If God is outside time, why does he change his mind?

[Ammonius_Saccus]

Exodus 32:10-14 (New American Standard Bible)
New American Standard Bible (NASB)

10"Now then (A)let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and (B)I will make of you a great nation."
Moses’ Entreaty
11Then (C)Moses entreated the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

12"Why should (D)the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people.

13"Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You (E)swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will (F)multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and (G)all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’"

14(H)So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.

Douay-Rheims Bible

1 And the people seeing that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, gathering together against Aaron, said: Arise, make us gods, that may go before us: for as to this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has befallen him. 2 And Aaron said to them: Take the golden earrings from the ears of your wives, and your sons and daughters, and bring them to me. 3 And the people did what he had commanded, bringing the earrings to Aaron. 4 And when he had received them, he fashioned them by founders’ work, and made of them a molten calf. And they said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. 5 And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and made proclamation by a crier’s voice, saying: Tomorrow is the solemnity of the Lord.

6 And rising in the morning, they offered holocausts, and peace victims, and the people sat down to eat, and drink, and they rose up to play. 7 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, get thee down: thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, hath sinned. 8 They have quickly strayed from the way which thou didst shew them: and they have made to themselves a molten calf, and have adored it, and sacrificing victims to it, have said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. 9 And again the Lord said to Moses: See that this people is stiffnecked: 10 Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation.

11 But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: Why, O Lord, is thy indignation kindled against thy people, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand? 12 Let not the Egyptians say, I beseech thee: He craftily brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains, and destroy them from the earth: let thy anger cease, and be appeased upon the wickedness of thy people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou sworest by thy own self, saying: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven: and this whole land that I have spoken of, I will give to you seed, and you shall possess it for ever. 14 And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which he had spoken against his people.

If God is outside of time, how can he change his mind (or be appeased) due to an argument made by Moses that exists in time?

 

[Della]

God both created time and interacts within it. He is not confined to a bubble outside of time and unable to move within both time and eternity. He is a free agent who decides when and how he will do what he wants to do.

 

[DeFide]

Exodus 32:10-14 (New American Standard Bible)

If God is outside of time, how can he change his mind (or be appeased) due to an argument made by Moses that exists in time?

He doesn’t. It may appear that way from our vantage point, but all God’s actions are part of his plan. He planned to respond a certain way to all of our actions.

 

[john_ennis]

Yeah, I’ve always thought it wasn’t too hard to see how it’s easily possible that God’s “changing his mind” (or relenting, as my version of the Bible says in some places) is nothing more than God acting in a certain way due to petitions, as contrasted with how he would have acted were it not for those petitions.

It doesn’t have to imply that God didn’t know these petitions were to come, or that He was going to ultimately act in this way.

It’s written as it is, to make it more easily understandable to us that our prayers have effect. Unfortunately, it’s possible to interpret–if one is inclined to interpret without regard to Church teaching–as if God Himself really thought He was going to act a certain way, until those petitions (which He hadn’t even anticipated) were made to Him.

Peace.
John

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

The scriptures are an unfolding revelation of God to us. We are limited to time and only understand within our limitations. Thus God is responding to us within our limitation scope of being.

When you are trying to explain God to your three year old, you don’t get into the heavy stuff like how the trinity can be three in one. You teach him information in accordance with his means of understanding at the time.

 

[awalt]

He doesn’t. It may appear that way from our vantage point, but all God’s actions are part of his plan. He planned to respond a certain way to all of our actions.

This is absolutely correct!!!

 

[Steven_Merten]

Hello Ammonius,

I read about an apparitionist who Mary showed the future too. There were horrible future events that the apparitionist saw in the vision. The apparitionist asked Mary if this was what was to be or only one opption of what was to be. Mary indicated that the possibility for mankind to reform to avoid such a horrible future was possible.

I believe that mankind’s timeline is not as ridgidly set in stone as the predestination crowd would have you believe. God is Omni-Present and with us on earth through the Holy Spirit. God interacts with man and the free-willed choices man makes.

If what the apparitionist says is true, then God, who is Omni-Present to all physical time, saw the physical future and incerted Mary into a specific point in physical time in hopes of altering man’s timeline to a more favorable future timeline.

God grew angry with the Israelites at the base of Mt. Sini because of their debatury and worshiping a golden calf. God was about to, once again, wipe out the Israelite nation and begin again through Moses as He had done through Noah. Moses interacted with God in hopes that God would relent. Moses put to death three thousand of the culprits who had lead the body of people astray. Moses offered up his eternal soul that God would relent in destroying the Israelites (please visit www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com/stones2.html ). God interacted with Moses and relented in destroying the rebelious Israelite nation.

God exists outside of physical time. God can see the whole of physical time from infinite past to infinite future. Yet God is powerful enough to choose between two future outcomes; one where God destroys the Israelite nation and begins again with Moses and one where He relents and the Israelite nation is not destroyed. Moses’ interactions with God led to the future that God sees in His Omni-Presence to the whole of physical time. Had God not relented in destroying the Israelites, the timeline from Moses forward, which God sees in His Omni-Present view to all past and future physical time, would have been a different one. This would be similiar to Mary telling the apparitionist that alternate futures are possible. It is an Ebinezer Scroug senario. The future pivots on man’s free-willed choices which interact with God’s freedom to choose His course of action.

 

[JamesG]

God exists outside of physical time. God can see the whole of physical time from infinite past to infinite future. .

God actualy exists outside of time in a non linear fashion.

It may seem to us that there is a sequential nature to God and the choices he makes, but the fact is there isn’t .

Love for example is not sequential. Either is Gods mercy.