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Did God change His mind?

Q: HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THE SCRIPTURES THAT SAY “GOD CHANGED HIS MIND”. WHY WOULD HE NEED TO IF HE IS PERFECT AND KNOWS ALL THINGS FROM BEGINNING TO END?A: I assume that you are referring to passages like Jonah 3:10: And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of [or changed his mind concerning] the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. Other passages are: Genesis 6:7; Exodus 32:14; 1 Samuel 15:11; Psalm 106:45; Hosea 11:8; Joel 2:13.

Some people view these Scriptures as contradicting other statements like Malachi 3:6: I am the Lord, I change not or other passages like James 1:17 or 1 Samuel 15:29. This contradiction is not real, only apparent. In logic this is called a fallacy of equivocation, i.e. using a word which has two different meanings.

In one sense, God never changes in His character. However, God does change in his dealings with people. Take the example of the Ninevites in the Jonah passage quote above. God’s character towards the Ninevites has not changed (Jonah 3:10). He is still the same holy and righteous God that He was before Jonah’s preaching. But when the Ninevites changed, God’s dealings with them must change. God decided not to punish them based on a change that happened in the people (e.g. Nineveh’s repentant attitude). What changed was the people, not God’s standards or God’s nature.

So we may say that God’s character never changes, but His dealings with men change as they change from ungodliness to godliness. When a man bicycling against the wind turns around and goes with the wind instead of going against it, the wind seems to change, although it is blowing just as it was before.