CAN GOD CHANGE HIS MIND ?

[Logan]

Ok, I don't see where it was conditional though. He said go tell them in forty days they will be overtaken, right?

[Guest shiloh357]

4 minutes ago, Logan said:

Ok, I don't see where it was conditional though. He said go tell them in forty days they will be overtaken, right?

Why would God send a prophet to them, if it wasn't conditional on their repentance??  Whenever God sends a prophet it is a warning to repent. 

 Jonah knew that: "

And he prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster." (Jon 4:2)

Jonah knew they would repent and that is why he ran from the call, in chapter 1.   He hated the Ninevites and wanted to see them destroyed.   God sent Jonah to call them to repentance, in order to spare their lives.

[Logan]

I still don't see where God told Jonah to tell them to repent or else. His message was simply in forty days you will be destroyed.

[SINNERSAVED]

1 hour ago, shiloh357 said:

No.  Not in the sense that we change our minds.   Notice that God said he was going to destroy Nineveh if they didn't repent.   They repented and God kept his promise.   

God didn't say, "I am going to destroy Nineveh;  no, wait, I changed my mind; I am not going to destroy Nineveh."      God's destruction of Nineveh was not a certainty or determined event.   Had it been a hard determined event, set in stone, you could say that God changed his mind.   God gave Nineveh 40 days to repent once they heard from Jonah and so they stayed God's hand by repenting.   But God didn't actually change his mind.

so by saying that God said, if they don't repent he will destroy them., shows that God is willing to change his mind if needed ? and that he does react to situations, in one way or another , and not all, is set in stone and unchangeable ? I am not understanding this now ?

 

[Guest shiloh357]

5 hours ago, SINNERSAVED said:

so by saying that God said, if they don't repent he will destroy them., shows that God is willing to change his mind if needed ? and that he does react to situations, in one way or another , and not all, is set in stone and unchangeable ? I am not understanding this now ?

 

No, you're not understanding this.    God didn't change his mind in the case of Jonah.   Jonah was to preach to Nineveh so that they would repent.   If they repented, God would not destroy them.    It was an "if you do this, I will do this"   kind of thing.    God did not change his mind at all.   God was faithful and because Nineveh repented God did destroy them.   Had God changed his mind, he would have destroyed them even if they did repent.

[Logan]

Shiloh, can you show me the verses where Jonah was supposed to tel them to repent because I still only see the message from God as in forty days you will be destroyed?

[Guest shiloh357]

33 minutes ago, Logan said:

Shiloh, can you show me the verses where Jonah was supposed to tel them to repent because I still only see the message from God as in forty days you will be destroyed?

Jonah preached for 40 days.   Do you think that all did was repeat the same sentence over and over for 40 days?    The Bible doesn't give us the entire text of Jonah's message.  It simply gives us the overall synopsis, or  jist of what he said.

If you look throughout the Bible, you will notice that God only sends prophets to call people to repentance.  He doesn't send a prophet when the doom of that nation is fixed.   When the season of repentance is over,  there are no more prophets.

Since God is consistent and faithful to himself, we can deduce based on God's conduct that the only reason Jonah was sent was to call them to repentance.   Also did you miss the part I quoted from chapter 4?     Jonah was angry that they repented.   He said that the reason he ran from God was because he knew that if they repented, God would have mercy on them and he ran from God's call in order to wait out the 40 days so that God would have no choice but to judge them.   Jonah didn't preach because he didn't want to give the Ninevites a chance to repent.   So from that we can deduce the content of Jonah's message.

[AllTheGoodNamesAreTaken]

13 hours ago, Logan said:

Didn't he change his mind about destroying Nineveh when they repented after Jonah preached?

Hi Logan,

I read through Jonah 3 again. Here's what I get from it, but definitely open to discussion and differing opinions;

The question that comes to my mind is, what was God's purpose* in sending Jonah to preach to the people ? I believe He wanted to give them an opportunity to repent, which they did. 

So, I see it as a warning [ to them ] and opportunity [ for them ] to avoid destruction.

* God always has a purpose

[Guest]

To “change one’s mind,” in the New Testament means to repent. When the Bible speaks of my repenting or your repenting, it means that we are called to change our minds or our dispositions with respect to sin—that we are to turn away from evil. Repent is loaded with these kinds of connotations, and when we talk about God’s repenting, it somehow suggests that God has to turn away from doing something wicked. But that’s not what is always meant when the Bible uses this word.

Using a word like repentance with respect to God raises some problems for us. When the Bible describes God for us, it uses human terms, because the only language God has by which to speak to us about himself is our human language. The theological term for this is anthropomorphic language, which is the use of human forms and structures to describe God. When the Bible talks about God’s feet or the right arm of the Lord, we immediately see that as just a human way of speaking about God. But when we use more abstract terms like repent, then we get all befuddled about it.

There’s one sense in which it seems God is changing his mind, and there’s another sense in which the Bible says God never changes his mind because God is omniscient. He knows all things from the beginning, and he is immutable. He is unchanging. There’s no shadow of turning within him. For example, He knows what Moses is going to say to him in Numbers 14 before Moses even opens his mouth to plead for the people. Then after Moses has actually said it, does God suddenly changes his mind? He doesn’t have any more information than he had a moment before. Nothing has changed as far as God’s knowledge or his appraisal of the situation.

What in Moses’ words and actions would possibly have provoked God to change his mind? I think that what we have here is the mystery of providence whereby God ordains not only the ends of things that come to pass but also the means. God sets forth principles in the Bible where he gives threats of judgment to motivate his people to repentance. Sometimes he spells out specifically, “But if you repent, I will not carry out the threat.” He doesn’t always add that qualifier, but it’s there. I think this is one of those instances. It was tacitly understood that God threatens judgment upon these people, but if somebody pleads for them in a priestly way, he will give grace rather than justice. I think that’s at the heart of that mystery.

Is God confused, stumbling through all the different options—Should I do this? Should I not do that? And does he decide upon one course of action and then think, Well, maybe that’s not such a good idea after all, and change his mind? Obviously God is omniscient; God is all wise. God is eternal in his perspective and in his full knowledge of everything. So we don’t change God’s mind. But prayer changes things. It changes us. And there are times in which God waits for us to ask for things because his plan is that we work with him in the glorious process of bringing his will to pass here on earth.  Source.

[FresnoJoe]

16 hours ago, SINNERSAVED said:

so can God change Hs mind ?....

or is He above any correction needed at all ?....

~

Beloved As I See It, The Problem With Men's "Logic" Is

God is not human, that he should lie,
not a human being, that he should change his mind.

Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?

I have received a command to bless;
he has blessed, and I cannot change it. Numbers 23:19-20 (New International Version)

It Struts Upon The Bed Rock Of Ignorance

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. Isaiah 55:8 (New Living Translation)

And That Beloved Is Caused

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 (King James Version)

By Eating Sickness

And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” Luke 4:4 (English Standard Version)

IMO