Questions and Answers

Does God change or not?

This a case of one assuming God is a sky god. Christianity has always believed that God is a God who relates and who is personal. And whenever there is a personal relationship, there is a dynamic. And dynamics can involve both immutability and change. Whenever you have a personal dynamic, when one person changes, the other reponds in a way which reflects this change. But all is not relative.

If God's essence is immutable, then He is the standard by which such change is understood. For example, a man and a wife are in a happy marriage. The man commits adultery, and the wife becomes unhappy. Has the wife changed in a significant manner? Not really. Her change is a function of what her husband did, and reflects the immutability of her belief that infidelity is wrong. We have a set of Scriptures which speak of God's essence - it is unchangeable. The other set deal with God's relationships with men (they don't abstractly speak of God's essence). Thus, as the above analogies show, there need be no contradiction.

    God is changeable
    • Genesis 6:6 - The LORD was grieved that he had made man
    • Jonah 3:10 - God did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened
    • 1 Samuel 2:30-31 - I promised ... would minister before me forever. But now...
    • 2 Kings 20:1-6 - You are going to die... I will add fifteen years to your life
    God is unchangable