When God Changed

God changes Many Christians believe that God does not change; that before time existed and now in the age of time and in eternity beyond time He has not nor will He change. I on the other hand believe He does change. I will try to give clear reasons for my belief and the reason that I believe it is important. Here are basically the verses often used to support the idea of an unchanging God. ~ Numbers 23:19 God [is] not a man - and lieth, And a son of man - and repenteth! Hath He said and doth He not do [it]? And spoken - and doth He not confirm it? ~ Malachi 3:6. For I [am] Jehovah, I have not changed, And ye, the sons of Jacob, Ye have not been consumed. ~ Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ yesterday and to-day the same, and to the ages; ~ James1:17. every good giving, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights, with whom is no variation, or shadow of turning; ~Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (KJV) I can not comprehend why this verse is quoted at all. It is so blatantly wrong and should not be used to explain anything, especially the nature of God. 1. This is a quote that Balaam was giving to Balak (the guy who wanted to destroy Israel), Balaam was in the service of Balak. God had originally told Balaam not to go to Balak, but later God changed His mind and allowed it. Numbers 22:7-20. And three times God was ready to have this man killed, but He allowed his ass to save his life. The sword was drawn and ready to strike, but God allowed the ass to see the danger and thus save the rider from certain death. God setup the ambush but at the last moment did not follow through. God was so peeved with Balaam that He made it a point to inform Balaam that he would have been killed but his ass would have been spared. These actions by God are in contrast to what Balaam said; “…that he should repent”. It was a lie because Balaam had first hand knowledge that God had repented; God had changed His mind, first by telling him not to go and then telling him to go and secondly by setting up an ambush and waiting for him to come thru but allowing the ass to see the threat thus allowing Balaam to live. 2. Balaam says; “neither the son of man”, but Daniel called Jesus “as a son of man”. But the more important statement comes from Jesus Himself; He refers to Himself as “the Son of Man” Daniel 7:13 'I was seeing in the visions of the night, and lo, with the clouds of the heavens as a son of man was [one] coming, and unto the Ancient of Days he hath come, and before Him they have brought him near. 14. And to him is given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, and all peoples, nations, and languages do serve him, his dominion [is] a dominion age-during, that passeth not away, and his kingdom that which is not destroyed. Matthew 8:20 and Jesus saith to him, 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven places of rest, but the Son of Man hath not where he may lay the head.' Matthew 9:6 'But, that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon the earth to forgive sins (then saith he to the paralytic) - having risen, take up thy couch, and go to thy house.' Again Balaam was wrong. 3. God does not recognize the validity of Balaam’s teaching; in fact his teachings are a hindrance.

Revelation 2:14 'But I have against thee a few things: That thou hast there those holding the teaching of Balaam, who did teach Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat idolsacrifices, and to commit whoredom; 4. “God is not a man, that he should lie”; I’m sure that when Jesus read this in the scrolls He disagreed with Balaam’s grasp of reality. Jesus is fully man, He is the “seed” God promised Abraham and Matthew recorded Jesus’ whole genealogy. And Jesus is the Son of God, He is fully God. So Balaam was wrong again! Balaam was a false prophet. God was willing to kill him and God is against his teachings. We need to stop quoting this bastard (illegitimate) prophet as to what the nature of God is. Balaam was totally wrong! God was clear when He said He would hold it against you for holding on to Balaam’s teaching! ~Malachi 3:6 God changes in many ways, but there is one thing He does not change. God tells us in the book of Malachi that His Faithfulness does not change. He promised a Redeemer to Adam and Eve and He remembered that promise when He proceeded to kill off all the World’s population except for the eight on the Ark. Abraham trusted God’s Faithfulness as he willingly went to sacrifice his son as God had commanded, knowing that God would fulfill His promise of the Seed and Redeemer even though he was killing the very first one in the promised line of lineage. Later God was so mad at the Hebrews that He had brought out of Egypt that He was going to kill them all except for Moses, thus staying Faithful and continuing the line of lineage He had started with Abraham and which He had promised in the Garden. Mankind has been unfaithful almost every step of the way while God remained Faithful. In Malachi God talks about their unfaithfulness and about how He is Faithful and will carry out His promise of a Seed and Redeemer. Malachi 3:6. For I [am] Jehovah, I have not changed, And ye, the sons of Jacob, Ye have not been consumed. 7. Even from the days of your fathers Ye have turned aside from My statutes, And ye have not taken heed. Turn back unto Me, and I turn back to you, Said Jehovah of Hosts. And ye have said, 'In what do we turn back?' Again God is reaffirming His promise of a Redeemer with the return of the prophet Elijah who will proceed before the coming of Jehovah, that is. Jesus. Malachi 4:5. Lo, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, Before the coming of the day of Jehovah, The great and the fearful. 6. And he hath turned back the heart of fathers to sons, And the heart of sons to their fathers, Before I come and have utterly smitten the land! Luke 1:11. And there appeared to him a messenger of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of the perfume, 12. and Zacharias, having seen, was troubled, and fear fell on him; 13. and the messenger said unto him, 'Fear not, Zacharias, for thy supplication was heard, and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear a son to thee, and thou shalt call his name John, 14. and there shall be joy to thee, and gladness, and many at his birth shall joy, 15. for he shall be great before the Lord, and wine and strong drink he may not drink, and of the Holy Spirit he shall be full, even from his mother's womb; 16. and many of the sons of Israel he shall turn to the Lord their God, 17. and he shall go before Him, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn hearts of fathers unto children, and disobedient ones to the wisdom of righteous ones, to make ready for the Lord, a people prepared.'

The fulfillment of God’s Faithfulness is Jesus, the Son of God, who finally redeemed mankind back to God. God is still Faithful in regards to our salvation, we can trust God with confidence that He has forgiven us and that He will bring us into His Kingdom. Malachi 3:6 refers to God’s Faithfulness to carry out His plan of redemption and not to His inability to change, read Malachi 3:7 where it says God can turn, He can change directions, if conditions are met. ~Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ yesterday and to-day the same, and to the ages; The Greek word for “same” in verse 8 is the exact identical Greek word “he” in verse 5. I listed Strong’s definition of this Greek word below. It is a reflexive pronoun. The use of this word in verse 8 refers back to the proper noun, which is Jesus. In the English version instead of using the Greek pronoun “he”, we use the adjective “sane”. In this verse same is not implying that nothing has changed, but rather “same” should refer back to the proper noun like it did in the original text. Verse 8 could be written like this (I am exchanging the pronoun with a proper noun) ~ Jesus Christ yesterday and to-day, Jesus Christ and to the ages; ~ the Greek used a proper noun and a pronoun and the English used a proper noun and an adjective. Hebrews 13:1. Let brotherly love remain; 2. of the hospitality be not forgetful, for through this unawares certain did entertain messengers; 3. be mindful of those in bonds, as having been bound with them, of those maltreated, as also yourselves being in the body; 4. honourable [is] the marriage in all, and the bed undefiled, and whoremongers and adulterers God shall judge. 5. Without covetousness the behaviour, being content with the things present, for He hath said, 'No, I will not leave, no, nor forsake thee,' 6. so that we do boldly say, 'The Lord [is] to me a helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me.' 7. Be mindful of those leading you, who did speak to you the word of God, whose faith considering the issue of the behaviour - be imitating, 8. Jesus Christ yesterday and to-day the same, and to the ages; 9. with teachings manifold and strange be not carried about, for [it is] good that by grace the heart be confirmed, not with meats, in which they who were occupied were not profited; Strong's Ref. # 846 Autos: from the particle au [perhaps akin to the base of GSN0109 through the idea of a baffling wind] (backward); the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative GSN1438) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other persons: ~James1:17. every good giving, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights, with whom is no variation, or shadow of turning; 18. having counselled, He did beget us with a word of truth, for our being a certain first-fruit of His creatures. The writer of the book of James is basically echoing the same theme that Malachi had written about. God had a plan (having counseled), He made mankind and He saved us (first-fruit). It is expressed in the simplest of ways, but it shows God’s Faithfulness and not His inability to change. Since the writings in the Bible do not give outright support for the philosophy of God’s immutability another avenue is sometimes used; as the logic goes, since God is perfect, change is not permitted. Any changes would indicate that God had not been totally perfect in the past; any modification is seen as a lack of God’s perfection. God is not allowed to add anything to Himself and He is not

allowed to remove anything from Himself. Any change, the theory says, proves that He either was not perfect or that He is no longer perfect. This idea that God is immutable is riddled with holes. Let’s start with the core thought; perfection can not change. What is this assumption based upon, and who said perfection can not change? This is a totally made-up idea. It is easy to show that the attribute of immutability does not apply to God. He does give of Himself and He takes what was not His. God is perfect and He can add to, or subtract from, Himself. Consider these verses: ~John 3:16 for God did so love the world, that His Son - the only begotten - He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during. God gave Jesus and Jesus died! This is taking away from God. ~John 6:53 Jesus, therefore, said to them, 'Verily, verily, I say to you, If ye may not eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and may not drink his blood, ye have no life in yourselves; Jesus is giving up both flesh and blood! This is taking away from God. ~2 Corinthians 5:21 for him who did not know sin, in our behalf He did make sin, that we may become the righteousness of God in him. Jesus was made into sin! This is adding to God. ~Luke 19:22 'And he saith to him, Out of thy mouth I will judge thee, evil servant: thou knewest that I am an austere man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow! God is adding to Himself that which was not His! This is adding to God. ~John 14:3 and if I go on and prepare for you a place, again do I come, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am ye also may be; Jesus had not finished His Kingdom. This is adding to God. ~John 19:30 when, therefore, Jesus received the vinegar, he said, 'It hath been finished;' and having bowed the head, gave up the spirit. Jesus had now finished the work that the Father had given Him. This is adding to God. The theory that perfection can not change is false. Do you think God created the universe and then mankind having the foreknowledge that man would sin and that to redeem mankind would require Jesus’ life, just so He could stay at His status quo,? No; God states that He will harvest what He planted, as He said some will produce 30%, 60% or 100% He is looking for an increase for Himself! He even reaps where He didn’t sow! God is perfect and God changes. Here are some examples: ~1. To my knowledge in eternity past every thing God created obeyed Him, even the fallen angels do as He says. Now with the creation of mankind God faces a new situation; a creation that has no fear of Him, no intention of following Him and who will boldly tell God to get lost. The flood lets us know God was fed-up with mankind, He almost killed everybody, but He showed restraint. The change is that a sovereign God now limits Himself. ~2. God gave up the rule of His Kingdom to become a man. The change is an all-powerful God became a mortal man ~3. At Jesus’ birth God declared peace with mankind; He was now ready to save mankind. The change was that He would now accept the ultimate sacrifice and totally forget our sins; sin was no longer carried from sacrifice to sacrifice.

~4. God allowed His creation to call Him a blasphemer, to mock Him, to whip Him and to ridicule Him. Jesus the Creator, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings allowed his creation to rule Him. The change is from an all-powerful God, to the state of being subservient to His creation. ~5. God who knew no sin became sin for us. The change is from a sinless God to a God that bore our sins ~6. God was killed on a cross. He changed from living to dead. ~7. God arose from the dead. He changed from a dead God to a living God. ~8. God now bears the scars of the crucifixion. The change is He was a perfect unblemished sacrifice and now He shows the marks for His selfless love. ~9. Jesus gave up his power and authority and God later restored it. ~10. Jesus and God were separated at the cross. The change is this is the only time Jesus and God are not one. ~11. God is planning to change His marital status; He refers to Himself as the Groom and to His followers as the Bride. God is planning to get married! So yes; I believe God changes. Not only does God change but He also changes His mind. God repents. ~Genesis 6:6 and Jehovah repenteth that He hath made man in the earth, and He grieveth Himself unto His heart. 7 And Jehovah saith, 'I wipe away man whom I have prepared from off the face of the ground, from man unto beast, unto creeping thing, and unto fowl of the heavens, for I have repented that I have made them.' ~Exodus 32:7.And Jehovah saith unto Moses, 'Go, descend, for thy people whom thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt hath done corruptly, 8. they have turned aside hastily from the way that I have commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and bow themselves to it, and sacrifice to it, and say, These thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.' 9. And Jehovah saith unto Moses, 'I have seen this people, and lo, it [is] a stiff-necked people; 10. and now, let Me alone, and My anger doth burn against them, and I consume them, and I make thee become a great nation.' 11. And Moses appeaseth the face of Jehovah his God, and saith, 'Why, O Jehovah, doth Thine anger burn against Thy people, whom Thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand? 12. why do the Egyptians speak, saying, For evil He brought them out to slay them among mountains, and to consume them from off the face of the ground? turn back from the heat of Thine anger, and repent of the evil against Thy people. 13. 'Be mindful of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou hast sworn by Thyself, and unto whom Thou speakest: I multiply your seed as stars of the heavens, and all this land, as I have said, I give to your seed, and they have inherited to the age;' 14. and Jehovah repenteth of the evil which He hath spoken of doing to His people. ~1 Chronicles 21:10. “Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. 11. So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee 12. Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, in the

land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. 13. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. 14. So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. 15. And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17. And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued. 18. Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.” ~Jeremiah 26: 1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, hath this word been from Jehovah, saying: 2. 'Thus said Jehovah, Stand thou in the court of the house of Jehovah, and thou hast spoken unto all [those of] the cities of Judah who are coming in to bow themselves in the house of Jehovah, all the words that I have commanded thee to speak unto them, thou dost not diminish a word. 3. If so be they hearken, and turn back each from his evil way, then I have repented concerning the evil that I am thinking of doing to them, because of the evil of their doings…. 9. “Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. 10. When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the Lord, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house. 11. Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears. 12. Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard. 13. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.” Sometimes God has conditional repentance; that is, His state of repentance is based on our actions. Other times we are able to change God’s mind; in prayer we often ask things of Him, and He listens, and because of our intercession we have the ability to move the hand of God, He does answer our prayers. Sometimes God repents because of His mercy; He has compassion and He can act upon it. And there are times when God has had enough and He takes action. God can change His mind. He is in fact a; Sovereign, Independent, Self-Governing, Autonomous, Supreme Ruler, who answers to no one. If not for His attributes of Faithfulness and Mercy, we would have no hope. Since God has repented in the past can He repent now or in the future?

The reason I bring up the point that God can and does change is this: How do we know if we are following His will? Most people will say that reading the Bible is the way to know God; they may proclaim that following the Bible is the same as following God. Adam and Eve did not follow the Bible, they listened to what God said (listening and following are not the same thing). Noah did not follow the Bible, he listened and followed God. Abraham did not follow the Bible when he went to kill his son, he was listening to God. Moses listened to God and wrote some of the Bible. The list goes on and on, and all the Prophets listened to what God said, and some even wrote down what they heard. The prime example we have that listening and following God is what is required of us is in the actions of Jesus; He did what the Father told Him. Jesus did not come to fulfill the prophecies but rather the prophecies were given to us to foretell of Him. In other words the prophecies were subservient to Jesus; Jesus came and was obedient to the Father, Jesus would still have listened to God even if God had not given us the foreknowledge of what He was going to do. The security we seem to have that comes from our ability to understand, predict and dictate what God can or will, or can not or will not do we gleam from particular verses in the Bible. We expect God to play by the rules He gave us. We are so bold as to tell God how He is to behave!! How many times have you heard a statement similar to this; “God can not…”, we are in fact dictating to God what to do! And the response may be; the Bible says…, as if God must also follow what the Bible says. God has power and authority over every thing and this includes the ability to change His mind. A few examples of this is God giving the Hebrews the command not to murder yet after a battle He told Moses to murder the women and children that were the spoils of that battle. God tells His Prophet to marry a whore, which was a contradiction to the law He had given. God told His Apostle to kill and eat animals that He had previously declared as unclean and now God was saying these same animals were clean. God changes and the only way to know if you are doing His will is to listen and follow God. The Father gave Jesus the command to lead us and Jesus issued this command to the Holy Spirit. As of today the Holy Spirit has not given His duty to lead us to any one or any thing, He uses people and things to carry out His task, but He is fully in charge. The Holy Spirit is defined as a wind and as Jesus said He blows to and fro. We do not know where He comes from and we don’t know where He is going, our only hope is to be obedient; that is to listen and follow Him. As Jesus told the rich man, he was almost perfect all he lacked was to follow and obey Jesus, following the scriptures was insufficient to save him; following God is what was required, we may not be told to give all we have to the poor, we can not know what He wants unless we listen to Him. This same principle applies today. Follow and be obedient to God, if He moves we need to move so we can stay with Him, He is the Shepherd, He leads and prompts us, He is not stationary, He is moving. We do not know the way but He knows and He is The Way.

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I want to set up some ground rules. They are my rules and I can not explain them in as great a detail as they should be, I am not smart enough to do them justice. First: Can perspective alter the perception of change? That is, what I see as God changing, could from God’s point of view be normal everyday actions; just because it is new to me doesn’t mean that it isn’t typical for God. Are we doing the viewing of the change (or lack of change), or is it from the view point of God? And if there is a difference does it matter? Response: God is dealing with us on our level; He became human, so the perspective is from our point of view. God is the one developing our relationship and He is the One who is indwelling in us. God has been very sparse regarding spiritual information; we don’t even know how we are to spend eternity. So the perspective will be from our point of view. Second: Does having the knowledge of future events mean that these events were foreknown and thus not a change? Does God have freewill; can He do as He pleases? Since God knew He was going to “change” is it really change or was it always an integral part of Him? Response: God is Sovereign; He does what He wants, when He wants, just because He wants to, implying otherwise would put limits on Him and thus negate being all-powerful. I am not talking about Him going against His own will or nature. God is not ruled by knowledge; He is the God that even rules the facts. Third: Since God exists in all time, He would have known and experienced everything; past and future. Does God experience everything once or does He experience everything all the time? Does He relive very moment all over, all the time? Or maybe God relives history one person at a time, experiencing it through the life of the individual; so if 100 billion people had lived before God brings this world to an end, would God experience 100 billion little chunks of history? If He experiences everything all the time then God the Father would always feel the separation caused by the cross between Himself and His Son Jesus. Response: Man is to die once and Jesus is a man. The perfect sacrifice could only be offered once, after that Jesus would bare the marks for our sin, He now has blemishes; remember He wanted Thomas to have first hand knowledge of the nail and spear holes. I believe God experiences history once, if for the only reason so that The Father and The Son would not have a “part” of them that is always separated. In summary: 1. Change will be defined as we perceive the change. 2. God is not bound by His knowledge of the upcoming events. God is Sovereign. 3. God is not bound by His experiences, even if He knows what they will be. For now I am staying with the standard meaning of the word “change”: Change: verb transitive verb 1 a : to make different in some particular : ALTER b : to make radically different : TRANSFORM c : to give a different position, course, or direction to 2 a : to replace with another b : to make a shift from one to another : SWITCH

c : to exchange for an equivalent sum of money (as in smaller denominations or in a foreign currency) d : to undergo a modification of e : to put fresh clothes or covering on intransitive verb 1 : to become different 2 of the moon : to pass from one phase to another 3 : to shift one's means of conveyance : TRANSFER 4 of the voice : to shift to lower register : BREAK 5 : to undergo transformation, transition, or substitution <winter changed to spring> 6 : to put on different clothes 7 : EXCHANGE, SWITCH change of heart : a reversal in position or attitude ~ repent