The southern presbyterian, R. L.
Dabney, wrote a Reformed systematic theology. Nineteenth century
Calvinism had already become infected with the semi-Arminianism of
Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck. Dabney was also an infralapsarian
and thought that God was not absolutely immutable. I say that because
Dabney was inconsistent on the anthropopathisms in Scripture.
If
God does not literally have a physical body or body parts, why is it so
difficult for Calvinists to see that God literally does not have
emotions either? If God can be "moved" by emotions, then God is not
immutable. That's simple enough logic. God has no succession of
thoughts in His mind. He perceives and understands all of creation and
all the temporal succession of time from beginning to end all at one
time. God literally is not mutuable or susceptible to change
whatsoever.
As
Gordon H. Clark rightly asked, why do those who have no problem with
anthropomorphisms have a problem accepting the anthropopathisms in
Scripture? This is difficult to understand given that Scripture is
logically consistent. (Listen to Clark's MP3 lecture, How Does Man Know God?).
See also, J. Ligon Duncan III on God's immutability and anthropopathisms here: Does God Have Emotions or Feelings?
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