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[Moderator]: Dr. Clark, I have another question for you.
And this moves on to another area of your lecturing material.
Dr. Clark, does God have feelings?
[Dr. CLARK]: The Westminster Confession says that God
has neither body, parts, nor passions.
I suppose the word "feeling" is a contemporary word for "passions"
and the answer of the Confession is no, God has no feelings, emotions, or passions.
[Moderator]: I have another one that speaks of God is Love.
Is the emotive or emotional aspect of man not also a part of the image of God
in view of the fact that God is Love and we're commanded to love one another?
[Dr. CLARK]: Love is defined in the 13th or 14th chapter of Romans.
Love is defined as obedience to the commands of God.
You may say God is Love and His love
is defined as giving His Son as a ransom for the elect.
In the history of theology, love traditionally has never been considered an emotion.
There is something that is called love,
particularly in these days hat is quite emotional,
but in theology love has traditionally been considered a volition and not an emotion.
That's a partial answer.
[Moderator]: Dr. Smick?
[Dr. Smick]: Well, I would address myself to this question perhaps in this way
that if we are speaking of God's essential nature,
and I think that's what our Confession is talking about,
that God does not have passions, then that is true.
But on the other hand, God in His wonderful mercy and goodness
has seen fit to reveal Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.
And there is a sense, and this is the glory of the incarnation really,
which no other religion in the world even approximates.
That God as revealed in Jesus Christ does indeed have feelings
and there is a sense in which we may, you know,
we say that God in Christ, Christ is God,
so if you would define it in that sense you may say yes,
the God does have feelings.
If you are saying it is in terms of the incarnation,
but after all we can only know the essential nature of God by analogy
and this comes to us so wonderfully and so powerfully in the person of our Lord.
We can know what God is like in the, in Christ,
in a way that we can't possibly know otherwise.
[Moderator]: Dr. Morris?
[Dr. Morris]: I wonder if we could ask Dr. Clark to address himself
specifically to bit in the question which drew attention to man
being made in the image of God and man as having emotions.
If he commented on that I didn't hear it.
I'd like to hear his comment on that.
[Moderator]: Does God have feelings and is the emotional aspect of man
not also a part of the image of God?
[Dr. CLARK]: On one occasion I asked a professor of psychology
to give me some competent books on emotions.
He gave me 4 volumes, each one 34500 pages.
Each one written by a professor of psychology in some American university.
I read all four of those books.
Not one of them ever said what an emotion was.
Until you define emotion the discussion cannot continue.
[Audience laughter]
[Moderator]: Dr. Clark, what have you understood those people
who do speak of emotions as referring to?
[Dr. CLARK]: Well, they didn't tell me.
[Audience laughter]
[Dr. CLARK]: I should offer perhaps not a complete definition,
but at least an element of the definition.
An emotion seems to me to be a sudden upheaval,
disturbance in our ordinary calm state of mind.
And I don't see that this is part of the image of God,
I think this is part of original sin.
[Moderator]: Dr. Morris?
[Dr. Morris]: I would certainly agree with that.
It seems to me that the nub of the question is the definition of emotion
which is why I started by throwing the ball back to Dr. Clark,
I want to hear him on that.
If we are thinking of emotion in the sense of some passion that overmasters us
and takes us out of what we are in ourselves,
then God is surely without emotions.
And God's love doesn't mean that at all.
On the other hand, to say that God is without body, parts, or passions,
which in case you didn't know is part of the Anglican formularies
as well as part of the Westminster Confession,
means that God is not thrown off His balance by anything outside of Him.
It means more than that, but it means that.
It means that nothing that puny man can do,
for instance, can cause God to deviate from His calmness.
But it doesn't mean that God doesn't care.
The Scripture is full of the idea that God does care.
That caring is shown in His love.
It is also shown in His wrath.
And the wrath of God runs through and through Scripture.
So in the sense that God is, dare I say it,
passionately concerned with our well-being,
then I would say that God does show emotion.
But it's a question of the definition.
We must not take up such a position that we can feel God
can be wobbling from one state of mind to another one,
as we so easily are, that's not that.
But we must hold that, I think,
in line with the Scriptural position that God does care
very much whether we do good or ill,
and He cares for us, for our well-being,
and the upshot of His caring we see on the cross.
[Audience]: Would you permit a follow up question?
[Moderator]: I'd like to have the panel finish first, and then I'll…
because this is the only aspect we have directly on emotion.
A lot more on the image of God in man.
So, but, first the panel.
Any more on this?
[Dr. CLARK]: I wouldn't wish to be convicted of placing words in the mouth of Dr. Morris,
but his last remarks sound to me to say that
he has asserted that God's will is immutable.
An immutable volition which he calls concern.
I could agree with that.
[Dr. Morris]: Ok then let's not argue.
[Audience laughter]
[Moderator]: Dr. Strong has asked for permission to place a follow up question.
Would you arise and state your question please?
[Dr. Strong]: ??? emotion ???
What interpretation do you place on indignation,
grief, sorrow in the Lord Jesus.
That we would not associate most obviously with corruption.
Let us have a response please to these questions.
[Moderator]: Dr. Clark.
[Dr. CLARK]: The second Person of the Trinity was incarnate
for the purpose of living the life of a human being.
This included our ordinary faculties.
It included pain.
I don't know that Jesus was ever sick,
but he got tired and hungry.
And although this is not a sin,
I would suspect that being tired and hungry and having pain
is nonetheless the result of the sin of our first parents.
And so Jesus experienced those penalties
during His human life, just as we do.
This is a matter of His human nature, not His divine nature.
[Moderator]: Dr. Smick?
[Dr. Smick]: I don't have any…
The Lord God got angry, we must remember too.
Of course, but I think that fits with what has already been said.
[Moderator]: All right.
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