Truppenzwei said:
Could you provide some scriptural references to back up this viewpoint please?
Genesis 6:4 *¶There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
5 *And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 *¶And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 *And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 *¶But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
9 *These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
This passage has been used numerous times to say that God was taken by surprise so to speak and that god was sorry that he had made man. I intend to show that there is nothing in this passage that states that God ever changed His mind about creating man.
When God repents the word
naham is used. This word does not imply the admission of a mistake being made and a change of direction takes place. The word for that is
sub and is never applied to God but to man. Man is to repent and turn toward God but it is never that God did wrong and needs to change direction for something he did.
As you can see by the text that it was man who was wicked and needed to repent and not God. It is never implied by the text that God changed at all or that God changed. His mind. There is nothing in this passage that says that God was surprised by this development. Only that God was sorrowful and grieved by man's wickedness. It does however imply a change in relationship.
God is just as holy and just as he is loving and merciful. The relationship changed due to the justice demanded by God's holiness upon the wicked. No longer could God treat man with loving kindness and this grieved God. Man's relationship with God changed due to man's actions and not God's.
The open view says that God changed his mind. God never changed his mind about anything. God always acts according to his perfect nature. God did not change.
Where in this passage does it say that God did not know this would happen? No such statement ever appears in the text. Where does it say that God was surprised by these events? It does not appear in this text. I submit that the open view is nothing more than Darbyism which is theology made from whole cloth and has no Biblical foundation. The passage does not say what the open theist say it says.