Does God Change His Mind

I have heard so many times, over the years, that God does not change His mind. I always want to ask the people who say that if they've ever actually read the Bible. Of course, I know most of them have, but the ludicrousy of them making that statement makes me want to ask. There are multiple scriptures that speak of God changing His mind, but the people I've heard say He doesn't are the ones who love the phrase, "God is the same yesterday, today and forever." While that statement is totally true, that does not mean that God does not change His mind.

In Genesis 18, Abraham is visited the Lord and some angels. God tells Abraham that he and Sarah are going to have a child, and as He is leaving He talks to Himself, as it were, and asks if all the world will be blessed through the children of Abraham, should He speak to Abraham about the destruction of the cities. After His conversation with Himself, He does speak to Abraham about it.

So, God tells Abraham that the stench of the sin of those two cities had reached Him and He was going into the city to determine if their sin was truly as bad as the stench and if so, He would destroy them. Abraham was moved to intercede on behalf of the cities because his nephew, Lot, along with his wife and daughters, lived in Sodom. So he asked God, 'what if there are 50 righteous in the city?' God said for 50 He would not destroy the city. Abraham said, 45? God said, not if there are 45. Abraham spoke again, 40? 30? 20? 10? God said, if there are 10 I will not destroy it, and then He left Abraham's presence so Abraham couldn't get Him down to 5. Had Abraham asked for 5 and God agreed, the cities would still be there, today. So, yes, man can talk God into changing His mind.

There's another example of God changing His mind, though. After the Ascension, Peter was praying and God showed Peter a vision of a large sheet descending from heaven filled with creatures which the Law said were unclean and were not to be touched or eaten. God told Peter, "take, eat." Peter wouldn't do it because nothing unclean had ever touched his lips. God told Peter to not call unclean that which God had called clean. So, wait. In the Law God called them unclean. But in Peter's vision God called them clean. What? God changed His mind.

Here's my point: people want to use certain passages of scripture in order to hold on to their personal predilections, or biases. Anyone can take a single scripture and use it to justify their bias. Or their ideas. And it mainly happens when we want to condemn someone over something we think they should not be doing. I use the example of Peter's vision of the sheet because it's a beautiful example of life before and after Christ. Before Christ was The Law of Moses. All the rules and regulations of the Law were there to try to make the people righteous. Of course, without a sacrifice for sin, sin could not be forgiven, so the best thing to do was to stay away from anything that might cause you sin. After Christ, however, no longer being under the Law, but under grace, we don't have to worry about most of those rules and regulations. And God was telling Peter two things: first whatever was forbidden to touch or eat under the Law was no longer forbidden, but also because before Christ the Gentiles were called unclean but after Christ all people are called to be God's children.

Before Christ, all Jewish people were under the Law. Every single person born a Jew was subject to the Law. After Christ, people get to choose to be under grace. It's an individual's choice to be saved. It's not a mandate of Law. It's a choice to receive the free gift that God has given us. If it's an individual choice then it's an individual relationship. If it's an individual relationship then it's between the person and God. No one else has any input. Yes, there are things that need to be done, but it's between the individual and God. No other person enters into it. What God has called clean, let no one call it unclean.