Introduction
In today’s modern Protestantism, classical theism has eroded away and has been replaced with something foreign to the church: theistic personalism and social trinitarianism. Theistic personalism claims that the only way God can have a personal relationship with His creatures is that God must be affected to change by the creature. This belief rejects all of the core tenets of classical theism which will be enumerated here. Social trinitarianism espouses the idea that God is inherently a society of three different centers of consciousnesses that are a model for human society. It also creates an immanent subordination of the Son to the Father and destroys the transcendence of God. However, the classical, Nicene articulation of who God is rejects the claims of both. The core tenets of classical theism affirm that God is perfectly simple, immutable, independent from creation (aseity), and impassible. Each of these terms will be examined in its proper place.
Divine Simplicity
When we speak of simplicity, it is not meant that God is easily comprehensible to the human mind; this doctrine has nothing to do with the comprehensibility of God. Instead, the doctrine focuses on the composition of God or better stated the lack thereof. For a being to be perfectly simple, the essence is not composed of any parts or properties. Meaning, there are no accidents within God (accidents in the Aristotelian respect). The Aristotelian language of substance and accidents is important for the discussion of divine simplicity. The substance refers to the thing itself, i.e. the essential nature of the said thing. Accidents are the properties (qualities) of the substance. For example, a duck (substance) has a long beak and is green (accidents). The accidents are a source of change, while the substance cannot change, or the object would cease to exist. With the doctrine of divine simplicity, God has no accidents but only substance. Therefore, God’s attributes are not accidents but are his very own nature. God does not possess love, he is love. God does not possess justice, he is justice. Since God is free from all composition, it follows that God’s attributes in and of himself are not distinct. Some terminology is helpful here to understand this. Ad intra (immanent, intrinsic) refers to God in and of himself and nothing outside of himself. Ad extra (economical, extrinsic) refers to the works of God outside of himself. The immanent works of God include the modes of subsistence (Father unbegotten, Son begotten, Holy Spirit, spirated) and His decree. The economical works of God include the sending of the Son by the Father and creation. Regarding the former, God’s attributes have no distinction; however, regarding the latter, they do. Intrinsically there is no distinction because there is no composition of God, but extrinsically there is a distinction based on the object. Proof of this comes from Scripture and the consequences drawn from it. 1) God is independent, the first cause of all things, meaning there is nothing before God which is clearly expressed in Scripture (Genesis 1:1). Since what is composed depends on a composer, God is without composition because there is nothing before him. 2) God’s absolute unity shows that he cannot be divided or composed. 3) God is perfect but composition implies imperfection because it supposes dependency and mutability; therefore God is without composition. 4) It can also be shown that because we are forbidden to make images of God, he must be free from composition (Deut. 4:15-16). With the doctrine of divine simplicity being proved, this doctrine flows into the idea of God is immutable.
Immutability
Immutability means God does not change, nor does he have the possibility of change (mutable means changing, capable of it). Since God has no accidents, composition, or division in himself, but only that he is who he is essentially, it follows that God cannot change since that would mean changing his essence which is impossible. Immutability refers both to his essence and will. Scripture clearly affirms this in many passages. Malachi 3:6 says, “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Israel, are not consumed.” God bases his unchanging promises on his own essential nature being immutable. Psalm 102:26-27, James 1:17, Isaiah 46:10, and Numbers 23:19 all affirm the same, regarding both essence and will. A more philosophical and logical reason for his immutability is the fact that God is the first cause of all things. For a thing to be mutable it needs a cause, but God has no cause; therefore, God is immutable. His perfection also implies immutability because he cannot change for the better or worse, but whatever is changed has to be for better or worse. Some people will reject this doctrine due to verses that attribute repentance to God (1 Samuel 15:11, Jonah 4:2, 1 Chronicles 21:14-15, Psalm 106:45). However, other Scripture didactically says God does not change, but Scripture does not contradict. These passages are to be understood anthropologically (attributing human characteristics to God) and in reference to the thing willed, not his own will. What logically follows from God’s immutability, is his aseity.
Aseity
Divine aseity means God is independent of anything outside of himself. He is absolutely self-sufficient, autonomous, and from himself, needing nothing outside of himself. In Acts 17:24-30, Paul explains the God Gentiles did not know. He explains God as the first principle and cause of everything in existence, specifically saying, “as though [God] needed anything.” Therefore, the creature depends on God and the Creator is independent of the creature. The nature of being a creator implies aseity, while the nature of a creature implies dependency. Anytime Scripture mentions God being creator it implicitly affirms the doctrine of aseity due to the creator-creature distinction. The same philosophical argument for immutability can be applied here as well. God being the first cause recognizes no cause before him; therefore, his existence is from nothing else, and since his existence is from nothing else, he is independent of everything else. This doctrine also shows how great his love and grace actually are. God, not needing his creation, freely condescended himself to us that we may partake in the divine life by the beatific vision. With the doctrines of divine simplicity, immutability, and aseity being proved, the most controversial tenet of classical theism follows: impassibility.
Impassibility
Impassibility means that God is without suffering, passion, or emotional pain. This follows from all His other attributes since if he did experience these things, it would cause him to change, contrary to his simplicity and immutability. Bavinck, in his Reformed Dogmatics, makes this clear saying, “Those who predicate any change whatsoever of God, whether with respect to his essence, knowledge, or will, diminish all his attributes: independence, simplicity, eternity, omniscience, and omnipotence. This robs God of his divine nature, and religion of its firm foundation and assured comfort.” We must be careful how we articulate this doctrine because those erring in excess deistically lift God away but those who err in defect apply changes to the unchanging God. A far smarter man than me puts it succinctly. J.I. Packer says, “This conception of God [as impassible] represents no single biblical term, but was introduced into Christian theology in the second century. What was it supposed to mean? The historical answer is: Not impassivity, unconcern, and impersonal detachment in the face of the creation. Not inability or unwillingness to empathize with human pain and grief, either. It means simply that God’s experiences do not come upon him as ours come upon us. His are foreknown, willed, and chosen by himself, and are not involuntary surprises forced on him from outside, apart from his own decision, in the way that ours regularly are.”
Conclusion
Classical theism is the historical way the church articulated theology proper. With the core tenets of it being proved scripturally and philosophically, we see how great God truly is and far beyond any creature. All of this goes to show how God is completely transcendent and incomprehensible to the human mind, thus destroying any idea of theological personalism or social trinitarianism, but also showing how glorious God’s love and grace are by his own condescension which is perfectly shown on the cross.