DOES GOD MAKE MISTAKES?
ALL earnest students of the Bible eventually find themselves facing a great problem – the apparent failure of God’s purpose for, and His promises to, the Israel people and nation.
The Bible declares that God brought the Israel people into being and organized them into a nation to be His servant – the instrument of the Great Purpose which He is working out in human history and affairs – and it further declares that this relationship between God and Israel is UNCONDITIONAL, UNALTERABLE and EVERLASTING. Yet it also records that through disobedience and rebellion the Israel people eventually became totally unfit for this great and holy responsibility and that, as a consequence, God abandoned them to their enemies who conquered and drove them away as captives to distant lands where they became scattered and lost. Thus it would appear that God made a mistake – that His plan of using Israel as the instrument of His Purpose has failed.
Nevertheless, in spite of this apparent failure and of the fact that the Israel people had disappeared, God, through His prophets, continued to promise their existence as a people and nation and that eventually, with the coming of the Messiah to rule over them, they would be restored to their place as the instrument of His Great Purpose and go forward to demonstrate and to extend the righteousness of His Kingdom and Rule to all people. Yet, how can this be with Israel scattered and lost? To say, as some do, that the Jews are Israel, is to display a total ignorance of history. The Jews are neither a people nor a nation; they are a multiracial religious body of whom only a few are of Israelitish descent. This then is the problem which confronts every earnest student of the Holy Scriptures. Does God make mistakes? Have His plans and promises failed?
Did God make a mistake when He brought the Israel people into being and said to them:
“Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” – Deuteronomy 7:6.
Did God fail to foresee that Israel would become disobedient and rebellious, and thus become unfit for His Purpose?
Did God make a mistake when he formed the Israel people into His own kingdom-nation to demonstrate the righteousness of His Will as the Law of human life and conduct, when He said:
“Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation.” – Exodus 19:6.
Did he fail to foresee that the time would come when Israel would rebel against His Will and Laws?
Did God make a mistake when He promised David a future regathering of the Israel people in a new home:
“Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more.” – II Samuel 7:10.
Did this purpose fail, or did God change His mind?
Was God also mistaken when, long after Israel had disappeared, He promised that she would continue as a nation as long as the Sun, Moon and Stars remain, and as long as we continue to have day and night?
“Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: if those ordinances depart from before me
saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation.” – Jeremiah 31:35-36.
Was the fulfilment of this promise beyond the ability and power of God? Did God also make a mistake when He established the Royal House and Throne of David at the head of the Israel nation, and when He promised David:
“Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.” – II Samuel 7:16.
This promise, which God swore to fulfil, requires the continuous and everlasting existence of the House and Throne of David. Did God fail to foresee their fall? Or was He unable to prevent it? Did God make a mistake when, in announcing the coming birth of His Son, He sent His Angel to say to Mary:
“Thou … shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus … and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever.” – Luke 1 :31-33.
How can God fulfil this promise, if Israel and the Throne of David no longer exist?
These and many similar questions are of vital importance, for the hope of all Christians in a life beyond the grave rests solely on the POWER and FAITHFULNESS of God. If He falls in ONE plan or promise, how do we know He will not fall in others? If changing conditions have made it impossible for Him to carry out His plans and to fulfil His promises concerning Israel and the Throne of David, how do we know that later conditions will not make it impossible for Him to fulfil His promise to us concerning a future life? Or, if He has changed His mind about keeping these promises, what assurance have we that He will keep ANY promise?
To say that God’s Purpose for the Israel people failed is to say that He made a mistake in choosing them. To say that God changed His Plan because the Israel people became disobedient is to say that He was unable to foresee that they would do so. To say that Israel and the Throne of David no longer exist is to say that God has failed to keep His promise. Or, to say that He has replaced Israel with the Christian Church is to say that He has changed His mind.
To say such things is to deny the Wisdom and Power of God, and is a serious charge against His HONOUR. Such a God is INCONCEIVABLE.
Nevertheless, though these are serious questions they have a simple answer. It is that the Celto-Saxon peoples are Israel and that our British Throne is the Throne of David.
Once that fact is grasped the problem is solved. Then it will be seen that God’s purpose for Israel has NOT failed; that His promise of the everlasting continuance of Israel and the Throne of David has been KEPT; and that His promise that the Messiah will come to reign over Israel from David’s Throne CAN NOW BE FULFILLED.
And all that Christians need to do to recognize this fact is to BELIEVE God instead of just believing IN Him.
With acknowledgments to Look Up]
