Does God Ever Regret? Principles for Understanding Divine Repentance

ABSTRACT: “The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth.” In light of the whole counsel of Scripture, Genesis 6:6 and passages like it raise a challenging interpretive question: What could regret or repentance mean for a sovereign, immutable God? Readers of Scripture find help from three core theological principles: (1) The living God is the perfect God. (2) There is an absolute distinction between God and creation. (3) God reveals himself to creatures in ways they can understand. Togeth