Does God Change?
“Does God Change?”
The question we’re going to address today is actually pretty straightforward: can God change? The answer, of course, is no. That’s the simple way of stating it. However, to do the question justice, I’ll pose a more technically precise version: How can the one, unchanging God–whose internal order is perfectly and eternally expressed in the relational unity of His Triune love–seem to respond in real time, as the Bible and our experience often suggest, without compromising His immutability (unchangeableness)? This more precise question gets at the tension between our perception of God’s responsive engagement in time and the deeper reality of His eternal, unchanging nature. Such questions, whether loosely stated or precise, tend to be honest attempts to reconcile the apparent contrast between God’s actions in history and His immutable being. Properly understood, however, these two perspectives do not conflict but illuminate each other.
God’s Eternal Knowledge and Will
God’s actions, while appearing sequential or reactive in time, are eternally present in His divine knowledge and will. He does not “learn” or “react” but perfectly wills all events as part of His eternal plan. Scripture says, “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). His eternal will is perfectly consistent, illuminating creation with unchanging justice and love. St. Catherine of Siena highlights this truth in a beautiful, theopoetical way when she writes:
“You are pleased and delighted over her within yourself, as if you were drunk [with desire] for her salvation. She runs away from you, and you go looking for her. She strays, and you draw closer to her” (The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, Paulist Press, 1980, p. 84).
There is something about God’s internal way of life that is so pure–already fully arrived in virtue of being God–that makes Him love and light through and through. It’s really hard to put God into words. But this status of His being cannot change, for that is who He is; and thank God, He is!
A Unified Vision of Communicating God’s Character
Catholic theology seeks to hold these three truths together in a harmonious way:
- God is knowable through creation (natural knowledge) because He is the source of all.
- God reveals Himself directly in Scripture and Christ (supernatural knowledge).
- Both natural and supernatural knowledge remain partial, pointing beyond themselves to God’s infinite mystery.
This is the “third way” of Catholic theology: a balance between truth revealed and mystery retained, allowing us to know God truly, even as He infinitely transcends our grasp.
“Analogy,” then, provides a unified vision of biblical language about the character of God, offering a way to speak meaningfully of His attributes while maintaining the mystery and transcendence that define His divine nature.
Analogical Language in Scripture
Expressions in Scripture of God “changing His mind” are analogical, accommodating human understanding. They communicate truths about His relational engagement without implying alteration in His essence. For example, God’s “relenting” in response to repentance conveys His consistent justice and mercy in ways finite minds can apprehend. Christ’s clarifying words, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12), show that God’s constant light adapts to human repentance without changing His essence. The manifestation of His unchanging nature is always appropriate to the creature’s condition, enabling participation in His divine life without compromising His essence.
Dynamic but Unchanging Relational Engagement
Although God engages dynamically in time, He remains eternally consistent in His justice, mercy, and love–attributes unified in His simple, unchanging nature. St. Catherine of Siena, again, is helpful here. She explains in her dialogue how God’s eternal self-giving love is revealed in time through the Incarnation:
“It stretches from heaven to earth, joining the earth of your humanity with the greatness of the Godhead…so the height stooped to the earth of your humanity, bridging the chasm between us and rebuilding the road…so that you might in truth come to the same joy as the angels” (The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, Paulist Press, 1980, p. 187).
Properly Situating Time within God’s Eternal Nature
God’s engagement in time does not prioritize the reality of time over His eternal nature. Instead, His timeless self-ordering principles are the foundation of every temporal action. His eternal will, unified in His Triune love, is the cause and coherence of all He does in time. If God’s Persons are the ordering principle of His nature, then time is best understood as a created reflection of this eternal order. God’s engagement in time, therefore, does not prioritize the reality of time over His eternal nature but reveals the eternal relational unity of Father, Son, and Spirit in ways appropriate to creation’s contingencies.
A paraphrase of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, Part I, Question 9, Article 2, could go something like, God is unchangeable, but by His unchangeableness, He causes change in things. He’s much more thorough in the Part overall, but his teaching here, albeit simplified, simplifies our issue here.
God’s immutability does not stand in opposition to His relational engagement with creation; rather, it is precisely because God is relational–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–that He acts consistently and without change. The Persons of the Trinity are the eternal and intrinsic order of God’s very being. This divine relationality is not a response to creation but is fundamental to who God is. His relational nature ensures that His actions, while appearing sequential or reactive in time, are eternally rooted in His unchanging Triune order.
For instance, the Father eternally begets the Son, and the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. These relations of origin are timeless and perfectly ordered within God Himself. Therefore, God’s actions in time–such as creation, redemption, or judgment–are not external to His nature but are manifestations of this eternal relational order adapted to the conditions of creation.
Our experience of God’s actions through time reveals different faces of His one, unchangeable will. I use “faces” here because there is no “god” behind the face of Christ. He is the perfect reflection of God’s very own order. And since things like “time” are lesser orders, He is the Spirit beyond it all. What appears as “change” is the temporal manifestation of God’s fatherly, eternal, unalterable plan, adapted to the contingent nature of creation.
The Creator-Creature Distinction and the Analogy of the Sun
This dynamic relationship is rooted in the Creator-Creature distinction: God’s essence remains unchangeable and independent of creation, while creation, being metaphysically contingent, responds to God differently based on its own nature. Creatures do not act autonomously but participate in God’s being without confusion, much like the Trinity is a unity without confusion. The relations of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are timelessly actual, not sequential, and constitute the eternal order of God’s being. This is an absolute not only over time but over all. God really is Lord.
Origen offers a helpful analogy of the sun:
“God is like the unchanging sun, whose light and warmth remain constant. Wax softens under its rays while clay hardens, not because the sun changes, but because creation responds differently depending on its condition” (De Principiis, Book III, Chapter 1, Paragraph 11, New Advent).
Conclusion before example
Whether we consider Genesis 6:6-7, Exodus 32:14, or Jonah 3:10, God’s love toward creation is proportionally just and dynamic. In this sense, “dynamic” does not mean changing but relationally expressive of His eternal, unified will. This term captures the richness of God’s relational engagement with creation, which unfolds in time while remaining rooted in His eternal, immutable nature. Ultimately, we relate to God on His terms, as He is the unchanging Source who freely reveals Himself and invites us into His divine life through His grace and eternal will.
So, to sum up, the question of how God’s engagement in time aligns with His immutability is resolved by recognizing that His actions in history are temporal expressions of His eternal, unified will. Rooted in His Triune love, God’s immutable self-ordering principles are always the cause and coherence of what we perceive as His responsive actions. Far from compromising His unchanging nature, His engagement in time reveals His perfect justice, mercy, and love in ways that invite us to participate in His eternal life. Creation, in its contingent nature, is elevated to this participation without confusion, preserving the Creator-Creature distinction and glorifying the unity and relational richness of God.
Theory into Practice
Exodus 32:14 famously recounts how “the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people,” describing the aftermath of Israel’s idolatry with the golden calf. At first glance, such language might suggest a capricious God, but the narrative is employing anthropomorphic phrasing–using human-like descriptions to express divine actions. In truth, God’s inner life is atemporal and eternally Triune, consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a single, unchanging act of being. This means God does not pass from anger to mercy through any internal shift; instead, He manifests the same eternal holiness (opposing sin) and mercy (forgiving the repentant) within the flow of history. From our limited vantage point, it looks like God moves from wrath to forbearance in response to Moses’s intercession, yet from His eternal perspective, every contingency was always known and integrated into His sovereign will. Hence, what we perceive as “change” is actually the temporal unfolding of a single, consistent plan. Exodus 32:14, therefore, illustrates how God can appear to “change” in time while remaining absolutely immutable in His divine essence–inviting His people into genuine relationship and repentance without ever wavering in His nature.
Thus, Exodus 32:14 serves as a vivid example of Scripture’s use of everyday human language–“changed His mind”–to convey God’s timeless and unchanging reality entering our sequential, time-bound realm. The apparent “shift” in God’s attitude is in fact our own recognition of His eternal interplay of holiness and mercy, anchored in the atemporal ordering principle of the Trinity: the Father begets the Son, and the Holy Spirit proceeds, all in a single, unceasing act of divine life. While we perceive these attributes unfolding sequentially–first judgment, then mercy–God sees them in one eternal moment. Indeed, His justice and compassion coincide perfectly, and Moses’s prayer is part of that eternal plan, not an unforeseen development. In this way, Exodus 32 reminds us that God’s unchangeable will and our temporal experiences of Him converge in history to reveal His steadfast desire to reconcile and sanctify His people. Holiness stands firm against sin, while mercy welcomes the repentant; we simply witness these complementary facets of God’s single, unchanging nature as they play out in the drama of salvation.
Malachi 3:6
For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
