Subject: Is God subject to change? |
Bible Note: Dear Tim, "Scripture is clear that God's nature never changes. However, His interactions with man do seem to change." I cannot comprehend Omniscience facing anything of an unexpected nature. "There are only two ways to explain passages like Amos 7:6 (that I can think of). Either, God never really changed His mind, and Scripture lied." Well Tim, I know you believe that Scripture never lies, so your explation must be, as you said "God never really changed His mind, Or, at least some of God's interactions with man are conditional and dependent upon our responses to Him." But, is it not true that God has always known what all nations would do? He knew before He created them whether or not they would repent; Did'nt He? It seems to me that Jer. 18: 5-10 is God proclaiming His sovereign power. If any nation shall repents (after recieving His warning) of evil they will be spared from disaster. Could it not be that God is simply telling Israel the principles by which He rules over peoples and nations? J.I. Packer, in "Knowing God", makes the following statement: Repenting means revising one's judgement and changing one's plan of action. God never does this. He never needs to, for His plans are made on a basis of complete knowledge and control which extends to all things past, present and future, so that there can be no sudden emergencies or unexpected developments to take Him by surprise. Could it be that Amos was employing a "manner of speaking" when He said: The LORD changed His mind about this. (?) John |