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3Does God EverChange His Mind?All people are fickle, in varying degrees. I suspect we’d be shockedto learn how many times in the course of a normal day we changeour plans, reverse course, or pull out an eraser to delete an appointmentor a task we had set for the week. Changing our mindsfeels so natural to us as humans, it’s hard to envision life withoutit. In most instances the changes are harmless and typically resultfrom unforeseeable circumstances, as well as the alterations thatother people make that directly affect us. But what would it meanfor God to change his mind? Does he? Could he? Or are all his plansand purposes immutable?The importance of defining our theological terms with precisionis most evident in the case of divine immutability. Here is aword that in contemporary evangelical circles evokes either protestor praise. Some see it as a threat to the biblical portrait of a Godwho does indeed change: he changes his mind (“repents”) and hechanges his mode of being (“the Word became flesh”). Others areequally concerned that a careless tampering with this attribute ofGod will reduce him to a fickle, unfaithful, and ultimately unwor-