Does God Change?

If someone comes to scripture with a Calvinistic mindset that God’s purposes are eternal, the answer to the question above would be, “No, of course not.”  The Old Testament alludes to places where God repented, relented, or changed his mind.  I think the differences is this.  God’s purpose does not change, nor does his character, but the plan (and how it is executed) is.  It has to be, otherwise prayer is meaningless.  I know we are given all these clichés about “Prayer changes you” and “Prayer is getting your will in line with God’s” but prayer is not necessary for either of those to happen.  Prayer is meant to change the reality, or at least the appearance, of the circumstances.  

It seems to me that we talk about God sometimes, even in church circles, as if he has evolved, or grown and developed.  We think we know more about God than people in the past did (because we have more research, more archaeology, more Bible versions) and we understand how much more open-minded God is now than in the past.  Our fear of God is gone because we think he operates under grace now and is more tolerant than "back then."  People are hypocritical about money in church every week, but that's ok--no more Ananias and Saphiras today!  What used to be relegated to a rock concert where Satan ruled is now part of the Sunday worship--smoke machines, flashing lights, darknesses, deafening music.

Old fogey time, but even if we were to say "Of course God doesn't change" in our heart, our theories-in-use, we think he has gotten a whole lot more hip and cool.