ARTICLE TITLE: Does God Change His
Mind? Divine Repentance by R.C. Sproul
DATE: N.A
AUTHOR: R.C. Sproul
AUTHOR
INFORMATION: Robert Charles Sproul (born February 13,
1939) is an American Calvinist theologian, author, and pastor. He is the founder
and chairman of Ligonier Ministries (named after the Ligonier
Valley just outside of Pittsburgh, where the ministry started as a study center
for college and seminary students) and can be heard daily on the Renewing
Your Mind radio broadcast in the United States and internationally.
"Renewing Your Mind with Dr. R.C. Sproul" is also broadcast on Sirius
and XM satellite radio. In late July 2012, a new Christian internet radio
station called RefNet (Reformation Network) was also
announced by Ligonier Ministries in an effort to reach "as many people as
possible" where Internet access is available.
Ligonier Ministries hosts several theological
conferences each year, including the main conference held each year in Orlando,
FL, at which Sproul is one of the primary speakers.
Sproul was a passenger on the Amtrak train
that derailed in the 1993 Big Bayou Canot train wreck and often gives firsthand
accounts of the story.
Does
God Change His Mind? If God is immutable, if He does not change at all, does
that mean He never changes His mind either? This is a very thorny problem. The
Bible appears to say at times that God changed His mind.
Related Resources
Consider,
for example, the following episode that took place in the time of Moses:
Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said:
“LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought
out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should
the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them
in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from
Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham,
Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said
to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this
land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit
it forever.” So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to
His people.
(Exod. 32:11-14)
God
“relented”? Other translations render the words here, “changed His mind.” This
narrative seems to make it absolutely clear that God does, in fact, change His
mind from time to time. Maybe His being doesn’t change, but does His mind cast
a shadow every once in awhile? The problem becomes more vexing when we read
elsewhere in Scripture:
“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man,
that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken,
and will He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless; He
has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. (Num. 23:19-20)
This
same concept is repeated elsewhere: “And
also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that
He should relent” (1 Sam. 15:29).
Is
this a contradiction in Scripture? How are we to understand this?
We
could throw up our hands and agree with the Bible’s critics who insist that this
is a blatant error or contradiction. A more judicious approach would be to
grapple with the problem of what is called phenomenological language. (The
illusion or appearance of something, “the way we see it” from our perspective.
As they appear to us, not necessarily as they really are. The aim of the writer
is to make a theological statement, a truth about God and man and his world,
he’s not using modern scientific precision and technical terminology.
Scripture
frequently describes events in terms of how they appear to the observer. The
Bible does not “teach” that the sun revolves around the earth, but it does
speak about sunrises and sunsets. (Even modern scientists do this when they are
using ordinary language. Listen to what the meteorologist on your local TV
station says about the sun’s “rising” and “setting.”)
The
most obvious use of phenomenological language in the Bible is its use of human
terms to describe God. The Bible speaks of His coming and of His going, of His
becoming angry, of His turning from wrath. He is described as having arms,
hands, a face, and feet. Yet this multitude of references to God via human
imagery is qualified by sober biblical warnings and reminders that God is not a
man. It is noteworthy that in these “troubling” passages the qualifier is
spelled out precisely in these terms: God “is not a man that He should relent
[change His mind]” (1 Sam. 15:29).
If
we took the discussion between Moses and God in Exodus and pressed the apparent
meaning to the ultimate, what would it teach us about God? Not only would we
think that God relented, but we would think that He relented because Moses
showed God a more excellent way. Is it even thinkable to us that God should
have an idea that is corrected by a fallible creature? If we entertain such a
thought the ramifications are sobering.
For
example, in the Exodus incident Moses pleaded with God, arguing that God would
look bad to the Egyptians if He carried out His threat. Then God changed His
mind? Think of the meaning of this in human terms: If God first thought about
punishing His people, He must have overlooked the consequence of that action on
His reputation. His reasoning was flawed. His decision was impulsive.
Fortunately, Moses was astute enough to see the folly of this decision and persuaded
the shortsighted Deity to come up with a better plan. Fortunately for God, He
was helped by a superior guidance counselor. Without the help of Moses, God
would have made a foolish mistake!
Even
to talk like this is to border on blasphemy. That God could be corrected by
Moses or any other creature is utterly unthinkable. Yet, that seems to be the
implication of the narrative. This is a major reason why we must interpret the
narrative passages of Scripture by the didactic or “teaching” portions. If we
try to find too much theology in narrative passages, we can easily go beyond
the point of the narrative into serious errors.
The
biblical narratives in which God appears to repent, or change His mind, are
almost always narratives that deal with His threats of judgment and punishment.
These threats are then followed by the repentance of the people or by the
intercessory petitions of their leaders. God is not talked into “changing His
mind.” Out of His gracious heart He only does what He has promised to do all
along – not punish sinners who repent and turn from their evil ways. He chooses
not to do what He has every right to do.
The
point of these narratives is to encourage us to pray. We are to make
intercession. The promised threats of divine punishment are given with the
condition attached that if we repent, we ~vi1l escape those punishments.
Sometimes that condition is spelled out explicitly, while at other times it is
merely implied. When we repent, then God removes the threat of punishment. The
question is, Who is ultimately repenting here? God never repents in the sense
that He turns away from sin or from error.
God
is not a man. He does not ultimately or literally have arms or legs. He does
not repent as men repent. He listens to our prayers but is never corrected by
them. He changes not- neither in the perfection of His being nor in the
perfection of His thoughts.
From
One Holy Passion
by R.C. Sproul.
