Something That Never Changes
Everything around us changes. Health fails, friends move away, institutions decay, and the moral convictions of a culture shift from one decade to the next. In a world that never holds still, the human heart needs something that does. Scripture's answer is not a thing but a Person: the God who says, I am the LORD, I change not (Malachi 3:6).
We believe that God is immutable. He does not change in His being, His character, His purposes, or His promises. That truth is not cold philosophy. It is the ground of every hope we have, because a promise is only as good as the one who makes it.
Yet a careful reader soon meets texts that seem to say the opposite. It repented the LORD that he had made man (Genesis 6:6). God repented of the evil He had said He would do to Nineveh (Jonah 3:10). Does God change His mind after all? This article lets Scripture answer, text by text.
Can you count on God to be tomorrow what He was yesterday? Scripture's answer is yes: He never changes in who He is or in what He has promised, and His unchanging character is exactly why He responds to repentance and prayer.
Loading the rest of this article
For Deeper Study
- God's Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open TheismAmazon Bruce A. WareA Southern Baptist theologian's biblical critique of open theism, especially its denial of God's foreknowledge. Ware is Calvinistic on election.
- The Battle for God: Responding to the Challenge of NeotheismAmazon Norman L. Geisler and H. Wayne HouseA defense of God's immutability and foreknowledge against open theism, which the authors call neotheism.
- Divine Foreknowledge: Four ViewsAmazon James K. Beilby and Paul R. Eddy, eds.Gregory Boyd (open theism), David Hunt (simple foreknowledge), William Lane Craig (middle knowledge), and Paul Helm (Augustinian-Calvinist) in dialogue.
- The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of GodAmazon Clark Pinnock, Richard Rice, John Sanders, William Hasker, and David BasingerThe primary statement of open theism, for understanding the view in its own terms.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
As an Amazon Associate, Theologica earns from qualifying purchases.
The Attributes of God
God's holiness, love, justice, wisdom, power, and faithfulness are not parts of God but true descriptions of who He is.
Open Doctrine