Does God Change His Mind?

To begin with, it is important to refresh our minds with those principles that identify an actual discrepancy.

The law of contradiction briefly stated is this.

A thing cannot both be and not be for the same object at the same time in the same sense.

To summarize, if different things (or people), time frames, or language usages characterize statements that appear to contradict, there may be a perfectly reasonable resolution to the problem.

With these premises in view, let us consider some biblical facts.

God Is Immutable

,

While ordinary things undergo transformation, the changeless Creator does not. He is the same forever (see Psa. 102:26-27). With the Lord, there can be “no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning” (Jas. 1:17 ASV; cf. Heb. 13:8).

To suggest that God is whimsical and constantly changes his mind, as such fluctuations are characteristic of humanity, is to reflect on the very nature of divine being.

God Is Omniscient

The fact that God is omniscient also enters into this subject. The concept of omniscience suggests that the Lord knows everything there is to know—past, present, and future.

This means he has never learned anything or discovered a new fact. He is never surprised by what men do. He knows our thoughts (cf. Heb 4:12-13) and the very intricacies of our bodies (Psa. 139:1ff; Mt. 10:30). Not even a bird falls to the earth without his awareness of the event (Mt. 10:29).

As noted above, divine omniscience also extends into the future. One of the dramatic differences between the true God and false gods is Jehovah’s ability to see the future. Of course, the false gods of paganism know nothing, let alone the future, because they are mere inventions of illusory minds.

The prophets of the Old Testament challenged their heathen rivals: “Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods?” (Isa. 41:23). The hundreds of prophecies that adorn the pages of the Bible are astounding evidence of the Lord’s foreknowledge.

In view of this amazing attribute, it is impossible to conclude that the Creator of the Universe vacillates back and forth, doing one thing now, then later changing his mind in any literal sense of that expression.

Can God Be Moved To Act in Response to Human Behavior?

The Scriptures frequently employ figures of speech that suggest God alters his actions in response to human behavior. The passage in Exodus 32 is an excellent example of this sort of phraseology. While Moses was on the heights of Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, the children of Israel below made an idol—a molten calf—and proclaimed it as their deliverer from Egypt.

The corrupt act was wholly antagonistic to the will of God, and the Lord proclaimed his intention to “consume” them. Moses, as a mediator, interceded and pleaded with Jehovah not destroy them. Accordingly, the biblical text represents God’s response in this fashion: “Jehovah repented of the evil [destruction] which he said he would do unto his people” (Ex. 32:14).

The term “repented” reflects a figure of speech, common to many languages, known as “anthropopathism” (literally, man-feelings). This idiom symbolically describes divine activity through human emotion. It is similar to the kindred figure, “anthropomorphism” (man-form) by which God is described as having physical parts (e.g., eyes, hands) even though he is not a physical being (Jn. 4:24; Lk. 24:39).

Anthropopathism, therefore, is a figure of speech by which human feelings or emotions are ascribed to God, in order to accommodate man’s ignorance of the unfathomable intentions and operations of deity (cf. Rom. 11:33-36).

Professor Alan Cole has an excellent discussion of this figure as employed in the Exodus text under consideration.

“[Anthropopathism is a figure here used] by which God’s activity is explained, by analogy, in strictly human terms. The meaning is not that God changed His mind; still less that He regretted something that He had intended to do. It means, in biblical language, that He now embarked on a different course of action from that already suggested as a possibility, owing to some new factor which is usually mentioned in the context. In the Bible, it is clear that God’s promises and warnings are always conditional on man’s response: this is most clearly set out in Ezekiel 33:13-16. We are not to think of Moses as altering God’s purpose towards Israel by his prayer, but as carrying it out: Moses was never more like God than in such moments, for he shared God’s mind and loving purpose” ( 217; emphasis added).

It must be understood, therefore, that while certain biblical passages speak of the Lord being “changeless” and others represent him as “changing” (in response to human conduct), different senses are in view.

In light of this fact, the “discrepancy” problem dissolves. But when one does not understand some common figures of speech used by the Bible writers, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he will most certainly draw many faulty conclusions—sometimes very dangerous ones.

Human languages are punctuated with dramatic figures of speech. This phenomenon is no less true in the case of the Scriptures than it is with other literary productions. A failure to recognize this principle leads to numerous flawed ideas.