Can God change his mind?

No, because if God changes his mind, it would mean one of the following:

God's plan was not perfect to begin with so he had to change it

God is not omniscient/does not know the future

God makes mistakes


Having to change one's mind only comes from imperfect knowledge or from making mistakes or not being sure one is right

 

He wouldn't be God if He did.

what she said

 

When we humans repent (or relent) we change our will.

When God repents he wills a change.

 

Yes, God can change his mind. Remember how he changed:

Genesis 6:6, “The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain”?

Jonah 3:10, which says, “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened.”

Exodus 32:14 proclaims, “Then the LORD relented and did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened.”

 

I'm not as sure as I used to be that God doesn't change His mind after reading Genesis 6:7. "And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."

This sounds as though God regretted creating man and would have destroyed him and everything else had it not been for Noah and his family.

What I cannot understand is that God is supposed to know the future before it happens and must have known how mankind would turn out. So it couldn't have been a surprise to Him.

I often start a movie that is boring or difficult to understand, but I will sometimes keep watching it hoping it will get better. It usually doesn't, and I end up regretting the wasted time.

This verse makes it sounds as though God is like that, but He knows ALL things, past, present, and future. Nothing takes Him by surprise. So why would He regret something He did when He already knew what would happen?

 

Yes, He does "change His mind". There are many Scriptures showing just that (account of Hezekiah one of the biggest). He doesn't change His mind as man does, but there is a mystery we cannot understand in regards to how God deals with man within the confines of time and how He acts / reacts as such. We can try to philosophize it away, but there is a tension in Scripture that exists. If He didn't change His mind, the prayer of the righteous would mean zilch

 

That sounds nice, but when a sovereign God says He's going to do x, man prays asking God to not do x, and God does not do x (all sovereignly), He is in fact changing His will or He would either be lying in His declaration of doing x initially.

 

You are starting with the false presupposition that changing one's mind is defined humanly by having imperfect knowledge. Many accounts in the Bible of God doing just that while remaining omniscient...finite beings cannot understand how it can be the case, but I think it is pretty presumptuous to claim God can or cannot do something due to our understanding.

 

Webdog,

I tend to agree with you on this point because apparently God doesn't have a problem with scripture revealing his willingness to change. In the passages where there is an apparent divine change we don't find any type of "qualification" explaining that it is just "anthropomorphic" language. We simply find a narrative where God appears to change.

If nothing else, God doesn't have a problem with us thinking of him in these "anthropomorphic" terms, right?

However, we must take in the whole counsel of God so I wondered how you interpret the verses that Packer referred to:

I think of these as meaning God's ultimate sovereign will does not change. His nature does not change. He will accomplish His purposes even in the midst of "changes, disappointments, disobedience, relenting" etc. He is not like man, he is transcendent, but this doesn't negate his immanence. We cannot fully understand his ways (Rm 11), so we shouldn't attempt to explain away the clear revelation of God in scripture by having one attribute of God negate another.

 

I think both passages are referring to God not changing His mind the way a man does, i.e. based on emotion, feelings, incomplete knowledge, due to the flesh. We can even see God changing His mind in v. 7 in Malachi 3 (..."return to Me, and I will return to you")

 

We also have new testament parables such as the man who is forgiven a great debt but then doesn't forgive his debtor and then the original forgiveness is revoked. Jesus says that it is the same with our Father in heaven.

That appears to be teaching that if we, who have been forgiven by God, choose not to forgive others will suffer the same "change of heart" as the man in the parable did. Is that an empty threat to prevent something that could never really happen, or is it real? Could God take back his forgiveness of our sin ("change his mind") if we refuse to forgive others? It certainly appears so, if not, what is there to fear and what is the point of Jesus even giving us this parable?

 

I think that we have to conclude that God is not perfect if he changes his mind; there is just no other conclusion to come to. It means either he does not know the future or has to change from one plan to another.

If God knows the future, then why would he change in response to someone's prayer? Has God made a mistake or has God not known the person would pray for something? God knew the person would pray for x before it happened, so how could God change his mind in response to this prayer?

Open Theists use the same scriptures some here are quoting to prove that God changes his mind; from this they have concluded that God knows only the future that can be known. However, quite a few book and articles have been written refuting the arguments using these scriptures to try to claim that God changes His mind.

 

For those willing to change their mind that God changes his mind :smilewinkgrin:, here are some links and excerpts:

• http://tektonics.org/gk/godchangemind.html
  
  

http://www.provethebible.net/T2-Objec/G2-004.htm

Also see
http://www.gotquestions.org/God-change-mind.html

http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/559-does-god-change-his-mind

http://www.carm.org/religious-movements/open-theism/exodus-3214-lord-changed-his-mind

 

Marcia you are correct. GOD does not changes HIS mind. If HE did that would indicate that HE did not know all things. Just because we fail to fully understand some Scripture has nothing to do with the nature of GOD.

 

Not so. He would have know that he was going to change his mind. :laugh:

 

wow...this is strange, but I'm going to agree with you in part.

The Immutability of God applies to three things.

His Decree
His Attributes
His Covenant Promise

He can and does change in other ways. To say God cannot change no matter what, will give you nothing but a rock not able to move or do anything.

If God MOVES...he changes.

God can and does bring wrath.

God can and does remove his wrath.

But if God makes a Covenant promise...count on it.

 

Let's look at Hezekiah. God told him flat out "get your house in order, you are not going to live". Was God omniscient at that point? Hezekiah fell on his face in prayer. Was God omniscient at that point? God told Hezekiah "I heard your prayer and you will live 15 more years". Was God omniscient at that point? If you answered "yes" to all three, your theory crumbles. Was God kidding Hezekiah when He told him initially he was not going to live, or even worse, did He lie to him? It would have to be the case using your understanding.

 

Webdog, that is exactly what some Calvinists do argue. I remember one discussion I had with a Calvinist recently who argued that the "threat" of God is the means He uses to ensure a change in the man. In other words, they believe that God gives an "empty threat" that He has no intention to carry out because He knows it will have the effect He intends, which is to change them in the way He has predetermined it would.

So, in the example of Moses interceding for Israel, the threat of destroying Israel was not real, it was just an "empty threat" to get Moses to do what God wanted him to do...intercede. Once he did intercede, then God "relents" which is what he planned to do all along.

The problem I have with this is that it brings God's integrity into question. It seems as if God lies to Moses to get him to pray. If God says, "I intend to destroy Israel," when He really doesn't intend to do so, then isn't that a lie?

If a parent says to a child, "I will spank you if you don't obey," when the parent has no intention of spanking, isn't that a lie?

I just don't like the whole idea of qualifying a clear message in scripture with my man made theological constructs.