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Jesse
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2010
Total Posts : 1

Posted 7/9/2010 9:12 PM (GMT -6)

Does God really change His mind? how do you connect it to the type of prophecy. the conditional and unconditional type.

Tom
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353

Posted 7/9/2010 10:21 PM (GMT -6)

I don't think God changes his mind with regard either to knowing what is right and best in any conceivable situation or to willing what is right and best. But I think God's knowledge of the changing world changes as the world changes, and that means God's knowledge and his actual pursuits are changing with respect to the world. But these changes are not "new" to God (I don't think) because they are foreknown possibilities. So...no unforeseen surprises.

The difference to God between conditional and unconditional prophecies is that the former may/may not come about while the latter either will or will not come about (whatever the case may be). But in either case God's will with respect to always pursuing what is most benevolent remains immutable; God cannot be less than benevolent. And God's knowledge of all possibilities is, I think, equally immutable.

Tom

KIXYTΘEMTA

Post Edited (Tom) : 7/9/2010 11:12:11 PM (GMT-5)

Starkman
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747

Posted 7/9/2010 11:05 PM (GMT -6)

Sticking to the way life and reality exist and how God interacts with all of it, a bit of common sense helps out here.

In Exodus, God was quite interested in destroying Israel and starting all over with Moses (Exodus 32). Moses negotiates with God, basically asking Him to just stick with plan A. At first, God doesn't want to grant Moses' request, but when Moses flashed those doe-eyes-in-the-headlight look (with the pouting lips to boot), and a heart-felt "Ah, come on, God, do it just for me, pleeeeeease, God changed His mind about destroying Israel and decided to grant Moses' request. (Actually, Moses was stressing pretty heavily, but I like my version better!)

Now, this is just plain ol' life. Reality. The way things are. And we see this kind of activity (God "changing" His mind) all throughout Scripture. I mean, just use some simple, every-day common sense and it becomes quite clear that God operates in many respects (with regard to decisions and actions) just as we do. for instance, say you've got a child who's really ticked you off because of his bad behavior during the day. So you tell that child, "That's it: no ice cream for you tonight." Later, however, the child has shown true remorse, something you obviously knew the child could do (I mean, that's a no-brainer!). Well, the child did get the attitude in check, and for that you "change your mind" and granted the child some ice cream after all.

So, is there any big OH-MY-GOSH challenge to omniscience here? Is there some sort of violation in the reality we live in simply because we change our minds about not giving our children some ice cream? Heavens no! So, then, is it any big deal, then, if God does similar actions? I mean, it's just life, you know, and there's no reason to see God's actions in any other light in the name of trying to defend His omniscient status. That's just totally unnecessary. We simply do not see any reason in Scripture to believe that every thought, word and deed we will ever think, say and do (and I do mean EVERY thought, word and deed) is foreknown. That doesn't even make sense when we use simple common sense in our claims of being free moral agents. It just doesn't work!

Simple common sense demonstrates it absolutely impossible for God to know everything we will ever think, say and do. What He DOES know, though, are all of the possibilities, that which we might and might not do, and that which we can and cannot do. You can never catch God off guard, therefore, and that's all it takes for God to be omniscient. To push the issue any further is to really create a mess in simple logic and common sense.

Anyway, to put a plug in for a book I wrote on this very subject, I tackled the concept of the open view from this very down-to-earth, practical and plain reality perspective from which I wrote the above. The book is called "Where the Future Meets Reality," available through Amazon.com. Maybe it will give you a whole different (and real-life) perspective of approaching the open view.

Thanks,

Starkman

PotOnWheel
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890

Posted 8/5/2010 1:52 PM (GMT -6)

Good answer, Tom.

(o)

PotOnWheel
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890

Posted 8/5/2010 1:56 PM (GMT -6)

O Lord, I do not know what to ask of You.
You alone know what are my true needs.

You love me more than I myself know how to love.
Help me to see my real needs which are concealed from me.
I do not dare to ask either for a cross or for consolation.
I can only wait on You. My heart is open to You.

Visit and help me, for the sake of Your great mercy.
Strike me and heal me; cast me down and raise me up.
I worship in silence Your holy will and Your unsearchable ways.

I offer myself as a sacrifice to You.
I have no other desire than to fulfill Your will.
Teach me to pray. Pray You Yourself in me.

-Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow

(o)

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