The Impassible God
The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Genesis 6:6 NASB
Grieved – Does God cry? Is He distressed about our condition? Does He lament His decision to create this very broken world? Theologians struggled with these questions, not because the Scripture is ambiguous. It isn’t! God feels, and in some cases, He feels terrible. The reason theologians struggled with these verses is because they adopted a Greek philosophical concept of perfection. They listed perfection as one of God’s essential attributes. And perfection means that nothing can change. If something is perfect, then any addition to it is unnecessary, and, in fact, a clear, logical indication that it wasn’t really perfect in the first place. If something is perfect, then nothing can be taken away from it without making it less than perfect. So if God is perfect according to this philosophical concept, it is simply impossible for Him to feel. Why? Because feelings are the epitome of things that change. Rather than have a God who changes, theologians chose to alter the meaning of the text. This verse, and others like it, are anthropomorphic, that is to say, they aren’t really about God at all. They are only here because they make us feel better. They portray God as if He were human, but, of course, we all know better. God doesn’t cry!
This philosophical commitment means that our biblical text doesn’t really describe God at all. That’s bad enough, but the really horrible implication is that God doesn’t share any of our emotional experience, not because He chooses not to but because as God He cannot. God is a being without emotion. How does that make you feel?
It seems to me that we must absolutely reject this philosophical assumption. Yes, we will have to face many other implications involved with this rejection, but we will have a God who feels our plight, who agonizes over us and His decisions, who actually listens to our prayers with the intention of doing something about them. I believe that if there is a truly personal God, He is emotionally involved. He really was sorry He made Man. He really was grieved about what happened. And He still is.
“ . . . my grief is God’s grief. If there is some consolation in the anguish that is shared by many, the anguish shared by the Divine Presence is far more than a consolation.”[1]
God hurts and He can be hurt. My relationship with Him involves disappointment, betrayal, anguish, heartache—on both sides—and joy, pleasure, excitement, relief. It is a personal relationship, not an acknowledgement of some ultimate principle. God is not the unmoved mover. He is constantly emotive, just like us.
“How does that make you feel?” is a legitimate exegetical question.
Topical Index: anthropomorphism, emotions, grieved, Genesis 6:6
[1] Abraham Heschel, A Passion for Truth, p. 32.
I understand perfection reflects the ability to admit, surrender and move on… When the time is right. In this verse I understand this as God’s revelation of this perfection.
God is the perfect living entity which changes when circumstance require so that progress can be made and not the perfect idol which does not change unless influenced by the sculpturor…
Maybe we are the idols God is sculpturing and our life events His will unfolding in our lives. How can we define or even limit God to our temporary view. His purpose or view is permanent not his actions…
“How does that make me feel?”
I feel like He made me to feel. And He made me in His own image.
Good start in my studies this past week I read up on the temple and the clothing of the high priest which brings into light.Yeshua our high priest connected with the fourth chapter of Hebrews input which says he is touched with the feelings of our infirmities how would he show Mercy if he had no feelings? Many other New Testament passages speak of. Yeshua being filled with compassion and if he is made in God’s image who would be showing us what God also has. For instance when Lazarus died. Yeshua webpt I think that is the shortest verse in the entire Bible I might be wrong
This helps me relate to all those angry prophets who lament over the lost opportunities. A passionate God can get angry while still fully motivated by love and gracious kindness.
wow… it makes feel much more in touch with God than ever before, every moment He understands me! It’s overwhelming to think how he might grieve for the world. YHVH, help me FEEL for others like you do, help me be you hands and feet.
You and I, (and every other human) are made in the image of God, (Emotions included!) Yes, God “feels!” Other supporting scriptures? “Grieve not the Spirit!” and best of all… “Jesus wept.”
How ludicrous to think, “God SO loved..” – but in an unemotional way of course!
Friends, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Of course, using Scripture to justify a theological statement is circular, perhaps not viciously, but you can see the problem, I’m sure. If impassibility is true (and I do not believe it is), then all Scripture used to support the idea that God feels is anthropomorphic and therefore, of no value as refutation.
Also, you would have to adopt a Trinitarian view of God to claim that verses about Yeshua’s feelings mean that God feels.
I am of the opinion that what the Bible communicates is accurate and is basis enough to understand what God wants us to know about Him. All else is speculation, even if it means we cannot know the unknowable.
Skip, if I’m understanding Carl correctly, he doesn’t believe in the impassibility of God either. But, I’m not understanding why you said it’s circular to use Scripture to defend this position…especially in light of what you said the next paragraph, “I am of the opinion that what the Bible communicates is accurate…”?
I’m sure Carl also believes God has emotions. But if I don’t first combat the underlying idea of anthropomorphism, then the argument that God has emotions because Scripture says He does is circular. I must show that the anthropomorphic solution fails before I can claim that the obvious emotional character of God is Scripture is accurate.
I am holding my breath in anticipation, Skip. Are you really going to do that? Please show HOW the “anthropomorphic solution fails”! Pretty please!
Already did. Chapter 8. God, Time and the Limits of Omniscience.
Well, to the extent that you pointed out that omniscience, or all-knowing, was a Greek construct, you did manage to pinpoint that omniscience was a Greek ideal form. All well and good, but all that did was dump me in the middle of a creek I have found myself in ever since, and grumpy as a wet hen, too. You still did not point out specifically WHY the Greek ideal forms are failing us. Which is to say, you did not contrast them properly enough for me to see what we should be doing instead, and why. This has been driving me nuts!
Chapter 8 argues that consciousness is temporal and consciousness includes all kinds of transitional experiences like emotions. Try reading it again when you have time.
Are you saying that God is therefore temporally limited?
Skip, I have a reason for asking that. I am not trying to be contentious, but isn’t limiting YHVH to temporality consigning Him to just another Greek ideal form; i. e. temporality? I remember being told that YHVH was superior to the Greek pantheon, for example, because He resided outside the temporality that they were limited to. Zeus may be getting yanked around by temper tantrums or lust, but not YHVH.
In other words, I was sold on the fact that there were some ideal forms (omniscience, for example) that were superior to others. But now I am questioning all forms, and that would include that temporality. It sounds to me like you just shifted God from one box to another.
The idea of limitation that you suggest comes from another idea – the Greek notion of perfection. I show that this idea of perfection is behind most of the via negativa theology of the Church and NOT supported by Scripture. In fact, i’m pretty sure the word “perfect” does not occur in the Hebrew Bible.
But that does not tell me HOW temporality is not such a limitation, nor, for that matter, how perfection, as required by those ideal forms, is NOT intrinsic to the form referred to as temporality. I am not concerned with the perfection of form. I am concerned with form itself as a limitation of reality, perfect or not.
Sure, scripture records God’s feelings – but how close do those feelings resemble human emotions? Describing the indescribable is an inherent problem in many areas of life. So the CLOSEST language the bible writers could use to describe God’s ‘state’, was emotive language. Does that mean God feels LIKE we do? I think that’s still a big jump.
It’s an interesting tension – God’s revelation of Himself means we ought form a conception of Him, but we are constantly warned not to build idols (the ultimate concrete conception?).
Gabe that is an excellent way to describe it – “an interesting tension:…..” It is like no matter how we think of God, He is always more than that. I believe it’s a constant challenge of God that keeps us seeking to understand more and more as we walk with him.
Sin is not just breaking God’s laws; it is breaking His heart.
(Adrian Rogers)
Skip you had me pulling my dictionary close again. Unfortunately your combined word is still separate words in my British Collins dictionary…
As I understand Gabe has it well phrased. An interesting tension…
God cannot be defined or emotionally understood. He is slow to anger but beware when He does He has no consideration for collateral damage. He is loving but yet He permits suffering before we experience the love.
The best part we never know where we are in experiencing His true nature or emotion… He being the all consuming fire, then the claim is hell is an everlasting furnace…
Very well stated. All the conversations are very interesting. I like to think that our God’s heart breaks in the same place as ours and at the same time. Or, maybe that’s Greek thinking, and I believe the transforming of the mind, which is a work of God, will take care of that eventually. If it’s not Greek thinking, then Eureka!
I heard that God does cry, but the situation was that of Joy. I’m learning not to rely on mans answers anymore. I want to see God face to face for myself out of a heart of desire to know him more (not what man thinks about him).