Does God Change His Mind?
Over the last few months, a frequent question has arisen both online and in my personal ministry that I feel the great need to address. That question being, “Does God change his mind?” That question has come about through reading various texts of Scripture, in addressing questions from college students, and in casual conversations with congregants. It is due to the frequency of the same question, received over the last 3 to 4 months, being asked I believe that a pastoral and theological response is needed.
What is Being Asked?
Firstly, prior to answering the question outright, I need to diagnose the question a tad more. The question arises from another question first: Who is God? In Systematic Theology, a discipline that takes what the whole the Bible says about particular topics and organizes it into a formal and rational way, this question is related to Theology Proper. This section of Systematic Theology hone-in on the topics of who God is and what he is like (God’s attributes).
Many people “do” Systematic Theology often without realizing it. If one were asked, “What is God like?” many would respond with saying, “God is Love.” And that is true! God is love, and we find that in the book of 1 John. Others may respond with saying that God is just, citing the book of Exodus in chapter 34, verses 6-7. Again, one may say that God is holy while citing Isaiah chapter 6. Christians, naturally, want to know who God is and what he is like! The creature desires to know the creator, and the good thing for Christians is that God desires for his people to know him as Paul prays in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 16-17:
“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.”
So, the question “Does God Change his mind?” truly arises out of someone’s personal quest to come to the knowledge of God, or a desire to know God more. This question of God’s mind, or rather, God’s will happens when one reads texts such as Exodus 32 and 33 with the Golden Calf, or when Abraham meets with God prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. When we get to these passages, well-meaning questions might arrive at the conclusion that God changes his mind, or that he might. But does he? To be able to answer it, we need to first ask the question, “Is God like us?”
Is God Like Me?
We need to arrive quickly to answer why we begin with God in our theology, and why we do not begin with Man. Theology Proper (the study of God) necessarily comes prior to Man because God created man. If one begins to structure and build their theology around Man first, Man quickly becomes the center of the Universe. Man becomes “the point,” and man will usurp God from his rightful position. In other words, theology would begin from the vantage point of Man, looking to God rather than the vantage point of God looking at creation. This problem, of a man-centered theology, is what actually occurs in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve take advantage of their lofty position and attempt to take a step into the center by attempting to define right and wrong, making themselves to be like God. Ultimately, as we know, this fails, and Adam plunges the cosmos into Sin and Death.
If we adopted a Man-Centric theology, man becomes the progenitor of theology, and everything is defined by humanity. This is not so with a God-centric theology. By beginning with God, and identifying who he is, we are able to rightly diagnose what creation is, what humanity’s role in creation is, so on and so forth. In theology, we begin with the Creator God, because he is the beginning of everything.
As we rightly place God first, and highest, in our theology, we are now able to answer the question, “Is God like me?” To which the answer is rightfully, no. God is not like humanity. God is immutable (does not change), God is omniscient (knows all things), God is omnipotent (able to do all logical/possible things), God is Omnipresent (in all places, at all times, without dilution), and God is eternal (never beginning, never ceasing). Why do we need to begin with Theology Proper? It is because we require a baseline knowledge of who God is. Without this, we will not be able to answer the question of God changing his mind, or not, properly. We need to begin with the truth that God is not like humanity so that we can see more clearly.
The Real Implications of God Changing his Mind.
Someone may ask, “Who cares if God changes his mind? Is it that big of a deal?” Yes, it is a matter of eternal importance. It may not seem as if it is significant, or that perhaps it is a part of God’s plan that he would change his mind. In fact, there is an entire sect of theologians that are called open-theists who believe that God limits himself in terms of his fore-knowledge and power, and that he adapts to what his creation does. This is a significant error that cannot be fully delved into. However, as stated, the question of God’s mind is a matter of eternal importance and there are a myriad of problems that arise should God be able to change his mind, but we shall discuss only three.
First, if we say that God can change his mind, we call into question God’s Perfection.
If one were to ask a Christian, “Is God perfect in all his ways?” The answer would correctly be: Yes. But suppose that God could then change his mind, does this bring doubt into God’s perfect being? Of course it does! It does so by making it seem as if God could improve upon himself. Think of a moment when you made a wrong decision, perhaps by mistake, and then you changed your mind when you learned of that mistake – you improved upon yourself. This cannot be so with God, as God (logically speaking) is the greatest of all beings. If God could then be improved upon, he would not be the greatest of all beings. God, by being God, cannot make mistakes. God cannot err in his ways, to do so would make him imperfect.
The Lord is perfect in all of his ways, and is incomparable in who he is and what he does. The Lord himself proclaims that we cannot compare him to others, “To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?” (Is. 40:18) To say that God could then change his mind, is to compare him to fallen humanity, or to compare him to the false gods of the world - something we cannot do. God cannot change his mind because he is, necessarily, perfect.
Second, if we say that God can change his mind, we call into question God’s omniscience (knowledge).
Christians rightly say that God knows everything. However, this does not suffice for our purposes. Stephen Charnock, and English Puritan, wrote, “God has known from all eternity all that which he can know, so that nothing is hid from him. He knows not at present any more than he has known from eternity, and that which he knows now he always knows.” The implication, here, is that if God changed his mind then he could not possibly have known all things. It would be that God had acquired some sort of “new” knowledge that “informed” him that he should change his mind. This cannot be true, as Paul writes in Romans chapter 11, verse 33-35:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
Calling the supreme knowledge of God into question truly is to question of whether of not God can be God! As Charnock also says, “God’s knowledge and will is the cause of all things and the successions. There can be no pretense of any changeableness of knowledge in God.” And again he writes, “If God were changeable in his knowledge, it would make him unfit to be an object of trust to any rational creature.” In more simple terms, if God’s knowledge changes, we cannot trust God at all! But because God has all the facts, and knows all things, and because God’s knowledge brings about all things - God’s mind cannot change.
Third, if we say that God can change his mind, we call into question God’s promises.
His promises? Are they really in question if God can change his mind? Yes, for if he can change his mind about temporal and earthly matters, then he could certainly change his mind about eternal matters. Imagine if God could change his mind, then suppose what is to stop him about changing his mind about salvation? Or what about the resurrection? Friends, if God could change his mind, all of his promises are in question. Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon on Malachi 3:6 said, “If we could ever suppose that one of them [God’s promises] could be changed, we would not talk anything more of them.” If all of God’s promises to his Church are not “Yes and Amen” in Jesus Christ, they are not “Yes and Amen” at all if God can change his mind. But, as God is perfect in all of his ways, and because he knows all things at all times, God’s promises are sure and steadfast. As the writer of Hebrews proclaims to us, “When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.” (Heb. 6:17-18)
Friends, God’s promises to you shall never fail because God will not, and cannot, change his mind.
What do we do when it seems that God changes his mind?
Quickly, I want to answer the question of what we do when it seems that God does change his mind in the Scriptures? What about the instances of Abraham and God before Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed? Or, what about when God relents from destroying Israel after the Golden Calf? What do we do in these situations?
First, Christians need to remember who God is. Christians need to always remember that God does not change, God’s character does not change, and his promises do not change. If Christians do not begin here, but begin from man’s vantage point, we will quickly misinterpret the passage. By remembering who God is in his essence, Christians become anchored in the truth of God and are much more likely to understand what is being accomplished in difficult passages. Without such a reminder, Christians will easily go wayward.
Second, we need to ask the question: What is God revealing about himself? Take, for instance, the moment with Moses and God after the Golden Calf. God relented from destroying Israel. Why? did Moses change God’s mind? Certainly not! As the Scripture says:
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, what is going on here? God is foreshadowing the role of Mediator that Jesus Christ will perfectly fulfil for his Church. He is also revealing his mercy, as Paul reveals later, “For he [the Lord] says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” (Rom. 9:15)
Third, Christians need to be reminded that the Lord ordains not only the outcome, but the means. God’s plans always come to fruition, as Spurgeon notes, “God altereth not his plans; why should he? He is Almighty, and therefore can perform his pleasure.” How does God, at times, bring about his plans? By his people. Does God change his mind because of the man Moses? No. But does he reveal his mercy through the prayer of Moses? Precisely so. God ordained that by Moses’ intercession, he would reveal himself to be merciful.
Conclusion
Let us ask the question promptly, “Does God Change His Mind?” No, in truth he cannot. God could not be God if he could do so, because he himself would change – and as God is immutable (unchanging) in who he is, God cannot change his mind. Are there moments, especially in narrative driven portions, of the Scriptures where understanding this can be difficult? Of course. However, difficult passages should not trump what we know about God already to be true. When we do this rightly, we will not only begin to rightly see God as supremely sovereign but embrace more fully all of his promises knowing that he will not change what he has planned.
Does God change his mind? No, and that’s a good thing.
