Can God change his/her mind?

Hiroyoshi, if you read the Oracle of Baalam in Numbers, it basically says "is God a man who can change his mind."
 
Originally posted by okinrus
Hiroyoshi, if you read the Oracle of Baalam in Numbers, it basically says "is God a man who can change his mind."
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Of course as is the way with many old texts, that could be ment figuratively. As in a man cannot change his mind and must live by his actions once done. Whereas to the ancient mind set God would be able to change something if he didn't like the results and we would never know.
Honestly, how much thought do you think they put into temporal mechanics and paradoxes back then, when there wasn't a question of whether or not god existed. He existed and that was a fact of life. For people like that, faith wasn't something to be decided and/or questioned. It was FACT.
Taking historical documents written in one era and holding them up to todays standards makes about as much sense as wiggling a piece of spagetti under some silk sheets as an example of string theory.
 
Numbers 23:19
"God is not man that he should speak falsely, nor human, that he should change his mind. Is he one to speak and not act, to decree and not fulfill?"

To Okinrus: God told Abraham that he would change his mind and not destroy Sodom if there were 10 righteous people there. The account of the negotiations between God and Abraham with Abraham interceding for Sodom begins in Genesis 18-v22. I think you will find the conversation between God and Abraham very insightful. One thing is evident, God had absolutely no quams about changing his mind. The act of God changing his mind wasn't an issue.
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Genesis 18:20 "Then the LORD said: 'The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave, that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me. I mean to find out"
 
To Okinrus: Thanks for the chapter and verse. Your right, God does say he is not like a son of man that he should change his mind, but you have to take it in the context in which he is saying it. What God is saying, is that if he gives his word he will keep it, and he wont lie or change his mind like humans do. Just like in the case of Sodom. Abraham is made aware that God is planning to destroy the city. The three angels go down to the city to see if it is as bad as what they have heard while the Lord and Abraham stay behind (Genesis 18-22thru33). Then Abraham asks God, will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? At that point the negotiations begin and in the end God agrees not to destroy the city if there are 10 righteous people there. Now at first God was going to destroy the city if the rumors he heard were true. He never mentioned, nor did he convey the thought, that he would not destroy the city if the rumors were true providing there were 10 righteous people there. What he said was, if the rumors are true, he would destroy the city. Abraham got him to change his mind and say that if there were 10 righteous people in the city, for them he would spare it. Now back to Numbers and putting Gods statement in its proper context by using Gods promise to Abraham as an example. If god promised Abraham that he would spare Sodom for the sake of 10 righteous people, he would not change his mind, and destroy it anyway. In this context, he has never changed his mind and went back on his word. But that's not the case, when it comes to policy.
 
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