Devil's Advocate - God changed.

PDA Introduction (Why are we doing this?)

What is the purpose of this series?

Yes, I want you to know how to defend your faith.

But there’s something even more important.

In Luke 9:51, Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem and He sends some of them ahead to get a room for the night in a samaritan village, but they reject them.

They come back, tell the news, and James and John ask, ‘Do you want us to call fire down from Heaven and consume them?’

Jesus responds, ‘You do not know what spirit you belong to, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s lives, but to save them.’

What was last week’s lesson on? Love; that wasn’t an accident.

The most important thing for you to remember from this series and practice during it is not how to defend your argument, but how to do it with love.

In other words, your goal is not to win the argument. Your goal is always to win the person. Sometimes both are not always possible.

Rules:

I will open by stating my argument with a little bit of fuel.

My argument must come from the Bible.

After I present my argument, you’re allowed to start defending Christianity.

Your argument must come from the Bible; you’re allowed to have notes, but those notes must be from a source that uses the Bible.

I’m allowed to lie to you; but if you ask me if I’m lying I’ll tell you honestly. **The truth is never afraid to be questioned. A lie never likes to be challenged.**

If the majority either wishes to give up, y’all win, or we run out of time, I will open a Q & A for any of you.

If I feel an argument is at a dead end, either by me losing or you going silent, I’ll open a new one and we’ll address the old one during the Q&A.

To make things more efficient, I will only pick those who raise their hand. If you have a thought to add, raise your hand.

Any questions? Let the game begin.

Opening Argument: God’s Regret

The Bible claims that God doesn’t change; that He is constant and unchanging.

Hebrews 13:8 CSB

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Malachi 3:6 CSB

“Because I, the Lord, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

James 1:17 CSB

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Numbers 23:19 CSB

God is not a man, that he might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind. Does he speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?

Isaiah 40:8 CSB

The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”

2 Timothy 2:13 CSB

if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

However, we find that God, in Genesis 6, did regret creating mankind.

Genesis 6:5–7 CSB

When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.”

We find the same wording in 1 Samuel, twice.

1 Samuel 15:11 CSB

“I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned away from following me and has not carried out my instructions.” So Samuel became angry and cried out to the Lord all night.

1 Samuel 15:35 CSB

Even to the day of his death, Samuel never saw Saul again. Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted he had made Saul king over Israel.

It sounds to me as though God made a mistake. In other words, if God were to go over it again, He would handle it differently. God regretted an action.

“If I would’ve known this happened, I never would’ve done this to begin with.” kinda thing.

People usually regret over mistakes, right? So God made a mistake, things played out, and God regretted, or changed His view on His previous actions. In other words, God changed.

Counter to ‘God is omniscient’:

If God is omniscient, then why did He regret? This doesn’t answer my question, it only points out that maybe the Bible is contradicting itself.

In fact, in the same chapter in 1 Samuel, the Bible says in verse 29:

1 Samuel 15:29 CSB

Furthermore, the Eternal One of Israel does not lie or change his mind, for he is not man who changes his mind.”

Then, to reread a verse I quoted earlier:

1 Samuel 15:35 (CSB)

the Lord regretted he had made Saul king over Israel.

The Hebrew word there is niham, to repent, to be sorry, or to console oneself. Verse 29 says God does not niham and then 6 verses later in the same chapter, it says God niham-ed… in the same chapter.

Argument: God changed His mind.

Ok, so what about a time that God didn’t regret, but instead, He literally changed His mind? There’s a place in the Bible where God got so mad, He told Moses that He was going to kill all of Israel, millions and millions of people, and start over with just Moses. Do you believe me?

Exodus 32:7–14 CSB

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go down at once! For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, ‘Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’ ” The Lord also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone, so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God: “Lord, why does your anger burn against your people you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and eliminate them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel—you swore to them by yourself and declared, ‘I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and will give your offspring all this land that I have promised, and they will inherit it forever.’ ” So the Lord relented concerning the disaster he had said he would bring on his people.

So God changed His mind? He was going to do one thing, Moses told God not to do it, and He listened??

In fact, this isn’t the only time this happens in Scripture!

In Genesis 18, God was going to destroy an entire city and Abraham kept pleading for God. “If you find 50 people, will you spare the city?” “45, 40, 30, 20, 10?”

There’s also a place in 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel 24:15–16 CSB

So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men died. Then the angel extended his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, but the Lord relented concerning the destruction and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough, withdraw your hand now!” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

Answer: God Changed His Mind

If it wasn’t for the intercession of Moses, Israel would’ve been wiped out. Do you really think God had to tell Moses that He was going to wipe out Israel? No. He’s God, He could just do it and it would happen. So why tell Moses?

Because Moses would intercede for the nation of Israel. But why is this story in the Bible anyways? Or what about the angel that stopped at Jerusalem? Because it’s meant to be an image of Christ. This is something we’ll study in our series “Glimpses”.

Psalm 106:44–45 CSB

When he heard their cry, he took note of their distress, remembered his covenant with them, and relented according to the abundance of his faithful love.

What is God’s covenant with Israel? Jesus

2 Corinthians 1:20 CSB

For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God.

Big Guns Argument: OT Vs. NT

Let me direct your attention to one major argument. I’ll be reading from Deuteronomy. The context, so you won’t think I’m lying is that God is telling Israel, God’s chosen people, the horrible things that He will cause to happen to them.

Deuteronomy 28:15–22 CSB

“But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all his commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed. Your offspring will be cursed, and your land’s produce, the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. The Lord will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning me. The Lord will make pestilence cling to you until he has exterminated you from the land you are entering to possess. The Lord will afflict you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, burning heat, drought, blight, and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.

Deuteronomy 28:27–32 CSB

“The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, tumors, a festering rash, and scabies, from which you cannot be cured. The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and mental confusion, so that at noon you will grope as a blind person gropes in the dark. You will not be successful in anything you do. You will only be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will help you. You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will help you. Your sons and daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes grow weary looking for them every day. But you will be powerless to do anything.

Let’s read from the New Testament, shall we?

1 John 4:8 CSB

The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:11 CSB

Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

In what way should we love one another? Jesus healing people or cursing people with boils and tumors and disease and suffering? Because it seems to me that the God in the OT is a different being than the God in the NT.

Answer: God’s Regret

Human repentance/regret is due to one of two things:

New information

Bad behavior

God’s repentance includes neither. Let’s take Samuel and Saul for example since we’re on the subject.

In chapter 8 (you can read this on your own time, but I’ll summarize.. it’s only 21 verses), Israel tells Samuel ”Give us a king to lead us because you’re getting pretty old.”

Samuel tells God, God tells Samuel “Listen (shema) to everything they say. They’re not rejecting you, Samuel. They’re rejecting me like they’ve done since the day I rescued them from Egypt. So go and tell them all these bad things that are going to happen because they want a king.”

Then for like 10 verses, Samuel tells the people of Israel all these bad things that God already knows is going to happen. Israel basically says “Nuh uh. Our king will lead us and fight our battles.”

Then God tells Samuel “Appoint them a king.”

It’s not new information for God that Saul was going to be a terrible guy. In the same book, God tells them everything that’s going to happen.

And we know that if God knew beforehand what was going to happen, but it was Israel’s choice, it wasn’t a mistake (or bad behavior) that God made. So God did not make a mistake.

So if God doesn’t regret how man regrets, how does God regret?

It’s not “I hate what I have done. I didn’t know this was going to happen.” God’s regret, or grievance, or niham, is “I grieve of what you have done with what I have given you.”

So if we apply this to the Genesis 6 passage, God isn’t saying “I didn’t know this whole sin thing was going to happen.” God is saying “I weep with what you have done with creation.”

When God was creating Adam and Eve, He already knew it would lead to Christ. That was the plan all along. There’s Scripture that makes this evident:

Ephesians 1:4–6 CSB

For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.

2 Timothy 1:9–10 CSB

He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. This has now been made evident through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

If the intention of Adam & Eve’s creation was Christ, that means God knew the fall would happen before He even began creating. If God knew before creation that sin would happen, we were not a mistake to be regretted. Rather, our actions took God’s beautiful creation and perverted it to the point where God mourned.

God blesses us and gives us good and beautiful things. Think of creation, “it is good”x5 He creates mankind “it is very good.” We take God’s creation and we use it for evil.

An example is alcohol. The Bible tells us so many times that wine is such a great blessing to be enjoyed. How do we pervert it? We get ridiculously intoxicated. We use it to run away from our problems.

Answer: God Changed His Mind

If it wasn’t for the intercession of Moses, Israel would’ve been wiped out. Do you really think God had to tell Moses that He was going to wipe out Israel? No. He’s God, He could just do it and it would happen. So why tell Moses?

Because Moses would intercede for the nation of Israel. But why is this story in the Bible anyways? Because it’s meant to be an image of Christ. This is something we’ll study in our series “Glimpses”.

1 John 2:1–2 CSB

My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.

Answer: OT Vs. NT

Jeremiah 18:5–12 CSB

The word of the Lord came to me: “House of Israel, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay?”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel. At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it. At another time I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it. However, if it does what is evil in my sight by not listening to me, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it. So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, I am about to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct your ways and your deeds.’ But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless. We will continue to follow our plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”

It isn’t God who changes… it’s us.

Jeremiah 26:3 CSB

Perhaps they will listen and turn—each from his evil way of life—so that I might relent concerning the disaster that I plan to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.

Jeremiah 26:13 CSB

So now, correct your ways and deeds, and obey the Lord your God so that he might relent concerning the disaster he had pronounced against you.

Think of a flashlight laying on the floor in an empty room pointed at one wall. I can be in the light, take one step and I’m in the dark. Did the flashlight move? No, I did. God cannot ignore sin, but He is patient.

Do you want to know why it’s so important to know that God doesn’t change? If God can change His mind about an individual in the Bible, what if He changes His mind about me?

Bonus Answer: Why the Language?

Why do we see the language of God repenting and relenting and regretting if God isn’t doing any of these?

Anthropomorphism: giving human traits to something that is not human.

The hand of God, the arm of God, God remembered, etc.

Moral: What You Do Matters.

What a lot of people will use this whole argument to say is that God is a liar and that God changes and is bipolar. One minute He’s angry, the next He’s loving.

“Is He a God of wrath or a God of grace?”

God is the only one that is constant. We run to God and then we run away from God, but His love never changes for us.

The thing I want you to get from this is that God is so personal that even the little things you do matter to Him. God cares so much about you. What God desires most isn’t for you check off a list of things and be legalistic and religious. What God wants above all else is you. You want to know how to please God? Make God your desire and what will be your instinct is Romans 12:2:

Romans 12:2 CSB

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

What you do matters. Make God your desire and you will seek prayer, you will read Scripture, and He will renew your mind.

When you realize you’re caught in sin, listen to this:

Joel 2:13 CSB

Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. For he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and he relents from sending disaster.