Musings

[kerravonsen]

Thoughts on what we were discussing in Biblestudy last night... the study material was very careful to say "no, no, God doesn't change his mind" (we were studying Jonah -- an example of God changing his mind). I said, why does it bother people so much to think of God changing his mind?

Just because someone changes their mind, doesn't mean that they're capricious. Nor does it mean that they suddenly are a different person -- yet somehow the worry is there, that if God changes his mind, it means that he isn't dependable or isn't perfect. To which I say, that if one has to assume that perfection means that God must have only one "perfect" plan, then it is one's idea of perfection that is flawed, not God.

Comments

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think the complaint is that if God can change his mind, then he isn't omniscient, otherwise he'd have decided ahead of time whatever he knew was ultimately going to be his decision.

Me, I think it's beyond our understanding.

[kerravonsen]

if God can change his mind, then he isn't omniscient

Again, I feel that that's just a sign of our limited understanding of what "omniscence" is, or perhaps our limited understanding of the nature of time in relation to God -- because perhaps with God, there is no "before" or "after"; it's only us that see time linearly.

One of the problems with a rigid view of predestination is that it renders prayer an exersize in illogic, an illusion; because if everything is Predestined, then God can't really be responding to our prayers, because he's always going to have decided what he decided anyway, and prayer is just spiritual masturbation. Which I find a much, much more troubling concept than worrying about whether God can change his mind.

The whole "God can't change his mind" problem arises when people start extrapolating too much. I mean, why can't we just take the Bible straight? The Bible shows people talking to God like a person, interacting, having discussions and dialogue, and God sometimes changing his mind as a result. We are made in God's image. Why, then, would God have any less freedom of action than we do? The freedom to change our mind? Except, maybe, again, it's a question of "changing of mind" is a temporal concept, because it has a "before" and an "after".

Me, I think it's beyond our understanding.
Yeah, one can start curdling one's brain if one worries about it too much.

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

I spent some time considering this, to now find that we have arrived at the same conclusion: an overly strong view of predestination.

The idea that a change of mind implies a lack of omniscience is faulty logic, akin to saying that knowledge of where all the roads in your area lead removes the choice of which route to take.

As with predestination, I don't think that such a strong view of omniscience is theologically necessary.

[kerravonsen]

akin to saying that knowledge of where all the roads in your area lead removes the choice of which route to take.
Oooh, nice analogy!

[reveilles.livejournal.com]

I LIKE that! Assume our understanding is flawed, not God! :)