God is unchanging?

[ChrisChromatic]

• If God is unchanging, why is it that it appears that the God described in the Old Testament is very different from the God described in the New Testament? And if God is unchanging, He is the same God as He was in the past and always will be, why is it that we pray for things? I understand worshiping and glorifying, but asking for things, why is it that we pray if God is unchanging? Can our prayers change God’s mind or His will? There are passages in the Bible where it appears that people are pleading and negotiating with God. Why is that and how can that be?
• What does Jesus Christ mean when He said He has not come to abolish the old law but to fulfill it? In the Old Testament, they referenced killing, slavery, and stoning, animal sacrifice, things I believe are not what Jesus Christ wants. How is it that He did not come to abolish the old law if He is doing other things?

 

[joseie]

Who said God is unchanging? There are several instances where God heard prayers and changed his mind or granted it.
Regarding Christ coming to fulfill the law please read a beautiful article about it,the link to which is this:

What does it mean that Jesus fulfilled the law, but did not abolish it? | GotQuestions.org

What does it mean that Jesus fulfilled the law, but did not abolish it? Are followers of Jesus today under the authority of the Law, or free from the Law?

www.gotquestions.org

 

[truthnlife]

• If God is unchanging, why is it that it appears that the God described in the Old Testament is very different from the God described in the New Testament?
• What does Jesus Christ mean when He said He has not come to abolish the old law but to fulfill it?

1. God did not change, human history changed man’s perception of God.
2. He fulfilled the intent of the law and the prophets. The law he spoke of, and the cautions of the prophets were not Levitical Law, but, as Jesus pointed out, the only two laws that mattered: a) that we love God, and b) that we love our neighbor.

 

[Vico]

• If God is unchanging, why is it that it appears that the God described in the Old Testament is very different from the God described in the New Testament? And if God is unchanging, He is the same God as He was in the past and always will be, why is it that we pray for things? I understand worshiping and glorifying, but asking for things, why is it that we pray if God is unchanging? Can our prayers change God’s mind or His will? There are passages in the Bible where it appears that people are pleading and negotiating with God. Why is that and how can that be?
• What does Jesus Christ mean when He said He has not come to abolish the old law but to fulfill it? In the Old Testament, they referenced killing, slavery, and stoning, animal sacrifice, things I believe are not what Jesus Christ wants. How is it that He did not come to abolish the old law if He is doing other things?

God knows what will be due to omniscience. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that God is “altogether immutable…it is impossible for God to be in any way changeable” ( Summa Theologiae , the First Part, Question nine, Article 1.)

The people were not living up to the laws. Matthew 22:

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39 The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

 

[Almost-there]

Excellent Question.
My answer is that Perfection is not Absolute and that God’s Perfection only increases with time.

 

[Wesrock]

My answer is that Perfection is not Absolute and that God’s Perfection only increases with time.

For the OP, I’ll just clarify that this answer isn’t consistent with Catholic theology.

 

[Dan_Defender]

God did not change, just his plan for humanity reached its peak over time. He entered human history in the fullness of time.

 

[CapitalistCatholic]

God can’t change his mind. Would that then mean he doesn’t know the future, present, and past simultaneously? “Changing his mind” reduces him to a being subject to the will of mortals.

 

[Nita]

If God is unchanging, why is it that it appears that the God described in the Old Testament is very different from the God described in the New Testament?

God is unchanging. God always loves us with a love that is always doing what is good for our eternal salvation. This is UNCHANGING; it is part of His very essence. (1 John 4:16 … God is love…). However, the manner in which He manifests this love can vary and change - depending on the varying condition of the recipients at the time.

For example: Because God loves us, He does not desire any one of us to go to hell. Thus, if we are headed in that direction , He may announce or threaten a discipline in an attempt to get us to repent and change rather than suffer eternal damnation. Now, if the persons heed God’s threat and repent before the discipline is applied , God will probably “change His mind” about imposing it because there is no longer any purpose for it. Thus God Himself, in His Being (Love), never changed (and never will). Only the way He manifested His unchanging love differed/changed.

 

[Gorgias]

If God is unchanging, why is it that it appears that the God described in the Old Testament is very different from the God described in the New Testament?

Because people were changing. More to the point, our understanding of God grew and developed over time.

I understand worshiping and glorifying, but asking for things, why is it that we pray if God is unchanging? Can our prayers change God’s mind or His will?

No, they can’t. God’s will is God’s will.

Essentially, we’re praying that it’s God’s will that what we want is what He wants. More specifically, we’re praying that we ourselves be drawn to want what God wants, in the way He wants it!

What does Jesus Christ mean when He said He has not come to abolish the old law but to fulfill it?

The old law was not perfect. Jesus perfects it.

In the Old Testament, they referenced killing, slavery, and stoning, animal sacrifice, things I believe are not what Jesus Christ wants.

That was the old law. Not perfect, but good (for its time).

Who said God is unchanging?

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 13:8).

There are several instances where God heard prayers and changed his mind or granted it.

Anthropomorphic figures of speech.

 

[JerryZ]

We need to understand that in the Bible we see reflected the concept that the “chosen” people had of GOD.
We read in the respective authors their belief and the understanding they had of GOD. In due time Jesus who IS GOD revealed the true nature of GOD to us.
Philosophically we can arrive at some truth about the True GOD but we cannot learn about HIS true nature unless HE chooses to disclose it us. And Jesus did.
NO GOD does not change. Our understanding of HIS has changed through time as we learned from Philosophy AND Himself about HIM.

 

[Nita]

God does know the past, present & future.
In my previous post where I gave the example of God proclaiming/threatening a punishment and then relenting, God would have foreknown what the people would do – that they would change and repent if He made the threat. He also foreknew that He would revoke the discipline when they did repent. (The book of Jonah is an example of the above.)

 

[CapitalistCatholic]

If he foreknew, then he didn’t change his mind. It was all according to his will.

 

[Nita]

it appears that the God described in the Old Testament is very different from the God described in the New Testament?

Jesus told us to call God “our Father” – our Parent! So when I was trying to understand some of the differences between the way God seemed in the OT it helped me to think about how I parented my children.
At first they’re babies and we just provided for them; only a few rules as they get to toddler stage (Adam to Abraham?).
Then the rules, discipline, and duties got more numerous from the age of reason to graduation. (Moses/Mosaic laws to Jesus).
Deut. 8:5 "…as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. "
Isaiah 1:2 “…sons have I reared and brought up…”

Once they graduated, our rearing them to responsible adulthood thru rules and disciplining ended. Now we have a loving adult relationship with them. (Jesus through the age of His Church here on earth).
John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Throughout all the stages, one thing has remained unchanged. I love them. The rules were because I loved them; the disciplines were because I loved them, etc.

 

[Gorgias]

Because God in the sense of how you were taught does not exist. God the father does not exist. It, has no sex nor is an actual being. That is why? It’s all a big lie, wake up.

Whew! So glad you cleared that up for us! What fools we’ve been! How lucky we are to have a random internet poster make unsubstantiated assertions so that we might see the light!