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Does God change His mind?

God change mind

Malachi 3:6 declares, "I the LORD do not change. So yous, O descendants of Jacob, are non destroyed." Similarly, James 1:17 tells us, "Every good and perfect gift is from in a higher place, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not alter like shifting shadows." Numbers 23:19 is articulate: "God is not a man, that He should prevarication, nor a son of man, that He should alter His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?" Based on these verses, no, God does not change. God is unchanging and unchangeable. He is also all-wise. Then He cannot "modify His mind" in the sense of realizing a fault, backtracking, and trying a new tack.

How so do we explain verses that seem to say that God does modify His mind? Verses such as Genesis 6:6, "The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain." Also, Exodus 32:14 proclaims, "Then the LORD relented and did non bring on His people the disaster He had threatened." These verses speak of the Lord "repenting" or "relenting" of something and seem to contradict the doctrine of God'south immutability.

Another passage that is often used to show that God changes His listen is the story of Jonah. Through His prophet, God had told Nineveh He would destroy the city in forty days (Jonah iii:four). However, Nineveh repented of their sin (verses v–9). In response to the Assyrians' repentance, God relented: "He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened" (poesy x).

At that place are two of import considerations involving the passages that say God changed His mind. Commencement, we can say statements such equally "the LORD was grieved that He had made homo on the earth" (Genesis six:6) are examples of anthropopathism (or anthropopatheia). Anthropopathism is a figure of oral communication in which the feelings or idea processes of finite humanity are ascribed to the infinite God. It'south a way to help us empathize God'due south work from a human perspective. In Genesis six:six specifically, nosotros empathize God's sorrow over man's sin. God patently did not reverse His decision to create man. The fact that we are live today is proof that God did not "change His heed" nigh the creation.

Second, we must make a distinction between conditional declarations of God and unconditional determinations of God. In other words, when God said, "I will destroy Nineveh in forty days," He was speaking conditionally upon the Assyrians' response. Nosotros know this because the Assyrians repented and God did not, in fact, mete out the judgment. God did non alter His mind; rather, His message to Nineveh was a warning meant to provoke repentance, and His alarm was successful.

An case of an unconditional announcement of God is the Lord's promise to David, "Your house and your kingdom volition endure forever earlier me; your throne will be established forever" (2 Samuel 7:xvi). There is no qualification expressed or implied in this declaration. No affair what David did or did not do, the word of the Lord would come to pass.

God tells the states of the cautionary nature of some of His declarations and the fact that He volition human action in accord with our choices: "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, and so I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to exist built up and planted, and if information technology does evil in my sight and does not obey me, and so I volition reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for yous and devising a plan confronting you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions'" (Jeremiah 18:7– 11). Notation the conditional discussion if: "If that nation I warned repents [similar Assyria in Jonah iii] . . . then I will relent." Conversely, God may tell a nation they volition be blessed, simply "if it does evil in my sight [like Israel in Micah one] . . . and then I will reconsider the skilful I had intended to do."

The lesser line is that God is entirely consequent. In His holiness, God was going to judge Nineveh. Still, Nineveh repented and changed its ways. As a result, God, in His holiness, had mercy on Nineveh and spared them. This "change of mind" is entirely consistent with His character. His holiness did not waver one iota.

The fact that God changes His handling of usa in response to our choices has zip to practice with His character. In fact, because God does not modify, He must treat the righteous differently from the unrighteous. If someone repents, God consistently forgives; if someone refuses to apologize, God consistently judges. He is unchanging in His nature, His plan, and His existence. He cannot 1 day be pleased with the contrite and the adjacent day exist angry with the contrite. That would bear witness Him to be mutable and untrustworthy. For God to tell Nineveh, "I'grand going to judge you," and then (after they repent) refuse to judge them may await like God inverse His mind. In reality, God was only staying truthful to His grapheme. He loves mercy and forgives the penitent. "Has God forgotten to be merciful?" (Psalm 77:9). The answer is, no.

At 1 fourth dimension nosotros were all enemies of God due to our sin (Romans eight:7). God warned united states of the wages of sin (Romans 6:23) in order to cause us to repent. When we repented and trusted Christ for salvation, God "inverse His mind" about u.s., and now we are no longer enemies merely His beloved children (John 1:12). As it would be contrary to God's grapheme to non punish u.s. had we continued in sin, so information technology would be contrary to His grapheme to punish united states of america after nosotros repent. Does our alter of middle mean that God changes? No, if anything, our conservancy points to the fact that God does not change, because had He non saved u.s. for the sake of Christ, He would have acted contrary to His graphic symbol.

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Does God change His heed?

This page concluding updated: January 4, 2022