Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 2019 The doctrine of divine impassibility holds that God cannot be affected by anything external to Himself, that He does not suffer or experience pain, and that nothing in creation can move Him emotionally. It has a long and serious history in Christian theology, but it stands in considerable tension with how the Bible…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 02032 The Bible speaks of God grieving (Genesis 6:6), delighting (Zephaniah 3:17), being angry (Psalm 7:11), and being moved with compassion (Hosea 11:8). Whether these are genuine descriptions of God’s inner life or simply human language used to make an incomprehensible God accessible to created minds is a question that has occupied theologians for…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 03081 At first glance, Jesus cursing a fig tree for not bearing fruit looks like an overreaction to a piece of vegetation. It is one of those Gospel episodes that, taken in isolation, sits awkwardly. But when it is read in context and against the background of how the fig tree functions throughout the…