Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig. Today, the Doctrine of God,

Part 10. For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

We're wrapping up our discussion of divine immutability this morning, and I argued last time that we should not follow the path charted by ancient

Greek philosophers in thinking of God as utterly immutable. God in the Hebrew Bible is not

frozen into immobility like an ice statue. Rather, he is a dynamic, interactive

God who acts in history and interacts with people and therefore is not absolutely changeless

and immutable. So how should we understand then God's immutability in light of the scriptural passages

that do affirm that God cannot change?

Well, J.I. Packer, I think, gives a nice summary of God's immutable attributes in his book,

Knowing God. Here's what Packer says. Number one, he says God's life does not change. That is to say God

exists forever and he neither matures nor regresses. So God is permanent, he is eternal, never

begins to exist, never ceases to exist. And as Packer said, he neither gets better or gets worse. He neither

matures nor regresses. He has a perfect, permanent life. Second, God's character does not

change. God's mercy, love, faithfulness, justice never change. God's moral qualities are essential to God, and although

he may deal with people in different ways, they will all be consistent with his fundamental

moral character, which is immutable. Thirdly, Packer says, God's truth does not change, that is to say the word of the Lord

endures forever. God's revelation to us stands secure. Now obviously that revelation

progresses from the old covenant into the new covenant as further truth is unfolded, but God's word

is trustworthy and true and therefore can be relied upon.

Fourth, God's ways do not change.

Now again, God certainly does deal with people in different ways.

He dealt with the people in the old

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