I have always been taught that Jehovah God never changes his mind and he always carries out what he predicts. Then a friend of mine who is atheist showed me a scripture in the bible that caught me totally off guard. It is in the book of Jeremiah. I don't know exactly the chapter and verse but it is when Jehovah says if he predicts destruction of a city or people and the people repent then he will relent from the destruction he promised. My friend asked me about Jonah and the people of Niveah and how god changed his mind because they repented. But Jonah told them "40" days Niveah will be destroyed. So what are we to believe if people repent then Jehovah will pospone Armaggeddon? I am not trying to sound "blaspemous" I am just abit confused.
If a scripture can be shown that Jehovah God "changes" his mind then are we to believe anything he says in the bible?
by booker-t 15 Replies latest watchtower bible
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whathappened
The bible is confusing and it leads some to question the authority of the bible. If it is ambiguous, how is a righteous person to decide what god really meant? Why didn't god make it unmistakeable if it is so important?
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Black Sheep
So .... Jonah survives beeing swallowed by a fish ....
.... and you find which bit confusing ?????
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problemaddict
Since you clearly believe in the scriptures currently, why not ask yourself if God created you in his image, why you would have the ability to change your mind and make better decisions, but God could not do the same thing?
If he chooses not to know the immediate future instead of the Calvinist version of things, then there is no problem with him deciding Nineva should get another shot. In fact, it is an arguement for God to have changed his mind in ways people don't realize far after the fact.
Let me give you an example. I had an employee that I decided to let go. They weren't doing things right, had made a large mistake, and I thought it was the best decision. I spoke to my office manager and told her what we should do. I am most certainly a man of my word. However, during that day, he happened to really come through on a large project. Also, something happned to him personally that I felt was worth noting. So I decided not to let him go, and give it another shot. That was 6 months ago, and he is still here. He has more work to do but has improved quite a bit. Does that mean that I either a) Can't be trusted to make up my mind in the future, b) was not telling the truth to my office manager, or c) can change my mind with good reason without sacrificing my integrity along the way.
I think c. (I hope c)
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Vegas Girl
It's not God who changes His mind....it's the organization that is trying to take every scripture and understand it from a fundamental viewpoint and make it apply to the goings on of today. I honestly do not think that we as humans will ever completely know exactly what some scripture may refer to. JW's, as with many religions, try to make a scripture apply to whatever they want it to. Which is not hard to do. Views change with changing generations and the passing of time. What was thought of scriptures 10, 20, 20, 30, 40, 50 + years ago has changed. Hell JW's used to smoke and celebrate holidays! And there is nothing mentioned in the bible about either one, although we know these holdiays did not even exist in bible times and smoking is considered a defilement of the flesh. But my point is that with time comes change. We change. God does not nor does he have to. We are the humans and he created us. We have to figure out the rest.
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truthlover
Abraham was encouraging Jehovah to not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah when he started out with " if I can find 50 who are righteous" and Jehovah said Ok, If I find 50 righteous I will not destroy the city, could not find them, so Ab went all the way down to ten, back and forth with God - we know that Jehovah is a reader of hearts and that Abrahams pleas were in vain, but God let Abraham go on , so that is the kind of God you would want to bargain with I would say.. at least he gave Ab a chance to question Him. A lot of bosses would not.Gen 18:23-32
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Leolaia
Jeremiah was actually talking about the prophet Micah, and quoted Micah 3:12, 4:1 as a prophecy that failed to come true. Jeremiah did not regard Micah as a false prophet, and so the alternative was to say that Yahweh changed his mind. This gave context to Jeremiah's own prophecies. Jeremiah told the people that if they mended their ways, his own prophecies of doom were not set in stone. They could still redeem themselves from the destruction Jeremiah foretold.
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sabastious
Jeremiah was actually talking about the prophet Micah, and quoted Micah 3:12, 4:1 as a prophecy that failed to come true. Jeremiah did not regard Micah as a false prophet, and so the alternative was to say that Yahweh changed his mind. This gave context to Jeremiah's own prophecies. Jeremiah told the people that if they mended their ways, his own prophecies of doom were not set in stone. They could still redeem themselves from the destruction Jeremiah foretold.
So could it be said that prophecy is just a forecast of doom with a set point of no return?
-Sab
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Leolaia
Yeah, I think much of what is called "prophecy" might better be conceptualized as "warnings"; they are conditional and contingent on later events. But of course this gives a convenient "out" in case of disconfirmation.
You might also remember that when King Hezekiah was terminally ill, Isaiah prophesied that his death was imminent (2 Kings 20:1, Isaiah 38:1), but this was reversed after Hezekiah prayed to God and Yahweh added an additional 15 years to the king's life (2 Kings 20:4-11, Isaiah 38:4-8). A second example is the promise made by the prophetess Huldah to King Josiah, prophesying that he would live out his life and die peacefully (2 Kings 22:18-20, 2 Chronicles 34:26-28), but this changed when Josiah took a suicidal course in challenging the Egyptian army and he faced an early death (2 Kings 23:29-30). The OT is filled with examples like these.
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Satanus
So, whoever has the most prayer volume is who wins gods ear. Muslims do a lot of praying.
S