Language of God changing His mind in Scripture is an accommodation to us and our way of speaking, not a description of a true change in God’s mind. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” ( Prov. To us it is luck or chance, but to God it is part of His decree. Reformed theology, on the other hand, insists that no event happens that is a surprise to God. This explains, open theists suggest, why God appears to change His mind: God is adjusting His plan based on the new information of unforeseeable events (see Gen.
He may make predictions like some cosmic poker player, but He cannot know absolutely. Open theists or free-will theists, for example, insist that the future (at least in its specific details) is in some fashion “open.” Even God does not know all that is to come. Such a view, some insist, deprives mankind of its essential freedom. Some people object to the idea that God knows all events in advance of their happening. “He cannot deny himself,” for example ( 2 Tim. 2:13). God’s power is not absolute in the sense that God can do anything ( potestas absoluta) rather, God’s power ensures that He can do all that is logically possible for Him to will to do. His power, knowledge, and presence ensure that His goals are met, that His designs are fulfilled, and that His superintendence of all events is (to God, at least) essentially “risk free.” Each assertion is a variant of divine sovereignty. Traditional theism insists that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent-all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere present. There was no metaphysical “necessity” to create it was a free action of God. And these came into being ex nihilo-out of nothing. And then there was something: matter, space, time, energy. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” ( Gen. But at its heart, it is saying nothing different from the assertion of the Nicene Creed: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty.” To say that God is sovereign is to express His almightiness in every area. Put this way, it seems to say something that is expressly Reformed in doctrine. To put this another way: nothing happens without God’s willing it to happen, willing it to happen before it happens, and willing it to happen in the way that it happens. That is a central assertion of Christian belief and especially in Reformed theology. God is sovereign in creation, providence, redemption, and judgment.
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