Does the Bible ever use anthropomorphic language to describe God? When the Bible says that God "repented" does that mean that God actually changed His mind, and therefore does not know the actual future until it occurs?
A key point in this debate is the use of anthropomorphic language. For instance, in Exodus 19:4 God said that "I bare you on eagles' wings". Does God have the wings of an eagle? After all, there are many verses that describe God as having wings, such as:
Ruth 2:12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.
Psa 36:7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
Psa 17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
Does God have eyes and wings? If the adherents of Finite Godism are correct in their argument against the use of anthropomorphic then God has to have wings. However, God does not have wings. God is being described in anthropomorphic terms to help us understand in things we can relate to.
Does God REALLY change His mind? Nope. The God of the Universe knows the end from the beginning.
Num 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
1 Sam 15:29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.
Unlike a finite god, the God of the Universe does not change. He stays constant.
Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
What Fisher and his ilk fail to see is that God has already revealed something about His character that they don't understand:
Jer 18:8-10 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
This is a principle that those who know God have taken advantage of.
Jer 26:3 If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.
Jer 26:13 Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.
Jonah did not want to go preach in Ninevah because he understood this about God.
Jonah 3:9-10 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Even the evil Ninevites understood this. God tells people that He is going to destroy them due to their evil. If they repent, then God will not destroy them. That's the unspoken condition behind every threat from the prophets of God.
Isa 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
This principle is repeated in the New Testament as well:
Acts 8:22 Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
Rev 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
If a people repents, then God is described as "changing his mind', but this is merely anthropomorphic language. Just like God does not have feathers, wings or eyes, he is not like a man in changing his mind. He knows if a person or group of people will repent, but they still need to repent.
Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
Isa 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Psa 102:26-27 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Foreknowledge is impossible in Finite Godism.
Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
1 Pet 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
The Arminian states that man does have a free will, but that election is based on something other than the arbitrary and capricious choice of God. Some like Chuck Smith, base their ideas of election on God's foreknowledge (1 Pet 1:2, Rom 8:29). Others base election on some "class election" concept, ie, Christ is the elect one (1 Pet 2:6), but we are in Christ elected (Rom 16:13, Col 3:12, 2 Tim 2:10).
Even Charles Finney, refuted Finite Godism quite nicely when he wrote about God:
I shall notice some points in which there is a general agreement among all denominations of Christians respecting the natural and moral attributes of God.
...
3. That he has necessarily and eternally possessed this knowledge, so that he never has, and never can have, any accession to his knowledge. Every possible thing that ever was, or will be, or can be an object of knowledge, has been necessarily and eternally known to God. If this were not true, God would be neither infinite nor omniscient.
http://www.dragonfire.net/~fires/st74.htm
A prominent Arminian theologian wrote:
The situations with Hezekiah and with the intercession of Moses are similar: God had said that he would send judgement, and that was a true declaration, provided that the situation remained the same. But when the situation changed: someone started to pray earnestly (Moses in one case and Hezekiah in the other). Here prayer itself was part of the new situation and was in fact what changed the situation. God responded to that changed situation by answering the prayer and withholding judgement.
Grudem, Wayne, Systematic Theology, p 165
A prominent Calvinistic theologian wrote:
And if Scripture speaks of His repenting, changing His intention, and altering His relation to sinners when they repent, we should remember that this is only an anthropopathic way of speaking. In reality the change is not in God, but in man and in man's relationship to God. It is important to maintain the immutability of God over against the Pelagian and Arminian doctrine that God is subject to change, not indeed in His Being, but in His knowledge and will, so that His decisions are to a great extent dependent on the actions of man...
Berkhof, L, Systematic Theology. 1959, page 58-59 (section titled "The Immutability of God")
C. H. Spurgeon wrote:
I have one more proof to offer which I think to be conclusive. God, we may be sure, sees us, when we remember that he can see a thing before it happens. If he beholds an event before it transpires, surely reason dictates, he must see a thing that is happening now. Read those ancient prophecies, read what God said should be the end of Babylon and of Nineveh; just turn to the chapter where you read of Edom's doom, or where you are told that Tyre shall be desolate; then walk through the lands of the East, and see Nineveh and Babylon cast to the ground, the cities ruined; and then reply to this question—"Is not God a God of foreknowledge? Can he not see the things that are to come?" Ay, there is not a thing which shall transpire in the next cycle of a thousand years which is not already past to the infinite mind of God; there is not a deed which shall be transacted to-morrow, or the next day, or the next, through eternity, if days can be eternal, but God knoweth it altogether. And if he knows the future, does he not know the present. If his eyes look through the dim haze which veils us from the things of futurity, can he not see that which is standing in the brightness of the present? If he can see a great distance, can he not see near at hand! Surely that Divine Being who discerneth the end from the beginning, must know the things which occur now; and it must be true that "Thou God seest us," even the whole of us, the entire race of man. So much for the general and universally acknowledged doctrine.
Spurgeon, C. H. Omniscience, 1856
C. S. Lewis wrote:
Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow. But if he knows that I am going to do so-and-so, how can I be free to do otherwise? Well, here, once again, the difficulty comes from thinking that God is progressing along the Time-line like us: the only difference being that He can see ahead and we cannot. Well, if that were true, if God foresaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call "tomorrow" is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call "today." All the days are "Now" for Him.
Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity:
Francis Beckwith wrote:
Omniscient. God is all-knowing, and His all-knowingness encompasses the past, present, and future.[5] Concerning God's unfathomable knowledge, the psalmist writes: "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you" (Ps. 139:17,18). Elsewhere he writes, "Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit" (147:5). The author of Job writes of God: "For he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens" (Job 28:24). Scripture also teaches that God has total knowledge of the past (Isa. 41:22). Concerning the future, God says: "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please,'" (Isa. 46:10). Elsewhere Isaiah quotes God as saying that knowledge (not opinion or highly probable guesses) of the future is essential for deity (Isa. 41:21-24), something that distinguished God from the many false gods of Isaiah's day.
Beckwith, Francis. Philosophical Problems with the Mormon Concept of God, Christian Research Journal, Spring 1992, page 24
Omniscience, Foreknowledge, and Free Will
There are few books on this heresy.
Morey, Robert. Finite Godism From review note: Looking at current philosophy which places "God in a box" or makes Him almost finite! $5.00.Prepared To Answer - False Views of God - section on Finite Godism.
Beisner, E. Calvin. Evangelical Heathenism? Examining Contemporary Revivalism. From the review
Theology isn't like geometry. When a theology insists on deducing its conclusions from one premise, theological disaster is sure to follow. Much of contemporary revival theology has embraced such a logically forced systematics. By deducing everything from a narrow notion of human freedom, this theology jettisons the core of Christian faith: original sin, the imputation of Christ's righteousness, the substitutionary atonement, and the omniscience of God. Even John Wesley acknowledged, "All who deny this, call it 'original sin,' or by any other title, are but Heathens still, in the fundamental point which differences Heathenism from Christianity."
These are sites that defend Finite Godism.
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