(doc3) God At Beginning And End

Is God himself different at the end than at the beginning? What is involved in answer to this question? Immutability and Impassability -

God capable of love, hurt, grief etc  he is not entirely emotionally detached from the actions and response of his creation (he is passable???) • • •

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Is 40:11, 43:5-7, 49:15, 63:9 Eph 4:10 Gen 6:6-7Vs

And yet the Bible describes him as not changing •

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Ps 102:25-27

Heb 1:10-12 James 1:17 Malachi 3:6 Heb 8:8

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God is immutable in the fact that he does not change his plans, purpose, covenant, desires, character.

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However, what do we do with the incarnation?

Incarnation -

Is the incarnation a way in which God acts and as a result he himself is different than he was before?  The Hypostatic Union  was the incarnation something new for God?  The permament taking on of human nature where before there was only the divine nature  Divine and Human nature in Christ, united without confusion • Heb 1:10-12 • Phil 2:6-11 • John 1:1-14 • Rom 1:2-5 • Rom 9:5 • 1 Tim 3:16 • Heb 2:14  And what about us? We are now united with Christ also, partakers of the divine nature… in what sense? And does that have any

impact on God in himself? -

Seems we would have to say from a human perspective that in some way God, in himself, was different from the beginning than at the end.

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But… how should we understand God and time?

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God operates within time (eg. Incarnation), but he is not governed or limited by time  God is the beginning and the end •

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I am the Alpha dn the Omega, the Beginning and the End – Rev 21:6

Being ‘different’ is a idea which relies on change over time. But if God exists in himself outside of time then is he really different in the end than he was in the beginning?

So from our POV  The way God presents/reveals himself to us in time means that he appears different as a result of the incarnation (although he remains immutable) But from the POV of God in himself  He is outside of time in himself so don’t think we can describe him as different