CONTRADICTION · THEOLOGY
Does God Repent?
1 Samuel 15:10-11,35; Genesis 6:6-7; Exodus 32:14 ⟷ 1 Samuel 15:29
God repented for making Saul king, for creating man, and turned from planned evil.
God is not a man that he should repent.
This matters because it deals with God’s nature, a central theological point. Inconsistent presentations of God’s immutability challenge the Bible’s reliability. Muslims use these contradictions to argue that only the Quran provides a consistent portrayal of the divine, ensuring its authority remains intact.
THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
Repent' is figurative language for God’s sorrow, not a literal change of mind. Biblical authors use anthropomorphic expressions.
THE ISLAMIC POSITION
Muslims argue an inerrant text would be clear: God either changes His mind or not. These contradictions show human input. The Quran uniformly portrays God as unchanging.
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Does God Repent?