Does God change his mind?

What the Bible says

On one side, Scripture plainly declares that God does not change.

Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

Mal 3:6

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.

James 1:17

In Numbers, Balaam says that God is not a man, "that He should change His mind" (Num 23:19). Samuel says the same: the Glory of Israel "does not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man, that He should change His mind" (1 Sam 15:29).

On the other side, Scripture says that God relented. When Israel made the golden calf, God spoke of destroying them, and Moses interceded. The result:

So the LORD relented from the calamity He had threatened to bring on His people.

Exod 32:14

When Jonah announced that Nineveh would be overthrown in forty days and the Ninevites turned from their evil ways, we read:

When God saw their actions— that they had turned from their evil ways— He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.

Jonah 3:10

There is something stranger still. In the same chapter of 1 Samuel, verse 29 says God does not change his mind, while verse 11 has God say, "I regret that I have made Saul king" (1 Sam 15:11). Two statements side by side in one chapter suggest that the biblical writers did not see them as contradicting each other.

Jeremiah 18 gives the principle. If God announces disaster on a nation, "But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring" (Jer 18:8), and the same holds in reverse for blessing that is met with evil (Jer 18:10). In other words, God's warnings and promises often carry a condition that waits for a response.

The church's witness

The answer the church has taught most widely is that God's character and purposes are constant, and that what Scripture calls "relenting" is his actions shifting in answer to people. Matthew Henry, on Numbers 23, writes: "Men change their minds, and break their words; but God never changes his mind, and therefore never recalls his promise" Matthew Henry. He goes on: "when in Scripture he is said to repent, it does not mean any change of his mind; but only a change of his way" Matthew Henry. On Exodus 32 he explains the answer to Moses' prayer in the same way: this "change of the outward discovery of his purpose, is called repenting of the evil" Matthew Henry.

Calvin taught in the same direction. He understood talk of God's regret as God lowering himself to speak according to our capacity Calvin, Institutes 1.17. The Westminster Shorter Catechism confesses God as unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 4. This is called God's immutability, and the older traditions, East and West, Catholic and Protestant, broadly agree on it.

Not every Christian is satisfied with this explanation. Many theologians stress more strongly that God truly responds to people in time, and toward the end of the twentieth century some evangelical theologians put forward what is called open theism. On this view God does not change in his love, faithfulness or ultimate purpose, but he does not know future free choices as already settled, and he really alters particular plans in response to people. Only so, they argue, are prayer and relationship fully real. Most churches and theologians have not accepted this view: Scripture says God declares the end from the beginning (Isa 46:10), and trust in his promises rests on his being unchanging. All sides agree that God's character does not change, that he truly relates to people, and that prayer matters. The open question is how to read the relenting texts and what they imply about God's knowledge.

In the original languages

The Hebrew verb translated "relent" or "regret" is nacham (נָחַם). Depending on context it can mean "to be sorry," "to relent" or "to comfort." The same verb describes God drawing back the disaster in Exodus 32:14, and in Numbers 23:19 and 1 Samuel 15:29 it says that God does not change his mind as a man does. In 1 Samuel 15 verses 11 and 29 use this one verb, one affirming and one denying. The word is plainly being used in different senses: in verse 11 it is God's grief that Saul has turned away; in verse 29 it is the declaration that God is not fickle.

The Ninevites "turned from" their evil, using shuv (שׁוּב). In Jonah 3:9 the king says that perhaps God will turn and relent, and shuv is used there for both people and God. Why God turns is already explained in Jonah 4:2, where Jonah complains: "You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion — One who relents from sending disaster" (Jonah 4:2). God's relenting is no whim; it flows from his unchanging character.

In James 1:17 the word for "change" is parallagē (παραλλαγή), and the "shifting shadow" involves tropē (τροπή), "turning." The sun and moon change position and cast moving shadows; the Father of lights has no such movement.

Common objections

"If God truly does not change, prayer is pointless. How can prayer alter what is already settled?" This objection is serious. If everything is fixed, prayer looks like a formality. But Scripture presents prayer as part of how God works. When Hezekiah was dying and wept in prayer, God said, "I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears," and added fifteen years (2 Kings 20:5-6). Matthew Henry comments: "God always hears the prayers of the broken in heart, and will give health, length of days, and temporal deliverances, as much and as long as is truly good for them" Matthew Henry. The classical answer is that God, who ordains the end, also ordains the means, and our prayers are among them; open theists answer that prayer really shapes a future still open. Either way, prayer is no formality. James says, "The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail" (James 5:16).

"If God changes his mind, he was either wrong at first or he cannot be trusted." This too is strong. One who changes his mind seems to have been lacking before or lacking afterward. But the Bible's way of speaking is different. God's warnings usually carry an implied "unless you turn," and God relents because people turned. As Jeremiah 18 says, this is how he deals with nations at any time. Matthew Henry on that passage writes: "sincere conversion from the evil of sin will prevent the evil of punishment, as to persons, and to families, and nations" Matthew Henry. What changes is not God but our position, and the same justice and mercy meet us where we now stand. On Malachi 3:6 Henry says: "Because we have to do with a God that changes not, therefore it is that we are not consumed; because his compassions fail not" Matthew Henry.

Going further

That God does not change does not mean he is cold or far away. His constancy is the constancy of love and faithfulness. Because he is the same when we waver, we are not consumed. And that he answers prayer and receives repentance means our lives are not weightless before him.

You might ask yourself: Do I hesitate to pray because God seems fickle, or because I think everything is already settled? What is he asking me to turn from? What peace does the unchanging God give my anxiety?

To read further, see Does God answer prayer?, Can God do anything? and Is God in control?