can God REALLY repent/Change His Mind?

[Tom Butler]

Maybe we can define repent this way:

When I repent, I change my will.
When God repents, He wills a change.

Here's another way to look at it. God does not change. For instance, He is always unhappy with sin and rebellion; he is always pleased with obedience. When one sins, he moves into God's anger. When one obeys, he moves into God's pleasure. God doesn't change, I change.

It's sorta like the sun, which hardens clay and melts butter. Same sun, different action.

 

[Amy.G]

Maybe we can define repent this way:

When I repent, I change my will.
When God repents, He wills a change.

I think that is an excellent definition! :thumbs:

 

[convicted1]

Gen. 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.



2 Kings 20
1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.

2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,

3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.

4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.

6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.


Jonah 1
1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.


Jonah 3
1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,

2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.

4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.



It sure seems to me that He can change His mind, if He chooses to do so.

 

[psalms109:31]

Genesis 1:28
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Genesis 22:17
I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,18 and through your offspring[Or seed] all nations on earth will be blessed,[Or and all nations on earth will use the name of your offspring in blessings (see 48:20)] because you have obeyed me.”

Genesis 48:20
He blessed them that day and said,

“In your[The Hebrew is singular.] name will Israel pronounce this blessing:
‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”

So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.


Romans 4
Abraham Justified by Faith
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[Gen. 15:6; also in verse 22]

4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7 “Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”[Psalm 32:1,2]

9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”[Gen. 17:5] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”[Gen. 17:5] 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Galatians 3:6
So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

We may see it is as a change of mind, but it is in fact that the promise will be fulfilled, He relents so that His promise He has made before will be fulfilled that His promise is what matters. Some times we are tested for us to remember His promises to us!

Like this

Exodus 32:
11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

 

[webdog]

Maybe we can define repent this way:

When I repent, I change my will.
When God repents, He wills a change.

Here's another way to look at it. God does not change. For instance, He is always unhappy with sin and rebellion; he is always pleased with obedience. When one sins, he moves into God's anger. When one obeys, he moves into God's pleasure. God doesn't change, I change.

It's sorta like the sun, which hardens clay and melts butter. Same sun, different action.

Would not agree with that definition. It is much to simplistic in trying to understand how God works. He can very well change His will, but of course it will not be in the same manner humans do.

 

[JesusFan]

Maybe we can define repent this way:

When I repent, I change my will.
When God repents, He wills a change.

Here's another way to look at it. God does not change. For instance, He is always unhappy with sin and rebellion; he is always pleased with obedience. When one sins, he moves into God's anger. When one obeys, he moves into God's pleasure. God doesn't change, I change.

It's sorta like the sun, which hardens clay and melts butter. Same sun, different action.

Could it be that these terms are how God "goes down to huamn reasoning levels", and applies man like terms to His feeling/reasoning etc?

Also, could there be events which are absolutely locked into place, as the Lord is personally directly causing them to occur, while other events are those that God are "permitting to happen, based upon our responses to the situation ?

He would "change" based upon what we do in those cases, while the "locked down" events will happen, regardless how we respond!

 

[Cypress]

Also, could there be events which are absolutely locked into place, as the Lord is personally directly causing them to occur, while other events are those that God are "permitting to happen, based upon our responses to the situation ?

He would "change" based upon what we do in those cases, while the "locked down" events will happen, regardless how we respond![/QUOTE]


Yes:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[HankD]

When the plan of our eternal God is worked out in time it tends to baffle us.

There was the plan "before" the creation.

He executed the plan and He enterered His creation, entered the time stream and He walked with Adam, Eve.

Then He participated in His creation and became a human being - born of a woman.

Yes, He repents, the scripture cannot be broken.

Obviously it can't be a repentance from sin.
It also cannot impact His immutability.

I'd rather deal with the problem of being baffled by the how and why of His repentance.

The mechanics and details of His repentance are unknowable to us since we, being in the time continuum and having "a beginning" see the "end" result of His repentance coming out of His eternality.

NKJV Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.​

We can conceive of eternity but we can't figure it out because unlike us He had no beginning, we have no point of reference.​

Someone said - "When God repents, He wills a change".

I believe that's the closest we can come in our understanding to God's repentance.

Thank you for that. It's the first time I've heard it put that way.

So, Why not focus on the result rather than process?​

Like the following:​

2 Timothy
24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.​

"If" with "perhaps" means maybe He will, maybe He won't.

Here Paul writing to Timothy, uses the word "perhaps" in a subjunctive ("if") sentence about our immutable God with an awesome result.

So, apparently God exercises His will to do or not to do in our present tense without an impact to His eternal immutability and sovereignty.


HankD

 

[Tom Butler]

Would not agree with that definition. It is much to simplistic in trying to understand how God works. He can very well change His will, but of course it will not be in the same manner humans do.

web, I know it sounds simplistic, but it is a sincere effort to figure out how to resolve the scriptures which tell us that, on one hand, God is unchanging, but, on the other hand, repents, or relents, or changes his mind. Or, wills a change.

I know my idea sounds petty glib, but I still like it.

And Amy G likes it. That ought to settle the issue.