Does God Change His Mind?

In yesterday's post regarding the changelessness of God, I did not include some of the thoughts I offered in the weekend messages concerning biblical texts which indicate that at certain points God changed his mind or "repented" of a decision. Here's the gist of what I said...

Wait a minute? I thought I remembered reading that God changed his mind over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? That God told Noah that he was sorry he made people? That God told Samuel that he was sorry he picked Saul king? Didn't God add years to Hezekiah's life after he turned his face to the wall in tears? That should be understood as God’s present attitude or intention with respect to the situation as it existed in time. Whatever changeless means, it doesn’t rule out a God who is responsive and who is willing to react to our problems and requests. God doesn’t change. But that doesn’t mean God doesn’t move, act, or respond to his creation.

Another conversation related to this specific point concerns the present popular notion of Open Theism. Open Theism, also known as Process Theology, basically believes that God is in process of growing and developing alongside his creation. In other words, if all of creation is growing and evolving, God must be changing as well. This is, in some respect, an attempt to reconcile the immutable God with how he relates to circumstances and people within the created order. Process Theologians assume that an unchanging God is an uninvolved God. Nothing could be further from the truth.