God's Eternal Plan

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Question
Must God's eternal plan also be immutable?
Answer
God's eternal plan must also be immutable because God is immutable, meaning that he is unchanging. God being immutable says to us that he's unlike us. He doesn't, you know, have to learn, grow, develop, you know, over time or to, you know, a degree as we do. And since he is unchangeable, everything that emanates from him as it relates to his, you know, eternal plan, has to also be unchangeable. What God has decreed before the foundations of the world has to be unchangeable as well. If not, then that tells me that God has to adjust his plan, you know, and that speaks, then, to the fact that he may not be omnipotent because, again, he may not be all-knowing in the fact that he was not able, you know, from the offset to ascertain or determine what exactly, you know, would occur, and so then that would go against what we have learned in Scripture, you know, about him having foreknowledge, having predestined, predetermined things to take place in that respect there. And so, we would know that even before Adam and Eve's sin in the garden, Christ had already, before the foundations of the earth, had become the Passover Lamb who ultimately would take care, you know, who would atone for sin as such. And so that, you know, tells me that God's plan, because of who he is, is unchangeable as well, and his eternal will is being accomplished. When I look at human history, and I like to say that all human history serves God's purpose. You know, we like to think that man is impacting human history, and yes to an extent they are, but they are impacting it under the auspices and the supervision of God himself.

Answer by Rev. Larry Cockrell

Larry Cockrell is pastor of Household of Faith Church in Birmingham, Alabama and is on faculty at Birmingham Theological Seminary.