Did God change his mind?

[Neostarwcc]

Okay so the Bible says in Genesis that God wanted to destroy the world and mankind with a flood. It also says that God then changed his mind and warned Noah about the flood. Was God going to always do this? If yes than why does bible say that God changed his mind? Did God then remember his promise to Adam and Eve to send a savior? Also think about it. Had God not changed his mind none of us would be here or could be saved and given eternal life. So we should thank God for that.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Okay so the Bible says in Genesis that God wanted to destroy the world and mankind with a flood. It also says that God then changed his mind and warned Noah about the flood. Was God going to always do this? If yes than why does bible say that God changed his mind? Did God then remember his promise to Adam and Eve to send a savior? Also think about it. Had God not changed his mind none of us would be here or could be saved and given eternal life. So we should thank God for that.

God always changes His initial plan when humans are found worthy or repent from sin. He is always willing to save His creation when ever we approach with humility and conviction.

 

[Jonaitis]

"God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?" - Numbers 23:19

 

[Jonaitis]

repost.

 

[Neostarwcc]

"God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?" - Numbers 23:19

So you're saying it was God's plan all along? Why does the bible say God changed his mind then?

 

[RaymondG]

"For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."

 

[ewq1938]

God has changed his mind:

Consider King Hezekiah. God told him to get his house in order because he was about to die. Hezekiah begged the Lord to let him live, so He gave him 15 more years. God did not change, but God changed his mind! Two very different things!

Exo 32:14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

Ex 32:14
14 So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.
NASB


Amos 7:1 Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king's mowing.
2 And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, "Lord GOD, please pardon! How can Jacob stand, For he is small?"
3 The LORD changed His mind about this. "It shall not be," said the LORD.
4 ¶Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, the Lord GOD was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farm land.
5 Then I said, "Lord GOD, please stop! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?"
6 The LORD changed His mind about this. "This too shall not be," said the Lord GOD.
7 ¶Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall, with a plumb line in His hand.
8 And the LORD said to me, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer.

 

[Jonaitis]

So you're saying it was God's plan all along? Why does the bible say God changed his mind then?

Yes, when God "regrets" or "repents," it is anthropomorphic, because God doesn't change. He appears to be this way in a human perspective when the narrative takes a major shift in redemptive history.

 

[HTacianas]

Okay so the Bible says in Genesis that God wanted to destroy the world and mankind with a flood. It also says that God then changed his mind and warned Noah about the flood. Was God going to always do this? If yes than why does bible say that God changed his mind? Did God then remember his promise to Adam and Eve to send a savior? Also think about it. Had God not changed his mind none of us would be here or could be saved and given eternal life. So we should thank God for that.

God also changed his mind regarding the Israelites after they made the golden calf. He swore to destroy them and make a nation for Himself from the descendants of Moses instead. At the prayer of Moses He then changed His mind again and allowed them to live.

That utterly refutes the notion of strict predestination. We cannot say that all things or all people are predestined, we can only say that we don't know, "for who is to know the mind of God".

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

The best way to read the Bible is with a child-like attitude and just accept what is actually there without trying to bring other stuff into it with other verses quoted out of their original context.

When we just read what is there, we see that God did change His mind about actions that He determined. We see a God who, although He has a plan and a purpose for mankind, he adjusts and amends how He goes about things depending on choices that people make and requests that people make of Him.

What I see about the unchangeableness of God is that His essential character and nature does not change, and He does not change His mind when He has given sound promises, because He is totally faithful to what He has promised.

But there is nothing in the Bible to say that because God changes the way He decides to go about fulfilling His plans, He is being changeable in His nature and character.

People who read stuff into the Biblical record that is not there are actually adding to God's Word and there are consequences to that.

 

[BobRyan]

Okay so the Bible says in Genesis that God wanted to destroy the world and mankind with a flood. It also says that God then changed his mind and warned Noah about the flood. Was God going to always do this? If yes than why does bible say that God changed his mind? Did God then remember his promise to Adam and Eve to send a savior? Also think about it. Had God not changed his mind none of us would be here or could be saved and given eternal life. So we should thank God for that.

Genesis 6 says that God created mankind - sinless and perfect but then mankind become so corrupt "God changed His mind" and decided to destroy all mankind -- then found Noah to be righteous so he spared Noah and his family.

Of course God knew this all along - but that does not convey the correct point about God's love for mankind and His desire that we all do well.

 

[Jonaitis]

I don't normally respond unless someone responds back to my post, but I want to just say this:

Predestination doesn't mean that God cannot change how he deals with his creation in history, quite the opposite. All that would happen, including the events with Noah and King Saul and Ninevah, were already decreed to happen, as well as the way God would respond to those circumstances, whether they repented or not to his threatening pronouncements. Since God is immutable in nature, his eternal decrees are immutable, his purpose is immutable, all things in him are immutable (ad-intra). What changes is his dealings with men in time (ad-extra), although it was ordained to occur by that eternal decree.

This is just a heads up for some of those who claim predestination contradicts passages where we find God "changing his mind." God's mind is one with himself, unchangeable.

Carry on...

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I don't normally respond unless someone responds back to my post, but I want to just say this:

Predestination doesn't mean that God cannot change how he deals with his creation in history, quite the opposite. All that would happen, including the events with Noah and King Saul and Ninevah, were already decreed to happen, as well as the way God would respond to those circumstances, whether they repented or not to his threatening pronouncements. Since God is immutable in nature, his eternal decrees are immutable, his purpose is immutable, all things in him are immutable (ad-intra). What changes is his dealings with men in time (ad-extra), although it was ordained to occur by that eternal decree.

This is just a heads up for some of those who claim predestination contradicts passages where we find God "changing his mind." God's mind is one with himself, unchangeable.

Carry on...

It seems that you are saying that God doesn't change His mind and He changes His mind!

 

[Jonaitis]

It seems that you are saying that God doesn't change His mind and He changes His mind!

I don't know how you read that in there...

He doesn't change his mind, what changes is his dealings with men within his predetermined purposes. As I said in my second post, when God "changes his mind," it is rather a major shift of the narrative.

 

[ewq1938]

Scripture shows God has changed his mind.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I don't know how you read that in there...

He doesn't change his mind, what changes is his dealings with men within his predetermined purposes. As I said in my second post, when God "changes his mind," it is rather a major shift of the narrative.

The problem is that you seen to be staying that God has decreed everything to happen because He knows what is going to happen beforehand. That makes sense, and whether I agree or disagree with that, is not material. What is being said is that because God has decreed, it will not be changed no matter what happens. That is quite logical as well.

What is not logical to me is that you say, as well, that God does change His mind. While it is logical in itself, it becomes a contradiction when you link it with the first premise that God's decrees are unchangeable.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Scripture shows God has changed his mind.

That is the simple, straightford reading of Scripture without adding a whole lot of philosophical and religious gobbledygook to it!

 

[Jonaitis]

The problem is that you seen to be staying that God has decreed everything to happen because He knows what is going to happen beforehand. That makes sense, and whether I agree or disagree with that, is not material. What is being said is that because God has decreed, it will not be changed no matter what happens. That is quite logical as well.

What is not logical to me is that you say, as well, that God does change His mind. While it is logical in itself, it becomes a contradiction when you link it with the first premise that God's decrees are unchangeable.

Ok...

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Ok...

God never changed His mind about destroying all life through the Flood. He just told Noah to build a big boat so he and his family could be saved and mankind would be reborn through him and his family. Abraham nearly talked God out of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, if if he had gone further in his negotiation with God, the cities would have been saved, but God saw Lot's righteousness and got him to safety. Moses talked God out of destroying Israel and starting the nation all over again through him by reminding Him of what the Egyptians would say about God going back on His promises to Israel.

All people who are presently lost are under condemnation. They are condemned already, but the prayers of His saints can change His mind about the people they are praying for. We can intercede for them, and Jesus takes our prayers and adds them to His intercession, and God changes His mind and decides to do the work of the Holy Spirit to show them how to get saved through Christ. This is the importance of intercession for the lost, because if we don't intercede for lost souls, they may stay lost when they could be saved as the result of our prayers.

So, if God can change his mind as the result of a saint crying out to Him to save a city or a nation, then we can cry out to God to save lost people and know that He will save them as the result of our prayers.

The problem is that most religious people don't spend the time to intercede for the lost, and that is why more people are going to hell when they could and should be saved.

One day, those who are lost will cry out to Christians in the judgement and say, "Why did you not pray for me when God could have shown me the gospel as the result of your prayers? Why did you not love me enough to see me find a way to avoid hell?" How would we be able to answer those questions?

 

[Jonaitis]

God never changed His mind about destroying all life through the Flood. He just told Noah to build a big boat so he and his family could be saved and mankind would be reborn through him and his family. Abraham nearly talked God out of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, if if he had gone further in his negotiation with God, the cities would have been saved, but God saw Lot's righteousness and got him to safety. Moses talked God out of destroying Israel and starting the nation all over again through him by reminding Him of what the Egyptians would say about God going back on His promises to Israel.

All people who are presently lost are under condemnation. They are condemned already, but the prayers of His saints can change His mind about the people they are praying for. We can intercede for them, and Jesus takes our prayers and adds them to His intercession, and God changes His mind and decides to do the work of the Holy Spirit to show them how to get saved through Christ. This is the importance of intercession for the lost, because if we don't intercede for lost souls, they may stay lost when they could be saved as the result of our prayers.

So, if God can change his mind as the result of a saint crying out to Him to save a city or a nation, then we can cry out to God to save lost people and know that He will save them as the result of our prayers.

The problem is that most religious people don't spend the time to intercede for the lost, and that is why more people are going to hell when they could and should be saved.

One day, those who are lost will cry out to Christians in the judgement and say, "Why did you not pray for me when God could have shown me the gospel as the result of your prayers? Why did you not love me enough to see me find a way to avoid hell?" How would we be able to answer those questions?

Again, I refer to my first and second post. All that ever happened, was already decreed to happen beforehand, including the event of Abraham and Moses interceding with God. It is absurd to think that, unless Moses did something God would have literally destroyed the whole nation, because this would forfeit everything preparing for Jesus' coming. It is language to show a shift of God's dealings with men.

When we pray, we don't absolutely change God's mind. He is carrying out what he originally purposed through our prayers. Whatever the means he worked to get us to pray for whatever it may be, was to achieve his end. Even if we did not pray, God would have carried it out regardless if he so wanted to.

Let me ask you this:

If God changes, does he learn? Does he grow? Does he mature? Explain to me how God can be subject to change by the creation, does it mean consistently that he isn't really perfect?