(Numbers 23:19, Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8).
Some people think that God speaks directly to them through dreams, visions, Thummim and Urim, audible voices/whispers, throwing a die, angels, and so on, because the Bible plainly states that God does not alter (Heb13:8).
If He spoke in the past in all the above ways and He does not change, He will speak again today in similar ways.
“Our God is not a statue or a silent idol…. We began to hear His voice and feel His glory as we moved closer.” (This is an excerpt from “Effective Fervent Prayer” page 70-71, of 2008 by Pastor Michael Kimuli, founder and Director of Christian Discipleship Ministries-Kampala.
They also assert that God is obligated and waiting in the wings to fulfil his promises because he changes not his promises.
This book was recommended in an introduction by Apostles John Mulinde, founder and Exective Director-World Trumpet Mission.
It was recommended in a foreword by Rev. Dr. Alistair P. Petrie Director of Sentinel Ministries-Canada).
Preamble.
Everyone is fickle to varied degrees. I’m sure we’d be surprised to learn how many times during the course of a typical day we modify our plans, backtrack, or reach for an eraser to eliminate an appointment or task we’d planned for the week. Changing our views comes so naturally to us as humans that it’s difficult to imagine living without it. Most of the time, the changes are innocuous and are the product of unanticipated situations, as well as the adjustments that other people make that directly affect us. Our fundamental limitations as humans compel us to change our views and goals, because God made us in such a way that we cannot control our steps or destiny (Jeremiah 10:23). This is the scenario in which you can cite Numbers 23:19, because most of the time we regret the repercussions of our poor decisions. But what does God changing his mind mean? Or, to paraphrase, “God does not change”? Are all of his intentions and plans unchangeable? Or is it just His intrinsic divine immutability?
In today’s charismatic Pentecostal groups, this word elicits either complaint or acclaim. For example, He modifies his mind (“repents”) as he modifies his method of being (“the Word became”). John 1:14). If God changed his mode of being from the third person of the godhead to the only begotten Son without compromising his divinity, why can’t he change his style of communication to man and now speaks to us through his only begotten Son without compromising His divine nature?
Isn’t it easier to command the Apostles to write down what God spoke via Jesus to become scriptures? God’s sufficient, inerrant, infallible, and ultimate supreme speaking? If Bible integrity is insufficient, why did Paul inform Timothy that All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is useful for doctrine, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness: That the man of God may be faultless, fully equipped for everything excellent effort (2Tm:3:16-17)?
What fresh information do you require from God if the scriptures can make a person perfect? Isn’t it said in the Bible that God’s word is quick, powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb:4:12)?
Which is easier to perform, or which is more magical and mysterious? Isn’t it easier for God to change the manner of communication (from visions, dreams, angelic visitation, audible voices in trance) to now through His Son (in the New Testament Scriptures) than it is to transform his celestial being into the new? But who says God no longer communicates with us through the prophets, to the second means of communication of the Son? Unless you are advocating that this passage be removed from the Bible, it is God Himself in Hebrews 1:1-2 decreeing this.
As a result, it is critical that we proceed in explaining how God can and cannot change cautiously but with conviction. I will use simple principles of Bible interpretation known as (Hermeneutics) to maintain the context of the passages in which these scriptures are found; the law of non-contradiction of scriptures; the author’s intention of meaning, the testament context, and language laws (grammar, punctuation, standard definition of words, and so on).
Can God modify his mind without jeopardizing his unchangeable essence and attributes?
Yes, he does, in the sense that when others change their behavior, he adjusts his attitude. When God conveyed a word of judgment to the people of ancient Israel, he stated, “Perhaps they will listen, and each one will turn back from his evil way, and I will change my mind concerning the calamity that I intend to bring on them because of their evil deeds.”—from Jeremiah 26:3.
Many Bible translations express this phrase as indicating that God will “repent” over the intended tragedy, which might be seen as his making a mistake. The ancient Hebrew word, on the other hand, can signify “change of mind or intention.” According to one scholar, “a change in man’s conduct brings about a change in God’s judgment.” It is true that God causes things to alter according to his will. Listen to what the Psalmist said in the Spirit: “You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end” (Psalms 102:25-27).
To demonstrate that each person is responsible for his own actions, God changed His earlier judgement on the Moabites and admitted Ruth the Moabitess into the congregation of Israel, so that King David and our Lord Jesus Christ were descended from her lineage, despite God’s declaration that “no Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even down to the tenth generation” – (Deuteronomy 23:3).
In Ex 32:14, the Lord changes His mind regarding the devastation He promised to do to His people. In verse 14, Moses reminds us that the generous God of Israel has delayed a deserved destruction in response to the mediator’s prayers. The argument is not that God’s plan to redeem Israel by bringing his children back to the promised land has changed. The point is not that God’s perspective on redemption has shifted. The point is, God is not being arbitrary here. In reality, He is carrying out exactly what He promised in Jeremiah 18:6-10. “Whenever I promise something and you are presumptuous, I will judge you,” He says in the book. And if you sin and I threaten you with judgment, and you repent, I will accept you.”
What exactly is He saying? He’s saying, “I’m a God looking for an excuse to be compassionate toward you.” And when you repent, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will respond in mercy, but when you are arrogant and reject Me and the promises I make, you can bet that judgment will follow right behind.
His point is not that we can change God’s secret will and plan, or his essence, but that He is consistent in how He deals with us. Is it possible for a human to persuade God to modify His mind?
Do our prayers have the power to persuade Him to change His mind? Isn’t God unchanging, and if so, how can we interpret Bible stories that suggest we might persuade Him to act differently if it’s in His will?
Another instance of God changing His mind is Jonah’s cry against Nineveh, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed!” (Jonah 3:4).
But take note, “Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented (changed) from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it” (verse 1). When Nineveh repented, the God who had stated his intention to destroy it for its wrongdoing “changed” his mind.
God changed his mind about a sinner because of Jesus. “We who were once his enemies are now by the grace of Christ his friends” (Romans 5:6-7).
Furthermore, because God must modify his son in order to save man, this statement of immutability must not be read in such a way that “the Word became flesh” constitutes a danger to his divine character. (John 1:14).
We must recognize (since our salvation depends on it!) that he who is in his eternal nature, in the very man, who did not cease to be the Word (no transubstantiation here!), changed space-time history. The second part of the Trinity has taken on or adopted a human nature, transforming himself from heavenly splendour (heavenly riches) to be born in a manger (poor) without altering or reducing his fundamental deity.
Regardless, he alters his decisions and seasons are determined by his sovereign will. “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself” (Ehp1:9).
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever!” says Daniel 2:20-21.
“Wisdom and power are His! He adjusts the seasons and the times; He dethrones and installs monarchs. He bestows insight on the wise and knowledge on those who comprehend!” “And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,” Daniel 4:35 states: “And He does as He pleases in the host of heaven and among the people of the earth, and no one can stop Him or ask Him, “What are You doing?”
God brought about reforms in the priesthood, which resulted in changes in the Law of Moses (Eph: 2:15). According to Hebrews 7:11-12,18, if perfection (a) If the Levitical priesthood (which gave the people the Law) had achieved perfect fellowship between God and the worshiper, why was it necessary for another and different kind of Priest, one after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one appointed after the order and rank of Aaron? A change in the clergy required a change in the law. These modifications are just too many to list. The Bible tells a single epic story that spans Genesis to Revelation, from creation to our fall into sin, to Jesus’ saving work on the cross and the eventual restoration of God’s rule over all creation, demonstrating how God brings about change as He deals with people while maintaining his divine immutability.
Even Generational Punishments was changed.
At Mount Sinai, God told Moses that he would punish the children of someone to the third and fourth generation. However, in Ezekiel’s day, He appears to have softened as follows: This Good News of Christ was conveyed by the prophet Jeremiah hundreds of years before Christ’s birth. Jeremiah predicted the future justice system of the grace period, in a vision from God, saying that people would no longer say, “The parents have eaten.” sour grapes, and the kids’ teeth are clenched.” Instead, everyone will die for his own sin; whoever eats sour grapes will have their teeth sharpened.
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the peoples of Israel and Judah” (Jeremiah 31:29-31).
Jeremiah is used in Hebrews 88-12 as evidence that the new covenant brought about by Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection ushered in a change that a sinful soul is the one to be punished. Any preaching teaching generation bondages is doing so without a biblical warrant.
What do you mean when you say of the land of Israel, “The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge”? “As surely as I live,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “this proverb will no longer be quoted in Israel.” Because everyone belongs to me, both the parent and the child. “The one who sins will perish” (Ezekiel 18:2-4).
According to Bible scholars, both of these foreshadow the salvation we get through God’s grace in Christ. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “whoever believes” is not condemned; everyone who does not believe is already condemned. As a result, penalties and rewards are based on an individual basis rather than a generational, national, or continental level (John 3:18).
In the Bible, we also see God not holding the following generation accountable for the misdeeds of the preceding generation. In fact, He rewarded them despite the fact that their fathers were evil. For example, consider Numbers chapter 14. The Israelites are portrayed in this chapter complaining about Moses and Aaron and showing contempt for God. God had delivered them to the Promised Land, but they were hesitant to drive out the land’s Amalekites and Canaanites because they didn’t trust God to deliver the enemy into their hands. God would not allow only people who showed disrespect for God and failed to trust in Him to enter the Promised Land. God, on the other hand, did not chastise the following generation (those under the age of 20), or Joshua and Caleb, who had trusted the Lord to deliver those people into their hands. They were finally allowed to enter the Promised Land after 40 years.
We can look at some of Judah’s kings. When we look at the list of Judah’s monarchs, we may find both good and bad kings. We can see in four different places that there were kings that God blessed and who He said did right in His eyes, yet they had fathers who did bad in the Lord’s eyes. As an example:
Ahaz, the evil father (2 Kin 16:1-3). Evil father Amon (2 Kin 21:19-20) Good son Hezekiah (2 Kin 18:1-3) Josiah, the good son (2 Kin 21:26 – 2 Kin 22:1-2). Despite having terrible fathers before them, these virtuous monarchs loved and served the Lord. God did not curse them for the bad crimes of their fathers, but rather exalted them.
Of course, just because God has the ability to modify his mind does not imply that he must. He can heal or bless you, but he is not obligated to do so.
Consider several instances in the Bible where God is said to have not altered his decision:
God did not allow Balak to persuade Him to change His mind and curse the nation of Israel (Numbers 23:18-20). The backdrop of this scripture is that God refused to reverse his decision not to curse Israel since doing so would imperil Israel’s restoration path to the promised land. It would also violate his promise to Israel through Abraham of blessings rather than curses.
God did not change his mind about dismissing King Saul of Israel as king until he became thoroughly entrenched in evil (1 Samuel 15:28, 29).
God, who used to speak through Urim and Thummim and prophets (Exodus and 1 Samuel), did not change his mind about declining to speak when consulted. “And when Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams nor by Urim, nor by prophets” (1Sam28:6).
Please keep in mind that this did not indicate that God became mute or that He lost His divine characteristics.
God Himself stated that He can change His mind by not looking at or listening to our requests, not because He is deaf or dumb, or because He has grown less powerful to the point where He can no longer save, but because of our sin (Isaiah 1:15, 59:1-2).
After Paul prayed three times, God refused to answer his petition. Paul had a “thorn in his flesh” that God refused to heal in order for him to be saved. Keep Paul in his place. (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
God appeared to Moses in the fire and spoke to him in a burning bush (Exodus 3:2) during the same era when Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire flowed along the ground; then the LORD rained hail upon Egypt (Ex:9:23). Similarly, the LORD responded to Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1), but on a different note, the God who answered in the earthquake, changed his response from fire to a still tiny voice after the fire (1Ki: 19:11-12).
God utilized Paul’s infirmity to convey the message to the Galatians (Gal. 4:13), and Paul most likely had poor eyesight (Gal. 6:11). This is a typical example of God changing His Righteous Standard Operating Procedures without a second thought. Furthermore, we are not to question God about why he changes his way of operation. “And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he (God) does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what have you done?” said one of the most arrogant kings in humility.
This is the same caution God gave in Isaiah 45:11 about not questioning Him about the work of His hand (creation). We are to follow what He stated via His Begotten Son in these final days. While the Old Testament should be viewed Christocentrically.
Timothy was regularly sick (1 Tim. 5:23), so Paul simply tells him to add wine to his diet (wine was used as a type of treatment at the time). He was not healed by God. Paul also left a sick man named Trophimus at Miletus unhealed (2 Tim. 4:20, Ph’p:2:27). Paul did not say, “God does not change; as He has healed in the past, He must heal me.”
However, this does not imply that God has lost his ability to perform miracles.
God, who promised his people in one covenant to be the head and not the tail in the old covenat, In the new covenant, he has changed the way he treats his servants by promising hard times on earth (Johm 16:1-4,33): “Throughout the book of Acts, the disciples were persecuted, hauled into courts, threatened, imprisoned, beaten, flogged, stoned to death, and put to the sword,” Paul writes. They were met with riots and mobs. False witnesses were used to convict them. They were dispersed from their houses (Acts 8:1), and some Christians’ property was taken (Heb. 10:34).
Paul was imprisoned for two years at one point (Acts 24:27). According to 1 Cor. 4:9-13, Paul and his companions went hungry and thirsty, had their clothing reduced to rags, were violently handled, were homeless, cursed, persecuted, slandered, and compared themselves to filth and waste. They were “stricken down,” “perplexed,” “persecuted,” “always given over to death” (2 Cor. 4:8-11).
They encountered difficulties and challenges. Distresses, beatings, imprisonments, riots, hard work, sleepless nights, starvation, dishonor, bad report, beatings, sadness, and poverty. (2 Cor. 6:4-10). Paul himself was chained and imprisoned frequently, flogged five times, beaten with rods three times, stoned once, shipwrecked three times, and was constantly on the move from danger. He occasionally went without food, water, or sleep because he was cold and naked. (2 Cor. 11:23-27) At one point in his ministry everyone deserted him (2 Tim. 4:16), and at Another time, the anxiety and anguish were so intense that he didn’t want to live (2 Cor. 1:8-9).
The book of Hebrews describes men of God who were tortured, mocked, flogged, chained, imprisoned, stoned, sawed in half, and killed with the sword. They traveled the deserts and mountains in sheepskins and goatskins, dwelling in caves and holes in the ground. They were impoverished, oppressed, and mistreated. Faith professors would argue these were individuals of little faith, yet verse 39 suggests otherwise. They were congratulated on their faith! Remember, they are his servants to whom he promised protection and abundant life, but God permitted all of these disasters not because He is weak or a silent idol, but because of his sovereign will.
What does immutability entail if God’s purpose is unchangeable and he is immutable?
No study of the idea of immutability would be complete without addressing the issue of God’s purported “repentance.” If God’s design is unchangeable and he is unchanging, how can he be said to have “changed his mind”?
God’s essence is immutable (unchangeable): there was never a time when He was not;
there will never be a time when He will cease to be.
God has not changed, matured, or improved in the same way that humans do.
God’s counsel is immutable: His will never change. So, since God never changes, how do we reconcile these scriptures with Moses’ story? First and foremost, we must realize that human change is not the same as divine change. God does not modify His mind because He made a mistake. It does not imply that he alters his fundamental character, because God’s divine traits do not change.
We change because we are inconsistent. God alters His behavior because it is compatible with His character. That is why, when you read His promises in the Bible, you will notice that all of them, with the exception of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, are conditional.
If Nineveh repented, God would relent. But if Nineveh ignored Jonah’s warning, the wrath of God would be poured out on them. Fortunately, Nineveh humbled itself, and God spared the city.
Abraham prays to God
Another instance of God altering His mind occurred during a discussion with Abraham. He declared to the patriarch that He will demolish the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham was concerned that there were righteous individuals in the city. In Genesis 18:24, he begged to perish alongside the wicked.
We are perplexed as to how a simple human being could converse with God in such an open and polite manner. Abraham’s example demonstrates the power of interceding on others’ behalf.
Our prayers have the power to change the lives of those we care about. Never underestimate your requests for divine assistance. Our prayers are heard by God. He was unable to discover ten virtuous persons in Sodom, therefore the city was destroyed. Nonetheless, because of Abraham’s prayers, God was willing to consider preserving the city. Because it is consistent with God’s empathetic character, intercessory prayer affects His acts. If God had punished the Ninevites after their repentance as he had threatened to do before their repentance, he would have demonstrated his mutability. It would have revealed him to be dissatisfied with impenitence at one point and delighted with penitence at another.
1. Consider the following verse from Jeremiah (Jeremiah 18:5-12):
Then the Lord spoke to me, saying, “O house of Israel, can I not do with you what this potter has done?” As you can see, like the clay in the As you are in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If I ever declare that I will pluck up, break down, and destroy a nation or a kingdom, and that nation, about which I have spoken, repents of its iniquity, I will repent of the calamity that I intended to bring upon it. And if I declare to a nation or a kingdom that I will construct and plant it, and it conducts evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, I will abandon the good that I had planned to do to it.
2. The prayer of Hezekiah
Another occasion in the Bible in which God changed His mind. The prophet Isaiah sent a grim warning to Judah’s King Hezekiah. “In those days, Hezekiah was sick and on the verge of death.” And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: “Set your house in order, because you shall die and not live.” (2 Kings 20:1). When Hezekiah cried hard, God changed His mind and added years to his life.
In a comparable vein, the Bible states, “If My people humble themselves, pray, seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
When the devils (now fallen) were glorious angels, they were naturally the objects of God’s love; when they fell, they became the subjects of God’s anger since they are unclean. The same motive that drove him to adore them while they were pure drove him to despise them when they were criminal.”
Even we gentiles were once objects of God’s anger, but we have now been transformed into His pals.
It is one thing for God to will change in created things outside of himself, but it is quite another for him to change in his own nature and character.
All of this is to claim that because God is immutable, he must treat the wicked differently than the virtuous. When the wicked repent, he must adjust his attitude toward them. As a result, God’s immutability “is not that of the stone, which has no change.” interior experience, but rather that of a mercury column that rises and falls in response to changes in the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere.
3. However, whether or not the Lord produces miracles today, please consider the following.
While God does not alter in His Deity, and the traits that constitute his divinity will never change, his activity in human affairs can and does change. His interactions with others, His sovereign will, as established by his sovereign will, has varied throughout history. God manages his cosmos in accordance with his will and purpose.
In the garden, God spoke directly to the human family. God altered this mode as a result of mankind’s sins, which distanced them from the Lord. Isn’t it true that he altered his interactions with humans? Yes, and this is due to both his holiness and our sin. God communicated with man through the Thummim and Urim; does He still do so with our pastors? God spoke to His servants using a die throw. Is God still communicating through the use of a die since He does not change?
Jehovah previously destroyed the earth with water, but he promised Noah he would never do it again (Genesis 9:13-17).
He promised humanity that he would modify his attitude toward us? Can we rely on Jehovah to uphold his promises?
God’s style of action shifted in response to the Covenant environment. The Law of God is another example of how God altered his contact with humans. God ordered Israelite males to be circumcised on the eighth day through Moses (Lev. 12:3), but imposing such a requirement on Christian men today would be wicked and foolish (Gal. 1:6-9, 3: 1-10).
The Law permitted Moses to issue divorce letters to individuals. But God altered this in Matthew 19.9: “And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, commits adultery: and whoso marries her which is put away doth commit adultery”.
In the Old Testament, it was forbidden to consume unclean animals, but God modified this by allowing all things to be eaten (Mark 7:19).
God is no longer acting in the same way he did with the Israelites, but it doesn’t mean his character or the redemptive plan of the entire universe has changed.
God needed all prayers to be directed toward the Temple that Solomon built in order for petitions to be heard in the Law (2Ch:6:20, Da:6:10), but God modified this in the new priesthood, now you can face in any direction and in any place while praying (John 4: 20-25).
NB: QUESTIONs TO CONSIDER:
Will Seventh-Day Adventist be right to refuse to eat unclean animals?” or are they right to keep the Sabbath because God said He does not change? Can we say God is omnipotent because he refused to make all promises to his saints as seen above? (HEBRES 11:13, 39-40)?
Should a Jewish Rabai right to demand doves and rams in the dedication of children as God said at one time?
Are churches surcharging the 5% penalty to those members who default paying tithe as God commanded? Are Christians paying a sabbatical tithe (Deut. 14:28-29; 26:12-13, once in three years in addition to the annual tithe (Num. 18:21-24); and festivals tithes (Deut. 14:22-26)?
Are firstborn male and firstling male animal and first fruits from fruit trees (Exodus 13:2; Numbers 3:13) collected as tithes in church today? Do Christians eat the festival tithes (Deut. 14:22-26); at the church as God commanded? and do the first level recipients of tithes (Pastors), pay a tenth to the Senior Pastor (Chief Priest) as God commanded? Will a Jewish Rabai be right if he invokes “God does not change” to practice the above tithes rules?
4. How about miracles?
While God is a miracle worker, he has plainly said that they will cease owing to his omnipotence. Not only that, but counterfeit Christs will utilize miracles to attract people to themselves by claiming God’s name, and if feasible, they will deceive. the chosen. “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Math24:24).
As a result, the emphasis is on the fruits of the spirit rather than miracles, signs, and marvels. The fruit is the identifying factor (Math 7:16).
Did God ever say they would end? If Jesus did reveal that there would come a moment when miracles would cease to occur, it should be simple to take him at his word: “Love never fails.” [never fades away, gets obsolete, or ends]. Prophecy (the gift of perceiving the divine intent and purpose) will be fulfilled and pass away; tongues will be destroyed and cease; and knowledge will pass away [it will lose its worth and be replaced by truth].” 1 Corinthians 13:8.
If the Holy Spirit has revealed that some gifts will stop, then they will stop. So, the question isn’t, “Does God have to change his deity if miracles no longer occur?” Rather, we must question, “Have miracles already been removed, or will they be removed in the future?” 1Co:12:31: “But covet earnestly the best gifts, and I will show you a more excellent way.” But actively pursue and cultivate the highest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the most desirable graces). But I’ll show you one more thing. great way [by far the best and highest of them all-love (1 Corinthians 12:31).
We can be glad that God changes His mind, for else, we would all die eternally. However, this is not the case. The Bible is replete with assurances that God will save us if we change our minds and submit to His will.
