Name some examples of God changing His mind

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I heard on the radio, I think it was Jimmy Akin, mentioning in passing that God will change His mind, or perhaps alter His plan depending on response from man. Any examples of this?
 
There are loads ion the Old testament, a famous one is that of Jonah, The Lord tells Jonah to preach destruction on ninevah but in the end has mercy on them as they repent.
 
I don’t think it is God so much changing his mind as it is that God knows what mans response will be if he does x. And if he does x and they respond as they should he does not harm them. But if he does x and the people dont respond as God hoped then he has his options left open. God knows all possiblities of what we can do, and he knows what possiblity we will choose even before we choose it. We still have free choice, God just knows us good enough to know what we will do and he exists outside of time so he can see all time at once.
 
What about in the old testament where God told someone (I forget who and I’m too lazy to look it up) to sacrafice his son. So they prepare eveything and are ready to put the sword to their own child and God sends an angel to stop the sword. Then a lamb is sacraficed instead… I never understood why God would tell him to kill his own son and then stop him at the last minute.

But that is an example of God changing his mind…or what else could it be?
Terri
 
I have not read Akin’s stuff, and didn’t hear this sermon (or whatever it was), so its hard to put this comment in context. Although there are Old Testament examples of God appearing to change, I would contend that to say that God “changes His mind” is to anthropomorphize Him. God is outside of eternity and does not “change” and his “mind” is not like yours and mine.

We think of God changing His mind because it is one of the ways that we understand the effects of prayer. We don’t really understand the mechanism of prayer, or the precise way that an omniscient and eternal God interacts with limited and decidedly time-bound Man. We know that He does interact, and that our prayers are answered. Because of this, we tend to think of God as changing, even though we know that is not what is really happening.
 
homewardangel said:
What about in the old testament where God told someone (I forget who and I’m too lazy to look it up) to sacrafice his son. So they prepare eveything and are ready to put the sword to their own child and God sends an angel to stop the sword. Then a lamb is sacraficed instead… I never understood why God would tell him to kill his own son and then stop him at the last minute.

But that is an example of God changing his mind…or what else could it be?
Terri
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It was Abraham.👍
 
Read where Abraham argues with God about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, and convinces God to change His mind. Abraham would’ve made a great lawyer.😃
 
God changed the number of days of King Hezekiah’s life!

So the next time someone say that “It was his time to go” or the days of a man’s life “are known ony to God”–those things are indeed true

But

God can even change those things!

And doing so does not violate God being unchanging.

Apparent contradictions of god seen by man are foolishness–God is wiser than all mean and doesn’t ever contradcit himslef even if his ways are mysterious and unfathomable to man!
 
Ahimsa said:
Read where Abraham argues with God about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, and convinces God to change His mind. Abraham would’ve made a great lawyer.😃
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That’s the classic example. Others could include God returning Samson’s strength, picking David to depose the christened king Saul, the sign of the rainbow for ‘nope, not gonna do that again’ after the Deluge, and, of course, Jesus’ harrowing of hell and reopening of heaven.

From what the OP said, I’d argue that Akin’s understanding of the question is somewhat deficient. God, as understood by Christians, is not subject to Time; and being perfect, he does not change state – let alone his mind. From our frame of reference it may look that way, but it’s just God seeing the rest of the moves in the chess game. Sometimes he just sacrifices a bishop 😉
 
TMC said:
I have not read Akin’s stuff, and didn’t hear this sermon (or whatever it was), so its hard to put this comment in context. Although there are Old Testament examples of God appearing to change, I would contend that to say that God “changes His mind” is to anthropomorphize Him. God is outside of eternity and does not “change” and his “mind” is not like yours and mine.

We think of God changing His mind because it is one of the ways that we understand the effects of prayer. We don’t really understand the mechanism of prayer, or the precise way that an omniscient and eternal God interacts with limited and decidedly time-bound Man. We know that He does interact, and that our prayers are answered. Because of this, we tend to think of God as changing, even though we know that is not what is really happening.
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I think you point to an excellent way to resolve it. And I guess its pretty much along the same lines i have, but you put it into words so much better. I view it as the Hebrew writers seeing that their prayer had efficacy before God. God says he intends to do X and the people repent, or someone like Abraham argues with him, and he “changes” his mind. I think it reflects changing “circumstances” which the people interpret as God accepting their argument.
 
I’m pretty sure Jimmy understands the metaphoric use of “changing His mind.” I’m sorry I worded the OP in that manner.

What I am looking for it Scripture where God conforms His will to the response of His children.
 
MarcoPolo said:
I heard on the radio, I think it was Jimmy Akin, mentioning in passing that God will change His mind, or perhaps alter His plan depending on response from man. Any examples of this?
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Almost all of Leviticus contains direct commands from God and yet we (“the Church”) knowingly violate many of them every day. They are swept under the rug by calling them “dietary restrictions” but many of them have nothing to do with diet and, regardless of what you call them, we have God demanding obedience to them and then apparantly changing his mind about almost all of them. Maybe God noticed that scallops weren’t all that harmful (or maybe Jesus accidently ate one and decided "Hey, these are pretty good - lets forget that stupid rule!). We are probably all wearing clothes of blended fabrics (a clear abomnination to God) and yet the God, through the Church, now says it’s OK.

Of course it could be that the author of Leviticus had a major case of mis-inspiration (but most here will never consider that possibility). This book should probably be removed from the bible since we obviously dont act as if it were inspired.
 
MarcoPolo said:
I’m pretty sure Jimmy understands the metaphoric use of “changing His mind.” I’m sorry I worded the OP in that manner.

What I am looking for it Scripture where God conforms His will to the response of His children.
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How about Abraham pleading for mercy for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah?
 
davidv said:
How about Abraham pleading for mercy for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah?
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This was more of a revelation of God’s mercy. God shows Abraham that he is truly a merciful God. He listens to what we ask, and responds.
 
So answer me this: when the changeless God changed the years alloted to King Hezekiah’s life:

Did God change His mind or not?

Wouldn’t anybody who would tell God that since our logic dictates that He cannot change–that therefore He can’t change his mind

that such a person would be crazy?

I don’t view my wisdom or logic to be perfect.

I therfeore wouldn’t tell God what he could or couldn’t do!

Who would?
 
Jerry-Jet said:
So answer me this: when the changeless God changed the years alloted to King Hezekiah’s life:

Did God change His mind or not?

Wouldn’t anybody who would tell God that since our logic dictates that He cannot change–that therefore He can’t change his mind

that such a person would be crazy?

I don’t view my wisdom or logic to be perfect.

I therfeore wouldn’t tell God what he could or couldn’t do!

Who would?
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You have an excellent point. I don’t mean to limit God, I guess I am just trying to explain what I think the Church believes about His nature. The real point is that He is beyond our understanding.
 
patg said:
Almost all of Leviticus contains direct commands from God and yet we (“the Church”) knowingly violate many of them every day. They are swept under the rug by calling them “dietary restrictions” but many of them have nothing to do with diet and, regardless of what you call them, we have God demanding obedience to them and then apparantly changing his mind about almost all of them. Maybe God noticed that scallops weren’t all that harmful (or maybe Jesus accidently ate one and decided "Hey, these are pretty good - lets forget that stupid rule!). We are probably all wearing clothes of blended fabrics (a clear abomnination to God) and yet the God, through the Church, now says it’s OK.

Of course it could be that the author of Leviticus had a major case of mis-inspiration (but most here will never consider that possibility). This book should probably be removed from the bible since we obviously dont act as if it were inspired.
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I’m not sure if you were being serious or not… But I will assume you were.

Old Testament dietary restrictions and the like were given by God as a gift to people in the OT. Let me give you a hypothetical situation of how it could have worked.

God -“Hey guys dont eat pork”
Jews - “Why?”
God - "Cause it is unclean and you will die if you eat.
Jews - “Okay”
A while later
TheFather - “Jesus tell them its okay now”
Jesus “Its okay to eat pork now”
Jews/Church “Why is it okay now”
Jesus “Cause you know how to cook it now so you wont die when you eat it”
Jews/Church “Cool I’m having pork chops tonight!”

So now that I am dont with my somewhat sacreligious example my point is that all the dietary restrictions were given by God to help the Jews not die by eating food that often kills unless you know how to prepare it. The Jews were God’s favorite so he wanted them to not eat or do that stuff until they learned how to do it safely from others. It was called being a nice guy. He didn’t change his mind, he knew when he put them in place how long the rules would be put in place for.

All of the rules(except the ones that involve killing people or causeing harm) in Leviticus are basically basically and it will not offend God for you to do them. Esp. like the no lying with a man as you would a woman type a ones.
 
zagjames said:
I’m not sure if you were being serious or not… But I will assume you were.

Old Testament dietary restrictions and the like were given by God as a gift to people in the OT. Let me give you a hypothetical situation of how it could have worked.

God -“Hey guys dont eat pork”
Jews - “Why?”
God - "Cause it is unclean and you will die if you eat.
Jews - “Okay”
A while later
TheFather - “Jesus tell them its okay now”
Jesus “Its okay to eat pork now”
Jews/Church “Why is it okay now”
Jesus “Cause you know how to cook it now so you wont die when you eat it”
Jews/Church “Cool I’m having pork chops tonight!”

So now that I am dont with my somewhat sacreligious example my point is that all the dietary restrictions were given by God to help the Jews not die by eating food that often kills unless you know how to prepare it. The Jews were God’s favorite so he wanted them to not eat or do that stuff until they learned how to do it safely from others. It was called being a nice guy. He didn’t change his mind, he knew when he put them in place how long the rules would be put in place for.

All of the rules (except the ones that involve killing people or causeing harm) in Leviticus are basically basically and it will not offend God for you to do them. Esp. like the no lying with a man as you would a woman type a ones.
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While I agree with your reasoning, I don’t think it addresses the whole issue. If it were that simple, all Jews would be eating pork! Many of the restrictions* don’t* have to do with diet and *don’t *harm anyone. We are all probably wearing clothes of blended fabrics, feel no evil when touching a pigskin or planting different crops in the same field, and I’m sure we offer the proper sacrifice as atonement when we have relations with our slaves. God named these things (and many others) as abominations and the fact that we now accept them and know they are harmless does not change that. We are a essentially a Cafeteria Church, picking and choosing which commands of God’s we want to follow.

Now, of course, you are correct in that I am only being maybe half-serious here but the point I am making is quite serious. God has either clearly changed his mind about a few things that were absolute commandments, there is a serious lack of divine inspiration in this part of the bible, or we pick and choose what commands we want to follow.
 
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