No.
It is sinful man who is changeable; it is sinful man who is
arbitrary. But The Lord is not a man, that He should lie or repent;
for He is the only-begotten Son, and therefore the express likeness,
of The Everlasting Father, in whom is no variableness, nor shadow of
turning.
But some may say, Is not that a gloomy and terrible notion of God,
that He cannot change His purpose? Is not that as much as to say
that there is a dark necessity hanging over each of us; that a man
must just be what God chooses, and do just what He has ordained to
do, and go to everlasting happiness or misery exactly as God has
foreordained from all eternity, so that there is no use trying to do
right, or not to do wrong? If I am to be saved, say such people, I
shall be saved whether I try or not; and if I am to be damned, I
shall be damned whether I try or not. I am in God's hands like clay
in the hands of the potter; and what I am like is therefore God's
business, and not mine.
No, my friends, the very texts in the Bible which tell us that God
cannot change or repent, tell us what it is that He cannot change in--
in showing loving-kindness and tender mercy, long-suffering, and
repenting of the evil. Whatsoever else He cannot repent of, He
cannot repent of repenting of the evil.
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