Theology Threads

Retirement for God's glory, divine impassibility, and the importance of godly friendship

I haven’t written in a while, so consider this an update from the Part-Time Seminarian crew. I (Collin) have been busy getting married! So that means my now wife has become a part-time seminarian along with me. I think that’s how that works.

In any case, I wanted to note down some things I’ve been studying in the form of a theology threads article. I’m sure I’ll write about these in more detail at some point, but for now, here are some links on each topic to get you thinking.

Stewarding your retirement for God’s glory

Any question of how to steward money is bound to stir up lots of opinions. Some people cite Dave Ramsey as law, while others try to game credit card points systems. But are either of these extremes really how God wants us to use our finances?

There is perhaps no greater tragedy sold to Americans today than the idea of the “American dream,” particularly as it relates to retirement. But God doesn’t care how comfortable we are when we retire, he cares what we actually do with it.

I have long found John Piper’s wisdom on money helpful as he cuts through the noise of the culture and goes straight to the heart of financial stewardship. Here is an article on having a healthy framework for retirement, based on Piper’s wisdom and exhortation regarding finances.

You can find the article on John Piper’s biblically informed retirement framework here.

You stay zealous for good deeds right to the end. You magnify Jesus by serving. Heaven is coming. It’s not meant to drag forward. It’s meant to sustain hope and ministry.

As a P.S. of sorts on money and stewardship (you know, for those of us who aren’t nearing retirement), God and Money is an incredible resource to have. It’s written by two Harvard business grads, one a spender type, the other a saver type, who graduated from business school and went on a quest to find out everything the Bible says about money. The result was God and Money, and it is filled with tons of practical wisdom on financial stewardship. It’s a great book!

You can pick up the book on Amazon here or read about their story on their website here.

Divine impassibility (divine what-now?)

Now, this is one of those theological terms that will take some careful definition, particularly because it’s traditionally been identified as an attribute of God. I plan to write in extended detail about it soon, because I have found this subject to be utterly fascinating as I have studied it.

The root word for passibility is pass-, the same root that gives us passions and passive. Pass-ibility, then, means “capable of experiencing passions and being passively acted upon.” Since God neither has passions (since he has no fleshly body) nor is he capable of being passively acted upon, the term “impassibility” has traditionally fit as a way to describe his divine nature.

To take one recent example of how this is applied, Open Theism (which is derivative of a larger group of thought known as process theology) outright denies God’s impassibility. In the open theist conception of God’s nature, he is not only open to suggestions and new ideas, but he is capable of suffering harm. Thus, open theists affirm a different doctrine of God’s nature than traditional Christian theism.

All this to say (and trust me, there is much, much more to say on this subject) is that the doctrine of God’s impassibility is hotly contested in our day. Does affirming impassibility present us with a rigid, static, immovable doctrine of God, one who is incapable of feeling anything at all? Or does the God of the Bible change and adapt to new circumstances and information, like the open theists claim he must in order to be God? How are we to read texts that speak of God “changing his mind,” “repenting,” or “burning hotly with anger?” All of these questions are relevant to God’s impassibility, and it even directly relates to other questions of God’s immutability and simplicity.

Kevin DeYoung has a really helpful overview article on the debate, which I would commend to all our theologically inclined readers:

You can find it here.

If you want to dig a little deeper, you might consider reading this review or even picking up a copy of James Dolezal’s All That Is In God. I’m reading through it right now, in between chapters of Lonesome Dove (like all good seminary students do).

Dolezal’s book stirred up quite a bit of controversy in recent years because his main thesis is that well-recognized evangelical theologians (like Wayne Grudem and John Frame) have ceded ground on this issue amidst the pressure of process theism. It’s quite the fascinating read on a debate that is still bubbling away in the academic world.

You can find a review of Dolezal’s book here on Themelios.

Godly friendship and brotherhood are greater than “accountability”

This last one is more of an interesting thought that I encountered as a result of reading Samuel James’ wonderful substack, Digital Liturgies.

The basic premise is that in our cultural lingo, particularly in smaller groups of men, we like to use the word “accountability.” By this, we usually mean regular meetings where sin is confessed and repented of. The problem is that this group dynamic is usually pursued without friendship in mind, so it often doesn’t end up helping that much in the fight against sin.

Both of the articles below from Samuel James and DesiringGod hold up a strong theology of friendship. In the fight against sin, we need godly brotherhood and friendships that remind us of our Savior’s friendship to us more than just mere “accountability,” whatever that means. These articles are both well worth the read!

You can find the article on DesiringGod here,

and Samuel James’ article here:

Why Christian Men Need Friendship, Not Just "Accountability"

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That’s all for this week! If you made it this far, thank you for reading. Parker and I both pray that you are encouraged, and I pray that the Lord blesses you and your family this Good Friday. May the Lord be with you — in both your thoughts and heart — next time you study. For “great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.” (Psalm 111:2).