

Here is the problem with that interpretation because the author writes;the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind



There seems to be a parallel here between not lying and changingHis mind

So if we conclude that sometimes God does change His mind andat other times His doesn¶t change His mind then bring this sameinterpretation to verse 29 and here is what you have.

Sometimes God lies and sometimes God does not lie. Would that be an acceptable Biblical conclusion to draw out regarding God?Answer - of course not!

So when you read 1 Samuel 15:29 the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind, should we not conclude that not lying and notchanging His mind go hand in hand.



Second half of the verse ³for He is not a man that He shouldchange His mind.´

What are men constantly doing?Well again if you try and go with an open theism type of view thenyou say sometimes God changes His mind and sometimes Hedoesn¶t.

Now fit this into the verse about men and here is what you have toarrive at:Either they always change their minds or they never change their

minds.

So which one is it for human beings and the answer is neither one.What is true of human beings is sometimes they change their mindsand sometimes they don¶t.



So verse 29 is showing us that God does not relent.

So what about verses 11 and 35?We dare not think about verses 11 and 35 as we would regretmaking Saul king in that we get new information that comes to usthat we didn¶t know previously.

We know that isn¶t happening with God because He never operatesthat way.



The reason verse 29 exists is to move us from thinking that Godcould ever learn something new, see it differently and then wish Hehad never done it.

So here is the interpretation:God knowing what Saul has done, observing the history as itunfolds, watches Saul¶s disobedience, watches his presumption,

and as God deals with Saul He in fact wishes that Saul was not thisway.

But don¶t think for a moment that God was surprised by it or didn¶texpect it or that God learned something new.God changed in view of the change in the moral situation not achange because of new information was discovered.

Changing of the mind is a human way of speaking that is not

literally true of God.

SBS Class Nov72010

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