Bible Discussion Thread

Is God perfect?

Has God ever made a mistake and repented?

Steve,

This is a difficult question.

God is perfect. However, the things that He does have to be communicated to us in terms that the people who first heard His message would understand. So we can't put our 21st century context into The Bible.

There are places in The Bible where it seems that God "repented" or changed His mind.

"And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." Gen 6:6

The LORD was sorry and grieved in His being. This is repeated many times in the Scriptures

Something similar happened with Jesus at the grave of His friend Lazarus.

"When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, HE GROANED IN THE SPIRIT, ANS WAS TROUBLED, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. JESUS WEPT."Joh 11:33-35

God has a plan to bring thousands upon thousands into His Kingdom. It involves human beings in rebellion, like you and me, God's Perfect Justice, Love and Grace. It involves God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit agreeing in eternity past to bring about the redemption of a vast host of unworthy sinners. The process has been long and painful but it will be worth the effort.

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2Co 4:17-18

And in the process God reveals things about Himself little by little over the centuries. These thing were written down by prophets of old like Moses, Joshua, Samuel and Jeremiah, about 40 authors all guided by The Holy Spirit as Peter recorded:

"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2Pe 1:21

Those places seem like God repents or changes, but this is so we can understand.

I would be surprised if the word repented in that context meant the same as repented as if for sin. I believe in this context it meant regretted. If someone wants to look at the hebrew I'm sure it could shed light on it.

Yes God is good ! God has never sinned ! we humans have sinned, since God is a holy God he cant be around sin so thats why he sent his only Son to die for us ! so through him we may be saved , and whoever loves Jesus u love God, John 15:23

"He that hateth me hateth my Father also."

Hi Shaira,

Thank you so much for responding!

I truly believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and God with all my heart, mind and soul.

However, I am a recently born again Christian and read the bible with a lot of concentration and understanding, and have a few questions.

And after I posted the question "Has God ever made a mistake and repented?", I felt sooo bad for taking away from God's glory that I made a promise to him that I would not pursue this question any further.

Sincere regards,

Steve Taplin ,i thought of another one ! King Hezekia ,God told him that he would not recover from his illness ,Hezekia prayed to God and God gave him 15 more years of life .

Hi Sacha,

I do appreciate your search of scripture for my benefit;

But, as I promised the Lord, I will not pursue this any further.

Thank you!

Hi steve taplin , two other things spring to my mind , in Genisis ,we are told that cain and able offered different sacrifices and that God was pleased with one but not the other ,this could have led to cain being jealous of abel and this jealousy may have played a part in cains decision to murder abel ,in the law given to moses the sacrifices to be offered were the same for everone with very slight variations if you were a very poor person ,this ensures that no one who has more to give actually gives more in case they start to feel pride in their offering and so that poor people who cant give much dont feel inferior to their richer brethren ,also after the sad life and death of saul God promises to never take His mercy away from anyone as He did to saul . If i think of any others i will let you know .

Steve,

There's nothing wrong with asking honest questions. Don't allow other people to squelch your desire to learn. Search The Scriptures. Make it a daily, life-long habit.

Jesus said, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."Joh 5:39

"And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." Act 17:10-11

SkipVought,

To your reply...Thank you, well said.

However, I will only look to the scriptures and possibly a blessing from God for an answer to this question as I promised.

I want to seek glory and righteousness in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for all.

Thank you very much!

Steve

Why does God have to kill the devil, toss him in the lake of fire? Why can't Jesus baptize the devil, show him a little sympathy?

If Isaiah 45:7 states that God creates the evil, then what is God's punishment?

I apologize for the 'tone' of this message. As I reread it it sounded too personal and was not intended to be. This was written in love.

That's what I admire about Christians: the power to apologize, forgive and move on.

I liked your comment, and appreciate your self-reflectiveness.

Im guessing you are a rolling stones fan ? Me too !

The devil is literally evil , he has no heart , he hates u , he hates me , he is a liar and lying to u rn . The devil wants us all to go to hell with him ! He is evil ! And a liar

Hello, those are interesting questions. If you got a fishtank and stocked it full of fish, but noticed one fish harassing, assaulting, and killing the other fish through relentless mean attacks... would you show mercy to the 99% of the fish (peaceful) and kill the evil mean fish. Or would you show 'mercy' to the evil mean fish, and show no mercy or justice to the 99% of the fish and let them continue to suffer?

Satan is pure evil and destroys countless lives, dragging everyone down. Why should evil be rewarded? Isn't rewarding evil actually harmful to everyone else who strives to do what is right?

Maybe you like your community, like your family, and maybe have precious daughters you love. Let's say your state governor tried to show 'mercy' to a prisoner and let him out and he moved in next door. He was convicted of horrific crimes against young girls and now lives next door. And he's watching as your kids play out in the yard while you're at work. Are you 100% ok with that? What if he then assaults your daughters, are you still ok with that? Because mercy, right?

The point is people often see one side of 'mercy' and don't always acknowlege that rewarding one person's evil can steal from others and harm them- and that's not truly merciful if you're harming others.

So, why doesn't God just create a bunch of robots that are 100% perfect? He loved us enough to give us the freedom to choose. Which is more meaningful to you? If your spouse and kids be forced to say I love you, or if they say it voluntarily and mean it? The latter of course and that's one reason God gave you the freedom to choose to follow Him or not. He won't force you to spend eternity with Him if you don't want to.

Finally, the 'evil' in Isaiah 45:7 means environmental evil like natural disasters, not a moral evil. God is perfect is cannot sin against Himself. He is loving and merciful and loves you enough to give you freewill. Most choose evil, but some choose good.

God bless...

Isaiah 55:8 is the answer when trying to second guess what God does and why.