Late Submission of Assignments
The Passibility of God mainly refers to the idea that God is devoid and free from emotional turmoil and feelings. On the other hand, when it is talked about the impassibility of God, it is referred to God being unresponsive to any kind of emotions, which is a trait that all of His creatures are subjected to. The eons old inquiry about God being the one with a nature similar to that of His creations or He is someone who is higher than the creatures remains to be in quite a dilemma. Is God someone who is capable of any kind of suffering or is he someone who remains relatively emotionless and does not suffer with the humanity, which is indeed a creation of his own. The following paragraphs will discuss in depth whether God suffers and weeps with the world.
The idea of a God who is very much capable of being omnipotent has its source deeply embedded in the theology that God is sympathetic and is free to feel emotions. Opposed to this is the idea that God is above human emotions who remain high as a being, different from petty emotions. His impassibility is similar to His eternality, His immutability or His omniscience. The believer of an Impassibility attribute of God does not acknowledge an emotional God but rather stresses on the fact that God is someone who is apathetic to His creations. God remains higher than His creations, who is also incapable of having a grounded touch with any kinds of human emotions. In both the cases, in both the opposing ideas, if stressed on at an extreme, it can result in extremism, a disaster. The stress on the impassibility of God leads to Deism which puts connotations on God as an apathetic, distant and a rather cold figure who prefers to stay at a distant and not at all interact with any kind of human emotions or humanity. On the other hand, an extreme stress on God being extremely passible gives birth to open theism who pictures God as someone who is rather naïve and the one who does not have any significant knowledge of the future. Open theism views God as someone who has less knowledge about the future turn of events and becomes surprised at the turn of event.
The argument for God’s impassibility starts at the fact that God is indeed an immutable being who possesses an unchanging nature that does not change depending on events which would generally affect human beings, God’s very own creation. Since God is not someone that changes frequently, it is very much believable that God is not susceptible to any kinds of human emotions. Had God been susceptible to emotions, He would change as He would take different forms, depending on the emotion He is going through. If God was a being who started responding to any source of pain or suffering, his nature would very much change. However, it must be remembered that the proposers of God’s impassibility do not deny the complete existence of God’s suffering or His urges to feel the emotions. Rather, they propose the voluntary nature of God’s emotions, something that He is to feel is He wants such. They believe that the emotions of God always come with some kinds of purpose and is not mere suffering. It comes with attributes that are sure to pave ways for something more meaningful and purposeful. God is much more than the limited human beings who shed their tears as a show of emotion. However, God being the omnipotent suffers voluntarily with sympathy towards His own creation. His suffering always comes with a purpose of something greater than suffering naively, per se. The promoters of an impassible God also have a firm belief that God is the ultimate sovereignty and the beholder of the ultimate power. Had God suffered with the humanity, He would just be susceptible to the consequences of the surroundings and God is not susceptible to anything. God cannot be the subject to suffering as God is someone who is not subject to anything.
Policy Exceptions
On the other hand, the proposers of a passible God argue that God is very much capable of responding to the events that take place on Earth. With vast scriptural references, it can be easily seen that God suffers with his creatures and is very much capable of feeling sympathy, empathy, and compassion for his people. God despises Sin and is able to feel the wrath. He is able to feel pain when His very own creations do not acknowledge the existence of Him when His creations do not celebrate His love and grace. In fact, Jesus, the embodiment of God Himself, started weeping at the tomb of Lazarus. It has been seen that whenever Jesus showed the embodiment of the Holy Father, He became very much susceptible to emotions. As per the scriptures, God takes the embodiment of the Great High Priest and indeed does get sympathetic. He can then also show empathy to the weaknesses that the human being boast. The prophets and biblical scholars have portrayed Jesus as someone who is born out of pain, a man who is able to suffer, a man who is familiar with the idea of suffering and pain. The children of God also must suffer for each other as God Himself is the harvest of pain. The children of God must remember how He suffered to provide the children, the very own creations with ultimate freedom soothed and filled with eternal love. The authors of the Hebrews claims that one must remember to suffer with the ones who suffer almost every moment. The ones who are in prison must be suffered for, the majority of the human beings must weep for the ones who are suffering as the creation of God is one and the creations, His children, must be empathetic towards each other in order to bring the fruits of love by suffering for each other as a way to show support for the greatness of God. To bow down to God’s sovereignty, one must suffer and show God that a human being is also capable of suffering just like God himself who sent his heavenly son Jesus to suffer for humanity. The creatures of God must suffer for the pain of others so as to conform to the fact that in reality all the children are the same and has the source as one and only, the powerful, almighty Lord Himself. The children of God are supposed to weep with one another and share the pain of each other as well as rejoice in each other happiness in order to increase the happiness by multifold. They must be in solidarity with each other through the various situations whether it is negative or it is positive. As the creations of God share each other’s pain and suffers for each other, they showcase God-like qualities. By mourning and suffering the children of God proves the possibility of God’s passibility. It is the passibility of God which allows Him to be the one with His creations. It is God’s passibility that He is the one who suffers. It is through His passibility that He has a deep connection to human emotions and human suffering. God’s eternal devotion and eternal sympathy for humanity will lead the earthly creatures to eternal salvation. God indeed does allow His golden heart to be touched by the suffering of His creations, who must show God-like qualities, the closest that one can reach to His passibility is through suffering. It is true that God is transcendental, but that does not mean that God does not care. Biblical statements which reveal that God indeed is nothing but eternal glory and love points out to the fact that God is capable of feeling human emotions as He is made out of it. God is thus a passionate being who will respond to the pleas of the creatures of Earth. God has suffered, and thus He knows the nature and extent of the suffering of earthly beings. The doctrine of possibility proposes thus that God is very much invested in His creations. He is invested at such a great extent as He truly cares for the inhabitants of the Earth. God is never the victim of any situation as he is incapable to be the subject of circumstances. God is someone who is in complete charge of His emotions, yet He is not whimsical in feeling the intricacies of it. God does not possess whimsical qualities like mood swings, or a fickle mind. God is someone who is in charge of His emotions as His emotions are the fruition of love for His children on Earth. In this way, the passibility of God is just an example of His touch with emotions, which He has suffered with.
Theology Topics
To reflect from the perspective of the Holy Trinity as God as triune, the doctrine of passibility is highly feasible. The Father who generates, the Son who begot and the Spirit who proceeds are all capable of emotions that are similar to the human. The Father who is reflected in the actions of the Holy Son Jesus Christ suggests that Jesus must suffer for the freedom of humanity. Jesus suffered and confessed to death as a gesture of opening the path of salvation to the earthly creatures. Jesus is the embodiment of the Holy Father. Thus He shows God like, rather Father like qualities by suffering for the humanity. The Son, Jesus reflects God-like capabilities when He showcases the compassion and channels of love which He spreads among the earthy beings. The Father is channelized through the Son, Jesus and thus affirms to the doctrine of passibility which allows God to weep with humanity. The Holy Spirit who embodies the Father and the Son is nothing but a part of God Himself, who is a compassionate being opening the gates of salvation and eternal love for the human. If the Holy Trinity is of one and same nature, it is impossible that the Son suffers without the Father being a sufferer. Similarly, it is not possible for the Holy Spirit to be of the same nature as God, and not to suffer. If the Son has suffered, so has the Father and the Holy Spirit. The triune nature of God allows the Father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, all to suffer together just because the nature of the three are the same. They are all the embodiment of God himself and thus it is only plausible that all of them are very much in touch with human emotions- love, compassion, and suffering.
Reference
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